IBM-PC-incompatible shooters

That's how the world that, seeing someone else's success, envious and simply enterprising people begin to dig in its heels, as soon as possible to climb to the crest of the same wave, or even out of the water head. In the film industry for examples to seek - remember the movie "Jaws", who launched a career of Steven Spielberg, as well as the machine for the production of paintings on the same theme. Chelyustepodobnye movie comes out on the screen with surprising regularity to the early '80s, exploiting the theme not only bloodthirsty sharks and other denizens of the deep sea. The same thing happened with the "Star Wars", which removes up to large-scale fantasy genre was not very popular thing. And the success of the independent Australian "Mad Max" opened the way to the screen to the mass budget postapokalipsisa. Another example can be called a number of films devoted to the underwater fantasy and monsters: Abyss, Leviathan, Deep Star Six and others - appeared with a minimum difference in time, in the region of 90-year, almost five films in a row. Strange "coincidence", is not it?





In igroindustrii things a little differently. Recall, for example, Wolfenstein 3D and Doom. What prevented create a similar popular game before? Limitations of technology? Possible. The weak performance of computers in 3D? Also an option. The reluctance of publishers to invest in a strange segment for them? It may well be.

But with the release of these games, and in shareware, the chosen form of independent developers and their stunning success has come to understand that it is necessary to develop fallow field. ID Software just spread his trial episode of the network by injecting them into popular while BBS and hoping that from there he will go on his hands. Of course, they can also be bought in the store, but to push vendors actively engaged PR'om their projects, they allow them to keep all of the revenue from the sales of boxes with a trial episode itself.



As a result, after a year and a half race to the very field with his oxen and plow, and who had more money - diesel tractors run, if not all, the many. And pretty soon on fertilized soil rose a lot of diverse and tend to think of Wolfe.



And if you think that it was limited to only a PC, here you will find a surprise - FPS-mania is not spared, not only IBM-incompatible computers, abandoned by its creators, but also 16-bit consoles that have received their versions shooter idSoftware varying degrees scall and quite unpopular console like Philips CD-i, where were their exclusive 3D-shooter. Atlantis: The Last Resort



But one of the first places where there was an attempt to repel the Nazis and the demons from hell became Sega Mega Drive. It appeared to her shooter called Zero Tolerance. Externally and internally it differed little from Wolfe: raycasting, textured wall and not very - floor ceilings. Is that a small field of view warps eyes. But very interestingly, the creators of the game, Technopop, make it possible to play on the network. This was done using a special cable that plugs into an available socket for gamepad two consoles, providing an opportunity to play in cooperative mode. Thus, two players can each in their screen without using splitskrin, as is usually done on consoles, and giving the opportunity to play in a normal resolution. In the shortcomings of the game that make it difficult to unequivocally recommend it, it is necessary to include low speed and screen - is a window takes only one-third of the entire area, all the rest given over to the interface card level and purely cosmetic moldings.





The first difficulty faced by the creators of computer games in the development of 3D-shooter on alternative systems was low power of these platforms - Console and IBM-incompatible computers well cope with the processing of 2D-graphics, they had a separate memory or CPU to control the sprites that provide smooth animation and scrolling on the screen, but with the advent of three-dimensional graphics became clear that not everyone is ready for such changes. Super Nintendo, which appeared a couple of years before the release of DOOM, barely pulled his demanding for normal operation of the additional chip coprocessor in the cartridge. In later consoles situation was better: 3DO, Atari Jaguar, and, of course, Playstation were more likely to work with 3D, but with them and had a lot of problems.

[Panasonic] 3DO was conceived as a tool not only for games but also various multimedia bells and whistles - the lion's share of library titles occupy stuffed releases videos. However, 3DO went out and some pretty good 3D games - the same Need For Speed, Road Rash or StarFighter. But none shooter is not included in the notorious tops that can already tell something about their quality. Performance was poor, it was a RISC-processor frequency 12.5 MHz, although with the emulator, you can increase the speed of the virtual core, and thus get a decent speed. After a couple of years after entering the market to see what she has to fight bosses 3DO began to prepare an heir, but in the end it ended incompetent failure.



One of the representatives of the genre on the console was a pathetic game called Iron Angel of Apocalypse. Despite the FMV-tinsel and stylized something more in her heart she is not far removed from the same Wolfenstein 3D with one-storey architecture and a maze of corridors, rather memorable cards. But the engine was still more advanced: fully textured world and no sprites - only 3D-objects and enemies, high-quality digital sound. But that was 1994, the year, and only the first crop of Doom-clones had to give seedlings. By the way, he himself lit up at 3DO couple of years later and is considered one of the worst ports of this game. Yet low speed makes itself felt - Iron Angel fly in a hurry, sometimes reminding games with discrete movements.



On consoles was another problem besides overtaking power - control. Part of games originally traditionally put strafe to shift buttons located on the top side of the controller, without which it is difficult to fast, dynamic shooter. With the departure from the traditional 2.5D games to full 3D-graphics and mausluku do sane similar management has been difficult. I do not know how much things on the 4th with its new PlayStation controller, but to play shooters and analog stick is not very comfortable, though, no doubt, you can get used to many things: that the levels are broken into small pieces that range of drawing recalls London end of the XIX century, that this resolution on the PC does not know since the collapse of the Soviet Union ... So there were tricks such as large hitbox and full or partial assistance of sight, which varies from game to game on the degree of realization. This is even in relatively recent games like Killzone 3 - very popular, we can say, the flagship series of FPS on Playstation.



