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Patrick

Origin of the FPS

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the article said:
1992: Id Software releases Wolfenstein 3-D, and it launches a huge computer-game category.

Wolfenstein 3-D may not have been the very first "first-person shooter," as the genre came to be known, but it was by far the most successful. Technically the genre goes back to the '70s, but no one really paid any attention to it. Even id released an earlier FPS called Catacombs 3D, but again, it wasn't nearly as good as Wolfenstein.

But through massive online dissemination of the game's shareware version, Wolfenstein 3D (the hyphen was later dropped from the name) introduced millions to an immersive world in which the action seemed to be happening from the player's perspective.

"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.

Players in the game assume the role of an American commando battling Nazis and their supernatural servants. It was banned in Germany because of its use of Nazi symbols, like the swastika, and music, like the "Horst Wessel Lied."

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.

These games, in turn, begat a slew of sequels, imitators and adaptations, from Half-Life to Max Payne.

Wired.com Game|Life blogger Earnest Cavalli added, "The key to the whole Wolfenstein thing is that its success -- which was massive -- paved the way for ... thousands of games that mimicked them, transforming the PC into a gaming system best known for FPS titles. Plus, who doesn't like killing Nazis?"


http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/05/dayintech_0505

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leileilol said:

How did Max Payne get mentioned? That's a THIRD person shooter!


Thats actually evidence for everything the media reports is based on half truths and lies. Or else they might have made a mistake.

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You could say that any game that is 3D originates from Wolf3D. Not that we would never have 3D games if Wolf3D was never made, but id Software just happens to be the first ones that made such a game. Win!

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Wolf3D is seminal as far as the genre is concerned, but is also very flat and lacks multiplayer, which is kind of mandatory for an FPS.

Nightmare Doom said:
Thats actually evidence for everything the media reports is based on half truths and lies.

Paranoia aside, when I read one of these game/computer site blogs I ask myself "is someone about to promote or release an related product?"

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myk said:

Wolf3D is seminal as far as the genre is concerned, but is also very flat and lacks multiplayer, which is kind of mandatory for an FPS.


Huh, I always thought it was the perspective and inclusion of things that shoot.

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david_a said:

I think multiplayer is kinda not mandatory for an FPS.

Agreed.

There are actually first person perspective games before Wolf 3D, such as the Catacomb 3D series and Hovertank, both made by id. I think Ultima Underworld came out before Doom, as well. It was 2.5d if I remember right.

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Actually the first FPS was Maze War, released in 1973 (and was multiplayer ;)). However, it wasn't fully 3D in a sense, because the view did not smoothly change from one frame to the next; the player could only look north, south, east or west, nothing in between. You moved in a grid, similar to Doom RPG.

This particular video is of the 1977 (1979?) Xerox version, since I couldn't find any of the original:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7chDIySXK2Q


The first fully 3D game was Battlezone which came out in the arcades back in 1980. Heh, I still remember playing this back in the mid 80's in my local arcade. Loved it. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghIPGXs3LAo


The first game to use a ray-casting engine was MIDI Maze, which came out in 1987. It was also a first person shooter that had multiplayer.

Unfortunately, the only videos I can find of this one are for the SNES port, entitled Faceball 2000, which came out in 1992.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL2JAam8jz0


And there's your real origin of the FPS. :p

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Nightmare Doom said:

Thats actually evidence for everything the media reports is based on half truths and lies.

ahahahahahahahahaha

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Wolf 3D wasn't the first but it was the most important, most modern FPS owe more to Wolf 3D then Catacomb 3D series and Hovertank.

myk said:
Wolf3D is seminal as far as the genre is concerned, but is also very flat and lacks multiplayer, which is kind of mandatory for an FPS.

Not really.

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Although Wolf3D did push the genre into the spotlight, Doom was the one that turned it into a phenomenon (especially with multiplayer). After all, it was "Doom-clone", not "Wolf3D-clone". ;)

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myk said:

Wolf3D is seminal as far as the genre is concerned, but is also very flat and lacks multiplayer, which is kind of mandatory for an FPS.


Though multiplayer in FPS is the STANDARD now, I would not confuse this with being mandatory.

By this logic, is a game like Portal not a first person shooter?

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The first fully 3D game was Battlezone which came out in the arcades back in 1980. Heh, I still remember playing this back in the mid 80's in my local arcade. Loved it. :)


I had that on the game boy in the 90's!

I loved how if you drove under flying debris you would hear them "falling on the roof of your tank". That's the kind of little extra touch of immersivity that Rockstar excels in these days but that most game companies can't be bothered with.

I also had nightmares about the missiles!

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Ralphis said:
Though multiplayer in FPS is the STANDARD now, I would not confuse this with being mandatory.

I agree, actually (thus my "kind of mandatory").

By this logic, is a game like Portal not a first person shooter?

It is an FPS, but it's missing a characteristic feature, and genres are all about standardization (and not just the names applied to them). My point is that while Wolf3D gets credit for establishing the seminal parts, history still owes other games for adding essential and lasting components to the genre. A (new) user will also likely say: "Wait, Portal doesn't have multiplayer?"

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I consider Portal more of a first person puzzler, but it's not a stretch to call it an FPS. However, what defines an FPS outside of being first person and shooting things is a bit loose. I guess you need freedom of movement, too, otherwise lightgun or rail shooters could be considered FPS games. :p

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Nuxius said:

Actually the first FPS was Maze War, released in 1973 (and was multiplayer ;)). However, it wasn't fully 3D in a sense, because the view did not smoothly change from one frame to the next; the player could only look north, south, east or west, nothing in between. You moved in a grid, similar to Doom RPG.

This particular video is of the 1977 (1979?) Xerox version, since I couldn't find any of the original:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7chDIySXK2Q


The first fully 3D game was Battlezone which came out in the arcades back in 1980. Heh, I still remember playing this back in the mid 80's in my local arcade. Loved it. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghIPGXs3LAo


The first game to use a ray-casting engine was MIDI Maze, which came out in 1987. It was also a first person shooter that had multiplayer.

Unfortunately, the only videos I can find of this one are for the SNES port, entitled Faceball 2000, which came out in 1992.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL2JAam8jz0


And there's your real origin of the FPS. :p

There's a few others too, mostly on the PLATO system. This page lists the rest, like Spasim and Panther.

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Snarboo said:
However, what defines an FPS outside of being first person and shooting things is a bit loose.

Right, Portal has various elements that make it more eclectic than a straightforward FPS like Doom 3, which means that to tell someone what type of game it is you'll need to use more adjectives, or use a less established name (possibly a more exact neologism). Although was can be defined as an FPS game is determined by the designs of the games that (progressively or changeably) shape the genre.

Following what I had said earlier, today one might say "Doom, an FPS", but "Wolfenstein 3D, a single-player FPS".

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Coopersville said:

I think Catacombs 3D is more awesome than Wolfenstein. Still awaiting that remake.

Truths.

I don't see much of a difference between first and third person shooters. A lot of games alternate between the two perspectives.

At any rate, that article is pretty poorly written.

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Nuxius said:

Actually the first FPS was Maze War, released in 1973 (and was multiplayer ;)). However, it wasn't fully 3D in a sense, because the view did not smoothly change from one frame to the next; the player could only look north, south, east or west, nothing in between. You moved in a grid, similar to Doom RPG.


Hehe, I remember an old Mac game called Super Maze Wars...a descendent maybe?

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Catacombs 3D, 1991. And the various sequels. Including Curse of the Catacombs, and Return to the Catacombs, of which I never hear anything about, but were still fantastic games.

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Snarboo said:

Agreed.

There are actually first person perspective games before Wolf 3D, such as the Catacomb 3D series and Hovertank, both made by id. I think Ultima Underworld came out before Doom, as well. It was 2.5d if I remember right.


I would say it's more like 2.75D. It had the occasional bridge you could walk both over and under, but that was about it.

But the engine certainly was very advanced for it's time. It had true look, jumping, proper floor and ceiling textures, slopes, a non-linear hub, etc.

And this for a game released about a month and a half earlier than Wolf 3D!

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Catacombs rules!

You guys must realize that this is the time period where wolf3d is phasing out. The next generation will view it the same way we view the oldest arcade games - although that gives me hope, because some of us faithfully play them oldies. If I had kids who played video games I would try to show them oldschool stuff like doom.

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