Unreal is the first installment in the Unreal series, and was the first 3D venture by Epic Games and Digital Extremes. The game was approved by GT Interactive in 1996 and released on May 22, 1998 to the world; however, by several accounts, work on the engine actually started sometime around 1994. It was also the first game to use the Unreal Engine.
Unreal provided a single player experience along with a multiplayer mode that allowed for up to 16 players. It was rated 'M' for Mature by the ESRB for intense violence.[2]
Synopsis[]
Development history[]
Work on Unreal began in 1994 when James Schmalz, founder of Digital Extremes, showed Cliff Bleszinski a side project he had been working on. At the time, Schmalz was creating all of his own content, and programming the game all by himself. The game had not yet been fully realized, and Schmalz was creating all of his levels on paper. According to Schmalz, the idea for the game came from Digital Extremes, but Epic had the technology to bring it to life.[3]
GT Interactive, Epic Megagames And Digital Extremes Ship The Year's Most Eagerly Anticipated PC Game
Spectacular 3D Environments, Revolutionary Artificial Intelligence, Intuitive Level Editor and Vast Internet Play Usher in New Generation of Gaming. NEW YORK, NY, May 22, 1998 - It is called `Unreal,' but it is indeed a triumphant reality to gamers around the world, as GT Interactive Software Corp. (NASDAQ: GTIS) ships 1998's most eagerly anticipated 3D action video game for the PC, Unreal.
"One of the most highly awaited games of all time, Unreal is poised to set a new benchmark in the 3D action/adventure category," says Holly Newman, vice president of Marketing for GT Interactive. "We are excited to bring to players - both novices and gamers alike - an experience that combines cutting-edge technology with innovative game play, and we believe Unreal has the ability to further broaden the audience for interactive entertainment."
Heralded by Next-Generation magazine as "the best looking game of all time," and PC Gamer magazine as "the future of gaming," Unreal offers heart-pounding, single-player action; intense multi-play for up to 16 gamers; as well as the Unreal Level Editor - one of the industry's most advanced, easy-to-use level editor programs. The level editor allows even novice players to create their own Unreal levels or customize virtually any aspect of the game itself in "half" the time of other editors. "Unreal is the combined vision of the talented and dedicated teams at Epic MegaGames and Digital Extremes, who shared the dream of creating the most captivating action/adventure game ever," says Mark Rein, vice president of Epic MegaGames, Inc. "We're confident that gamers around the world will believe that their wait was well worth it when they sit down to play."
Designed for the Windows 95/Windows 98/Windows NT platforms, Unreal transports one or more players to a beautiful yet deadly planet which, as a result of a mysterious ore, has become the "Bermuda Triangle" of space, entwining alien races from across the galaxy in a battle for survival. Unreal's visuals set a new standard for realism - water is transparent, flames randomly flicker, moving clouds cast shadows -- while dynamic lighting and music changes complement the on-screen action.
GT Interactive's Unreal offers an exciting array of features, including:
Spectacular dynamic lighting -- enhancing Unreal's immersive 3-D environments; Optimized for Intel's MMX technology, Power VR and 3Dfx 3D accelerator chip sets - resulting in unbelievably fast game play with high-resolution graphics; Portal technology - literally bringing a new dimension to game play by allowing levels to defy 3D Euclidean space; Enhanced enemy artificial intelligence - resulting in intelligent, cunning and deadly life forms; Internet play with true client server environments -- offering multi-player matches on the Internet that are easy to set up and play. Ability to host own Unreal multi-play tournament and "hotlink" between user-created levels; Many highly-detailed polygonal enemies -- each with more than 300 frames of animation; Bilinear texture smoothing -- making environments appear more realistic, resulting in a far more intense game play experience; Vast true 3-D environments -- including spacecrafts, ancient ruins, mines and castles, each with their own unique challenges and secrets; Deadly arsenal of high-power weapons; Multiple intriguing puzzles; Dynamic cinematic quality soundtrack and special audio affects, adding to Unreal's eerie atmosphere and realism, including, Dolby Surround Sound and Aureal's A3D sound system. Unreal will ship with a fully functional beta version of Epic's Unreal Level Editor - an advanced 3D authoring tool which provides a sophisticated, yet easy-to-learn, method of creating 3D environments and objects by which players may create their own Unreal worlds. According to Computer & Net Player magazine, "if this doesn't bring level editing to the masses, nothing will." A feature-enhanced, fully supported and documented version of the Unreal Level Editor with additional 3D content and a tutorial is currently under development and will be released separately later this year.
