jul 14, 1986 - MIDI Maze

Description:

With the exception of Warzone, most shooters of the 1980s were not ready for primetime. The technology hadn't quite lived up to expectations, especially in the home. and developers were still figuring out how they could best exploit this relatively unknown game genre.

A few games made attempts, such as Japanese developer Taito's Operation Wolf. But it wasn't until the release of MIDI Maze, which ran on the Atari ST in 1987, that the first-person shooter took a step forward.

MIDI Maze was a silly and charming game with big, yellow, killer smiley faces as avatars. In terms of gameplay, MIDI Maze isn't that different from other shooters, but it is the first to offer a solid multiplayer online 3D shooter for an accessible home computing platform. It requires a sophisticated LAN setup, but MIDI Maze gives players the first hint that multiplayer first-person shooters are about to get really important.

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