...a long line of groundbreaking technologies. What makes the FPS genre one of the most powerful video game designs is the edge of your seat thrill ride, violence, and its ability to consistently push the envelope of computing power.
The FPS game design was forever changed by the birth of Wolfenstein 3D. Wolf3D, its common name, was published by Apogee Software on May 5th, 1992 and given life by ID Software. The inspiration behind
the game was a 1980s Muse Software computer game called Castle Wolfenstein and the follow-up game, Beyond Castle Wolfenstein. These adventure games would inspire the ID Software team to create an evolutionary work of art. Wolfenstein 3D was definitely not the first true FPS game; Spasim and Maze War might have been the founding fathers of the FPS, but they did not define the genre as it still exists today.
This relatively unknown company called ID Software built a game that involved, at the time, a significant amount of violence and destruction. They pushed the limit by designing a game that included many dark areas of our past, including the Nazi military reign. The game contained guns, blood (on certain releases), the ability to kill Germans by the truck load, and most importantly, the open use of the most feared symbol in the Western world: the Swastika. This foundation of violence and destruction would catapult the FPS genre to heights previously unknown to gaming.
Germany, of course, was not exactly thrilled about the release of Wolfenstein 3D. Killing Germans is not nearly as bad as the open use of Nazi symbols and the anthem “Horst-Wessel-Lied” which is banned in Germany. Wolfenstein 3D was the first FPS to contain legal issues and cause copies to be confiscated in 1994 Germany. The legal issues in Germany resulted in many game ports to be toned down or just not created at all. The Super NES version was modified to remove Nazi references and symbols. If the game was about escaping Nazi Germany, how fun would it be without any reference to the actual militia you were escaping?
Besides obvious fallout with the use of Nazi symbols, music, and poorly created non-native German speech, the game opened the eyes of developers around the world. Not only was it possible to create a game with a decent amount of violence, but the technology was reusable and could be enhanced for greater levels of detail. Game developers adopted the concept of “shareware” as a way to get their game to the market and provide evidence that it was a sellable solution. All these new ideas were formed by the success of Wolfenstein 3D.
Although Wolfenstein 3D was technically not the first game that had a first-person perspective and allowed you to shoot things dead, it was the first to ignite the desire for this genre. Ultima Underworld created the initial FPS technology. This technology was inherited by Wolfenstein 3D and was later improved upon in ID Software’s DOOM. In 1993, DOOM would take center stage, leaving Wolfenstein 3D as a distant memory. The world of DOOM had textured floors and ceilings, moving platforms, and multi-player network capabilities!
DOOM defines the frightening FPS genre. The game would keep you on the edge of your seat killing imps and other evil demonic creatures while running through dark halls and unloading weapons at everything that moved. If played in the dark, DOOM was capable of putting you on the floor in a jump of terror. Gamers were so enthralled by the new DOOM franchise that they continued to play it for years. Gamers might say that DOOM was the first FPS that got them addicted to the genre. Game developers might say that DOOM proved just how powerful great technology and ideas could become.
Shareware assisted in the success of DOOM as it did with Wolfenstein 3D. Over 10 million people downloaded DOOM within the first two years of its creation. According to GameSpy, DOOM has been voted by industry insiders as the number one best game of all time. Not only was DOOM widely successful – the ID Software team became the big boys on the block in terms of FPS technology. People wanted to be like ID and they went through the trouble to duplicate the efforts non-stop with “DOOM clones.”
In 1994, ID Software would hold the FPS genre with DOOM II: Hell On Earth. This release was very similar to the original DOOM with a few minor changes and additional levels and enemies. Although a major goal had been achieved, DOOM II was not sold as shareware, but as a product widely distributed in the stores. ID Software was building a very large bankroll in a very small period of time. During this year, a few other games spawned from the FPS clone clamor: Rise of the Triad, Marathon, and System Shock.
