Chapter 8

Early 3D and the Multimedia Boom (1989–1996)

Two Paths to Realism: Multimedia Imagery and Real-Time 3D

The late 1980s and mid-1990s saw a revolution in multimedia. The computer industry standardized the format for inexpensive, high-capacity CD-ROMs, sparking massive interest among application developers. Programs such as Compton’s MultiMedia Encyclopedia (1989) and The New Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia (1992) brought text, image, sound, and video together, which allowed new ways to present, access, and understand information. Films such as Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Jurassic Park (1993), and Toy Story (1995) represented important milestones in 3D, computer-generated imagery. Finally, virtual reality made its public debut to high expectations.

Many games of the period used the above advances to bring a greater sense of visual realism to gameplay that was generally expressed in one of two ways. The first focused on photo-realism, which was attained through using a mix of digitized images, full motion video, and pre-rendered 3D imagery. This was prominent in adventure games as well as a number of interactive movies that featured more complexity than the laser disc games of the Golden Age arcade (see Chapter 4). The second approach focused on spatial realism and was achieved through the real-time calculation of 3D filled polygons, a visual improvement over earlier 3D wireframes. Real-time 3D graphics in the late 1980s and early 1990s, however, were computationally intensive and lacked detail. This resulted in a significant reliance on 2D imagery to supplement the limited 3D forms as seen in a number of the period’s computer games.

The emphasis on greater visual fidelity, however, also generated controversy as a new generation of game designers looked to create works that subverted established game conventions through explicit expressions of violent imagery; a development that coincided with a similar trend in some comics and animation. The sudden appearance of more realistic representations of violence, and darker, more intense visuals intended for older players, caught the public by surprise. The controversy that developed led to the creation of a rating system for games much like that of the film industry that remains in place today.

CD-ROMs and Photo-Realism

Interactive Film and Games

The proliferation of multimedia technologies in the late 1980s and 1990s briefly reignited interest in laser disc arcade games as well as created a market for CD-ROM interactive film games at home. While few of these games represented innovations in design, they provided the highest degree of realistic imagery of the time as they were filmed like movies and often utilized a first-person perspective. Developer American Laser Games, whose founder, Robert Grabe designed police training simulators, created a number of live-action gun games such as the wild-west-themed, Mad Dog McCree (1990) and the police action drama, Crime Patrol (1993). While the games were designed like other gun games with players using a light gun to shoot on-screen characters within a short window of time before the characters shot the player, they emphasized narrative in a way that exceeded many gun games of the 1980s (Figure 8.1). The sequel to the arcade laser disc classic Dragon’s Lair, was finally released in 1991 with Dragon’s Lair II: Time Warp (Leland Corporation), which continued the story of Dirk the Daring and was played almost identically to its 1983 predecessor. Sega’s arcade division went farther than its competitors and produced a curious set of hologram-based cabinets that used a concave mirror to create games that appeared to float in space. This visually innovative concept was used in two games: Time Traveler (1991, Sega) featuring a time-traveling cowboy who avoided dangers through properly timed button and joystick movements, and Holosseum (1992, Sega), a 2D pixel art head-to-head fighting game intended to compete with Street Fighter II.

The late 1980s to early 1990s also saw the emergence of CD-ROM-based consoles that brought many arcade laser disc games to the home and supported a plethora of other games with multimedia elements. Unlike the market for cartridge-based home consoles, which was dominated by Nintendo and Sega, the early market for CD-ROM consoles was highly fragmented. All three of the major Japanese players in the “console wars” developed CD-based add-on modules for their 16-bit systems, however, due to a falling out between Nintendo and its CD development partner Sony, only the 1989 TurboGrafx-CD and 1991 Sega CD saw commercial release. New Western competitors quickly joined the market with the 1991 Philips CD-i and 1993 Panasonic 3DO; all of which took place while CD-ROMs became a standard feature of home computers. Because of the wide variety in CD-based consoles and games, third-party software was often released on multiple platforms.

Game developers struggled at times to adapt existing game types to a new mode of video presentation. Nintendo licensed its Mario and Link characters for a series of CD-i platformer games featuring fully animated cut scenes with Hotel Mario (1994, Philips Fantasy Factory), Link: The Faces of Evil (1993, Animation Magic), and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon (1993, Animation Magic). Although visually consistent with Nintendo’s iconography, the games played slow relative to expectations as the CD-i was not designed to replicate the same arcade-like performance specs and responsiveness of Nintendo’s hardware. In addition, the notoriously poor quality of the games’ animated sequences detracted from the overall experience.

