Circa 1998

                       

              

      1997 itself justified the conextual nature of this blog entirely on it's own. 97' was a year so pivotal and important for the genre it's certainly not lost through a historically lens but the year's perception shattering effect has to truly be experienced first hand. The parallels of the technological and cultural revolution the 90's hosted expressed itself fully in video games and particularly the FPS genre as of late. Technology had been integrating itself into daily life for some time however now it was accessible, programmable, and affordable in ways just dreamed of years earlier. This era was the platform of creativity and why the past "year" of this blog hosted the most diverse, large and high quality spread of FPS titles by an almost unfathomable magnitude. In a few short years we've went from 3D Realm's explosive use of interactive environments married with the genre pioneering movement efforts of id Software only to have the perceptions of what is possible in a video game changed by both console releases like Turok and Rare's GoldenEye and later year PC releases, by Lucas Arts, Raven Software, even with contributions by id Software besting itself at its own game. 

                                  The visceral nature of the genre has always attracted both fans and skeptic DOOMs day preachers. By this time in the blog id Software had already become the major source of controversy and violence from video games was certainly on the lips of many politicians, pulling the genre into a cultural blood bath with lasting stigma far beyond to present day 21'. Graphics had become unbelievable in months. Just in a 12 months we went from Quake I to Quake II and the jump is stunning. The mix of pixel art powered Build Engine games like Blood and Shadow Warrior stood just as tall in their more traditional design choices as the new pioneers such as GoldenEye or Hexen II. The gulf visually and in interactivity however staggering in a way the present world of tech and rendering could never show. It's a phenomenon unto itself that all these drastically different approaches to the same video game genre, with just as varied choices of technological canvases to work with, existed in the same 12 months. While the take away in knowledge and appreciation of these individual titles is precious the context of what a stunning year unfolded and changed the FPS genre forever is the lesson that must be brought across in this blog. Because 1998 for gamers at the time started in a state of pure shock. 

                           1998 would be unreal. 1998 meant nothing was off the table. Nothing was impossible for both Video games as a medium and FPS as a genre. The bringing of advanced and portable technology would soon bring us into the sci-fi future dreamed about for so long. It's important to realize culturally much of this technology was new and not viewed as need or complementary to every life style. Something even the best game engines like id Tech 2 and Lucas Art's in house engine had to deal with. Home computers where often extremely limited in their rendering prowess and machines built more in line with the needs of gaming prohibitively expensive. However by this point in the blog (98') PC's had exploded in power and the rampant spread of the "video add on card" market played a key role in allowing experiences like idTech 2.5 powered Quake II or drastically better versions of games like Dark Forces II. Even a console like the Nintendo 64 proved it was a capable in home 3D FPS machine. The proliferation of capable realtime 3D hardware was going to allow content creators to do things unimaginable, I mean just look at Quake II. Hardware wouldn't be the only major thing to change gaming this year as Microsoft would release one of the most important OS releases as of yet with Windows 98.

                The major design shifts start appearing. Hexen II and Quake II showed off level design where each level felt physically connected to the other. Movement had evolved to take into account physics with rocket jumping and more. The genre had clearly not just evolved but expanded. Rare had introduced a more cinematic flare that we would see id Software bring to a more fast paced traditional formula. I think this point in the genre really does feel like limitless possibility. Tech was growing and being accepted at an unfathomable rate and with it flexibility of design. While the entries in this blog get scale upwards in work they also continue to yield much joy and appreciation for the times. I'm very much interested in reliving 1998. Through he lens of a now 29 year old gamer who was then just 7 playing Pokemon on his N64. Google would be founded in 1998. The Titanic would create movie history. MP3 players would start to take off as portable music devices along with the iMAC's debut. Brittany Spears and Nsync ruled the charts. 1998 is here.