First-person shooters by no means have a short history. Some date the genre back to the early seventies, citing Maze War (1974), Spasim (1974) and Panther (1975) as the forefathers. The video gaming industry truly took off in the 1980’s, with the explosion of both the home computer and the game console markets. Many first generation shooters were developed and released during this decade, as 3D graphics improved.
The 1990’s saw the genre define itself, with the creation of landmark games Wolfenstein 3d (1992) and Doom (1993). The latter was considered the benchmark first-person shooter for years to come, so much so that FPS games that followed were often referred to as “Doom clones”. Doom is also noted for being one of the first mass marketed games to introduce a network multiplayer capacity. It should be noted though, that 1991’s Catacomb 3D was in fact the first game to include the characters hand on-screen, aiding in the overall realism of the first-person perspective. The use of “Gibs”, which are little bits of animated blood and guts, were introduced during this era. They soon became a staple of the genre, popularized once again by games like Doom and Duke Nukem 3D (1996). The latter mentioned game is notable for two important factors. First, for its use of Ken Silverman’s Build Engine, this proved to be the most popular engine of the decade. Secondly for the over the top personality of the character Duke himself. His often humorous interaction with objects and characters and his inflated ego were both video game firsts. Nintendo 64’s release of GoldenEye 007 (1997) is notable for being one of the first games that allowed the character to inflict maximum damage with precise sniper head shots. The game is also regarded as one of the first great FPS created for console. The rest of the decade saw more innovative releases, more evolvement in multiplayer game play, and more of a demand for FPS games as their popularity grew.