early first-person polygon-based games

King of Posters Galaxy Oddity
1

still an early work in progress

rules are just that the game must be first-person and polygon-based. largely interested in pre-Quake (DOS, 1996) games - no modern FPS games

screenshots will be added for each entry

  • Flight Simulator (Apple II, 1979)
  • Battlezone (Arcade, 1980)
  • Wayout (Atari 8-bit, 1982)
  • Stellar 7 (Apple II, 1982)
  • Zenith (Apple II, 1982)
  • Rendezvous: A Space Shuttle Simulation (Apple II, 1982) [docking mode]
  • Star Wars (Arcade, 1983)
  • Capture the Flag (Atari 8-bit, 1983)
  • 3D Combat Zone (ZX Spectrum, 1983)
  • Elite (BBC Micro, 1984)
  • Combat Lynx (ZX Spectrum, 1984)
  • Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (Arcade, 1985)
  • F-15 Strike Eagle (Atari 8-bit, 1985)
  • Mercenary: Escape from Targ (Atari 8-bit, 1985)
  • The Sentinel / The Sentry (BBC Micro, 1986)
  • Mercenary: The Second City (Atari 8-bit, 1986)
  • Arcticfox (Amiga, 1986)
  • Project Stealth Fighter (C64, 1987)
  • Driller: Space Station Oblivion (ZX Spectrum, 1987)
  • Catch 23 (ZX Spectrum, 1987)
  • F-19 Stealth Fighter (DOS, 1988)
  • The Colony (Mac, 1988)
  • Dark Side (Amiga, 1988)
  • Total Eclipse (Amiga, 1988)
  • Star Cruiser (PC-88, 1988)
  • Mechwarrior (DOS, 1989)
  • A-10 Tank Killer (DOS, 1989)
  • Interphase (Amiga, 1989)
  • Midwinter (Atari ST, 1989)
  • Terminator (DOS, 1990)
  • Red Baron (DOS, 1990)
  • Stellar 7 (DOS, 1990)
  • MiG-29 Fulcrum (DOS, 1990)
  • Wings (Amiga, 1990)
  • Castle Master (ZX Spectrum, 1990)
  • Castle Master II: The Crypt (ZX Spectrum, 1990)
  • Battle Command (ZX Spectrum, 1990)
  • Damocles / Mercenary II (Amiga, 1990)
  • Damocles: Mission Disk 1 (Amiga, 1990)
  • Damocles: Mission Disk 2 (Amiga, 1990)
  • Solvalou (1991, Arcade)
  • Starblade (1991, Arcade)
  • Midwinter II: Flames of Freedom (DOS, 1991)
  • Nova 9: The Return of Gir Draxon (DOS, 1991)
  • MiG-29M Super Fulcrum (DOS, 1991)
  • SPLAT’ERS (Mac, 1991)
  • Cybercon III (Amiga, 1991)
  • Total Eclipse II: The Sphinx Jinx (ZX Spectrum, 1991)
  • 3D Construction Kit (ZX Spectrum, 1991)
  • Robocop 3 (DOS, 1992)
  • Ashes of Empire (DOS, 1992)
  • Comanche: Maximum Overkill (DOS, 1992)
  • Thunderhawk / AH-3 Thunderstrike (DOS, 1992)
  • Microsoft Space Simulator (DOS, 1994)
  • Shuttle: The Space Flight Simulator (DOS, 1992)
  • Corncob 3D (DOS, 1992)
  • Heroes of the 357th (DOS, 1992)
  • Aces of the Pacific (DOS, 1992)
  • Sion II (X68000, 1992)
  • 3D Construction Kit II (Amiga, 1992)
  • Mercenary III: The Dion Crisis / Damocles II (Amiga, 1992)
  • X / エックス (GB, 1992)
  • Star Wars: X-Wing (DOS, 1993)
  • Tornado (DOS, 1993)
  • Comanche: Global Challenge (DOS, 1993)
  • Comanche: Over the Edge (DOS, 1993)
  • Aces over Europe (DOS, 1993)
  • Frontier: Elite II (Amiga, 1993)
  • Stellar-Fire (Mega CD, 1993)
  • Stellar 7: Draxon’s Revenge - (3DO, 1993)
  • Star Fox / スターフォックス (SNES, 1993)
  • Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger (DOS, 1994)
  • Star Wars: Tie Fighter (DOS, 1994)
  • U.S. Navy Fighters (DOS, 1994)
  • Under a Killing Moon (DOS, 1994)
  • Tornado: Operation Desert Storm (DOS, 1994)
  • Comanche CD (DOS, 1994)
  • Metaltech: Earthsiege (DOS, 1994)
  • Metaltech: Battledrome (DOS, 1994)
  • Geograph Seal / ジオグラフシール (X68000, 1994)
  • King’s Field / キングスフィールド (PSX, 1994)
  • Frontier: First Encounters (DOS, 1995)
  • Descent (DOS, 1995)
  • MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat (DOS, 1995)
  • Comanche 2 (DOS, 1995)
  • Earthsiege 2 (DOS, 1995)
  • Firestorm: Thunderhawk 2 / Thunderstrike 2 (Win, 1995)
  • Star Fox 2 / スターフォックス2 (SNES, 1995, unreleased)
  • Metal Head (32X, 1995)
  • Red Alarm (Virtual Boy, 1995)
  • Jumping Flash! (PSX, 1995)
  • King’s Field II / キングスフィールドII / King’s Field [NA] (PSX, 1995)
  • Descent II (DOS, 1996)
  • Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom (DOS, 1996)
  • Silent Thunder: A-10 Tank Killer II (DOS, 1996)
  • Jane’s Combat Simulations: Advanced Tactical Fighters (DOS, 1996)
  • Jane’s Combat Simulations: AH-64D Longbow (DOS, 1996)
  • Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri (DOS, 1996)
  • G-Nome (DOS, 1996)
  • Jumping Flash! 2 (PSX, 1996)
  • King’s Field III / キングスフィールドIII / King’s Field II [NA] (PSX, 1996)
  • Star Wars: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter (DOS, 1997)
  • Chasm: The Rift / Chasm: The Shadow Zone (DOS, 1997)
  • Crime Crackers 2 (PSX, 1997)
  • Shadow Tower / シャドウタワー (PSX, 1998)
  • Echo Night / エコー ナイト(PSX, 1998)
  • Echo Night 2: The Lord of Nightmares / エコーナイト#2 眠りの支配者 (PSX, 1999)
  • Awaken (ZX Spectrum, 1999, unreleased)
  • Sword of Moonlight (Win, 2000)

