{"id":16112,"date":"2026-09-29T08:43:25","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T00:43:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/?p=16112"},"modified":"2026-09-29T08:43:28","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T00:43:28","slug":"what-was-the-original-first-person-shooter-two-largely-forgotten-computer-games-from-the-1970s-ushered-in-the-genre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/what-was-the-original-first-person-shooter-two-largely-forgotten-computer-games-from-the-1970s-ushered-in-the-genre\/","title":{"rendered":"What was the original first\u2011person shooter? Two largely forgotten computer games from the 1970s ushered in the\u00a0genre"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Green
Both \u2018Maze War ‘and ‘Spasim\u2019 used vector graphics, which are images made by drawing lines directly between points on the screen. Mironov Konstantin\/iStock via Getty Images<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Before \u201cCall of Duty,\u201d before \u201cCounter-Strike\u201d and before \u201cDoom,\u201d there was \u201cMaze War.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Generally considered the earliest first-person shooter game, or FPS, \u201cMaze War\u201d was developed at a NASA research center beginning in 1973. A year later, another FPS, \u201cSpasim,\u201d debuted. It was developed at the University of Illinois.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In first-person shooters, players experience the game through the eyes of a character, using a gun or other weapon to attack enemies. To pull off this first-person perspective, developers needed to create a 3D world for the players to move through \u2013 no easy feat in the early 1970s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, the computer hardware behind the most popular arcade game, \u201cPONG,\u201d and the first home video game system, the Magnavox Odyssey, wasn\u2019t powerful enough to render the kind of 3D depth that allowed players to move forward into a virtual space, with objects appearing in the distance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>
\u2018Maze War\u2019 was developed on the Imlac PDS-1. Electronics\/Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why both games were developed on systems that had more processing power and speed. \u201cMaze War\u201d first appeared on an Imlac PDS-1 minicomputer, while \u201cSpasim\u201d \u2013 short for \u201cspace simulator\u201d \u2013 launched on PLATO, an early networked computer system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since everyday people couldn\u2019t easily access the Imlac PDS-1 minicomputer or PLATO, these two games have been largely forgotten. But they paved the way for one of today\u2019s most popular video game genres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Out of sight, but not out of mind<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Both games allowed players to move through a 3D space and shoot enemy figures that appeared onscreen in the player\u2019s view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In \u201cSpasim,\u201d movement and shooting didn\u2019t occur in real time. You moved by jumping from one position to another, with a short lag time needed to render the next view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In \u201cMaze War,\u201d players could move relatively smoothly in a straight line down hallways. Turning, however, needed to be done in 90-degree increments, which created some potentially confusing graphics as entire scenes abruptly appeared. In the single-player mode, danger could lurk just around the corner: Robots would automatically shoot you if they were in line with you down a hallway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaze War\u201d and \u201cSpasim\u201d also had multiplayer modes that allowed networked players to shoot at each other. Before video games, popular shooting games \u2013 the kind found at fairs and carnivals \u2013 generally involved friendly competition, with players competing to see who could hit targets most accurately. The kill-or-be-killed death matches of \u201cMaze War\u201d and \u201cSpasim\u201d completely upended the way guns were used in play and competition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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