GT Interactive is supporting the launch of Unreal with an in-depth marketing campaign. Comprised of extensive print advertising, online promotions, direct mail, in-store promotions and innovative merchandising, including novels and strategy guides, GT Interactive's Unreal marketing campaign will run through the holiday season.
Unreal is currently available at retail outlets nationwide at a suggested retail price of $54.95."
A short time later, Schmalz showed what he had been working on to Tim Sweeney, founder of Epic MegaGames (later known as Epic Games). Tim was impressed and began working on a level editor for Schmalz to use to build his engine. As time went on, many people became involved in the process. Some of the key remote employees were Mark Rein, who was brought in as a PR specialist, Steven Polge, who was hired to work on the AI, and Shane Caudle, who was hired to make some of the game's maps. For a time, many of the people working for Epic were doing so remotely.
Early in development, the team used clay models, which were scanned into the game. After the switch to 3D modeling-based tools such as Maya and 3ds Max, these models were either deleted or heavily modified. The game missed internal deadlines, suffered delays, and many assets were made that were never used,[5] such as the Quadshot, a quad-barreled shotgun that is never seen in the game. It was removed for being overpowered and redundant with the Flak Cannon; however, its mesh and sounds can be seen in the Editor. Additionally, a dragon, gargoyle, chameleon, squid, and some other creatures were shown in tech demos and displayed on pictures and ads, but none of them were ever used in the final game. Some were not seen in the game because the areas they would have appeared in were cut to avoid making the game too long, and others were either replaced (like the Krall, which took the place of a centaur-like creature) or removed altogether (like the Dragon), because they were not high enough quality, the team behind which had the goal to make the game live to its full potential. Many maps were also cut from the final version: Soledad, Morose, Nexus, Nexus End, FHub6, and Cryox. The Deathmatch maps DmMorbfanza, Sky14, DmSplash, and the Kill the Cow gametype were also cut at the last minute, while DKNightOp was instead moved to the Darkmatch gametype.[6] Another map that was considered for the game, but was cut early on, was DM-Gothic, which eventually found its way into the series very late into the development of Unreal Tournament.[7]
Out of all these ideas, however, the one that Tim Sweeney still laments not being able to implement was to give the game MMO-like functionality. It was described as being able to give players the ability to jump between servers using a game hub. The cut level The Gateway was the only existing proof of this feature ever being thought of.[8][9]
Crazy idea, right? To ship a 3D MMO in 1998? We ended up cutting that feature a very long time ago."
The game was initially planned for an April 1997 release. A beta was released that year, allowing players to get a feel for the gameplay. The beta was seen at GDC (Game Developers Conference) '97. Those who saw the demo expected the game to be complete by this time; however, the AI was unfinished, the levels, which lacked varying textures, looked repetitive, the sound effects were poor, and the game was overall too long to complete in a fair amount of time. This resulted in the development team, up to that point using a "virtual team" scheme, all assembling at Digital Extremes' Waterloo offices, returning to their homes a year later after completing the game. Roughly one year later, the game was released and its level of detail put video game publishers on notice: a new age of gaming had arrived.
A demo was alluded to many times by various people at Epic Games throughout the development of Unreal, but the only demos that were ever released came bundled with various hardware. Many people saw this as a negative to Unreal, as there was no real way to try the game before players bought it. However, Epic learned its lesson, and installments in the Unreal franchise after this game would feature playable demos, some of which had impacts on sales numbers. There were also discussions for console versions, the chosen platforms being Sony's PlayStation (called Unreal: Rise of Jrath) and Nintendo's 64DD, an add-on for the Nintendo 64. However, the developer team for the former version could not complete it on time, while Epic eventually lost interest in the 64DD and its capabilities, and the device itself never made it outside of Japan.[10] A Dreamcast port was also in the works, but it was cancelled after GT Interactive suffered financial losses.[11]
The game was finally released on May 22, 1998.