Other games experimented with CD media in different ways. Supreme Warrior (1994, Digital Pictures) attempted to meld the action of a cinematic kung fu fight, the immersion of a first-person perspective, and gameplay of a head-to-head fighting game by having the player throw strikes and blocks against segments of video-recorded enemies. Slam City with Scottie Pippen (1994, Digital Pictures) similarly used the premise of reacting in time, but applied it to a series of one-on-one street basketball matches. Despite these attempts to enhance well-known game types and create unique approaches to immersion, the relatively slow speed of early CD-ROMs coupled with the segmented structure of the video clips created noticeable pauses and jumps in gameplay. This, in addition to titles designed by developers with little to no experience in games, made many genres initially unsuitable for CD-based games.

Puzzle Games in the Era of Multimedia

The types of games that did excel, however, typically had a slower pace of gameplay and often centered on themes of investigation requiring the player to solve puzzles. Games like Voyeur (Philips P.O.V. Entertainment Group), first appearing on the CD-i in 1993, followed the basic design format of a point-and-click adventure, with static images full of “hot spots.” As suggested by the game’s title, Voyeur contained a number of mature narrative themes dealing with sexual situations, which added intrigue but also caused it to carry a warning label about its content. The game’s concept, similar to Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 thriller Rear Window, centered on the player watching the various rooms of a corrupt businessman’s mansion from a building across the street. The goal was to gather incriminating evidence that would ruin the businessman’s chances of becoming President of the United States. Gameplay focused on a large still image of the mansion’s exterior like a map where the player could click on different windows to either investigate the objects in an empty computer-generated room or “video record” the mansion’s inhabitants by watching actors play out scenes. This structure not only offered an opportunity to showcase the game’s multimedia visuals but also helped mitigate the relatively slow rate of data transfer from CD-ROMs of the early 1990s by limiting the main interactive portions of the game to static, non-video images.

The 7th Guest (1993, Trilobyte), designed by Rob Landeros and Graeme Devine, centered on the player navigating a pre-rendered haunted mansion filled with logic puzzles presented from an immersive first-person perspective (Figures 8.2 and 8.3). The game’s story that framed the puzzles was communicated through short video sequences of live actors captured in front of a blue screen. To enhance the immersive quality of the game, the interface was minimal as the main interactions were executed by a context-sensitive cursor that changed from a navigation to investigation tool depending on its placement on the screen. The game was also innovative for its sophisticated video compression technology created by Graeme Devine, an impressive feat, as no off-the-shelf options were available at the time.

Of all the multimedia puzzle games produced in the early 1990s, however, Myst (1993, Cyan Worlds) proved to be the most popular (Figure 8.4). Drawing on their knowledge gained from creating interactive children’s stories, brothers Rand and Robyn Miller designed Myst for an older, nongame playing audience. As such, accessibility was one of the major design concerns. Unlike the predominant conventions of arcade, home ­console, and earlier puzzle/adventure games, Myst eliminated player death and the ability to become stuck due to a “wrong” decision. This allowed players unfamiliar with digital games to enjoy the immersive first-person game world without the stress of limited lives or timers. Progress was hindered only by the ­player’s inability to solve the game’s puzzles.

Myst’s story and gameplay revolved around piecing together the conflicting account of events surrounding the disappearance of a wizard-like character Atrus as given by Atrus’ two sons. Imprisoned in magic books, each son communicated to the player through fragmented video clips gained from solving the game’s various puzzles and exploring different time periods or “ages” of the game’s island. Narrative, ambiance, and immersion took precedent as every interaction was designed to feel like a natural extension of the game’s world and not overly “game-like.” Aiding this was one of the most visually rich environments of the period. Each of the game’s 2500 still images showcased the surreal island in fully textured 3D graphics; distant hills and trees were rendered in atmospheric haze, while close surfaces resembled industrial metal platforms, smooth marble columns, and wooden plank bridges. Environmental sounds—waves lapping on the island’s shores, wind blowing across mountaintops—supported the highly detailed visuals while an atmospheric soundtrack by Robyn Miller played in the background. This immersive ambiance, made possible by the high storage capacity of CDs as well as design choices that allowed free exploration of the game space, drew players into the game world as few other games of the time could, launching a wave of puzzle games featuring highly detailed visuals.

