The Evolution of 3D Gaming

This is a landmark title. No more 2D "Space Invaders" or "Asteroids", Battlezone offered a full 3D landscape for the player to travel in. Taking control of a tank (with authentic forward/reverse levers for each tread), the player must simply destroy enemy vehicles on the landscape. The graphics are very simple. Green vectors on a black background. Strangely, the graphics still look rather neat, probably due to their sleekness (the minimalist approach also leaves much to the imagination, which helps). Also important, enemy vehicles explode in a rather satisfying way! The gameplay is equally slick - kill or be killed. While it is simple, the feeling of being in a tank in a hostile terrain is convincing. It was so groundbreaking at the time that the US Military used a customised version for training.