Unreal

In 1998, Epic Games unleashed Unreal to the PC gaming community. It was the first salvo in the battle of 3D engine superiority between id software and Epic that is still going on today (id had released Quake II about this time period). Unreal introduced a number of features, including scaled detail over distance, colored lighting, and expansive outdoor areas. The enemy AI was also quite intelligent for the time. Epic also made the gamer-friendly decision early on to fully embrace the modding community, and sponsors several contests highlighting the best modders. Unreal was the only game ever to be featured on the cover of Next Generation magazine with an actual screen shot instead of prerendered artwork.

The engine supported Glide (Voodoo cards), Direct3D, shaky OpenGL support, and a very impressive software rendering mode. The Unreal engine, and all its later iterations, have been licensed out a multitude of other popular games.

Network play with the original Unreal was a little wonky - Unreal's reputation for death match really didn't come about until around until Unreal Tournament (again, battling id with Quake III Arena). The first Unreal had two expansion packs.

In 1998, Epic Games unleashed Unreal to the PC gaming community. It was the first salvo in the battle of 3D engine superiority between id software and Epic that is still going on today (id had released Quake II about this time period). Unreal introduced a number of features, including scaled detail over distance, colored lighting, and expansive outdoor areas. The enemy AI was also quite intelligent for the time. Epic also made the gamer-friendly decision early on to fully embrace the modding community, and sponsors several contests highlighting the best modders. Unreal was the only game ever to be featured on the cover of Next Generation magazine with an actual screen shot instead of prerendered artwork.

The engine supported Glide (Voodoo cards), Direct3D, shaky OpenGL support, and a very impressive software rendering mode. The Unreal engine, and all its later iterations, have been licensed out a multitude of other popular games.

Network play with the original Unreal was a little wonky - Unreal's reputation for death match really didn't come about until around until Unreal Tournament (again, battling id with Quake III Arena). The first Unreal had two expansion packs.