cj_robot | 545 Posted March 19, 2023 Share Posted March 19, 2023 For me, it was Virtua Racing in the arcade. The graphics looked amazing at the time (I actually think the flat-shaded polygons still look nice today) and the fact is was on a large screen while I got to sit in an actual driver's seat with pedals and a steering wheel... at the time it was by far the most immersive experience I ever had with a video game. I had similar feelings not long after with Wolfenstein 3D, Star Wars: X-Wing, and Doom, but of course it was hard for my home PC to compete with a giant arcade cabinet. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbd39 | 2,026 Posted March 19, 2023 Share Posted March 19, 2023 48 minutes ago, Link said: That's the first 3D game you played? or just an early one? It might be the first that I played. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki | 4,942 Posted March 19, 2023 Share Posted March 19, 2023 What are we going to consider 3D? Doom is a type but really isn't because it doesn't use polygons, same with like Wing Commander which goes back to 1990-91. Earlier 3D I do remember using flat polygons with decent detail would be X-Wing and TIE Fighter games on DOS too, so that? I can only begin the guesses at how many 100s of hours I put into those 3 games on PC. Console side though, Starfox I guess, or with a dedicated 3D console then Super Mario 64. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nesmaster14 | 436 Posted March 19, 2023 Share Posted March 19, 2023 (edited) If we're sticking to the 90s, my personal pick would be Indy Car Racing (DOS, 1993). It was pretty realistic for its time in graphics and physics, and had really cool camera modes. It still impresses me today haha. I remember playing this with steering wheel and pedals. Quite the experience. Virtua Racing was awesome too with its graphics/performance. I read at some point Sega was literally licensing military rendering technology from Lockheed for their earlier 3D games. Edited March 19, 2023 by nesmaster14 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RH | 4,927 Posted March 19, 2023 Share Posted March 19, 2023 8 hours ago, Sumez said: I can't imagine anyone ever thinking PS1 era 3D graphics looked photorealistic I wouldn’t call it photorealistic but the dinosaur tech demo was (and to me still is) quite impressive. (I don’t know why but copy and paste isn’t working. Google it should provide plenty of videos.) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZeldaFreak | 3,600 Events Team · Posted March 19, 2023 Share Posted March 19, 2023 I was born in 2001 so I don't think I can really effectively participate in this discussion, haha. Good 3D games have existed for as long as I have existed. Maybe that's kind of a unique perspective here, though? With that said, what I BELIEVE was the very first 3D game I ever played was... I believe it also doubles as the first PC game I ever played. Excellent game, really gotta replay it sometime, it's been so long. The soundtrack is SO SO good, did NOT need to be as good as it was. I still to this day catch myself whistling the Al's Penthouse theme, and I haven't played this game in probably 15+ years. Such a memorable game for sure, especially as a kid who's never really played any 3D games up to that point, and who already loves Toy Story, haha. The Andy's Neighborhood theme really takes me back though. That was always one of my favorite parts of the game. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RegularGuyGamer | 2,014 Posted March 20, 2023 Share Posted March 20, 2023 Playing Doom as a kid was not enjoyable. I had it with my PS1 but it definitely wasn't something I ever felt confident maneuvering. The 3D on rails were always great. Games like Panzer Dragoon and fighters like Virtua Fighter 2. But the first time I really enjoyed 3D environments was Shadows of the Empire. I remember being blown away at flying that snow speeder to take down AT-ATs. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reed Rothchild | 9,558 Editorials Team · Posted March 20, 2023 Share Posted March 20, 2023 F-15 Strike Eagle II Wolfenstein 3D Blake Stone Star Fox Doom Super Mario 64 The last two blew my mind. My obsession with both was borderline unhealthy. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkTone | 987 Posted March 20, 2023 Share Posted March 20, 2023 Wolfenstein 3D. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elprincipe | 142 Posted March 21, 2023 Share Posted March 21, 2023 I think X-Wing on the PC. The game is a masterpiece and I played it (along with the sequel, TIE Fighter) to death. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DefaultGen | 5,415 Posted March 21, 2023 Share Posted March 21, 2023 Wolfenstein 3D for me. I love the previously mentioned Hard Drivin' and Virtua Racing too, but didn't play them as a kid, although I played the Genesis port of Race Drivin' which is fineish. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bighab | 58 Posted March 21, 2023 Share Posted March 21, 2023 Doom on the Sega 32X for me. I remember seeing a friend play it on his PC and I was blown away. I didn't own a PC at the time but being a Sega fan I went out and bought a 32X and the game. Later on a friend showed me Wave Race 64 and I loved that. I went out and bought an N64 with Mario 64. