Being the first often grants a form of immortality. Others may do it harder, faster, better, stronger, but there can only be one ‘first’. There are many firsts in video games that will never be forgotten. These are often common facts that will always be brought up when certain genres, concepts or styles are discussed.
Fairchild Channel F was the first home system to feature swappable ROM cartridges in 1976. Hunter allowed a polygonal 3D open world with a human character for the first time in 1991. Sega Dreamcast was the first console to feature online capabilities out of the box in 1998.
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However, there are many achievements which became lost with the passage of time. And so, TechStomper has compiled a list of these forgotten firsts in the history of video games, hoping to bring this feats back into the limelight. We are looking at firsts that were once a big deal but aren’t considered as important nowadays rather than misattributed firsts. Those pesky misattributed firsts are a topic we will come back to another day…
First Use of Licenced Music in Video Games – Journey (1983)
Gamers are often surprised that Journey had their music play over their licensed game in coin-ops in 1983. The band’s biggest hits were lovingly converted into chiptune form to immerse the player in Journey‘s(1983) assortment of mini-games.
This was the first use of licenced music in chiptune form – a fine achievement on its own. However, a portion of recorded music was also cleverly incorporated into the game’s admittedly minimal plot.
In one level, player would attempt to keep overzealous fans from invading the stage while Journey’s sprites mimed to Separate Ways. This snippet was played back from a tape recorder built into the arcade machine. For a first attempt at licensed music in general, as well as the first use of real music in a video game, Midway nailed it.
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Journey is amongst out forgotten firsts simply for the ubiquity of its implementation. Licenced music would become the norm not long after optical media allowed the space needed for digital audio. This was helped by the growth of hulking media empires allowing developers access to their parent company’s music libraries on the cheap.
First Filled 3D Polygons on a Home System – Starstrike II (1986)
Wireframe 3D was relatively mature by the time that the more visually appealing filled variety first appeared in arcades in 1984. Dedicated arcade machines had been creating wireframe environments since 1975’s Panther. 1979’s Speed Freak showed a massive leap in wireframe speed and complexity.
The first use of filled polygons in gameplay,1984’s I, Robot, was far from a hit with gamers at the time. I, Robot was more expensive to play than other titles, yet looked more primitive to the untrained eye. The flat-shaded polygons looked quite plain against the increasing detail of high-end sprite-flinging arcade machines of the day.
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Just two years later, John Baird and Ian Oliver would bring filled polygonal 3D home. The ZX Spectrum was at its limits creating just a few monochrome hatched and dithered polygons, but this was to be future.
Starstrike II was a modest success on the ZX Spectrum, one that did not match its wireframe 3D predecessor, 3D Starstrike. That 1984 original title was made famous for its Lidl-version of the trench run from the Star Wars movie, and the 1983 arcade game of the same name. Despite the rise of home 3D polygons that would follow, Starstrike II and its innovation are but a footnote, and one of video games’ forgotten firsts.
First Console with Built-In Save Game Storage as Standard – Amiga CD32 (1993)
In the late-1980s, battery-backed save states became available on cartridge media. Nintendo had popularised the concept when bringing The Legend of Zelda, a Famicom Disk System game, to foreign markets.
The Famicom Disk System, an add-on for Famicom, could write save data to its magnetic diskette format. Nintendo did not release this add-on outside of Japan. And so, to bring this popular title home in Europe and the US, Nintendo developed a battery-backed save system that allowed for longer games without cumbersome passwords.
Read More: A History of the Game Save – From the Beginning
When CD-ROM media began to make its way into video games consoles, first as add-ons and later as standard, the problem of persistent storage began to rear its head once again. NEC’s solution when they released the world’s first CD-ROM add-on in 1988, the CD-ROM² for their PC Engine, was 2kB (16kbit) of battery
SRAM storage. Sega Mega CD would then better this with 8kB (64kbit) in 1991 using the same SRAM technology. Sega would, however, offer a 128kB (1 megabit) save game add-on cartridge later in its life.
By the time we came to Amiga CD32 in September 1993, the convention was well established. Someone had to be the first implement it as standard, and Amiga CD32 got there first by less than a month. 3DO would hit shelves in October that same year, offering a sliver of SRAM backed by a rechargeable button-cell built in. Later systems did it better, built-in storage became ubiquitous, and the Amiga CD32 became but a footnote in gaming history.
First Modern Quick Time Events – Die Hard Arcade (1996)
Not all of our forgotten firsts are fondly remembered. Not all of our forgotten firsts are forgotten because they became a lasting part of the gaming experience. The modern quick time event was born in 1996 with cult arcade hit Die Hard Arcade. We say ‘modern’ as Laserdisc arcade games of the mid-to-late 1980s were, technically, entirely composed of QTEs.
The fad for interactive movie-style gaming died off after some high-points, like Road Blasters, Time Gal and the original FMV smash hit, Dragon’s Lair. With that style of game’s demise, the QTE lay dormant until it took a new form.
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The aforementioned Die Hard Arcade, known as Dynamite Deka in some regions, burst into console in 1996. This 3D beat-em-up features cut-scenes where the protagonist sprints to the next area. During these scripted sequences, players were roused with a command flashing on screen. A successful hit let the player pass the event, failure would cost them some health or force them into an extra battle.
Later games would make more of their QTEs, then wear them out entirely. 1999’s Shenmue was the next game to use a significant number of quick time events. While the Dreamcast classic is not spoiled by their implementation, they feel a bit less fun to go back to after suffering the era where the concept was ground into dust by uninspired developers.
First Head Shot in Gaming – Team Fortress Quake Mod (1997)
Despite being ran close to the accolade, the honour of the very first headshot in a first-person shooter goes to Quake mod Team Fortress. Sniper rifles were added as the part of the TF Sniper mod in January 1997. Using the mod and its sniper rifle, shots to an opponent’s head would ignore armour effect completely, and deal double damage.
TF Sniper mod was released after extensive testing by its creator and the community. It proved popular with hands-on mod-players, and soon found itself as part of a compatible compilation. This opened the joy of headshots to a wider audience.
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But, the idea would not remain novel for long. GoldenEye 007 , released in August of that year would implement it as part of its locational damage system. The idea for that game’s locational damage had come from Virtua Cop, according to Rare’s Martin Hollis. Hollis liked the mechanic of shooting a gun from the enemy’s grip. He was also a fan of rewarding a player for their skill.
Initially, GoldenEye‘s headshots were not fatal, but dealt double damage to that of a shot to the body. But, eventually, an instant kill was granted, and thus a gruesome modern gaming staple was born.
Honourable Mentions
Prince of Persia‘s rotoscoped animations were, to our knowledge, the first motion-captured humans in a video game. This was not only a marvellous technical achievement, but one that was weaved into the very fabric of the game. We don’t feel this particular first is truly forgotten, however.
Resident Evil 2‘s health-based animation and appearance was, as far as our research could tell that physical damage to the player character was readily visible as part of a reliable health indicator. However, that’s a long title for header of a listicle, and there are also some grey areas. Cosmic Carnage (1994) and Fighting Vipers (1995) featured armoured characters whose armour could be beaten away. Players could readily see damage to the player by way of these removed parts. In addition, defence on these unarmoured areas was compromised, adding another layer.