Other games of the period included Night Trap (1992, Digital Pictures), a campy horror-themed game in which the player attempted to protect a slumber party of women against a group of vampire-like beings. The game consisted of watching video feeds from different rooms of a house and properly timing the activation of traps to save the women. Players who failed to activate the trap saw the vampiric beings capture and drain the victim’s blood using an exaggerated drilling device, after which the player was scolded for failing to properly act.

Real-Time 3D and Spatial Realism

Early Commercialized Virtual Reality

Although not as visually accurate as film-based games, virtual reality (VR) of the late 1980s and mid-1990s attempted to create a sense of true presence in digital spaces using a variety of control devices and display technologies. Researchers in government and commercial technology labs had laid the groundwork for virtual reality with technologies such as head-mounted displays (HMDs), input devices for virtual spaces, and haptic feedback. These advances, from the late 1960s onward, saw application in scientific visualization and allowed researchers to explore and manipulate data in new ways.

Virtual reality, however, was unavailable to the public until the late 1980s, when a number of high profile commercial products entered the market. The first major company to develop virtual reality products was VPL Research, founded in 1984 by Jaron Lanier. Lanier was a former member of Atari’s Sunnyvale Research Lab, which focused on radical and experimental advancements in interactive and entertainment technologies. He combined his interest in music and programming to produce the unconventional game, Moondust (1983, Creative Software) for the Commodore 64 computer. In Moondust, the player attempted to “smear” or “smudge” prismatic pixels over a target while simultaneously controlling an astronaut and six spaceships. The spaceships left psychedelic color trails and changed the tones of the game’s ambient soundtrack. The success of this game, despite its unusual nature, allowed Lanier to leave the Atari Lab and launch VPL Research.

VPL Research became most famous for the DataGlove, a fiber optic-wired glove capable of accurately recording a user’s hand position in a completely computerized environment while taking input from finger movement. Designed by Tom Zimmerman initially out of a desire to play air guitar, the glove became an icon of virtual reality as users could “see” a representation of their hand in virtual space when wearing an HMD. The combined expense of the glove and accompanying equipment, however, generally limited its use to scientists and other virtual reality developers.

Seeing an opportunity to capitalize on the growing awareness of virtual reality among the public and its application to digital games, VPL and Abrams/Gentile Entertainment collaborated with former Intellivision producer Mattel to create an affordable consumer-grade version of the Data Glove in 1989. The controller, marketed as the Power Glove and built for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), was intended to allow the user to control games using primarily hand and finger motions as well as a bank of programmable buttons (Figure 8.5). Of the two games designed explicitly for the Power Glove, Super Glove Ball (1990, Rare) came closest to creating an experience akin to the more complicated virtual reality simulations at VPL. Effectively a combination of the sport of squash and Breakout, Super Glove Ball tasked the player with swatting or grabbing a bouncing ball with the Power Glove to break tiled blocks on the walls, ceiling, and floor of a room presented in perspective. The setup allowed the player to think in three dimensions, as physical movement forward and backward could be represented in the game space. Despite an appealing advertising campaign with taglines like “now you and the game are one” and “everything else is child’s play,” the Power Glove failed to deliver the experience of virtual reality desired by the public as it was notoriously inaccurate and more often than not, impeded the player’s performance.

Nintendo, still interested in virtual reality, developed and launched the Virtual Boy in 1995 (Figure 8.6). Like other HMDs, the Virtual Boy used stereoscopic imagery to trick the brain into seeing a 3D space. Games for the Virtual Boy primarily consisted of animated sprites positioned at nearer or farther distances from the viewer, making superficial use of the stereoscopic depth. Nonetheless, the unit did prove to have true 3D capabilities as seen in­ Red Alarm (1995, T&E Soft), which was similar to Star Fox (discussed below). However, since the Virtual Boy used cartridges with a small memory capacity and a relatively slow processor, Red Alarm consisted of wireframe models without hidden line removal, creating a confusing experience when flying through the game’s tunnel-like spaces. In addition to the lack of support from third-party software developers, the unit’s harsh monochromatic red images created by a bank of red light-emitting diode (LEDs), a cost-saving decision, frequently led to eyestrain and headaches if played for long periods of time. Due to low sales despite a price drop, Nintendo quickly discontinued the Virtual Boy in Japan after only 4 months on the market, while the North American version was pulled after 6.5 months.

