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What was the first “first-person shooter” video game? – James, age 12, Batesville, Arkansas

What was the first “first-person shooter” video game? – James, age 12, Batesville, Arkansas

Before “Call of Duty,” before “Counter-Strike” and before “Doom,” there was “Maze War.”

Generally considered the earliest first-person shooter game, or FPS, “Maze War” was developed at a NASA research center beginning in 1973. A year later, another FPS, “Spasim,” debuted. It was developed at the University of Illinois.

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 – no easy feat in the early 1970s.

At the time, the computer hardware behind the most popular arcade game, “PONG,” and the first home video game system, the Magnavox Odyssey, wasn’t 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.

That’s why both games were developed on systems........

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