Retro Asylum 125: Early First Person Shooters

[Swainy]

We're knee deep in the dead with our in-depth look of PC First Person shooters and how they shaped the future video gaming landscape.

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[seanb]

Looking forward to this one

[Velktron]

Heh, 1995 "early"? By then, Doom was already on the market for two years and had created a cult following, preceded by Wolf3D. Doom clones such as Duke Nukem 3D were in the works, and Quake was being developed frantically by id. If anything, it was a genre which matured fast.


I thought this would be an attempt to go farther back than that, e.g. Catacombs 3D, though there weren't many older games you could truly call "first person shooters": most earlier 3D games that had you shoot at stuff "in first person" were actually vehicle combat simulators of some sort. You fought inside a vehicle, be it a plane, tank, ship, or mecha. None of them put you "in the shoes" of a soldier with a gun. At most there were rail shooters, but in those you don't have the freedom to move around and explore the environment, even if they might be fully 3D.

[Swainy]

Heh, 1995 "early"? By then, Doom was already on the market for two years and had created a cult following, preceded by Wolf3D. Doom clones such as Duke Nukem 3D were in the works, and Quake was being developed frantically by id. If anything, it was a genre which matured fast.


I thought this would be an attempt to go farther back than that, e.g. Catacombs 3D, though there weren't many older games you could truly call "first person shooters": most earlier 3D games that had you shoot at stuff "in first person" were actually vehicle combat simulators of some sort. You fought inside a vehicle, be it a plane, tank, ship, or mecha. None of them put you "in the shoes" of a soldier with a gun. At most there were rail shooters, but in those you don't have the freedom to move around and explore the environment, even if they might be fully 3D.

Have you listened to the show yet?

[Velktron]

I was criticizing the choice of "1995" as a "vintage" year for FPS in the poster. Being actively involved in the biggest Doom community today (Doomworld -- The definitive source for Doom news, information and development), I'm sure many people over there would also criticize that choice. If anything, 1995 was right at the heart of the "golden age"  of FPS game on the IBM PC, followed by 1996. "Early" there would mean "pre-Doom".


I don't know if that's rectified in the actual podcast, but now it'd be besides the point, and I won't spend 3 hours to find out. Besides, the matter of which was the first FPS game and what can be called as such, is another can worms 

[EgoTrip]

Does Sultan's Maze count? If it had shooting?

[arnoldemu]

Wolfenstein is discussed,  but there are first person shooters mentioned before that.

Sultan's Maze doesn't count because the podcast is a bout first person shooters on the pc.

[Velktron]

Does Sultan's Maze count? If it had shooting?

Why not Castle Master? ;-)

It's really weird that there's no true polygonal equivalent to Doom/Wolfenstein though, at least not on home systems. I am sure there were some earlier "virtual reality" games, the kind you played with 3D goggles and the such on experimental/super-expensive research or  arcade hardware,  but simply put, none offered the right combination of relatively realistic visuals, fast-paced action, freedom to explore, and an emphasis on the fact that you controlled a person, and not a tank/mecha/hovercraft/aircraft/whatever.

[Swainy]

I was criticizing the choice of "1995" as a "vintage" year for FPS in the poster. Being actively involved in the biggest Doom community today (Doomworld -- The definitive source for Doom news, information and development), I'm sure many people over there would also criticize that choice. If anything, 1995 was right at the heart of the "golden age"  of FPS game on the IBM PC, followed by 1996. "Early" there would mean "pre-Doom".


I don't know if that's rectified in the actual podcast, but now it'd be besides the point, and I won't spend 3 hours to find out. Besides, the matter of which was the first FPS game and what can be called as such, is another can worms 

Fair enough, your loss