How 'Doom' Inspired the First-Person-Shooter Game 20 Years Ago

[Guest]

Happy 20th birthday to 'Doom,' the game that influenced just about every first-person shooter since. Here are just 10 of them.

How 'Doom' Inspired the First-Person-Shooter Game 20 Years Ago : Read more

 

[LORD_ORION]

You actually meant Wolfenstein 3D right?

 

[HideOut]

and no mention of return to castle wolfenstien? It was the first of the PC shooters or essentially. Epic fail

 

[HideOut]

haha two of us at the same time saying same thing. Yep, they failed.

 

[Jill Scharr]

Hi, I'm the writer of the piece. "Wolfenstein 3D" came out in 1992, before "Doom" in 1993. This article is about "Doom," not "Wolfenstein 3D" because it's the 20 year anniversary of "Doom" coming out. And I don't think "Return to Castle Wolfenstein" was as influential as these other games. I chose games that were influenced by "Doom" and in turn influenced other games, or games that were representative of trends that "Doom" engendered, such as "Turok."

 

[d_kuhn]

Wolf wasn't multiplayer... maybe that's why they didn't mention it. Also... how is it that "Marathon" did multiplayer better than Doom. As someone who spent countless hours playing Doom multiplayer (played during lunch hour with a bunch of other guys in the office) I never had any problems with it's MP capabilities - and with it's mod-ability Doom and Doom2 were easily the best MP fps's of their era... only being surpassed when Quake and those geniuses at Threewave came on the scene.

 

[skit75]

Doom scared the crap out of me when it first came out.

 

[tektek2000]

what about Unreal?

 

[DarkZenith]

Ok, just to clarify one detail. The original Team Fortress mod came out in 1997 and was NOT part of valve until a couple years later. Please check your facts before writing...

 

[BryndonB]

Irregardless of it being the 20th anniversary of Doom, you cannot say that Doom inspired the 1st person shooter genre and leave out Wolfenstein.

And what's with featuring a couple of Mac titles that hardly anyone knows or cares about while ignoring Unreal?!

 

[husker]

The point isn't about what was technically first, but what grabbed the attention and created the mainstream movement. Doom was huge in its day.

 

[ddpruitt]

By giving players regenerating health instead, "Halo: Combat Evolved" was able to create consistent difficulty across its levels

I would argue this has made whiney kids even more prevelant. What kind of challenge is it if you can regenerate all the time (nightmare mode anyone)?

 

[knowom]

MIDI Maze is an early first person shooter maze video game for the Atari ST developed by Xanth Software F/X, published by Hybrid Arts, and released around 1987.

The game constructed multiplayer networks using the MIDI interface. It has been suggested that MIDI Maze introduced the concept of deathmatch combat.

Up to 16 computers could be networked in a "MIDI Ring" by connecting one computer's MIDI-OUT port to the next computer's MIDI-IN port. Unless the computers were looped correctly, more than 4 players tended to slow down the game to a crawl and make it unstable.

This was inspired by Maze War which is considered to be the first ever FPS game though that lacked multiplayer. If I had to guess Wolfenstien and Doom themselves were inspired as a result of Midi Maze and or Maze War.

A full 5 years prior to Wolfenstien and 6 years prior to Doom there was a multiplayer FPS game by the name of MIDI Maze for the Atari ST that supported up to 16 players. A lot of people don't know about the game or not the Atari ST version of it at least.

This article was just celebrating Doom's anniversary from sounds of the writers comments, but I think it gives Doom too much praise and neglects to give credit and praise to the games which really inspired it in the first place also #8 shouldn't even be on the list especially not over Goldeneye which was also for N64 and way more influential.

 

[southernshark]

I remember MIDI Maze. I didn't like it, but it was out before Wolfenstein 3D.

Anyone remember the first Castle Woflenstein? I had that on my Atari 1200xl. Quite the game for era.

 

[southernshark]

Of course the whole genre evolved from the early RPG game Wizardry. While I realize that Wizardry wasn't a shooter, it did have you moving through a box like maze. It was the first game that I ever saw where you looked forward from a first person perspective (except for early driving games like Night Rider of course).

 

[FloKid]

Doom, the only game you can play without sound : )

 

[waxdart]

May as well list the reasons 10 reasons why my school work wasn't done.

Add in Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss & Syndicate Wars

 

[waxdart]

May as well list the reasons 10 reasons why my school work wasn't done.

Add in Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss & Syndicate Wars

 

[Cy-Kill]

"Wolfenstein 3D" wasn't even the first FPS game, even though W3D did inspire "DooM", the first FPS should go to "Corporation" (aka "Cyber-Cop"). Which predates both W3D & "DooM" by 2 and 3 years respectively!

 

[jodrummersh]

No mention of Unreal is weak writing, and what about Call of Duty? Most popular game in the world right now, but you had to get your precious Halo in there...pfffft