In addition to the home market, a few companies created specialized VR arcade machines in the early 1990s. Virtuality (originally W Industries) was founded in 1987 by British VR pioneer Jon Waldern and became known worldwide for its VR arcade units. One of its early units consisted of a “pod” featuring a waist high ring that allowed the player to stand and prevented them from falling. A large HMD and a handle-shaped controller allowed players to duel against each other in games like Dactyl Nightmare (1991), a first-person shooter that took place in a world of untextured 3D polygons. Dactyl Nightmare was one of the public’s first experiences with immersive virtual reality as it was prominently displayed in large amusement centers. The game space consisted of four platforms with simple architectural ­elements connected to a central low platform. This level design required players to run upstairs and look around the environment, emphasizing the dimensionality of the space. Each player used the controller to aim and fire a slow-moving projectile at their opponent, the object being to score as many points as possible in the few minutes of game time. As an additional thrill, bright green pterodactyls encircled the playfield and randomly swooped down to pick up battling players. The pterodactyls then flew high above the game space and dropped the players to their death. This free fall experience proved too thrilling for some players as it led to a sense of vertigo and in severe cases, physical illness. The company also produced a number of other games and unit styles that included a sit-down cockpit for vehicle-based simulations like racing or flying. Virtuality was not alone in bringing VR to arcades. Virtual Combat (1993) produced by VR8 Inc. was a tank-based game in which an HMD was mounted on an arm above the game cabinet. The game and its company, however, were short lived. The arcade environment, in both cases, proved less than ideal for virtual reality due to the greater expense incurred by the player, the relatively short play time, and the physiological reactions of the experience.

By the late 1990s, it was apparent that virtual reality was far from the promise hyped by innovators, news programs, and tech enthusiasts. Rather than realistic, all-immersive, and interactive cyberworlds, the public saw monochromatic 3D shapes haphazardly controlled by clumsy, inaccurate devices. Highly anticipated peripherals failed to appear as both the Sega VR and Atari Jaguar VR HMDs were canceled before reaching production. The public scaled back its expectations and progressively saw virtual reality as a marketing gimmick. Major VR companies folded: virtual reality giant and DataGlove creator VPL Technologies effectively went out of business in 1992, while Dactyl Nightmare producer Virtuality remained unprofitable through 1995 despite investment interest.

Devices like the Power Glove and Virtual Boy, based on legitimate virtual reality technologies, illustrated the central problem with VR in the 1990s: affordability came at the cost of performance and quality of experience. The most advanced and accurate scientific VR equipment sold for thousands of dollars. VPL’s DataGlove and its sensors, for instance, could be purchased for $8,800 while the equipment to run it cost more than $75,000 at the time. The Power Glove, an affordable $89, simply could not duplicate the same abilities as the fiber optic Data Glove. In addition, consumer model HMDs were particularly lackluster in performance as they often caused headaches and nausea due to issues with image processing and display latency. All of these elements arrested the momentum of virtual reality in the early 1990s.

Large-scale interest in stereoscopic HMDs did not resurface until the second decade of the 2000s, but one virtual reality technology did find its way into the mainstream. The user’s inability to “feel” the virtual world resulted in significant investigation into haptic feedback, or touch-based interfaces, among early VR pioneers. This allowed for easier and more meaningful ways to interact with virtual spaces. In an attempt to create more immersive game experiences, haptic feedback in the form of vibration increasingly became a standard feature for game controllers starting in the late 1990s. Sony’s Japanese version of the 1997 Dual Analog controller for the PlayStation, the 1997 Rumble Pack add-on for the Nintendo 64, and the 1998 Jump Pack for the Sega Dreamcast created another dimension of immersion as explosions, jolts, and other impact-related gaming events could be felt by the player (Figure 8.7). This feature, initially an unusual upgrade, became standard on nearly all console game controllers within a few years.

