1st 3d Game Ever!

[Guest Anonymous]

I can remember playing a game on the Atari 800 where you were in this maze (first-person view, real-time movement) & had to find the exit. Part of the strategy was to find the right direction to approach the exit or, otherwise, you would be "pushed" away by what would resemble wind. Also, there was a flashing square that would occasionally chase after you. If it caught you, it sent you back to the beginning of the maze. That is the first incident, in my mind, of a "true" 3D game.

 

The first instance of a 3D multi-player game was "Midi-Maze" on the Atari ST.

[Ishtvan]

Just thought I'd post the token nerdy response about TV technology and holograms:

 

Right now, a lot of the major companies are working on the next gen. 2d display "Field Emission TV." Each pixel is composed of carbon nanotubes. When you put a voltage across a pixel, the nanotube accelerates electrons down its length and basically shoots them out at a standard phosphor screen.

 

The pros are: It's as "flat" as the latest flat panel TV's. It's much lower power than Plasma TV's (so lower electricity cost), and not prone to burn-in like they are. It has a much better refresh rate than LCD TV's, and can be viewed from any angle.

 

It's basically like a regular CRT, but instead of having a single electron gun set way in the back so that it can hit all the pixels, each pixel has an electron gun "component" in it in the form of the nanotube.

 

The down side is: you need a vacuum where the nanotubes are, and it's hard to maintain a vacuum between two lare flat plates with a small separation between them.

 

Samsung actually has a working display model of this, but it will be some time before they get it into mass-producable form (if ever).

 

So anyway, a lot of companies are working on Field Emission TV's as the "next gen" display before they try anything holographic. It's possible they're working on that too though, and you never know when a small startup compnay is going to surprise you with a leap in technology.

 

There was a guy at MIT working on a 3d display via lasers projecting on water vapor. Of course the prototype probably cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to make. I think a startup may have formed around that, but I don't know how they're doing right now.

 

[This has been a token nerdy response]

Edited February 26, 2005 by Ishtvan