What game first started 3D First person shooters ?

[Sharky]

Im just curious that there are loads of Game Genres out like Shoot'em ups,

scrolling platform games, Beat'em ups, Stragery War games, Flight Simulators, etc, etc. They were all pretty much started in the 80s.

 

And i think last of all came the First Person Shooters.

 

Donkey Kong started platform games altogether.

I know Pole Position started up realistic driving games.

I think Super Mario Bros started the Scrolling Platform Games (or was it Pac-Land? )

 

What game was the earliest First Person Shooter?

I remember back in 1994 and someone showed off their PC with DOOM.

I had an Amiga 500 and I was jealous as hell.

 

But Im sure Doom got the idea from some other game.

 

But I never came across First Person Shooters in the 80s, so where did it all begin ?

[TheSmirk]

Before Doom, id had Wolfenstein 3D....so thats at least an earlier one...now as far as shooters...that may be one of the first, but some RPG's had pseudo 3D dungeons in them before that......off the top of my head I'd say Wolfenstein 3D....at least that was first with large impact

[Lord-Chaos]

Midi Maze on the ATARI ST was some kind of FPS and it was possible to connect up to 16 STs with MIDI cables and play some kind of deathmatch.

 

It´s a 3D game and all players are huge smilies.

 

It was released in 1988.

 

Thimo

[Ze_ro]

There was a PC game called "Catacomb Abyss" that was released by Apogee before Wolfenstein 3D was released... Catacomb Abyss was actually done in EGA graphics.

 

Was Midi Maze full 3D? Games that snap to 90-degree turns like Dungeon Master don't count. In any case, Wolfenstein 3D and Doom are what rocketed FPS games into primetime.

 

As for Donkey Kong being the birth of platform games, I'd have to disagree with that... Pitfall is a more accurate beginning for what platform games spawned from, since the whole world is continuous rather than broken into single screen stages. Of course, Pitfall wouldn't exist without Donkey Kong, so it's hard to say.

 

--Zero

[Lord-Chaos]

There was a PC game called "Catacomb Abyss" that was released by Apogee before Wolfenstein 3D was released... Catacomb Abyss was actually done in EGA graphics.

 

Was Midi Maze full 3D? Games that snap to 90-degree turns like Dungeon Master don't count. In any case, Wolfenstein 3D and Doom are what rocketed FPS games into primetime.

 

--Zero

 

Yes, this was full 3D graphics , vector graphics without textures.

 

The game can be found on various emulator sites and be played with one of the ST emulator.

 

Thimo

[NovaXpress]

The first platform game was Universal's Space Panic. It came out one year before Donkey Kong and clearly was a major influence. It was a total flop at the arcade but became a hit as Apple Panic for the AppleII and eventually joined Donkey Kong as a Colecovision launch title.

[DaveAtari]

Battlezone?

[Sharky]

Ill was just playing Mercenary and thats an old game.

 

While your outside its pretty much of a Flight Simulator but when you go underground your in building and already it reminds me of Doom expect their are no textures just vector graphics.

 

Maybe Mercenary had the idea somewhere. :wink:

[NovaXpress]

Battlezone? Interesting point, I hadn't considered first-person games where one didn't have a gun at the bottom of the screen. That's really the only thing that put Wolfenstein 3D and such into a different category for many.

So now I'm thinking that the first-person shooter is merely a refinement of the first-person video game. Still, Battlezone would not have been the first. I know it was predated by Starhawk (1977) in the arcades and Star Raiders (1979) at home.

So even this genre dates back into the 70s? I guess every type of video game is just a refinement of Pong.

[Sharky]

Battlezone good point.

But then again Afterburner is simular but your up in the air

Astral Zone from 1983.

 

Not to mention Buck Roger, which maybe had the first solid vector graphics.

 

There was Driller with solid graphics but way to slow in my opinion.

 

Galaxy Force 2, maybe first textured one.

 

Space Gunner from 1983

 

But 1985 Space Harrier maybe fits in here too.

Or even say Star Wars.

 

Stealth or Stellar 7

 

Theres War of the worlds from 1981

 

I guess no one really knows

 

But a point is Wolfensten 3D probably was the most graphical playable one ever which maybe started the trend.

[Nukey Shay]

FPS as we know them today (a person in a free-roaming 360-degree 3D environment shooting things), would have to have it's concept derived from Wolfenstein 3D. Earlier games didn't have both aspects (BattleZone had a 360-degree environment but no guy, dungeon-type games like Ultima had a guy in a 3D environment but didn't offer 360-degree movement, etc).

[Channel 2]

Consider Airheart for the Apple II (1986 I think). It wasn't literally first person, since you were looking over the guy's shoulder (like tomb raider but smaller and in a boat), but it had full 360, scaling sprites, various enemies that moved in different ways, even some vertical motion -- you could be above or below water. It was incredibly good looking for the Apple, and pretty convincing as 3d. You really used those three dimensions, too. I don't think it really influenced the development of the modern FPS, though. As good as it was, it didn't make much of an impact.

[DeV0]

I think ID or apogee made a fps duneon crawler before wolfenstein but i cant remember the name? I found this interesting link a while back,

http://nooface.net/articles/01/10/01/207202.shtml

[Wrathchild]

I think the Midi-Maze would be a good claimant. The networking element of such a game is crucial, but saying that we'rent games like Xtank around before this?

[goatdan]

I think the Midi-Maze would be a good claimant. The networking element of such a game is crucial, but saying that we'rent games like Xtank around before this?

 

At this year's Midwest Classic, we'll have a networked game of Midi-Maze playing. It used to be the thing to do at GenCon in Milwaukee for years. If you've never seen it networked

[Fretwobbler]

dungeon-type games like Ultima had a guy in a 3D environment but didn't offer 360-degree movement, etc).

 

Ultima Underworld did, when was that released?

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Rescue on Fractalus?

 

And that other one that Lucasarts came out with...I think it was Eichon or something?

 

and I haven't played Kronos Rift but I guess it is sorta the same type of thing?

[Mintyfresh]

I think i would have to agree with Wolfenstein 3D being the first widely well-known FPS that started the explosion

[+davidcalgary29]

I think i would have to agree with Wolfenstein 3D being the first widely well-known FPS that started the explosion

 

How about Xybots? I'd call that the first "modern" first-person perspective shoot-em-up.

[Gunstar]

There were plenty of FPS games, very much like we know them today, around long before Wolfenstein 3D! One that pops right into my head is 'Total Eclipse' which is on the ST and probably the Amiga and others, this was a TRUE FPS, you had a gun and went through pyramids shooting and it was also TRUE 3D, unlike Wolfenstein, although not textured, but true 3D polygons (solid shaded). But I too would agree that titles like The Eidelon and Rescue on FRactalus and even StarRaiders could easily be considered FPS, even if a gun wasn't right in front of you, and you weren't in corridors (except Eidelon, in which case you were in corridors, shooting at stuff, it just didn't show a gun, only a crosshair and dashboard). MidiMaze did come out before Total Eclipsethough...but T.E. is a genuine, Doom style, 3D FPS with corridors, rooms, different levels, stairs, doors and other stuff to open, gun to shoot, etc., etc. ID did not start the genre. Heck, Total Eclipse could easily be seen as a genuine forerunner to games like Tomb Raider too! All the elements are there for that genre as well, except it's in First, instead of third person. It was the 8 and 16-bit computers of the '80s that started just about every genre today, the 32+bit systems have only improved on previous concepts and ideas, they have rarely had somthing totally original come along, if at all.