What was the first FPS game to implement mouse-aiming?

I was just wondering. I remember playing Doom and Quake back in the day and remembered they used the keyboard controls(strange how it worked so well,no?). Those were the only 2 pc games i used to play with my friend at his house.I was mostly a Snes gamer and stopped playing games for a few years between 98-01.

I never played another pc game till 2001/02 .That was CS 1.6.It was a little intimidating the first couple of days we played at a LAN cafe but eventually got the ropes of it. Now ofcourse ive played many shooters on pc and console .I was wondering which game first implemented the mouse-aim system, or which one made it mainsteam. Im assuming it was a game between 95(quake?) and 98-Hl1.Since i havent played too many fps game pre HL besides doom and quake ...i thought id ask the PC veterans on this board.

Also- how did multiplayer work in doom if you coudnt aim with a mouse? I assume there was a **** load of strafing involved? Amirite?

If you played Doom with the keyboard only, you were DOIN IT WRONG!

You could play that game with the mouse. Of course aiming up and down didn't mean anything since it was a 2.5D game. Quake was the first true 3D shooter (of consequence) so playing with the mouse was pretty much a requirement.

Though the title of the game was "Duke Nukem 3D" the game was built on a heavily modified version of the Doom engine. DN3D utilized some tricks to create the illusion of 3D environments, but was not a true 3D game like Quake. It was "2.5D" like Doom.

If you played Doom with the keyboard only, you were DOIN IT WRONG!

You could play that game with the mouse. Of course aiming up and down didn't mean anything since it was a 2.5D game. Quake was the first true 3D shooter (of consequence) so playing with the mouse was pretty much a requirement.

BobC

really ? that means everyone played doom with a mouse? wow. i feel dumb. i never knew that.but i was able to play the singleplayer for hours without being frustrated and i dont remember ever seeing my friends use the mouse. i feel like such a noob.

Though the title of the game was "Duke Nukem 3D" the game was built on a heavily modified version of the Doom engine. DN3D utilized some tricks to create the illusion of 3D environments, but was not a true 3D game like Quake. It was "2.5D" like Doom.

BobC

Yes, I am not referring to the 3D versus 2.5D of DN3D...I am merely answering the question "What was the first FPS game to implement mouse-aiming"...and to my knowledge, that would be DN3D. Now, I should qualify what I mean by mouse-aiming, I am talking about up/down in addition to left/right aiming. Because, I believe, 'aiming' along one of those axes would be somewhat misleading. Basically, in Doom you pretty much pointed in the general direction of your target and let auto-aim deal with the rest. With DN3D, you actually had to put the crosshairs on the target to actually hit anything.

But, as I said, that is merely to my knowledge, so there could be other FPSes that pre-dated DN3D with the whole mouse-aiming thing (i.e. Marathon), but I am unsure as I have not played those games.

But, as I said, that is merely to my knowledge, so there could be other FPSes that pre-dated DN3D with the whole mouse-aiming thing (i.e. Marathon), but I am unsure as I have not played those games.

Ein-7919

Indeed. Marathon is actually the first FPS to feature true mouselook. Terminator: Futureshock is the first FPS on the PC to have it.

Though the title of the game was "Duke Nukem 3D" the game was built on a heavily modified version of the Doom engine. DN3D utilized some tricks to create the illusion of 3D environments, but was not a true 3D game like Quake. It was "2.5D" like Doom.

BobC

Duke Nukem 3D's engine is not a modified Doom engine. It uses the Build Engine by Ken Silverman.

I suppose if we really wanted to be general and broaden our definition of mouse-aiming, Terminator 2029 would totally fit the bill. Basically you moved on tiles (kind of like movement in the first 6 Might and Magic games), but you used the mouse to control your targetting reticle (and you had to aim your reticle at targets in order to hit them).Ein-7919

Well, perhaps, if one does not mean for mouse-aim to be synonymous with mouselook. But it seems rather pointless to consider it in those terms, as mouse-aiming without mouselook is basically just the same movement system as a FPS without mouse-aim, only the auto-aim is replaced with manual aiming. By that token, mouse-aim by itself isn't all that special, only adding an extra function, whereas mouselook totally changes the way one maneuvers about the environment as well as how they aim at things. I figured mouselook is actually what the TC was referring to, since mouse-aim is often used to mean the same thing.

Also, just as Doom's mouselook isn't "true" mouselook, I think 2029 wasn't a "true" FPS even though it may fit the definition in the most technical sense (in fact, Wikipedia calls it an action-adventure, not an FPS).

Well, perhaps, if one does not mean for mouse-aim to be synonymous with mouselook. But it seems rather pointless to consider it in those terms, as mouse-aiming without mouselook is basically just the same movement system as a FPS without mouse-aim, only the auto-aim is replaced with manual aiming. By that token, mouse-aim by itself isn't all that special, only adding an extra function, whereas mouselook totally changes the way one maneuvers about the environment as well as how they aim at things. I figured mouselook is actually what the TC was referring to, since mouse-aim is often used to mean the same thing.JP_Russell

Good call on that one. The advent of mouse-look enabled the circle-strafe technique that the OP references. So mouse-aiming (where one merely points a reticle around the view using the mouse) has been around for a VERY long time (I remember using it in a DOS game called Corporation back in the late 80s/REAL early '90s)...so I guess the question (which has been answered with Marathon) should be 'What was the first FPS game to implement mouse-look.'

(in fact, Wikipedia calls it an action-adventure, not an FPS).

JP_Russell

That might very well be the case...I was simply going with what Gamespot classified it as (apparently, they call it a "Modern First Person Shoot"...since when is a game set in 2029 post-apocalyptic L.A. considered to be in "Modern" times?)

^Dark Forces doesn't have true mouselook. The X-axis does turn you left and right, but the Y-axis moves you back and forth. You can't look up and down with the mouse.JP_Russell

Oh. Then I remembered it wrong :S I'll just with Quake II then.