Simulators in Arcades Spawn a 3D Revolution

For some designers, the use of 3D imagery and spaces was a logical path of progression as certain genres more easily lent themselves to the use of 3D game spaces than others.

Racing games strove to simulate the sensation of movement through space since the earliest period of the digital arcade; this objective remained unchanged in the late 1980s to early 1990s as developers created arcade-based racing games that used 3D polygons with high screen refresh rates. Japanese developer Namco, with a history of popular racing games such as Pole Position, offered one of the earliest visions of 3D racing with the 1988 Formula 1-themed, Winning Run. The hardware was designed to process 60,000 polygons per second in order to create a believable experience of driving at 300 km/hour. Using haptic feedback, Winning Run furthered the sensation of movement with a large cockpit-like cabinet that tilted, bumped, and swayed according to the player’s input. Atari Games, the spun off coin-op division of the old Atari company, produced two notable coin-op 3D driving games, Hard Drivin’ (1989) and Race Drivin’ (1990). These games, while not as fast as Winning Run, provided the sensation of driving on rollercoaster-like racetracks and featured a steering wheel that shook and provided resistance. The race to produce faster hardware for simulators continued to make leaps with Yu Suzuki’s Formula 1 racing game, Virtua Racing (1992, Sega), capable of computing 180,000 polygons per second. Its successor, Daytona USA (1993, Sega), surpassed this with 300,000 polygons per second; performance, in both cases, that resulted from a partnership between Sega and the aerospace company that would eventually become defense contractor, Lockheed Martin.

The hardware developed for racing games powered a new generation of arcade games that brought 3D gameplay to other genres. The arcade system boards designed for and descended from Namco’s Winning Run and Sega’s Virtua Racing, appeared in the rail shooter games Solvalou (1991 Namco), Galaxian 3: Project Dragoon (1994, Namco), Virtua Cop (1994, Sega), Time Crisis (1995, Namco), and House of the Dead (1997, Sega). Rail shooters automatically moved players through space on a predetermined and fixed path like being on a rollercoaster. This concept, when combined with traditional gun game gameplay resulted in an experience featuring enemies that popped on and off the screen, sending a barrage of damage at the player and creating an incentive to shoot as fast as possible. The concept of rail shooters was not unique to the early 1990s as earlier games such as Atari’s first-person, vector-based Star Wars (1983), as well as gun games like the 2D horizontal-scrolling Operation Wolf (1987, Taito) employed the same concept. The new simulator-based hardware, however, allowed for rapid changes in camera angles and a feeling of cinematic intensity, particularly exploited in the gun games, Time Crisis and House of the Dead.

Sega’s arcade system board for Virtua Racing was also used to bring the 2D-based head-to-head fighting game into the 3D era with Virtua Fighter (1993). Directed by Yu Suzuki, Virtua Fighter’s roots in simulation technology were apparent not only in its more realistic representation of space but also in its attitude toward game design. Unlike Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat, which utilized fantasy fireballs and other projectile-based super moves, button and joystick combinations in Virtua Fighter triggered characters to execute punches or kicks grounded in relatively more realistic martial arts techniques. This forced the player to rely less on devastating power moves and made gameplay more tactical as the consideration of distance, speed, and reach of attacks required greater attention. Even the aesthetic exclamation point at the end of a match reflected a grounding in realism as Virtua Fighter took a cue from televised sports with the use of an instant replay of the match’s final moments, connecting the game to the experience of physical competition.

New 3D head-to-head fighting games, grounded in a similar sense of spatial realism, quickly followed. Tekken (1994, Namco), designed by Virtua Fighter’s departed main designer Seiichi Ishii, utilized a unique “limb-based” control scheme where each button corresponded to the movement of the right or left arm or leg while Dead or Alive (1996, Team Ninja) included a system that allowed players with proper timing to counter and reverse the attack of opponents. As the 3D head-to-head fighting game developed further, combatants were granted more freedom to move through the game space, which further altered gameplay strategies. This drew an increasing distinction between 3D head-to-head fighting games and their 2D cousins. Other changes included new approaches to animation as sophisticated motion capture technology recorded the movements of actors through sensors. First employed in Virtua Fighter 2 (1994, Sega), motion capture from actors delivered more accurate and fluid animations for game characters. By the beginning of the 2000s, this became a commonly used method of creating animation for games of all genres.

