The first-person shooter and the real-time-strategy game, those two genres that had come to absolutely dominate mainstream computer gaming by the end of the 1990s, were surprisingly different in their core technologies. The FPS was all about 3D graphics, as aided and abetted by the new breed of hardware-accelerated 3D cards that seemed to be getting more powerful — and also more expensive — almost by the month. A generation of young men whose fathers might have spent their time tinkering with hot rods in the garage could be found in their studies and bedrooms, trying to outdo their peers by squeezing a little bit more speed and fidelity out of their “rigs”; in this latest era of hot-rodding, frame rate and resolution were the metrics rather than quarter-mile times and dynamometer results.
» Homeworld The Digital Antiquarian
The first-person shooter and the real-time-strategy game, those two genres that had come to absolutely dominate mainstream computer gaming by the end of the 1990s, were surprisingly different in their core technologies. The FPS was all about 3D graphics, as aided and abetted by the new breed of hardware-accelerated 3D cards that seemed to be getting more powerful — and also more expensive — almost by the month. A generation of young men whose fathers might have spent their time tinkering with hot rods in the garage could be found in their studies and bedrooms, trying to outdo their peers by squeezing a little bit more speed and fidelity out of their “rigs”; in this latest era of hot-rodding, frame rate and resolution were the metrics rather than quarter-mile times and dynamometer results.
Remembering Descent, the once-popular, fully 3D 6DOF shooter
Descent is a big part of gaming history, but not many people talk about it.
Unity Technologies Aims to Bring Video Game Tools Into the Real World
The video game software leader is pushing to sell tools for making virtual worlds to marketers, architects and car makers
Superhuman Hardware Design Is The Easy Part
The interface between the digital and physical world is lossy
Opinion: VR Is The Future, But The Future Isn’t Now
While I firmly believe that VR is the future of gaming, upcoming offerings face significant hurdles. - Game Informer
We need more video games that are social platforms first, games second | TechCrunch
During these long, mundane physically-distant days, stretching on into an uncertain future like an ever-lengthening beigeish corridor, it's impossible not
» Outcast The Digital Antiquarian
The Outcast box was styled to look like a movie poster. Riffing on the same theme, Infogrames’s head Bruno Bonnell called it “the first videogame that really tries to be an interactive movie,” leaving one to wonder whether he had somehow missed the first nine years of the 1990s, during which countless games tried desperately to be just that. Ironically, Outcast actually has very few of the characteristics that had become associated with the phrase: no rigidly linear plot, no digitized human actors, no out-of-engine cutscenes after the obligatory opening one. It’s a game rather than a movie through and through, and all the better for it.
The Fantasy of Cozy Tech
From the “cozy gaming” trend to a new generation of A.I. companions, our devices are trying to swathe us in a digital and physical cocoon.
The Virtual Reality of John Carmack
The Dallas video game genius behind “Doom” and “Quake” is back, this time in the nascent VR space. In this exclusive interview, he tells why.
Build, gather, brawl, repeat: The history of real-time strategy games
As we wait on a new Age of Empires this fall, let's revisit the RTS genre's highs and lows.
» Starcraft (A History in Two Acts) The Digital Antiquarian
Great success brings with it great expectations. And sometimes it brings an identity crisis as well.
How ‘Baldur’s Gate’ Saved the Computer RPG
The genre-stretching game broke new narrative, technical, and gameplay ground and established the identity of one of the past two decades’ most storied video game studios
Creating Magic Through Technology: Headset Prototyping for AR/VR
» The Life and Times of Maxis, Part 3: The Sims The Digital Antiquarian
I don’t think people realize how much tactical and strategic forethought goes into their daily lives. There’s a whole subconscious time-efficiency layer in our lives. In essence, real-time strategy is our lives.