Happy Belated Birth Day to Quake. Turned 25 this week. The game that revolutionized the First Person Genre by fully going 3D and bringing fully 3D models and 3D environments to the Video Game World. Prior to that game characters were 2D sprites that looked flat like the original Doom or Quake 1 contemporaries like Duke Nukem 3D. All today's games are fully 3D with with 3D models and 3D environments. Quake 1 was actually the first ID Software game I beat when I got my first PC. I did play Doom and Wolfenstein 3D but by the time I got into PC Quake 1 was already on the horizon.
It was also the first FPS to bring 3D accelerated graphics (use of Graphics Cards to run games to those of you new to PC gaming and consolers who don't understand what that means). Before graphics was solely processed via the CPU and graphics rendering which looks much better when off loaded to the GPU came into use with Quake 1. In fact, Quake 1 was the first FPS to support the original Voodoo 1 graphics card. It was the killer app that 3DFX needed to popularize the use of graphics cards, to which we still use today. Although, I didn't find it as Jaw Dropping graphics like with the original Unreal (with the Castle Fly through in the main screen of Unreal) or Crysis it was the fact that everything was 3D was what was impressive about Quake 1 although the graphics was impressive too but it just didn't have the wow affect like the original Unreal or Crysis.
So, if you play FPS today or any modern 3D game for the matter Quake 1 was the first to bring fully 3D worlds and characters to the video game world.
For those who are interested. There are new Single Players mod levels using the original Quake 1 engine with updated lighting and textures for you to try (like the one below).
It's impressive how good the Quake 1 engine was that with few updates to the textures, lighting it looks pretty modern. The beauty of PC Gaming. Can you imagine getting this type of graphics on a N64 game today? :P
Also Wrath: Aeon of Ruin is in early access for you to try using the update Quake 1 engine for you to try.
There is been a resurgence of old-school 90s type shooter in the past 3 years with modern graphics. I think people are getting tired of modern FPS games with the same old Far Cry games coming out with little to no innovation.
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