TANK is good.
I remember when graphics like this were on the bleeding edge.
Of course, there's always a nostalgic component of retro tech, but it should also serve as a reminder that because our brains can fill in, is sometimes why something is so good.
My daughter and I have been playing some Minecraft together, and she is so excited about taming a horse and making some armor for it. It doesn't matter one bit that the horse is cubic.
Dude I miss vector engines so much. That's the truly impressive thing: a skilled craftsman can now effectively assemble the Battlezone engine within AfterFX.
I enjoyed playing "count the influences" - Battlezone is clearly in there, as is Tron, but I never thought I'd say "ohh shit, this guy played O.G.R.E.!"
fun fact: Atari got a two-color vector graphics display in Battlezone by putting red cellophane over the top 2" of the CRT
After the mead comment I should have learned never to underestimate your madcap gaming prowess.
FOR THE SAKE OF POSTERITY: It took mk less than four minutes to find his copy of OGRE, take a picture of it, post it to Imgur and link to it. He might keep it in a body cavity.
Loved this. Loved even more his "Making of TANK" video. So much goes into this, and watching you become overwhelmed with how much he knows and understands.
I made a short film some years that ended up winning an award. I kept a blog of the "making of" process, and I just dug it up and reread it. It's the same feeling reading this as watching his "making of" video – so much technical crap that seems incredible for someone to know, but when you're deep in the process you just do it and learn as you go. Five thousand small incremental steps take you to a place that looks impossible to get to, but you get there an inch at a time.
If you want to see the process in my project here's the link, click "newer post" at the bottom of each entry. It turned out the be a 23-day process with updates a year later on preparing the art for display in a conference gallery.
http://nakedgeometryjournal.blogspot.com/2012/06/build-icosahedron-1.html