Summary

• Maze War and Spasim were the first FPS games, pioneering key features.
• Titles like the Atari game Battlezone and early id Software works paved the way for Wolfenstein 3D and Doom.
• FPS games have evolved from niche titles to mainstream domination, with wide influence across many genres.

From Fallout to Bioshock to Call of Duty, the FPS genre has defined a wide array of video games. id Software, the developer behind DOOM, Quake, and Wolfenstein, is regularly credited with creating the first-person shooter, as those games are seen as the granddaddies of the genre. The history of FPS games doesn't begin with id Software's most successful titles, however, and diving into the games that actually created the genre reveals a much longer path to market domination.

DOOM is often considered to be father of the FPS. After all, throughout the 1990s, first-person shooters were known as "DOOM Clones" rather than entries within a larger genre, and the id Tech 1 engine that powered DOOM served as the backbone for many other titles. However, while DOOM may have popularized the genre, it was not the original first-person shooter. The seminal Wolfenstein 3D predated the 1993 release of DOOM by a year, but even that was far from the first title to fit into the genre.

Maze War And Spasim Were The First FPS Games

Technically, the very first FPS was a student project called Maze War, created in the early 1970s. According to Polygon, Maze War was developed by high school students during a NASA work-study program and later expanded upon when they went to college, and it pioneered many of the features that have become synonymous with first-person shooters. In Maze War, players navigate through a series of mazes and fire away at other players or bots if they encounter any, represented initially by usernames and later by eyeballs.

It's difficult to pinpoint the exact timeline of combat being added to Maze War, which started purely as a maze navigation experience.

Another early pioneer was Spasim, which featured first-person spaceship combat and came out during the period of Maze War's ongoing development. Spasim was built to take advantage of the early PLATO computer network that started at University of Illinois, which developer Jim Bowery attended. Inspired by the PLATO game Empire, Spasim was in turn an influence on the development of other games on the system, including a tank combat game called Panther.

The Road From Maze War To Doom And Wolfenstein

Although these early experiments were foundational for the genre, it took some time before the first-person shooter concept hit the mainstream in any real way. As reported by PC Gamer, the first successfully marketed FPS was an arcade game called Battlezone, a major piece of gaming history developed by Atari and released in 1980. Battlezone followed inadvertently in Panther's legacy, putting players in a tank and tasked them with dodging missiles and destroying enemy tanks.

Before creating Wolfenstein 3D and Doom, id Software started playing with the genre when it released Hovertank 3D in 1991. This vehicular combat game emulated Battlezone's player-controller tank, but it differentiated itself by adding the complexities of navigating mazes and saving civilians on top of fighting enemies. Hovertank 3D was programmed by DOOM creators John Romero and John Carmack, and it's easy to see a direct line of evolution from the game to id Software's more iconic FPS titles.

The first successfully marketed FPS was an arcade game called Battlezone, a major piece of gaming history developed by Atari and released in 1980.

Catacomb 3-D, also released by id in 1991, made the important step of returning to a character-based FPS concept. As a dark fantasy first-person shooter with dungeon navigation, spellcasting, and monster fighting, Catacomb 3-D added a layer of immersion by making the character's fully animated hands visible. Although guns aren't present in the gameplay, this title set the template for Wolfenstein 3D, and the rest is more familiar history.

Over half a century since the original first-person shooter Maze War introduced the concept to the world, FPS games have conquered the gaming industry. More than just a simple genre, the FPS gives players an intimate perspective and puts them into the actual shoes of their avatar, and this fundamental innovation has influenced countless other types of video game. id Software cemented the FPS with its excellent Wolfenstein, DOOM, and Quake franchises, but even these games stood on the shoulders of other giants.

Source: Polygon, PC Gamer