Virus (computer game)
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- This article describes the computer game; for other uses see virus (disambiguation)
| Virus (Amiga Screenshot) | |
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| Developer(s) | Frontier Developments |
| Publisher(s) | Firebird |
| Designer(s) | David Braben |
| Release date(s) | 1988 |
| Genre(s) | Action/Arcade |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Platform(s) | Atari ST, Commodore Amiga, IBM PC Compatible, ZX Spectrum |
| Input | Mouse and keyboard |
Virus is a computer game designed by David Braben, developed by Frontier Developments, and Published by British Telecom (under the Firebird name). Virus is a port of the game Zarch, the flagship game of the Acorn Archimedes computer. It was released in 1988 for Atari ST, Commodore Amiga (both versions coded by David Braben), and IBM PC (coded by Chris Sawyer). It was later ported to the ZX Spectrum by Steven Dunn - an impressive feat considering the inferior processing power and poor graphics of the Spectrum when compared to the Archimedes, Amiga, Atari ST and PC. More recently, a Windows remake called Z-Virus was created in Blitz BASIC (see Links below to download). David Braben's game engine for Virus was also used to create a game called Conqueror - this involved driving a tank over a patchwork landscape. It was coded by Jonathan Griffiths and released on the Archimedes, Atari ST and Amiga. Later still, a game called Zeewolf was released for the Amiga that had a similar look and feel, with the player in control of an armed helicopter - this game did not use any of the original Virus code as it was a separate product.
Based on Zarch, Virus was one of the first solid 3D games and was also the first to have 3D lighting effects and shadowing, although these are less sophisticated than those of Zarch.
Ten years later in 1998, a sequel, V2000 (also known as Virus 2000), was released on the PC and PlayStation.
