Hovertank 3D

Hovertank 3D
Hovertank 3D title screen
Developer(s)	id Software
Publisher(s)	Softdisk
Director(s)	Tom Hall
Designer(s)	Tom Hall
Programmer(s)	John Carmack, John Romero
Artist(s)	Adrian Carmack
Engine	Early Wolfenstein 3D engine
Platforms	DOS
Release date(s)
Genre(s)	Vehicular combat game, first-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single-player

Hovertank 3D is a vehicular combat game developed by id Software and published by Softdisk in April, 1991.

Story

Hovertank 3D is set during a nuclear war. In Hovertank 3D, the player controls Brick Sledge, a mercenary hired by an unknown organization (referred to by the game as the "UFA") to rescue people from cities under the threat of nuclear attack (largely political activists or scientists), both by the government and by large corporations. However, the cities are also full of mutated humans, strange creatures, armed guards, and enemy hovertanks.

Gameplay

Hovertank 3D gameplay

The player must drive a hovertank through the levels and try and find the people Brick is supposed to rescue. There are also many enemies in the levels, who are hunting down the people as well as the player. The player can keep track of both people and enemies in the radar box at the bottom of the screen. There is also a timer that counts how long until the nuke is dropped. Once all the living people are collected a yellow teleporter appears somewhere in the level, and the player must find it to win. Then the player receives their fee, based on the amount of people safely rescued, and how fast the operation was completed. All damage to the hovertank is repaired at the end of the level.

Development

This title is a landmark in first person game graphics. Other 3D games at the time, such as flight simulators and other games that had more detailed environments, were noticeably slower. John Carmack's research in the game's engine took six weeks, two weeks longer than any id engine before it. The engine written for this game was expanded upon with texture mapping to make Catacomb 3D, and then later still the well-known Wolfenstein 3D. Afterwards, the id staff decided the nuclear Armageddon theme and developed the game. Adrian Carmack is said to have enjoyed drawing the monsters and other ghoulish touches.

The credits are John Carmack and John Romero (programming), Tom Hall (game design) and Adrian Carmack (artwork).

The source code to the game, now owned by Flat Rock Software, was released in June 2014 under the GNU General Public License in a manner similar those done by id and partners.

External links

• id's look back at Hovertank 3D