Precursor to Doom Racks Up 30 years of Fragging

VirtualUK writes "Back in 1974 the first 3D networked multiplayer first person shooter game Maze War set the ball rolling for todays games like Quake and Doom. Initially written on a Imlac PDS-1 players represented as an eyeball fought it out inside what could be considered a minimalistic graphical adventure in comparison to the texture mapped, hi-res extravaganzas on the shelves today. On November 6-7 at the Vintage Computer Festival 7.0 held at the Computer History Museum (Mountain View, CA) there's a special 30th anniversary special event for Maze War. Brude Damer's digibarn site has a great article about it here."

Comments

Anyone remember Dungeons of Daggorath?

[synaptik]

Anyone remember Dungeons of Daggorath? It's not as old as this game, but it looked very much like it. The most fun I ever had on a TRS-80 Color Computer!

Re:Anyone remember Dungeons of Daggorath?

[jonabbey]

Asylum was incredible. I played it on a 16k cassette Model I, and was amazed at the complexity the game had in it for its small size. Absolutely huge maps, full sentence parser, suspense, mystery.. best game ever on the Model I.

Wait... there are other games?

[Anonymous Coward]

I've been playing this game for the last 30 years and now I found out there are other options?

Yeah but what FPS does it get on a GeForce 6800?

[gatesh8r]

I'm not going to consider it if it's not any faster than Doom III.

Duke University

[JabberWokky]

I remember playing this for hours in the Mac labs at Duke University around 1987-1988. Mazewars was a great game. That and the 2D action NetTrek.

--
Evan

Re:Duke University

[Monkelectric]

Because frequently "nostalgia" is remembered through the rose colored glasses of youth?

The other day I was downloading some episodes of a TV show I love, "The Adventures of Pete and Pete" (release DVD's damnit!). In the same category was some season 1 tv rips of a show called "doug." I thought to myself, "what a waste of bandwidth, the show was ok ... but who would want the entire freaking thing?!" Then I realized, "doug" came along about ~5 years after pete and pete, and for surely someone 5 years younger then myself shared the same enthusiasm for Doug as I have for Pete and Pete.

Just imagine...

[rune2]

how many fps that puppy gets now?

Richard Garriott

[pHatidic]

Richard Garriott, the creator of the Ultima series of CRPGS, has cited this game as an inspiration of his first commercial game Akalabeth in an interview on the Ultima Collection CD. He says this game was the current 3D state of the art at that time.

sniping

[Hollins]

from the article:

Dan tells us that this was a "heart pounding game" when compared to the otherwise dull environment of the Xerox document/desktop metaphor. He noted that you could "shoot" your opponent if they did not see you (their eyeball character was facing away from you). He also notes that you could "hide" in parts of the maze and wait in ambush.

Wow, so sniping in FPS can be traced all the way back to the 70s. I wonder if other players complained about it back then, also.

Play Maze War online? How about on your Palm?

[DoorFrame]

I'm trying to find a site to play the game today online. It seems like it would be a simple game to recreate in a multiplayer form online. If I can play Joust online with shockwave, why not Maze War?

The best I could find was this Palm Pilot version available for download. Good, but not multiplayer like I want. Also, as I have a pocket pc it's not much use for me.

Re:Ultima Underworld

[3770]

Sweeeet!

I did a search on Ultima Underworld on a whim. And I found this page with some information on the game and a map of the "Stygian Abyss" and even better I found this link where you can download a demo.

I can't believe it. I'm going to have to download it and see if I can get it running.

I... Think... I'm... Going... to... cry.

Re:Ultima Underworld

[3770]

It actually works but you have to right click on the executable, choose properties and allocate some EMS memory for it. It then creates an old style .pif file and if you double click on that the game will actually start.

If you download this, just make sure that you put it in its own folder first because it self expands to the folder it is in.

It does look somewhat dated. But it is actually quite similar to todays 3d rpgs.

FPS, circa 1987: MIDI Maze

[dstone]

FPS on Atari STs, networked with MIDI cables in a ring configuration. Now that's a nice little hack.

Maybe today's equivalent would be an FPS on cell phones with Bluetooth or IRDA. No, too obvious.

C'mon...

[Lee Tacker]

You mean this little gem hasn't been ported to Windows? I already feel like I'm runnin' around in a maze all day. It's the perfect fit!

PLATO: Moria, circa 1975

[RealProgrammer]

I spent many nights in junior high "hacking" in the PLATO labs at the University of Illinois (UIUC). One of the grad students there at the time, the unspoken Hacker King, was one Rob Kolstad. We wrote (ok, so the other guys wrote and I pretended to write) software for student instruction, and were rewarded with computer time.

Anyway, back on topic: we used that time mostly to play a game called "moria" ("MOR-ee-uh" or "mor-EYE-uh"). It was a multiplayer, 3D action game drawn in bitmap graphics and text. Wireframe walls and corridors. You formed teams, managed your resources, fought battles to gain experience, and the rest.

Ah, nostalgia.

Wolfenstein

[gmuslera]

For me it is THE precursor of Doom (even III). Back in the 90's, was a true revolution what that game started. Of course, Maze Wars is even older, but Wolfenstein had all the components in the right place, not just a 3D view.