Release dates[]
- May 22, 1998 - Unreal (PC) - 1 CD
- January 21st, 2000 - Unreal Gold (PC) - 1 CD
- Included Return to Na Pali.
- August 29, 2001 - Totally Unreal (PC) - 4 CDs
- Included Unreal Gold, Unreal Tournament (Game of the Year edition) and an Unreal Championship/Unreal 2 preview disc.
- November 6, 2006 - Unreal Anthology (PC) - 1 DVD
- Included Unreal Gold, Unreal Tournament (GOTY), Unreal II: The Awakening, and Unreal Tournament 2004.
- Published by Midway Games, who took publishing rights from Atari.
A full version of Unreal was released with certain S3 video cards to show off Unreal's S3TC capabilities. This version came with several S3TC showcase levels that can be found online.
A free trial of Unreal was released with certain Creative products to show off Unreal's EAX capabilities.
On May 22, 2018, in honor of the game's 20th anniversary, Unreal Gold was released for free on Steam and GOG for a 48-hour time period.
Post-release content[]
- Main article: Unreal (video game)/Release Notes
- Main article: Unreal Mission Pack: Return to Na Pali
There's a small extra level pack called "Fusion Map Pack", containing six new Deathmatch levels for the game: DM-Cybrosis, DM-Letting, DM-Loxi, DM-Mojo, DM-Shrapnel and DM-Twilight. The first map of the pack which was released was Loxi, on November 20, 1998.[12]
In July 13, 2000 the official support ended, with the version 226f patch.[13] On August 26, 2005, Smirftsch of OldUnreal announced that he managed to get a Non-Disclosure Agreement that allows him and his community to maintain the game.[14][15] The first patch for version 227a was released on December 26, 2007.[16] The latest patch, for version 227i, was released in November 11, 2012, and features new graphics rendering like DirectX 9, updated OpenGL, new sound rendering based on OpenAL and fixes many incompatibilities with modern operating systems and hardware. The OldUnreal patches restore and finishes the Quadshot and Translocator and showcases them in their test Deathmatch maps. It also features new effects for maps and the implementation of Unreal Engine 2 features such as StaticMeshes and a particle effects system. The maps created with these features, however, can't be used in older versions up to the final 226f patch.
Digital distribution[]
The pack was sold alongside Unreal Mission Pack: Return to Na Pali as Unreal Gold on the Steam and GOG platforms. This distribution ended on December 14, 2022, after Epic Games announced the shutdown of all their online services in order to concentrate everything on Epic's own Epic Online Services, which included the online distribution of several games as well as their master servers. Users of the platforms that already had the games can still play them either offline or with local multiplayer.[17] While online Unreal Gold gaming may remain active thanks to OldUnreal's efforts and master servers, this essentially means that, outside of used copies and copies found at online auction sites, there's no legal way to acquire the games if the players don't already have them.
Game content[]
Gamemodes[]
- Main article: Unreal Single player
Aside of the campaign, which features both single player and co-op modes, Unreal features four multiplayer modes: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, King of the Hill and Darkmatch. With the exception of the latter, the rest of the multiplayer gametypes use the Deathmatch maps.
| Darkmatch maps for Unreal |
|---|
| Deathmatch maps for Unreal |
|---|
DmAriza • DmCurse • DmDeathFan • DmDeck16 • DmElsinore • DMfith • DmHealPod • DmMorbias • DmRadikus • DmTundra • DmBeyondTheSun • DmExar • DmRetrospective • DmRiot
|
| Unreal Special Edition: |
| GW Press Addon: |
| Fusion Mappack: |
| OldUnreal v227 maps: |
| Cut maps: |
Characters[]
| Characters from Unreal |
|---|
|
Minor characters: |
| Friendly/Passive NPCs: |
| Enemies: |
| Bosses: |
Weapons[]
Items[]
These are divided in two categories: Inventory Items and Pickup Items.
