I do think it’s interesting that the almost fundamental definition of being a boomer would be the significant dividing line of having access to video games growing up or not, but alas, culture is what culture is.
Can you give a longer form description?
Would this be like a “fixed perspective” fps ( like of doom or quake or Wolfenstein)?
A strict definition is hard. The first thing that came to my mind was ‘like quake’.
Fps games have come in phases. Most recently looter shooters, before that battle royals, before that hero shooters. And quite early in that chain you had boomer shooters.
Fixed pov would certainly be a step down that path but I wouldn’t call it a requirement. If Quake got a faithful remake with all the advancements of 2024 and non of the industry trends that’d be a boomer shooter.
If you made a brand new arena shooter with no classes and an array of ~8 distinct weapons (think one rocketlauncher, one SMG, one pistol etc.) laid across the map focused on something like TDM or KotH, that could be a boomer shooter.
It’s kind of like porn, you know it when you see it.
They’re just shooters that are mechanically similar to old shooters like Quake and Doom, so you’re typically gonna have a mix of these traits:
A wide range of weapons with unique uses (think rockets, railguns, shotguns, machine guns…)
Chapters that you can complete in any order but the levels in them are completed linearly
Colored keys to open colored doors
A level-end screen when you reach the end of a level that tells you your completion time and what % of items/enemies are left
And my favorite part, a lot of them have advanced movement techniques, which are usually identical to Quake (if not Quake 2/3) like bunnyhopping and rocket-jumping
fixed perspective fps means you can’t look around separately than your can move your character. The original doom and castle wolfenstein were like this. You can rotate your view but you don’t have an independent camera ( that came with the quake engine ).
I’m not sure I’m following. I’ve never known Quake or Doom to have a camera independent of your player character’s perspective (at least without console commands or demo tools)
I’m not sure I’m following. I’ve never known Quake or Doom to have a camera independent of your player character’s perspective (at least without console commands or demo tools)
That’s exactly the point. Your perspective isn’t independent of your plane of movement.
In doom and the at the time doom clones you couldn’t look up and down. The world looked 3d but technically wasn’t. They couldn’t even have rooms above each other because of this. The games were at a technical level top down shooters but viewed from the first person perspective of your character with graphical renderings likely using raycasting to give the illusion of a 3d space around you.
I don’t think the youngsters realize that you couldn’t always strafe. In fact, the word “strafe” in the sense used in video games had to be invented to describe the mechanic. It never refered to walking until FPS got a new groove. Here’s a small reddit post about it.
You couldn’t necessarily change your perspective independent of your plane of movement. This had to be done simultaneously.
Strafing as its currently understood didnt exist until your ‘perspective’ became un-fixed from your ability to move. It was at this point that the shooters became ‘truly’ 3d.
So “in the style of” ?
I do think it’s interesting that the almost fundamental definition of being a boomer would be the significant dividing line of having access to video games growing up or not, but alas, culture is what culture is.
Can you give a longer form description?
Would this be like a “fixed perspective” fps ( like of doom or quake or Wolfenstein)?
I’m thinking more arena shooters like quake and unreal.
A strict definition is hard. The first thing that came to my mind was ‘like quake’.
Fps games have come in phases. Most recently looter shooters, before that battle royals, before that hero shooters. And quite early in that chain you had boomer shooters.
Fixed pov would certainly be a step down that path but I wouldn’t call it a requirement. If Quake got a faithful remake with all the advancements of 2024 and non of the industry trends that’d be a boomer shooter.
If you made a brand new arena shooter with no classes and an array of ~8 distinct weapons (think one rocketlauncher, one SMG, one pistol etc.) laid across the map focused on something like TDM or KotH, that could be a boomer shooter.
It’s kind of like porn, you know it when you see it.
Ok makes sense, if it feels like a remake or reimagining of something that predates halo 1 it’s that
From my comment to the first guy:
They’re just shooters that are mechanically similar to old shooters like Quake and Doom, so you’re typically gonna have a mix of these traits:
That’s what “first person” means in the context of videogames lol. That’s the FP in FPS
fixed perspective fps means you can’t look around separately than your can move your character. The original doom and castle wolfenstein were like this. You can rotate your view but you don’t have an independent camera ( that came with the quake engine ).
I’m not sure I’m following. I’ve never known Quake or Doom to have a camera independent of your player character’s perspective (at least without console commands or demo tools)
That’s exactly the point. Your perspective isn’t independent of your plane of movement.
In doom and the at the time doom clones you couldn’t look up and down. The world looked 3d but technically wasn’t. They couldn’t even have rooms above each other because of this. The games were at a technical level top down shooters but viewed from the first person perspective of your character with graphical renderings likely using raycasting to give the illusion of a 3d space around you.
Just because you only had one axis of camera movement doesn’t mean the camera was fixed.
I’m just explaining what they meant, that’s just being pedantic now.
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I don’t think the youngsters realize that you couldn’t always strafe. In fact, the word “strafe” in the sense used in video games had to be invented to describe the mechanic. It never refered to walking until FPS got a new groove. Here’s a small reddit post about it.
Exactly. Kids these days.
For clarification if you dont get it:
You had four keys for motion: wasd
Two for rotation: q and e.
You couldn’t necessarily change your perspective independent of your plane of movement. This had to be done simultaneously.
Strafing as its currently understood didnt exist until your ‘perspective’ became un-fixed from your ability to move. It was at this point that the shooters became ‘truly’ 3d.