honorable mentions:

  • I, of the Mask (ZX Spectrum, 1985) [not first-person]
  • ATF (ZX Spectrum, 1988) [not first-person)
3 Likes
2

@Iacus may be interested in this
feel free to make suggestions as usual

1 Like
3

hmm, my mind separates vector games from filled polygons. And would I put Red Alarm (Virtual Boy) in the same category? A conundrum…

1 Like
4

eh, not interested in separating. a polygon is a polygon imo

5

Microsoft Flight Simulator (1982)

6

that one definitely counts, but let’s go back further:


a little less sure on this one :confused:

7

Star Fox and Star Fox 2 both have first person view options although I don’t know if that counts? In the original Star Fox you could only do it in “space scenes” i.e. not on a planet. Not sure about 2.

8

Zenith (Apple II, 1982) is hard, too


i think i’m going to err on the side of including games like this

9

descent 1/2, yo

star wars tie fighter

wing commander 3/4

f-19 stealth fighter if you want to get really old (i didn’t know this made it to steam! i had the game!)

stellar 7, red baron?

edit: as a note from someone who was around for early 3d game stuff on computers: quake’s big advancement wasn’t really being full 3d, it was the dynamic lighting

10

Yeah!

Listing only 1st person games limits it quite a bit, but I can think of a few examples…

Midwinter has a sequel.

Midwinter II: Flames of Freedom

There’s also the fascinating series of simulation adventures, the mercenary trilogy.

Mercenary

Damocles: Mercenary II

Mercenary III: The Dion Crisis

11

Does Eternam count? It is actually a 2D adventure game, but the world map is first person and polygon-based

12

The Sentinel (a.k.a The Sentry)

Some games with the same engine as Total Eclipse:

13

If that counts, then Betrayal at Krondor would too

14

Midwinter has two sequels. Ashes of Empire is the third game and qualifies for this thread. They downplayed it but it’s still visible in the files.

Somebody mentioned Stellar 3, I’d also add its sequel Nova 9. I’d also add Mechwarrior 2 and Robocop 3 on amiga/PC.

@janitor I’d say for Quake the big thing was the lighting, period. Both the dynamic lighting and the prerendered lightmaps were a big deal.

1 Like
15

everything mentioned was either already there or has been edited in
i got a few extra games for the previous list, too (Eternam and Betrayal at Krondor are sprite-based enough to go on the other list)

16

as far as the Quake stuff, it’s one of those “i know it when i see it” deals

17

x (game boy)

geograph seal (x68000)

1 Like
18

metal head (32x)

19

[quote=“Iacus, post:12, topic:3881, full:true”]

The Sentinel (a.k.a The Sentry)[/quote]

I always meant to ask / lookup how The Sentinel actually works. Because it actually looks more like a bitmap, except it would have to be redrawing those on the fly depending on where you teleport to, so there must be a 3-D model it’s referencing???

20

look how badass this game is