The 1994 “DOOM clones” each contained small changes in the technology that would, in the end, better the genre for many years. Apogee Software’s Rise of the Triad, initially developed as a sequel to Wolfenstein 3D, and added deliberate and unjust violence by inventing the “giblet.” A giblet is a little piece of flesh, internal organ, bone or entire limb of a larger body that is shot off during the bodies’ explosion. Although, Adrian Carmack is credited with the name, it was Rise of the Triad that initially thought of the concept. John Carmack and the ID Software team would make great use of this ‘giblet’ in Quake, as would Apogee Software in Duke Nukem 3D.
Marathon was the next “DOOM clone” of the year, but this game utilized a feature that had been overlooked from prior FPS games: a real plot. The FPS genre, in general, has very little history in terms of plot usage, but Marathon started it all and later Half-Life would bring it to a completely new level of play. System Shock, another “DOOM clone” combined the new FPS-style gaming with the controls of a Role Playing Game (RPG) complete with horror elements. System Shock was a cult success story but did not take a main stage like DOOM.
The next big “DOOM clone” would change up the environment by adding a few imperial bases and Star Destroyers: LucasArts’ Star Wars: Dark Forces. LucasArts built its own DOOM-like engine called the “Jedi Engine” and added a feature that was rare in the FPS genre: alternative firing weapons. You could have a weapon that had multiple modes of fire! This feature would be utilized in future games. However, like DOOM and the other clones, Dark Forces was a slight enhancement on FPS game engines that came before it but it was still not true 3D. Within a year, that all would change.
In 1995, Interplay Productions would publish a game known as Decent. This FPS title took the terms 3D and made it real. A full six degrees of freedom, coined 6DOF, and the player could fly their ship around the level in many directions. The maps were true 3D worlds where one could fly through a tunnel above them, below them, or in any direction in “3d space” and get lost in the environment. Those that found the ship in Decent too hard to control simply tossed the game aside as a “DOOM clone” and overlooked the complete 3D feature set unknown at that time. Ultimately, Decent failed to reach DOOM-like levels because of its difficulty to control, often requiring a joystick, and Interplays restrictions on level modifications. ID Software allowed independent developers to ‘mod” the game levels (known as “WADS”) to create new FPS game environments. These modders kept the game alive for years after it should have been forgotten. Interplay didn’t do this and thus its game has been forgotten.
Lead designer John Romero and lead programmer John Carmack polished off their next big FPS in 1996. The title was known as Quake and towered over all games of its time with a brand new graphics engine and more textures than ever seen in a video game. The ID Software team predicted that the multiplayer gaming environment was the way of the future and designed Quake for local area networks along with standard “world wide” network play. The Internet was coming of age and it was time to move from our BBS systems into the world of the web. Gamers were able to play multiplayer games with people all over the world.
Duke Nukem 3D, released January 29th 1996, became an instant success by adding new flair to the FPS genre. Duke Nukem 3D is best known for the humor that was added throughout the game. The game lacked one specific feature that would make it lose the FPS battle in the future: TCP/IP network based
multiplayer capabilities for the Internet. 3D Realms published the game ahead of its rival ID Software, but in the end ID Software would show the industry who was on top.
ID Software, again, created a graphically stressful FPS that requires gamers to think about moving out of the 486 processor era and jump on the Pentium bandwagon. Quake helped invent the need for the true “Gaming system” over a typical workstation of the time.
Most importantly, Quake made games of the same year, such as Duke Nukem 3D look simple by comparison. A year later Blood (built off the Duke Nukem 3D “build engine”) was released by Monolith 
and it still could not hold water compared to Quake’s revolutionary graphic design and multiplayer capabilities. It seemed that ID Software would own the FPS genre forever if they continued to keep ahead of the game.
ID Software released Quake II a year later, in 1997, published by Activision. This release had no relationship to Quake except for the name “Quake” which was just used to draw sales. The game was an improved network model compared to the original release and the game engine was re-built again. When Quake II was purchased by PC gamers around the world and played on the Internet until the wee hours of the night, GoldenEye 007 was released on the Nintendo 64. GoldenEye 007 had a few FPS improvements, which included complex bullet-hit detection to maximize damage with “head shot” targets. The second large improvement was the game’s ability to play on a console system without a mouse and keyboard and be a success. Most FPS ports from older games failed to impress console gamers. This was a large milestone for the console gaming community because it would help realize the truth behind the console FPS genre.
