First Person Shooters - The RETRO 3 for me!

With all of the high defintion graphics, super realistic motion control and high fidelity sound of current generation first-person-shooter games many gamers are not even aware of where the genre began.

I am going to take you through 3 of my favourite, early examples of the genre, all of which still stand as excellent games today. Due to their age, all are available to download legally! Links are presented along with each video below.

The first and really where it all began for the genre is of course Wolfenstein 3D. The game was released in 1992 and your role is to escape from Castle Wolfenstein and overthrow the Nazi regime. Single handedly, that's sure not be an easy task! You can often run around in circles for ages on each level trying to find the right door or that special, hidden treasure chest of goodies (often hidden behind Nazi posters!)

Wolfenstein 3D: Download for FREE
Level 1 video below



The next FPS that I'm sure every gamer has played is the obvious.... DOOM. This was released in 1993 and is a landmark title for the FPS genre. Originally released for DOS (as was Wolfenstein 3D), although it has been ported to loads of other platforms. After secret experiments go wrong on the 2 moons of Mars (Phobos and Deimos) and something evil begins taking over the marine bases and killing all human personel! Your job?...the obvious, wipe out those mutant scum and bring stability back to these planets! The game's graphics were gruesome (for the era!), the sound effects brutal and with added multi-player network abilities, DEATHMATCH was now a reality.

Doom: Download for FREE
Video of Doom (for DOS)



The 3rd FPS that I spent a lot of my childhood secretly playing without my parents knowing (it was an 18+ and contained animated breasts!) was Duke Nukem 3D. This was released in 1996 and was quite a step up in terms of the graphics, level design and adult nature of the FPS genre. This game was a sequel to Duke Nukem 1 and 2 that were both awesome platform games released in 1991 and 1993 respectively. DUKE3D plot: After travelling back to Earth in your spaceship you find out about an alien invasion occurring in L.A, you eject from your spaceship and from then on its just you, guns, cheesey synthesised american voices, lap dance clubs and more guns!

Duke Nukem 3D: Download for FREE
Video of Duke Nukem 3D



I hope that even if you have not learnt anything it has sparked a nostalgic smile. Go on then, crawl back to Call of Duty...