Steven Goodwin recreates Ant Attack’s Antescher in Lego

Lego have recently been making lots of retro gaming inspired kits, such as the Mario one, and the recent Atari 2600 set. One thing they are very unlikely to produce is a Lego set for the city of Antescher from the 1983 ZX Spectrum classic, Ant Attack.

Ant Attack was developed by Sandy White and published by Quicksilva for the ZX Spectrum in 1983. It is a 3D isometric action-adventure game where the player controls a character who must navigate through a city infested with giant ants, in order to rescue their trapped friend.

The game is notable for its use of Isometric graphics, and could have been the first time is was used on home computers. Sandy White says on his website, “Certainly at the time I was writing it, I had seen nothing else like it, and it was a year before anything else isometric appeared on the Spectrum. The three quarter view 3D shooter, “Zaxxon”, was around in US arcades from 1982. Alhough isometric in projection, I suggest that it was really a sideways scroller (cleverly!) slanted upwards, and would have worked equally well with a non-isometric orthogonal projection. (ahem…) So… I propose that Ant Attack was the first true isometric 3D game, followed in US arcades in 1984 by “Marble Madness”, and the classic “Knight Lore” in (Dec?) 1984 on the Spectrum”

Steven Goodwin has created the city in Lego, and has made a YouTube video about it. His rules for creation was that he wasn’t allowed to purchase new bricks, or dismantle old models. Around 1,800 bricks were used. Goodwin has previously also created a 3D VR-style version on his website too.

It’s not the first time someone has recreated the Ant Attack city in bricks – there’s another Lego one here, and also a Minecraft version too.

You can see the video in full below: