Quake
At the time, most First Person Shooter games were 3D in nature, but still used a lot of 2D elements. Doom, Dark Forces, Alien Trilogy; they all used 3D rendered levels (walls and floors) but all the enemies, items and most props plus your weapons were all 2D sprites. For the most part this was a smart decision, walls and floors required few polygons and could take advantage of a few tricks so far as rendering perspective goes. This leaves the more complex components to be rendered as pixel art and can contain more detail than what you could render in 3D at the time. And yet, this would cause a number of issues. Sprites couldn't rotate very well in 3D, so quite often enemies were always either facing you, or facing away. Sprites were always a set resolution and so looked best at a certain zoom level and looked hideous when you got closer to them. And generally they just didn't fit in well with the 3D rendered surroundings.
But then, two years after the very popular release of Doom 2, ID Games released a fully 3D FPS game that was like none before it. Everything was rendered in 3D; enemies, weapons, item pickups. The characters lacked some of the detail of game before it, (Heads and other body parts were usually composed of a single block.) but they felt like they belonged in the world that was presented before you. Everything felt more fluid and tangible providing you with a more exciting, somewhat more realistic experience. Which was really the point of FPS games in the early 90s. That and shooting everything in sight.
Quake wasn't just the first 3D first person shooter, for me it was also the first time I had really seen online multiplayer in action. My uncle once showed me Quake while in multiplayer mode. I can't remember if this was a dial-up server or internet based, but I remember there were a ton of players running around. It took seconds to get completely obliterated and I really had no idea what on earth was going on. Though, it was pretty clear that the people that were playing knew exactly what was going on. Rocket jumps, telefragging, headshots; there was no mercy. It was as it is then as it is now.
Quake was another one of these pioneering games that was saw so many of in the 90s. Introducing brand new technology that paved the way for how we game today. It was a great time to be playing games since so much of this stuff felt like bigger advancements than much of anything they can do now. And though, with story being so much more important to me overall and that's really what gets advanced nowadays; I still remember a time when all this new tech was so exciting and there was nothing cooler than sitting in front of your computer and seeing stuff render out that you never imagined possible up until that moment.
At the time, most First Person Shooter games were 3D in nature, but still used a lot of 2D elements. Doom, Dark Forces, Alien Trilogy; they all used 3D rendered levels (walls and floors) but all the enemies, items and most props plus your weapons were all 2D sprites. For the most part this was a smart decision, walls and floors required few polygons and could take advantage of a few tricks so far as rendering perspective goes. This leaves the more complex components to be rendered as pixel art and can contain more detail than what you could render in 3D at the time. And yet, this would cause a number of issues. Sprites couldn't rotate very well in 3D, so quite often enemies were always either facing you, or facing away. Sprites were always a set resolution and so looked best at a certain zoom level and looked hideous when you got closer to them. And generally they just didn't fit in well with the 3D rendered surroundings. But then, two years after the very popular release of Doom 2, ID Games released a fully 3D FPS game that was like none before it. Everything was rendered in 3D; enemies, weapons, item pickups. The characters lacked some of the detail of game before it, (Heads and other body parts were usually composed of a single block.) but they felt like they belonged in the world that was presented before you. Everything felt more fluid and tangible providing you with a more exciting, somewhat more realistic experience. Which was really the point of FPS games in the early 90s. That and shooting everything in sight.Quake was another one of these pioneering games that was saw so many of in the 90s. Introducing brand new technology that paved the way for how we game today. It was a great time to be playing games since so much of this stuff felt like bigger advancements than much of anything they can do now. And though, with story being so much more important to me overall and that's really what gets advanced nowadays; I still remember a time when all this new tech was so exciting and there was nothing cooler than sitting in front of your computer and seeing stuff render out that you never imagined possible up until that moment.
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