BeSiege82

May 5, 1992: Wolfenstein 3-D Shoots the First-Person Shooter Into Stardom
By Noah Shachtman

"It was an incredible sensation, really unlike anything gamers had seen before," said Jamie Madigan, who helps operate the GameSpy Network's 3D Action website. "You could move smoothly in 360 degrees. You felt like you were there."

"Everything that's followed in [its] footsteps has just been a modification of that basic style," id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead said in 2001.

"Wolfenstein 3D did more than define a genre. It also launched a company, id Software of Mesquite, Texas, which leveraged Wolfenstein 3D's success into a franchise of wildly successful first-person shooters, including the seminal Doom and Quake series."



http://www.wired.com/science/discove...dayintech_0505


Let us remember today for its introduction of our community's genre.

It is sad, just a few years ago there was work on a new Wolfenstein game, but it was scrapped.

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lTG-Irrl BeSiege82
A platoon leader in his own right...

"Courage grows strong at the wound."
"Virescit Vulnere Virtus."

Evo<^|SiNz|^>

I saw that story this morning.

I clearly remember when Wolf 3d came out... a friend of mine had the shareware version on the then-newfangled 3.5" floppy disk. I was thinking back also to playing the shareware version of Doom when it first came out and eventually purchasing Doom 2, which was my first FPS multiplayer experience on the PC (my first multiplayer experience on PC was Red Baron on TSN/INN, for those who remember that).

Those were some very formative experiences in my gaming life!!

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"No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country.
He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country."
- Attributed to General George Patton, Jr.

Steeler

I think the full version of Wolfenstein was the first PC game I ever bought with my own money (I had to beg for an advance on my allowance).

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AMosely

Fantastic. Admitting to having bought this game really dates a man.. but I'm proud to admit it none the less. Not only did this game define a genre, it helped catapult PC's to the forefront of video games - an age that is fading away as we speak.

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TheFeniX

What ego masturbation on the part of this guy.

Oh, I have one: "Everything that's followed in the steps of the original Wright Bros. plane has just been a modification of that basic style."

As if it's fair to compare a bi-plane to something like an SR-71 Blackbird or F-16. This is basically a stupid way of claiming some form of credit for actual decent FPSs made by other companies.

The only dev seeming to be content "modifying the basic style" is id. Every game they make is just a rehash of old boring themes and lots of brown. Meanwhile, actual devs with imagination create games like Portal and Jedi-Knight (although let's face it, it's Star Wars). Seriously, what other dev besides Epic Games can get away with releasing the same game over and over for the better part of a decade?

Actually, it launched id's successful endeavors into creating game engines with tech demos attached, so actual game developers could create decent games. Early games like Doom were fun because the industry was still fairly new and young kids don't exactly look into anything in depth. I don't know why Doom 3 is popular. I guess adding a few blue textures into your 99% brown game ups sales.

Don't get me wrong, Wolf3d was a pretty decent FPS, but it wasn't exactly ground-breaking on anything except the engine. Because shooting Nazi's just isn't original and eating dog food to recover health is pretty disgusting. I give credit to id for creating game engines that basically run the industry, but the games themselves leave much to be desired. I may have played a few levels of Wolf3D and Doom, but I beat every level of Duke Nukem 3D 600 times and even broke myself getting MP to run over "MSN Gaming Zone." If you're going to be lax on the game itself, learn from 3D realms and include jetpacks, lot's of unnecessary gore, and topless pixelated women.

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ScratchMonkey

I'd liken it more to the Da Vinci flyer concepts than the Wright Brothers' plane. Or whoever figured out that the Bernouli principle could be applied to manned flight.

But didn't Id (or its founders, like Carmack) have earlier implementations that demonstrated first-person 3D? Didn't Commander Keen come first?

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BeSiege82

Id certainly made earlier FPSs.

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lTG-Irrl BeSiege82
A platoon leader in his own right...

"Courage grows strong at the wound."
"Virescit Vulnere Virtus."

TheFeniX

Probably, but games like "Eye of the Beholder" (First Person RPG) go back as far as 1990. Other devs had the idea for First person games, id just made the first widely popular one.

From the FPS wiki:
"It is not clear exactly when the first FPS was created. Maze War is the most likely candidate, but even its developer cannot remember exactly when it was produced.[2] The initial development of Maze War probably occurred in the summer of 1973."

Neither the concept of an FPS, nor the first implementation of one were done by id. Just like neither Apple or Microsoft had the first ideas or implementations for a GUI based OS.

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Doming0

Heh.. I think we are all nit picking with the "who was first" mantle. All I remember is that it was the coolest game, except for the fact I had to run around every level, kill all the bad nasty nazi mutated guys then retrace the whole level pressing enter on every panel of wall looking for the "secret" hidey holes. Took forever, but it gave me a nice break from Lemmings and Scorched Earth! Good times!

Long Bow

Wow way to derail a fun nostalgic topic.

Anyway, I loved that game and can still rember it. Doming0 thats so true, I remember running around rooms, 45 deg angle to the wall, tapping space bar like an idiot

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Ikariam: TG Long Bow
| Island "Tonaetia" [85:38] | Wine | City "Ceceb" |
| Island "Dusios" [86:42] | Marble | City "Bancroft" |
| Island "Waretia" [85:37] | Sulphor | City "Magnetawan" |
| Island "Kaleos" [84:38] | Crystal | City "Wurm" |

ScratchMonkey

I didn't get into FPS until Doom (might even have been Doom 2) so I only know of the earlier titles by reputation.

Before that I was playing stuff on my Amiga. I loved Carrier Command, where one "drove" a stylized carrier, remote-controlled amphibian assault craft, and remote-controlled aircraft, to take a series of islands. One fought an AI ship of similar capability. Very blocky polygon look (similar to arcade vector graphics), and incredibly addictive.

And of course Lemmings and Bubble Bauble. And later Populous.

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