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-type | 2,486 Posted March 21, 2023 Share Posted March 21, 2023 (edited) On 3/19/2023 at 7:31 AM, Link said: Wolfenstein 3-D I was way into Wolfenstein, to the point that I got burnt out on FPSes and kind of glossed over Doom. Didn't really get back until Duke Nukem 3d Edited March 21, 2023 by G-type 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeremiahJT | 75 Posted March 21, 2023 Share Posted March 21, 2023 Cybermorph and Alien vs. Predator on the Jaguar for me. I knew of Doom and Wolfenstein 3-D, but I think the first time I really played them was on the Jaguar and I got those two games after Cybermorph and Alien vs. Predator. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OptOut | 8,889 Posted March 21, 2023 Share Posted March 21, 2023 I was trying to think what the very first 3D game of any kind I played was, and it finally hit me! Lawnmower man on Super Nintendo! It was a pretty bad game, but I was always impressed with the 3D flying bonus stages as a young kid. After that, Star Wing was impressive and I really love that game now, but as a kid it was super hard! And I remember playing the freeware version of Blake Stone on my Dad's MSDOS work computer. The first 3D game to TRULY suck me in was Shadows of the Empire. It was the first N64 game I ever played and my life changed forever in that moment. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesRobot | 5,808 Events Team · Posted March 21, 2023 Share Posted March 21, 2023 Tempest! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesRobot | 5,808 Events Team · Posted March 21, 2023 Share Posted March 21, 2023 Star Wars was probably my first though 5 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Link | 2,715 Posted March 21, 2023 Share Posted March 21, 2023 6 hours ago, G-type said: I was way into Wolfenstein, to the point that I got burnt out on FPSes and kind of glossed over Doom. Didn't really get back until Duke Nukem 3d haha what was there at the time besides Wolf3d? Ken's Labyrinth? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-type | 2,486 Posted March 21, 2023 Share Posted March 21, 2023 2 hours ago, Link said: haha what was there at the time besides Wolf3d? Ken's Labyrinth? Hmm Rise of the Triad? Doom, Doom 2, Blake Stone… I played all of these… just didn’t get addicted like I did with Wolfenstein. Duke 3d and Hexen were the only other ones that came close in terms of how much I played them. And nothing after that. Not really into Quake, Unreal…or anything console based 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkchylde28 | 1,546 Posted March 21, 2023 Share Posted March 21, 2023 The first thing that came to mind was X-Wing immediately followed by TIE Fighter, but others' recollections were more accurate than mine, as they pointed out that Wolfenstein, which released a year prior and was quite fun. However, hats off to @JamesRobot for thinking outside of the box and putting an X-Wing back in my top slot via the original Star Wars arcade game. Unlike the other games mentioned, most of which I haven't played in years, I don't know that I've ever been able to walk past a Star Wars arcade cabinet and sink at least one quarter/game into it. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Link | 2,715 Posted March 21, 2023 Share Posted March 21, 2023 21 minutes ago, G-type said: Hmm Rise of the Triad? Doom, Doom 2, Blake Stone… I played all of these… just didn’t get addicted like I did with Wolfenstein. Duke 3d and Hexen were the only other ones that came close in terms of how much I played them. And nothing after that. Not really into Quake, Unreal…or anything console based All those were after. So I was asking, you burned out on just Wolfenstein. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-type | 2,486 Posted March 21, 2023 Share Posted March 21, 2023 9 minutes ago, Link said: All those were after. So I was asking, you burned out on just Wolfenstein. I guess so 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-type | 2,486 Posted March 21, 2023 Share Posted March 21, 2023 My first was probably if you’re counting RPGs that only updated 1 frame per move 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki | 4,942 Posted March 21, 2023 Share Posted March 21, 2023 Hmm not sure why I didn't list Wolfenstein 3D either as I got that shareware disk as it arrived more or less having just got a PC for Christmas of 1990. Doom I guess just is more prevalent. I know I have played Star Wars arcade, Tempest too, but in fairness I couldn't begin to guess what year on either so it skipped my mind entirely. Also when someone says 3D to me I kind of move more to 3D models, even overly basic ones like TIE Fighter DOS had, Starfox, or like Hard Drivin' and STUN Runner in arcades had over faux 3D in Wolfenstein. I could make a case for the also vector based Star Trek arcade as I did play that at a Showbiz pizza back in the day, sit down cabinet, so so immersive. There were so many titles but even Wolfenstein had a direct predecessor, an earlier yet version of that engine was in Catacombs 3D which most forget, even I forgot the name and had to look. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Link | 2,715 Posted March 21, 2023 Share Posted March 21, 2023 15 minutes ago, Tanooki said: Catacombs 3D which most forget Or didn't even know at the time. I think I still haven't played that. Is it any good? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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