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Post by phediuk on Mar 10, 2018 21:12:00 GMT -5
Here's another fun fact: the first commercially-released video game soundtrack was for Yars' Revenge (1982), a game that doesn't even have any music. rateyourmusic.com/release/album/various_artists_f2/yars_revenge/Also, I'm pretty sure the first video game music with live instrumentation was Kingdom for the Atari 400/800 (1980); the music was played as an audio track from the tape, much as Redbook audio would be for CD-ROM games later:
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Post by phediuk on Mar 10, 2018 21:15:56 GMT -5
I believe the first video game to feature jumping was Atari's Steeplechase, from 1975:
And Horace and the Spiders (ZX Spectrum, 1983) may be the first to feature jumping as a means of attack:
Though I guess you could also count Joust (1982) for that distinction, if you count wing-flapping as a kind of jumping.
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Post by phediuk on Mar 10, 2018 21:25:02 GMT -5
Maziacs for the ZX Spectrum, from 1983, is the earliest game I've seen with an idle animation:
notice the player character's foot tapping and sword flailing whenever they're not moving.
any earlier examples?
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Post by condroid on Mar 10, 2018 22:12:25 GMT -5
And Alien Fires doesn't look like proper 3D to me? I'm no expert, but those dungeons looks like 2D replicating 3D, quite similar to the dungeons in Phantasy Star (also released in 1987 in Japan). I don't know what kind of graphics engine this game is using but it is definitely capable of more than simple 90 degree turns (unlike PS). Watch the end of the video, you can move and turn freely and the room layout doesn't seem to be aligned with a grid either. And yeah, these are interesting ones, because they also precede the canonical "first polygonal game ever", I Robot from 1984. 'First polygonal game' for I Robot doesn't necessarily have to be wrong. Like I said in the comment above, it all depends on how exactly you define 'true 3D' or a 'polygonal' game. But that discussion extends all the way to the mid-90s. Games like Doom are not real 3D by some definitions either. Also, I'm pretty sure the first video game music with live instrumentation was Kingdom for the Atari 400/800 (1980); the music was played as an audio track from the tape, much as Redbook audio would be for CD-ROM games later. What you hear in this video is a loading track that was actually used in many Atari tapes, here is another example recorded from Hangman. A few years ago I tried to find out what the first tape with music was but that stuff is not documented/preserved very well and complete analog recordings of these tapes don't seem to exist either.
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Post by toei on Mar 10, 2018 22:36:42 GMT -5
And Alien Fires doesn't look like proper 3D to me? I'm no expert, but those dungeons looks like 2D replicating 3D, quite similar to the dungeons in Phantasy Star (also released in 1987 in Japan). I don't know what kind of graphics engine this game is using but it is definitely capable of more than simple 90 degree turns (unlike PS). Watch the end of the video, you can move and turn freely and the room layout doesn't seem to be aligned with a grid either. Right, but it looks like a similar effect to me. You turn and it just loads up a series of 2D images showing the room from different angles.
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Post by condroid on Mar 10, 2018 23:17:58 GMT -5
Right, but it looks like a similar effect to me. You turn and it just loads up a series of 2D images showing the room from different angles. Watch this if you are still not convinced, this game definitely had 360 degree movement. This wasn't such a novelty either, by 1987 there were several games that let you freely explore polygonal 3D spaces like Driller or The Colony. This is a video of The Colony with developer commentary by David Smith. Around 2:50 he talks about some of the tricks he had to employ in order to get this running on the humble Mac.
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Post by phediuk on Mar 11, 2018 7:12:11 GMT -5
Pretty sure Dino Wars for the TRS-80 CoCo (1980) is the first side-view fighting game on a home platform.
The only games preceding this that could reasonably be considered fighting games are Sega's Heavyweight Champ (arcade, 1976--now lost) and Vectorbeam's Warrior (arcade, 1979--overhead view). Activision's Boxing for the Atari 2600 is also a 1980 game, but like Warrior, it uses an overhead view.
Also, Dino Wars might be the first side-view game of any kind to allow the characters to travel between planes.
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Post by toei on Mar 11, 2018 15:29:28 GMT -5
condroid - I believe you, I'm mostly wondering what technology they're using. Colony uses simple geometric shapes to construct its environments, but it's also very clean.
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Post by phediuk on Mar 19, 2018 17:53:21 GMT -5
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Post by ommadawnyawn2 on Mar 19, 2018 18:11:51 GMT -5
Yeah kinda, the look is certainly there in the dungeons. AD&D: Cloudy Mountain from 1982 is also similar. -Non-linear, overworld/hub map with dungeons (with a boss and item in each), use inventory tools to progress in certain areas, locked doors, goal is to collect pieces of a shattered artifact, some enemies make noises as you get close to their rooms In addition to that: -Limited field of view mechanic -Random maze generation www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHgjKwH1Gaw
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Post by phediuk on Mar 19, 2018 19:22:23 GMT -5
Superman (1979) for the Atari 2600 features, as far as I am aware, the very first real-time scripted narrative event in video game history, with Lex's henchmen blowing up the bridge.
I believe it is also the first non-text-based game that tells a complete narrative: you start as Clark Kent, then there's an inciting incident with the bridge blowing up, then you become Superman and track down the bridge pieces, and then you bring the bad guys to jail, with the end of the game signified by a "ding".
It is also the first game that lets the player traverse an environment spanning more than one screen in real time, though I should note here that, while released before Adventure, Superman was actually based on an early version of it. With the same caveat, Superman is also the first game that lets the player character pick up and carry objects in real time. ANd it could also be considered the first open-world game on that basis, too; indeed, it is even more open-world in Adventure since you can literally fly to any point in the city right from the beginning of the game.
Oh, and it's also the first licensed game where elements of the license are actually present in the game itself; earlier examples like the arcade game Fonz (1976) only exhibit the license as a cabinet decoration.
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Post by phediuk on Mar 19, 2018 19:29:14 GMT -5
Another fun fact: I'm pretty sure that Breakout (arcade, 1976) is the earliest single-player commercial* video game that can be beaten; after you clear the second level, that's it, you just bounce the ball around the empty board until you decide to quit.
*there are earlier non-commercial examples; Hunt the Wumpus for instance.
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Post by phediuk on Mar 19, 2018 19:43:45 GMT -5
Infocom's Deadline (1982) is the first game with multiple endings; reviews at the time even noted it as a radical departure from the norm: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadline_(video_game)#ReceptionThe first action game with multiple endings might be Karateka (1984): though it should be noted that "The End" also serves as the general game over message, so this can be read either as an alternate ending or as a final obstacle. Also, I'm pretty sure Wizardry 4 (1986) is the first RPG with multiple endings.
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Post by phediuk on Mar 19, 2018 21:02:58 GMT -5
Is Lazy Jones (C64, 1984) the first video game about playing video games?
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Post by phediuk on Mar 19, 2018 21:12:07 GMT -5
Someone asked earlier about the first game to break the fourth wall, and I think The Prisoner (Apple II, 1980) might be a good candidate here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prisoner_(video_game)#GameplayThe player receives a 3-digit number at the beginning of the game, and is warned never to reveal it. The game pulls numerous dirty tricks to get the player to do so, including faking an Apple II BASIC syntax error. Also, I'm pretty sure The Prisoner contains the first minigames in video game history, and may even qualify as the first minigame collection.
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