Hovertank

Believe your eyes — in 1991, a tank that hovered actually existed. Sure, it was sixty-something pixels and had graphics that a computer of middling intelligence might produce, but it hovered. Hovertank is one of those computer curios that doesn't impress anyone today, but back when 3D computer processing was the domain of science, it had reason to exist.

It's basically an arcade shooter from a tank gunner's perspective, where you fire and maneuver under your own steam across ever-changing maps full of enemies. The tank hovers — not that it makes any gameplay sense, it just looks neat. The goal is simple: destroy all enemies, collect ammo and power-ups. Story? None. Reason? Unknown. You just shoot because you have to be bored somewhere else.

The controls work as you'd expect from an MS-DOS shooter — keyboard, arrow keys, spacebar to fire. Pretty responsive for its age, all things considered. The game runs fast, and because the graphics are modest, the computer handles a steady fifty FPS without breaking a sweat. Mediocrity is the reason it stays playable — nothing disappoints you, nothing impresses you either. You shoot enemies that keep coming until you fall and start over.

Hovertank isn't a technical marvel. It's more like a diligent attempt by an engineer who had a free Friday and said: let's make a tank that hovers. Nothing more. Historically interesting as a snapshot of what was possible on PC in the early nineties, but as entertainment? Today it's just an archaeological find of average quality.

These days you play it mostly out of curiosity — you want to see how they imagined a 3D shooter when they had eight colors to work with. You'll find a vintage version in your browser without trouble. It's not wasted time, but you won't feel like you missed out on something big.