Adapting Home Consoles to a 3D Context

The proliferation of 3D-based games in the early 1990s pushed console manufacturers Nintendo and Sega to design hardware upgrades and add-ons for the Super Famicom/Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and Mega Drive/Genesis consoles in order to remain competitive in a rapidly changing game landscape. Nintendo’s Star Fox (1993), an action-oriented game directed by Shigeru Miyamoto, involved flying a spaceship with limited control of movement along planet surfaces and through asteroid fields while shooting at enemies (Figure 8.8). The most distinguishing feature of the game was its use of untextured 3D polygons to create the player’s ship, as well as enemies.

The visuals for Star Fox were made possible by the addition of a 3D graphics processor in every cartridge dubbed the “Super FX” chip. The chip, created by British computer game developer Argonaut Software, played a prominent role in Nintendo’s marketing as it received its own logo that was used in commercials and emblazoned on cartridge boxes. The Super FX chip and its successor, the Super FX2, were used primarily in racing and simulator-based games, but also included a 1995 port of id Software’s first-person shooter, Doom (see below) and the visually distinctive 2D platformer, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island (1995). For all of the effort, however, the chip appeared in only eight games as Nintendo began working toward a new, fully 3D console.

Adding more advanced chips to cartridges worked briefly for Nintendo, but Sega’s desire to leapfrog its competitor made this approach too expensive and impractical. Instead, the company developed a mushroom-shaped add-on that attached to the cartridge slot of the Mega Drive/Genesis. Released in 1994 as the 32X in the United States, Mega 32X in Europe, and Super 32X in Japan, the unit provided an upgrade to sound and graphics that gave the Genesis the ability to process tens of thousands of texture-mapped polygons per second. This upgrade brought Sega’s 3D arcade games, Virtua Racing and Virtua Fighter to the home, in addition to other arcade head-to-head fighting games. First-person shooters, Metal Head (1995, Sega) and a port of id Software’s Doom (see below), also showcased the unit’s immersive 3D capabilities.

Unlike Nintendo’s Super FX chip, the 32X was not a commercial success and within 2 years, it was discontinued. The largest problem stemmed from a rift in Sega’s development teams: the American branch developed and supported the 32X, while the company’s Japanese branch gave priority to the “next-gen” CD-based, 3D-capable, Saturn console. Further, the Saturn was pushed into production ahead of schedule resulting in a tight window that saw the North American launch date of the 32X precede the launch of the Saturn by only 6 months, and in Japan, by 12 days. Consumers passed on what was perceived as a mere incremental upgrade. With sales low, support for the 32X by third-party developers steadily eroded in 1995 and completely evaporated by 1996.

Combining 2D Images with Real-Time 3D in PC Games

As discussed in Chapter 6, home computers of the 1980s built a solid reputation on simulation and role-playing games. Computer game developers of the early 1990s, continuing these traditions, enhanced this gameplay by combining more action-oriented elements with immersive real-time 3D worlds. Due to technological constraints, however, several real-time 3D games of the period still relied heavily on 2D imagery for its superior visual detail and clarity.

Alone in the Dark (1992), by French developer Infogrames featured 3D characters investigating a possessed mansion. The game’s horror theme was reinforced through a number of fixed camera positions that presented the space from odd angles, which often hid dangers. Since creating solid geometry walls and texture-mapping the mansion’s interiors would have taxed the home computers of the early 1990s too much, the 3D space was instead constructed out of simple wire frames. The simple space was then overlaid with a 2D image that matched the particular perspective of the camera angle. This allowed the game to have richly detailed environments that reinforced the atmosphere of a haunted mansion, yet created a sense of embodiment in space; all of which were used to elicit a sense of fear in the player.

Simulation and ideas of virtual reality were key components in the development of early first-person shooters. An ambitious example of this new type of game was Bethesda’s The Terminator (1991). The game, based on the 1984 science fiction film of the same name, was another early example of open world game design translated into 3D, as the game space consisted of nearly 60 square miles based on the city of Los Angeles. The game, according to the manual, was conceived as a simulation of the film, which allowed the player to “rewrite the movie every time you play.” The game’s range of systems and behaviors was impressive: buildings opened and closed according to set schedules in real time; cars with manual or automatic transmission could be driven as well as refueled; and certain items purchased or stolen from stores could be used in combination with each other for different effects.