Inventory Items can be picked up and used during the course of the single player game, and a few are available in multiplayer levels. Use the bracket keys [ ] on your keyboard to select an item visible in your inventory icon bar (default controls). The currently selected item is bounded by a white box. Use the Enter key to activate an item. Activated items are highlighted in red. Press Enter a second time to deactivate an item.
Pickup Items are activated or put into use as soon as you pick them up. For this reason, it is often wise to leave a Pickup item on the ground and come back to pick it up only when you need to use it. Every Inventory item becomes pickupable in multiplayer mode.
Soundtrack[]
- Main article: Music#Unreal
Unreal features music in UMX file format, based on tracker music. Alexander Brandon from Straylight Productions and Michiel van den Bos were in charge of the music, with additional contributions made by Andrew "Necros" Sega and Dan "Basehead" Gardopée.[18] Additionally there are some music tracks which were included in the game, but were not used in the original game alone. Some of these unused tracks were, however, used in Unreal Mission Pack: Return to Na Pali.
Reception[]
Unreal was given very good reviews and was generally accepted very well by gamers. However, shortly after the game's release, it became apparent that the multiplayer network code was not up to scratch for the 56k modem connections in wide use at the time. Due to this, the Epic MegaGames message board filled up with hundreds of posts of complaints about the poor quality of the Unreal netcode and the general need for a patch. This led to Epic's message boards being nicknamed the "Epic FlameBoards". In response, Epic released dozens of patches to the game, later including Direct3D and OpenGL support to the Software Rendering and Glide support.
Eventually, the problems with the netcode were so apparent and so prevalent that, in order to fix them, an entire rewriting of the code was needed, planting the seeds for the expansion pack that eventually became Unreal Tournament.[19]
Damien Smith of GameSkinny named the game the number 1 "FPS game you must play before you die" on the site's list.
It isn't long before you run into the Skaarj, a hostile and barbaric alien race who enslave and terrorize the natives of Na Pali, the Nali. As far as alien worlds go, there are few games that have ever presented a strange, unique and magical world like Unreal.
A blend of the wonderful visuals for its time, magical soundtrack and fast-paced action, Unreal is one of the best FPS games of the 90s."
ServReality deemed the game as one of the best games made with Unreal technology.
The developers managed to make their project one of the most innovative for its time. Among the games of the 1990s, Unreal had no competitors in the field of the number of various types of opponents, which were opposed to the player. 3D graphics with Unreal (game and engine) has reached a new level. Competing with one of its main opponents, Unreal presented highly detailed interiors and huge locations with magnificent views – this was not even in Quake II. Unreal was the first game in which detailed textures appeared."
The ShackNews community deemed the game the 91st best PC game of all time.
Jon Rettinger of Techno Buffalo deemed the game as one of the 10 greatest PC games of all time, closing the list.
Awards[]
| Awards of Unreal | |
|---|---|
| IGNPC.com | Best Graphics of 1998 |
| Newsweek Magazine | Top 10 Video Games of 1998 |
| New Media Magazine | Bronze Award for "Best Game" 1998 Invision Awards |
| Next Generation Magazine | Editor's Choice Award |
| PC Gamer Magazine | Editor's Choice Award Special Achievement in Graphics Top 50 Games of All Time Editor's Choice Award "Breakthrough Game" Editor's Choice Award "Best Art" |
| PC Review Magazine | Innovation Award |
| PC World Magazine | Top 100 Products of 1998 |
| Voodoo Magazine | Editor's Choice Award |
| Adrenaline Vault | Editor's Choice Award |
| Gamesmania | Award of Excellence |
| Gamespot | Best Graphics (Technical Excellence) |
| Macworld | Macworld Game Hall of Fame Editor's Choice Award (Eddy) Game of the Year 1998 |
| C-Net Gamecenter | Macintosh Game of 1998 |
Tim Sweeney resumes all of Unreal's "firsts", developmental and technical achievements in this quote from an RPS retrospective:[5]
Essential files[]
- Main article: Essential files#Unreal
- Main article: Bonus content#Unreal
Here you will find all the links to the downloads of the essential files for your Unreal installation.