What happened to the other computers? Remaining at the time the Amiga, Atari ST and Macintosh were able to enjoy the rays. Amiga appeared more than a dozen homegrown shooters, mostly came at a time when the company's bankruptcy in '93. On the Macintosh is known today studio Bungie, creators of the universe Halo, made a series of shooters Marathon. Atari ST was less fortunate of all - it is not ported to personal, unofficial port Vulfenshteyna in pain appeared only in 2005 year. But even her entuaziasty bungled hudobedny FPS about underwater station called Substation. And even on a much more exotic and almost unknown outside Albion Acorn Archimedes had his own game Eternal Destiny, saw the light in 1998, the year.



But not all developers have put the game from id Software under the nearest copier, and thus there were also hits. One of the most famous examples is the game license of the film "Golden Eye" James Bond. And she went no where else but on the Nintendo 64. Fast three-dimensional graphics, vigorous action, a clear story line, a variety of levels, a large arsenal of weapons and gadgets, stealth and nonlinearity were a breath of fresh air in a world full of clones Himself. By the way, the game's developer Steel Rare - creators of such famous platformer like Donkey Kong Country and Battletoads. The success of GoldenEye 007 says at least the fact that it has sold 8 million. Copies, and not so long ago there were rumors about creating a remake.



Next shooter Rare also received the Outstanding: Perfect Dark is considered one of the best games on the Nintendo 64, - story-driven shooter with elements of stealth, something reminiscent of Deus Ex. It used the Rare and achievements of the past and brings something new, as a result, although it did not become a hit in the same mad (sold only about 3 million copies ...), but gained almost universal recognition from critics. It was the new story, and here the creators of fantasy played out in full. The best way to see it - find a special assembly of the emulator with the management tailored to the PC-style: WASD and mausluk and the speed of 60 frames per second.



On the one hand, such a rabid popularity can be explained by the fact that, in general, this designed for a younger audience console shooters mere presence was perceived as a revelation to those who passed on it from previous consoles Nintendo, they were a novelty.

But the Nintendo 64 was not only in the field of set-top boxes, vengeance to reap the fruits of three-dimensional graphics. Sega Saturn appeared in autumn 1994 year. Here is the birthplace of L. Croft - PC and Playstation iteration nothing but the ports (although the degree of implementation can and better than the original). Her skate in sales began early 3D-titles from SEGA, which had had great success in the market of gaming machines, such as Virtua Fighter or Daytona USA, but there was a Saturn and its series of first-person shooters. On it were noted Quake and Doom, which shamelessly inhibited in contrast to the first, and other popular games. Exclusives came out not too many, and among them the Japanese J-SWAT - one of the earliest attempts to make a shooter about fighters rapid response teams. Rainbow Six has not yet appeared, and Ghost Recon was not in sight. And then, even in technologically backward 2.5D, could take over the fight against crime.



How did things were on the Playstation and the most successful console igronaselёnnoy that time? Not without the Duma, Duke (by the way, on the Playstation had its own exclusive Dyuki, but in the third person and entering the realm of Larino) and their derivatives. But new shooters as nasty and quite well there was more than enough. One of the first memorable games was the Disruptor - clearly an attempt to overshadow the glory of Doom, released Movie Scene with live actors and through the storyline. Transient 3D-engine painted a good picture, mappers worked on a variety of levels in all possible colors, there is only a low distance drawing and the fog of war spoils the overall picture. Yet a third dimension is still not fully mastered - Disruptor appeared before the creation of gamepads with analog joysticks and does not support them.



Then followed Codename: Tenka - another attempt to outshine and encroach on the sacred, but this time the Quake. There is a real honest 3D, albeit with a very strange design - solid robots and cyborgs. I do not attempt to whether it is self-censorship in the light of the popularity of Doom and other action-games have offended the attention of politicians and various groups hiding behind family values? On the technical side is all good - the engine draws a quick 3D, the protagonist is quickly worn in the virtual world, but lousy auto-aiming adds a spoonful of turpentine. Well, the overall situation of secrecy, where the player is difficult to understand what is going on in this game, too, does not add to the pros.

The real hit PlayStation became Medal Of Honor - an example of how a console FPS came out no worse, and even manages to bring something new. The game is clearly inspired by the militants of the Second World War, including "Saving Private Ryan." It is known that the idea shooter belongs to Steven Spielberg, compulsive gamblers with years of experience.



Clever, though thanks to the scripts, opponents, deftly throw back your grenades and hiding behind cover to cover-era shooter'ov, amazing. Good multiplayer, chase technique and neizbity by the time the Second World theme helped cement the success. Game squeeze all the juice out of the console - to somehow save resources, had to sacrifice skybox, so it reigns eternal night. In the future Medal of Honor continued life on the PC and next generation consoles, well, as an escape gave birth to the notorious series of Call of Duty.

Library of games for the Playstation truly enormous, and not go to any comparison with other consoles of the time, so it games in this genre was on the order of magnitude greater. On the engine, Medal of Honor, there is also a good, albeit short shooter about life 007 - The World Is Not Enough. There is an exclusive game for the fourth movie about aliens, unique in that it supports a mouse - one of the accessories for the console. And at the end of life platform, in the year 2002, when it appeared in the main only budget titles, crowning shuterostroeniya became the exclusive Delta Force: Urban Warfare, which has similarities with the PC-only series in the title.



Here's a story here. Well, if you want to see the game in action and hear the story of two charismatic leading voices, the video version of your in.



Source: geektimes.ru/post/249538/