Comanche: Maximum Overkill had vast voxel environments before anyone else
Before Minecraft, there was Novalogic’s Comanche: Maximum Overkill. The light helicopter sim featured smooth, rolling hills made out of volumetric pixels instead of polygons. Players had the freedom to fly over to nearby hills, dig trenches using the power of the helo’s rotors, and engage in high-octane, close-quarters combat.
Jurassic Park: Trespasser had an entirely physics-driven world before anyone else
DreamWorks Interactive’s Jurassic Park: Trespasser created an entirely physics-driven world long before advanced technologies like PhysX and real-time global illumination. Instead of relying on canned animations and pre-baked effects, the game's world followed physical laws. The dinosaurs and objects in the game were subject to gravity, friction, and other forces.
Rogue was the original permadeath dungeon crawling game
Rogue is a genre-defining game that distilled the core elements of fantasy role-playing games into a single, endless dungeon crawl. The original version, developed by Michael Toy and Ken Arnold at Lucasfilm Games, featured procedurally generated quests and a cave network made out of raw ASCII. Characters had skills and stats assigned to them, and if they died, it was game over.
Habitat was a graphical MMO/social hangout before most people had heard of the internet
Habitat, developed in partnership between Lucasfilm Games and Quantum Link, was a graphical MMO/social hangout ahead of its time. The space station-like environment was made up of interconnected nodes, each representing an in-game location. Players could customize their avatars, chat in virtual bars, and interact with other players.
Hunter on the Amiga was an ambitious open-world shooter before any 3D GTA existed
Before the era of Grand Theft Auto, Cryo's Hunter set the stage for open-world shooters. Developed by David Jones, players took on the role of an assassin, infiltrating enemy camps and gathering intel to take down a general. The game also introduced vehicular gameplay, allowing players to use helicopters and hijack tank turrets on their mission.
Herzog Zwei did real-time action-strategy before anyone else
Long before Command & Conquer, Wolfteam's Herzog Zwei pioneered real-time action-strategy on consoles. Players piloted a transforming mech/jet hybrid and utilized strategic tactics to airlift units and launch surprise attacks against enemies. The game's tactically driven combat set the groundwork for future strategy games.