All of the technology that had been built over the past years came to life as a complete package during the years of 1998 and 1999. The PC would see a release of Half-Life by a small development studio known by few as Valve. Within two years Valve would see a huge success in their Half-Life franchise spurred by a great initial release and a “total conversion” modification of the game called Counter-Strike. This Counter-Strike modification, created by Minh Le and Jess Cliffe was so successful that they graduated college and went on to work at Valve software. These two college kids were part of the reason Half-Life and its modification Counter-Strike are still being played today.
The same year that Half-Life hit the market two more FPS games were released: Thief and Tribes. Thief was one of the first FPS games that successfully tackled the idea of “stealth” in the genre. The concept of sneaking around the levels instead of blasting through doors running and gunning was
lost on many FPS fans. The concepts, however, were solid and the game brought new aspects into an overly used military-type genre. The counterweight to Thief would be Tribes, which scoffed at sneaking and replaced it with team-oriented military vehicles. The vehicles employed in Tribes by today’s standards are light; however, without the proof-of-concept in Tribes, vehicles may still be a rarity in current FPS titles. Although Dynamix’s Tribes cannot be considered a huge commercial success, the influences were enough to change the future of FPS gaming.
ID Software made another run for the money with Quake III Arena by producing a multiplayer-only version of Quake for Internet play. Ten days before the launch of Quake III, yet another FPS known as Unreal Tournament was released. These two titles would battle head to head for years, trying to become the multiplayer FPS victor. The two competitors continue to battle it out today with Unreal Tournament 2004 and Quake 4. A new Unreal Tournament is scheduled for release in 2007.
Finally, in the early 2000’s a new breed of FPS game was born. To take on the challenge of building another great console FPS to match the success of GoldenEye 007, a company called Bungie Studios produced a “killer application” for the Microsoft Xbox. Halo: Combat Evolved took the elements of all games in the past and rolled them into a console game that sold over 6 million copies worldwide since its release in 2001. Many critics found that the game “bored them to tears” due to the overuse of specific areas throughout the game but nevertheless the game was a hit and sold many Xbox consoles by itself.
In 2002, the world would get the most in-depth tactical FPS it had seen thus far: Battlefield 1942. This game allowed players to operate vehicles, aircraft, and ships similar to Tribes. This element, along with the tactics required for the game allowed dedicated players to become truly skilled in team oriented destruction. In addition, this year Nintendo would turn Metroid into an FPS and call it Metroid Prime. There was no going back for Samus now; she was in the world of the first-person-shooter.
Between 2004 and 2006, FPS sequels were the next best thing. Each sequel had new weapons, textures, eye-candy and thrill. Gamers would buy DOOM 3 and find the graphics stunning but a simple re-hash of the original story. Players were bored with the concept that once excited them but had been redone dozens of times since DOOM’s original release. Half-Life 2 was a great success and utilized more GPU then most FPS games (excluding DOOM 3) and allowed players to interact with their environment in new detail along with a realistic physics engine. Halo 2 was an obvious success focusing highly on network play and became another huge success because of it. Metroid Prime 2, Ghost Recon Advance Warfighter, Call of Duty 2, and others sequels arrived for consumers to rip off the store shelves. All quality games with an increasing fan base.
If you mark Wolfenstein 3D as the game that defined the FPS genre back in 1992, you can see that FPS games have not been around all that long. Considering Mario has brought us games since the early 1980s, the FPS is a comparative teenager. The genre has made huge leaps and bounds after each developer’s creation and continues to do so. Not all FPS games are outstanding success stories but each one brings something new to the table. Where do we go from here? Halo 3 is a highly anticipated game for the Xbox 360 that should be released in 2007. Perhaps the announced release of Castle Wolfenstein for the Xbox 360 will change history. Ironically, the game that evolved the genre plans to return after fifteen years in hopes to revolutionize the industry once again. We’ve proven that history is bound to repeat itself.
From Retro Gaming in Issue #6 of 2o2p Magazine.