Credits[]
| Credits of Unreal | |
|---|---|
| Epic Games & Digital Extremes | |
| Game design | James Schmalz, Cliff Bleszinski |
| Level design | Cliff Bleszinski, T. Elliot Cannon, Cedric Fiorentino, Pancho Eekels, Jeremy War, Shane Caudle |
| Animator | Dave Carter |
| Artists | James Schmalz, Mike Leatham, Artur Bialas |
| Programmers | Tim Sweeney (Engine), Steven Polge (Game & AI), Erik de Neve (Effects), Carlo Vogelsang (Audio), James Schmalz & Nick Michon (Scripting) |
| Musicians | Alexander Brandon, Michiel van den Bos |
| Sound effects | Dave Ewing |
| Epic Biz | Jay Wilbur, Mark Rein, Nigel Kent, Craig Lafferty |
| GT Interactive | |
| Producer | Jason Schreiber |
| Executive Producer | Greg Williams |
| Lead Tester | Joel Maximillion Breton |
| Product Manager | Ken Gold |
| Assistant Product Manager | Phil Tucker |
| Public Relations Manager | Alan Lewis |
| Director of Creative Services | Leslie Mills |
| Creative Director | Vic Merritt |
| Artists | Michael Marrs, Jill Pomper, Lesley Zinn, Jen Scheerer |
| Production Corordinator | Liz Fierro |
| Box Design | Vic Merritt, Leslie Mills |
| Manual | Mike Forge |
| Testing | |
| Lead Tester | Mike Barker |
| Second | Jim Tricario, Dan McJilton |
| Testers | Mike Barker, Jim Tricario, Dan McJilton, Dave Munro, Andre Cerny, Cormac Russell, Jesse Smith, Clint McCaul, Fran Katsimpiris, Corey Allen, Ed Piper, Barry Gilchrist, Adam Coleman, Chris Carr, Chris McGuirk, Randy Denmyer, Kevin Keith, Thomas Watkins, Dave Afdahl, Andy Mazurek, Matt Kutrik, Troy Kupich, Jake Grimshaw, Mark Leary, Matt Miller, Ian Giffen, Justin Dull, Calvin Grove, Ruben Brown, Mike Prendergast, Geoff Gessner, Steven Rhodes, Rocco Rinaldi, Jim Biltz |
| Special Thanks | |
| Mark Poesch (UnrealEd enhancements), Andrew Sega (additional music), Dan Gardopée (additional music), Chad Faragher, Nick Oddson, Chris Hargett, DJ Carroll, Diane Schmalz, Shannon Newans, Evelyn Eekels, Lani Minella, Gina Hedges, Ryan Schwartz, Mark Visser, Richard Young, Mike Forge, Eric Reuter (Additional Level Design), and the guys at UnrealNation and Unreal.org. | |
Trivia[]
- The song "Isotoxin" is featured as the opening song of another game, called "In Pursuit of Greed".
- A full install of Unreal uses around 420 MB of hard drive space.
- The manual contains the line "In memory of Myscha and Pelit" in the Credits section. These names also appear in the level Bluff Eversmoking, in the cemetery portion. They refer to T. Elliot Cannon's mascots Myscha and Pelit, who died during the development of the game.
- Before leaving Epic Games, Cliff Bleszinski pitched a remaster of the game, and didn't come to pass.
That was my last request when I did my exit speech at Epic. There was a lot of magic in that game, darnit!"
External links and references[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "Unreal Struts Its Stuff". IGN (February 23, 1999). Retrieved May 23, 2019.
- ↑ "Unreal". Entertainment Software Rating Board. Retrieved 28 May 2017.
- ↑ Callaham, John (September 24, 2002). "Unreal Championship Interview". HomeLAN Fed. Archived from the original on October 17, 2002. Retrieved May 9, 2019.
