I was just watching some entertaining videos on the subject.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMH7QpcTVE0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12zGtbW9fis

Lots of newer stuff in there, to be sure, but lots of older stuff too.

I don't suppose Ultima Underworld or Shadowcaster would qualify?

P.S. Rise of the Triad is on sale at GOG at the moment.

Kerr Avon wrote:

I think there was a DOS Star Trek FPS, was that any good?

There is almost certainly a Quake or DOOM mod of some sort, but you are likely thinking of Voyager: Elite Force, a Windows game. Or possibly Klingon.

Some people like The Terminator: Future Shock released in 1995 from Bethesda and see it as an overlooked game.

Other classics are Rise of the Triads, Hexen, Redneck Rampage and Heretic. Though Hexen and Heretic are more or less Doom clones with just changed themes and weapons.

Cybermage

Star Trek Generations is a FPS for Win95 and is the first Trek FPS made, I believe.

I recommend Strife . It's a good yet overlooked game .

[Thread moved to Milliways Section]

If you want something less mindless, System Shock is a definite candidate, though it's more of a first-person adventure than a shooter, even though you do indeed do a lot of shooting. ;)

Two of my favourites are Magic Carpet and Magic Carpet 2, although these games are kinda buggy. Avoid "Magic Carpet" and make sure you go for "Magic Carpet Plus" as it has far fewer bugs. Magic Carpet 2 however, it's hard to know when it will glitch out. Sometimes it takes seconds, other times I can go for hours before anything happens. :P

If you want something more retro, Ken's Labyrinth and Blake Stone are a couple good ones that don't get mentioned often.

Or if you want something that plays well with a joystick and runs the risk of making you motion sick, Descent and Descent II are very challenging, fun, and allows movement and turning in every direction that doesn't involve 4-or-more-dimensional travel. :D

You missed in your list Blood.

Some more choices :

Corridor 7:

Witchaven:

Cyclone :

Terminator Future Shock :

Terminator Skynet :

Out of these, Terminator Future Shock and Terminator Skynet are the only ones of these that are true 3D. These are the actual games that have first incorporated true mouse-look. Even Quake which came later, had only a "pressed"-mouse-look (You have to keep pressing a button for free mouse look in the original game.)

The game engine used in Skynet is the same as in Future Shock. Skynet is the sequel but came with a higher 640x480 resolution option. Skynet users, who also have Future Shock, can upgrade the Future Shock's graphics to hi-res, using Skynet's Install program.

Cylone's movies also has quite funny ending.
some weapons in Cyclone also miss-able.
if you skip accquiring the new weapon type, it'll make the game harder until you find another new type of weapons.

Should be noted that Future Shock and Skynet are pretty unstable.

There's also Terminator Rampage and an even older The Terminator. The latter is similar to the open world GTA games. Rampage is essentially a giant maze keyhunt.

swaaye wrote:

Should be noted that Future Shock and Skynet are pretty unstable.

There's also Terminator Rampage and an even older The Terminator. The latter is similar to the open world GTA games. Rampage is essentially a giant maze keyhunt.

Dunno, in my experience with Future Shock and Skynet, they ran pretty stable.

****ing browser just crashes, losing the post I'd nearly completed 🙁

Anyway, thanks for so many great answers. There were some great FPSs in those Youtube videos (I love No One Lives Forever 2, Timesplitters: Future Perfect (my favourite cross-platform game of the last console generation) and Singularity, and I'll be looking out for Shogo and Strife, especially), but most of them were for Windows, so I'm mostly familiar with them.

I don't think I've ever tried Redneck Rampage, Hexen, Heretic, or Cybermage, or any Terminator FPS games (though I *might* remember one, I'm not sure), so I'll try those too, thanks. I'll also try Cyclone,

I've not played the Terminator games, but if I can find them I will, plus Witchhaven, and Cyclone. I think I played Corridor 7 in the 90s, and didn't like it much.

