One of the first games of iD Software. Sometimes it's claimed to be the first FPS or even first 3D game for DOS. The game used the same combination of scaled sprites and drawn walls that would later show up in Catacomb 3D and Wolfenstein 3D, but the walls in it are solid colors with no textures.
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idk why all the mission briefings are like "I HATE THE GOVERNMENT, I HATE OIL COMPANIES, SAVE THE ACTIVISTS" but hell ye, this game rules
Wooof. That viewbob tho.
I'm on a nostalgia trip today, and notably this is the first FPS that Id Software ever released, a year before Wolfenstein 3D and two years before Doom. It's actually... not terrible, design-wise? As I zoom around these mazes as the timer to nuclear annihilation ticks down, I can see the bare bones of an all-time great idea even here. Plus, their very DIY sound design gives me a nice hit of early-nineties shareware nostalgia.
Unfortunately.... In order to add a bit of flare and sell the notion that you're piloting not just yr garden variety tank but a HOVER tank, Carmack & co decided to make it so that your first-person pov has a constant, vertical sway to it. Not like in Doom, where it's a slight up-and-down when you're running. In Hovertank 3D, it's every second of the game.
It's one of those obvious first-crack-at-a-thing choices that just feels godawful in retrospect. Turns out, there's a reason why most first-person games in the future would let you turn off viewbob. I'm prone to seasickness, y'all. By the time I cleared the first level of this game I already wanted to hurl.
The upshot is you can play it in a browser for free on DOSBox, like most games from this era. So, maybe keep this bookmarked for the next time you ingest something you shouldn't have and need to induce vomiting in a hurry?
https://playold.games/play-game/hovertank-3d/play/
Hovertank 3D: It might save you from poisoning some day. That's worth a star, I guess. I'm drawing the line at more than one, though.
I'm on a nostalgia trip today, and notably this is the first FPS that Id Software ever released, a year before Wolfenstein 3D and two years before Doom. It's actually... not terrible, design-wise? As I zoom around these mazes as the timer to nuclear annihilation ticks down, I can see the bare bones of an all-time great idea even here. Plus, their very DIY sound design gives me a nice hit of early-nineties shareware nostalgia.
Unfortunately.... In order to add a bit of flare and sell the notion that you're piloting not just yr garden variety tank but a HOVER tank, Carmack & co decided to make it so that your first-person pov has a constant, vertical sway to it. Not like in Doom, where it's a slight up-and-down when you're running. In Hovertank 3D, it's every second of the game.
It's one of those obvious first-crack-at-a-thing choices that just feels godawful in retrospect. Turns out, there's a reason why most first-person games in the future would let you turn off viewbob. I'm prone to seasickness, y'all. By the time I cleared the first level of this game I already wanted to hurl.
The upshot is you can play it in a browser for free on DOSBox, like most games from this era. So, maybe keep this bookmarked for the next time you ingest something you shouldn't have and need to induce vomiting in a hurry?
https://playold.games/play-game/hovertank-3d/play/
Hovertank 3D: It might save you from poisoning some day. That's worth a star, I guess. I'm drawing the line at more than one, though.