The gameplay was based on urgency as the player assumed the role of the terminator character or the soldier from the future, Kyle Reese, in a race to be the first to either eliminate or protect the film’s central character, Sarah Connor. After searching the large gamespace for weapons and supplies, driving vehicles, and dealing with the consequences of actions like stealing, the gameplay culminated in an often frantic gun battle between the player and computer controlled opponent. The game also allowed two players to link their computers together and battle across the virtual city, a form of gameplay that would become one of the defining elements of the first-person shooter. Although the game used solid-colored, 3D shapes to represent the outdoor environments of the city and its inhabitants, store interiors were represented as highly detailed 2D images. This combination of 2D and 3D was necessary as items like bandages, ammunition, and other small objects would have been impossible to discern visually with the low detail of the 3D models.

The dungeon crawling role-playing game (RPG), Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss (1992, Blue Sky Productions), combined elements and systems of the well-developed computer role-playing game (CRPG) genre with the concept of a flight simulator. The resulting game space featured texture-mapped walls, floors, and ceilings that became progressively darker with distance. Using a first-person perspective, players could freely look up and down as well as jump over pits and traverse angled floors as they fought monsters, leveled up characters, and collected items. Detailed 2D sprites representing enemies, items, and environmental decorations scaled in distance from the player much like the sprite scaling in Yu Suzuki’s Hang-On and Space Harrier. The departure from the typical grid-based CRPG and freedom to look in any direction at any angle from a first-person perspective, added an extra level of tension, as combat situations required more movement in tight dungeon corridors.

Despite relying heavily on less computationally intensive 2D elements, Alone in the Dark, The Terminator, and Ultima Underworld, unfortunately moved at slower, less responsive rates due to the complexity of 3D forms. Further, the intricate game systems and multitudes of keyboard commands governing minute actions slowed the pace of gameplay. The 3D first-person shooter games developed by id Software (written in lowercase) and others inspired by id, however, addressed these issues by distilling gameplay into a few essential actions while utilizing new game technologies to speedup performance.

The Influence of id Software

Id Software, founded in 1991, initially consisted of John Carmack, John Romero, Adrian Carmack (no relation to John Carmack), Tom Hall, and Jay Wilbur. The programmers, artists, and designers of id, prior to the company’s official formation, created 2D maze games like John Carmack’s Catacomb (1990, SoftDisk) and platformers like Tom Hall’s Commander Keen in “Invasion of the Vorticons” (1990, Apogee Software). These games, although 2D, provided the foundational traits for id’s first-person shooters. John Carmack’s Catacomb was a fast-paced maze game similar to the arcade game, Gauntlet (1985, Atari Games). It consisted of increasingly difficult levels where the player gathered treasure, collected keys to unlock doors, discovered secret areas, and fought against monsters. Carmack’s game placed emphasis on the shooting mechanics by offering the player a variety of shots: a fast single shot, a slow, more powerful charged shot, a steam of rapid-fire shots, or a halo-like circle that expanded from the player’s position. Navigation of maze-like spaces, discovering secrets, and choosing between multiple offensive capabilities became archetypical design elements for id’s later games.

Tom Hall’s Commander Keen in “Invasion of the Vorticons” was a ­computer-based platformer that emphasized exploration and discovery by using design elements from console games like Super Mario Bros 3, as well as John Romero’s earlier Dangerous Dave games from 1988. One of the game’s standout elements was a complex approach to level design, as open blocks of space required the player to explore the entirety of each level before progressing. A smooth scrolling game engine aided the free feeling of exploration, an important technical achievement made possible by John Carmack. While platformer games were common on home computers, many loaded a single screen at a time, which created a discontinuous feeling of space, or scrolled in a jarring and choppy way. Commander Keen, with its effortless movement and engaging gameplay signaled a new direction for computer games in general, while the concept of smoothly moving through space became the major focus of id.

Id developed the form and technology of the first person shooter (FPS) across three titles, Hovertank 3D (1991), Catacomb 3-D: The Descent (1991), and Wolfenstein 3D (1992) before culminating in Doom (1993). Id distilled their games into a few essential actions and optimized the way the software computed the 3D space, rather than making it bigger like The Terminator or more geometrically complex like Ultima Underworld. The games thus delivered fast and frantic, arcade-like gameplay from a first-person perspective. This was made possible by a series of efficient game engines by John Carmack, the later of which were inspired by Ultima Underworld’s use of texture mapping.

