2001 · Artillery · Real-time strategy

Scorched 3D

Scorched 3D is a turn-based artillery game modeled after the classic DOS game Scorched Earth "The Mother Of All Games". Unlike Scorched Earth however, it is available free in its entirety. Also, Scorched 3D adds, amongst other new features, a 3D island environment and LAN and internet play. Scorched 3D is an open source game for both Microsoft Windows and Unix-like (Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X, Solaris, etc.) operating systems.

Released: 29 April 2001
Platforms: Linux Windows macOS
Genres: Artillery Real-time strategy Strategy Turn-based strategy
Developers: —
Publishers: —
Modes: Multiplayer Single-player
Country: United Kingdom

About

Scorched 3D is a free and open source artillery game modeled after the MS-DOS game Scorched Earth. Scorched 3D is licensed under the GNU GPL-2.0-or-later, and supports numerous platforms: Windows, Unix-like systems (Linux, FreeBSD, OS X, and Solaris). It makes use of both the Simple DirectMedia Library and wxWidgets.

Keywords

open-source
nuclear bomb

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Scorched 3D tasks players with destroying enemy tanks using different weapon systems, defense systems, gadgets, and maneuvers.

At the beginning of each round, AI and player controlled tanks are randomly situated on a 3D landscape. Players then launch weapons at enemy tanks by gradually adjusting their tank's angle, rotation, and power. They may also equip shields and use defensive gadgets or countermeasures based on their current landscape position. To win, a player must kill a majority of the enemy tanks by the end of 10 rounds and have the highest score. Extra score and rewards are given for surviving the end of a round.

Development

The first build was created in April 2001 by lead developer Gavin Camp. The inspiration behind Scorched 3D was revealed in an interview with him on The O'Reilly Network:

Scorched Earth was an institution for me and my friends at university. On many nights we would play the game while drinking — though it is pretty good even without the drink. Recently on a boring flight I played it with friends for eight hours straight; we hardly noticed the time passing. I thought that Scorched in 3D would allow many more game concepts, and [would] also combine my love of 3D graphics with the classic game.

Reception

The game was downloaded over 2.2 million times via SourceForge.net between 2003 and May 2017. A 2004 review in German print magazine LinuxUser was favorable. In 2005 an O'Reilly article on "Open Source Mac Gaming" recommended Scorched 3D.