First FPS?

[Buleste]

Does anyone else here remember Aliens by Electric Dreams and does anyone else agree with me that it was the first FPS. It may not be 3D but everything else is FPS.

C64


MSX



The main thing it did have was you shat yourself when you first encountered a facehugger or an Alien.

[Cortona]

Yes, I remember Aliens; I had it on the C64. I seem to remember it was given away free on a magazine cover tape but I really can't remember which magazine! I quite liked that game.

However, I believe there was an FPS before Aliens. It might be stretching the definition of 'First Person Shooter' a little, but there was a game called Swords and Sorcery by PSS for the Spectrum, which came out in '85. It was split screen, with the majority displaying a 2D plan/map but with a realtime first person perspective on the left (see link above). I remember playing this quite a lot. Top game.

Now I think about it, I remember a 3D Maze game on the Speccy that pre-dated this. (Just checked WOS - it's called 3D Mazeman, came out in '83.) But this probably doesn't count as I don't remember having to shoot anything.

Also there was Tunnel 3D from '83, which I guess you could argue was an FPS as you actually shot things, although you weren't exactly free to move around the game - it was forward movement all the way.

[Harrison]

What about the original 3D Maze game on the ZX81?

[Buleste]

According to Wiki (so it's got to be right) the first FPS was called Maze War from about 1973.


Although Phantom Slayer is one of the first for the Home market along with Dungeons of Daggorath both on the TRS80 and Dragon in about 1982.
Phantom Slayer


Dungeons of Daggorath


Wiki only concentrates oin the 3D versions for FPS but it is certainly a lot earlier than i ever thought. Still Aliens was a bloody good game.

[Cortona]

Why is there a big candle in the middle of the Phantom Slayer screen shot?

[Buleste]

To burn the retina of the eye in Maze Wars.