Like Ultima Underworld, Carmack’s engine scaled 2D sprites in a 3D game space, but was able to run faster because of the use of raycasting. Raycasting involved the projection of a cone of rays from the player’s position on a 2D map. Walls caught within the radius of the cone were rendered in a 3D perspective and displayed as the player’s first-person view. Thus, the computer only calculated as much as what the player could see, saving processor resources and facilitating smooth gameplay. The maze-like setting for these games also avoided the problems inherent in early 3D outdoor spaces like The Terminator, as the player’s view could be more easily controlled with a number of well-placed walls, removing the need to render far off objects.

Id’s early work in first-person shooters led to Doom, a standout example in the quest to make computer games faster, as well as a major milestone in the pursuit of spatial realism. Similar to id’s earlier games, Doom placed the player in a hostile environment, fighting off enemies. Its streamlined game design eliminated earlier elements like score and bonus treasure in favor of a greatly expanded set of shooting mechanics represented by eight distinct weapons. In addition to sharpening its focus, Doom defined the free-for-all “deathmatch” style of the multiplayer game, made possible by increasingly available home networking technology (Figure 8.9).

The game’s art, inspired by the darkly surreal illustrations of H.R. Giger, matched the gameplay of battling demons and zombie-like enemies in spaces with flickering lights, pits of toxic waste, and unsettling textures. The generic maze-based levels of id’s earlier games were replaced with a more realistic treatment of space as hallways, staircases, windows, and elevators granted access to new areas. Frequently spaces suddenly opened and lights shut off unexpectedly which contributed to the overall horror theme of the game. The digitization of stop-motion animation models, designed by Adrian, Carmack, and Gregor Punchatz, created some of the monsters of Doom that further enhanced the visuals. Digitized and pixel art images were mapped to 2D sprites with each frame of a character’s animation created from eight angles to simulate dimensionality in 3D environments. The team also digitized first-person perspectives of real world objects, such as the game’s iconic shotgun, which was based on a toy.

In response to the overwhelming success of Doom and its sequel Doom II: Hell on Earth (1994), numerous “Doom clones” appeared on the game market that behaved like id’s product and collectively helped conventionalize first-person shooter design. A contributing factor to this conventionalization was that id licensed its game engines to other game developers. Any developer, for a licensing fee, could use and modify the code in order to build and sell games. The practice introduced a fundamental change in game development: companies could focus their efforts on delivering higher quality visuals and unique tweaks using proven technology, rather than creating a game engine on its own. Major first-person shooters such as Raven Software’s Heretic (1994), Hexen: Beyond Heretic (1995), Apogee’s Rise of the Triad (1994), and Rogue Entertainment’s Strife (1996) all used the underlying technology of id’s game engines.

Id was not the only company that created game engines and licensed them to other developers. The Build engine, designed by Ken Silverman, was capable of complex level design and special effects that surpassed the Doom engine but still relied on 2D sprites in a 3D space. Silverman’s Build engine powered a number of first-person shooters including Duke Nukem 3D (1996, 3D Realms), Blood (1997, Monolith), and Shadow Warrior (1997, 3D Realms), as well as nine other published games, making it a widely used 2D sprite, 3D space game engine in the 1990s.

The Triumph of Real-Time 3D in Games

The rapid evolution of game technologies in the mid to late 1990s greatly improved the range of application and level of detail allowed in real-time 3D games. Developers eagerly took advantage of these new capabilities by creating games in full 3D without the reliance on 2D images. This created one of the game industry’s largest shifts. As real-time 3D flourished, interest in using film in games for both gameplay and narrative purposes faded, largely disappearing by the turn of the millennium. Rising production costs, the growing number of CDs required to play higher resolution video, and the lack of dynamic gameplay all contributed to the decline of filmed sequences. Nonetheless, live-action video provided a model that guided game development into the contemporary context. It served as a bridge between largely text-driven narrative forms of earlier games and the scripted sequences, quick time events, and setpieces that came to dominate the contemporary context, subjects discussed in detail in Chapter 9.