- ↑ "History of Unreal - Part 1". BeyondUnreal (31 May 2005). Archived from the original on 14 October 2014. Retrieved 17 June 2017.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Caldwell, Brendan (5 June 2018). "A retrospective of Unreal, from the people who made it". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 6 June 2018.
- ↑ "Errata". GW Press. Archived from the original on 9 Oct 1999. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
- ↑ Leo(T.C.K.) (November 21, 2018). "Dm Gothic is a 1997 Unreal level". UT99.org forums. Retrieved May 5, 2019.
- ↑ Lombardi, Doug (August 1, 1997). "The Magnificent Seven: 3D Shooter Showdown - Unreal". GameCenter. Archived from the original on February 3, 1999. Retrieved April 19, 2019.
- ↑ Totilo, Stephen (December 7, 2011). "The Quiet Tinkerer Who Makes Games Beautiful Finally Gets His Due". Kotaku. Retrieved May 7, 2019.
- ↑ "Epic's Unreal Plans for PlayStation 2". IGN (August 6, 1999). Retrieved May 22, 2019.
- ↑ Kollin, Mike (June 2, 2000). "Did Somebody Say Unreal Tournament on DC?". IGN. Retrieved May 23, 2019.
- ↑ "New Unreal DM Map from Epic!". Unreal.com (November 20, 1998). Archived from the original on December 3, 1998. Retrieved May 23, 2019.
- ↑ de Neve, Erik (July 13, 2000). "Final Unreal 1 Patch Released". Epic Games. Archived from the original on August 15, 2000. Retrieved May 22, 2019.
- ↑ "OldUnreal Forums". OldUnreal. Archived from the original on Jul 24, 2005. Retrieved May 7, 2022.
- ↑ Meer, Alec (12 November 2012). "Patchy Like It's 1998: Unreal 1 Updated". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
- ↑ "227 Release Notes". OldUnreal. Retrieved Sep 29, 2020.
- ↑ "Epic is turning off online services and servers for some older games". Epic Games (December 14, 2022). Retrieved December 25, 2022.
- ↑ "Unreal (Epic Megagames): Game rip". Mirsoft.info. Retrieved 17 June 2017.
- ↑ Reinhart, Brandon (June 9, 2000). "Postmortem: Epic Games' Unreal Tournament". Gamasutra. Retrieved May 25, 2019.
- ↑ Smith, Damien (November 19 2016). "Kickin' Ass and Chewin' Bubble Gum: 20 FPS Games You Must Play Before You Die". GameSkinny. Retrieved May 25, 2019.
- ↑ "The List of The Best Games Made With Unreal Technology". ServReality (May 14, 2019). Retrieved May 25, 2019.
- ↑ Mejia, Ozzie (September 22, 2014). "PC Games of All-Time: #100-80". ShackNews. Retrieved May 25, 2019.
- ↑ Rettinger, Jon (October 28, 2009). "Top 10 Greatest PC Games of All Time". Techno Buffalo. Retrieved May 25, 2019.
- ↑ Bleszinski, Cliff (31 Aug 2021). "Cliff Bleszinski on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 1 Sep 2021.
- Keighley, Geoffrey. "Blinded By Reality: The True Story Behind the Creation of Unreal". Gamespot. Archived from the original on May 12, 2008. Retrieved May 9, 2019.
- Unreal @ Wikipedia
- Unreal (video game) @ TVTropes.org
See also[]
- Unreal II: The Awakening
- Unreal Mission Pack: Return to Na Pali
- Unreal Gold
- Totally Unreal
- Unreal Deal Pack
| Unreal (series) |
|---|
| Unreal series: Unreal • Return to Na Pali • Unreal II |
| Tournament series: Unreal Tournament • UT2003 • UT2004 • UT3 • UT4 |
| Championship series: Unreal Championship - Unreal Championship 2 |
| Books: Unreal: Hard Crash - Unreal: Prophet's Power - Escape to Na Pali: A Journey to the Unreal |