BTW, if you like good FPS games with some well done (for a FPS game, at least) melee action, then if you have access to an XBox 1 then you really should play Breakdown (shown in that linked Youtube video). It's flawed, short, and has the worst difficulty curve of any game I've ever played (it goes from moderate to very hard, to above hard to almost impossible then down to OK, etc in a very short time, it's like it wasn't properly tested before release, like so many other games), but it's good points *far* outweigh the bad - it's fun, has an interesting storyline, atmospheric, does the whole first person viewpoint thing better than almost any other game you can think of, and when you do manage to get anywhere in the game you do feel like you've accomplished something. Sadly, it sold badly, and there was never a sequel.

Incidentally, on the subject of Breakdown, the game is a first person subject about conspiracies, aliens, human soldiers trying to silence you, you drive vehicles, and it's all very Half-Life like. And you also have a female sidekick who is very capable of looking after herself in a gun fight, called Alex. And in Half-Life 2 you have a female sidekick who is very capable of looking after herself in a gun fight, called Alyx. There are more similarities between HL2 and Breakdown, but I can't remember as it's been ages since I played them. I know that in both games you NEVER leave the first person point of view, and you have to run from an attacking helictopter, have friendly scientists and hostile human soldiers. Breakdown came out the year before Half-Life 2, by the way, so if there was any copying, it wasn't by Breakdown's creators.

m1919 wrote:

Dunno, in my experience with Future Shock and Skynet, they ran pretty stable.

Hmm.. I think the most troublesome aspect is the Skynet-upgraded Future Shock option. In SVGA mode I could not get it to stop locking up after a few minutes play. I eventually discovered that it works better in a Win9x DOS box (or DOSBOX) than in pure DOS! It often crashes during transitions from indoor/outdoor areas though.

swaaye wrote:

m1919 wrote:

Dunno, in my experience with Future Shock and Skynet, they ran pretty stable.

Hmm.. I think the most troublesome aspect is the Skynet-upgraded Future Shock option. In SVGA mode I could not get it to stop locking up after a few minutes play. I eventually discovered that it works better in a Win9x DOS box (or DOSBOX) than in pure DOS! It often crashes during transitions from indoor/outdoor areas though.

I've had the transition crashes before, but only remember having experienced them using DOSBOX.

I collect and enjoy FPS games from the DOS era, so let me list some here for you which may like or may not like. Also, some of them are NOT easy to buy and are quite rare, but some are readily available on ebay or amazon.

XS, Ashes to Ashes, Eradicator (Very underrated!), Chasm: The Rift (also underrated!), Cybermage, Necrodome, Shadow Caster, Blood, Shadow Warrior, Cyclones,The Fortress of Dr.Radiaki, William Shatner's TEKWAR, Rex Blade, Hexen, Heretic, Strife, HacX, Blake Stone Aliens of Gold, Blake Stone Planet Strike, Spear of Destiny, Powerslave, Redneck Rampage (and expansions and sequel), NAM (Napalm), WWIIGI, Terminator (2029, Rampage, Future Shock and Skynet), Assassin 2015, Wrath of Earth, Magic Carpet+Hidden Worlds (or Magic Carpet Plus), Magic Carpet 2, Dark Forces, Alien Trilogy, Turok...

I could go on, there is very many but these are the better known ones. Some are good, some are not. It's up to you to decide what you like. There is a ton of win95/98 era FPS games too, just ask if you want a list of those (Some may have snuck into the above list).

Seconding Eradicator. It was one of the few "OMG THINKIN FPSES" that flew under the radar prior to Half-Life. It even had its own "RC-XD" item. There's also a rare character archetype for a fps game too :P

Necrodome has the unfortunate problem of bad controls. I really wanted to like it for the classic Pelletier atmosphere in a post-apocalyptic setting, but the turning and combat were atrocious.

Heh, TEKWAR. I only remember playing the demo. So bad it's good 🤣.

I forgot Nerves of Steel in my above list too, as well as In Pursuit of Greed, Lethal Tender, Island Peril... =] I would also include Extreme Paintbrawl, but that game is so buggy and horrible I do not recommend it hehe!

Do you REALLY want to recommend Nerves of Steel? Notice the first word of the topic title 😀