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[Gp1]

DF retro did one very good retrospective for Unreal 1.



The intro is one of the most impressive gaming moments in the 90's. Remember that this game was going against Half-life 1 and Quake 2.
Even software mode was impressive.

How this game never received a proper official remake is beyond me.

 

[TheLikou]

I don't want to test it. Next thing I know some people will try to make me run Doom.

 

[Durin]

How this game never received a proper official remake is beyond me.

Likely because spending the resources on another Fortnite event is literally more profitable.

Sucks though, I'd love to see them go back to single-player FPS at all.

 

[StueyDuck]

DF retro did one very good retrospective for Unreal 1.



The intro is one of the most impressive gaming moments in the 90's. Remember that this game was going against Half-life 1 and Quake 2.
Even software mode was impressive.

How this game never received a proper official remake is beyond me.

I remember shitting myself as a youngun to that opening that i never played it till years later only to realise theres literally nothing scary about the game, it just had a "scary intro"

And yes, its literally just the crashed ship, I didn't get further than that

 

[saintjules]

I don't want to test it. Next thing I know some people will try to make me run Doom.

 

[Gp1]

I don't want to test it. Next thing I know some people will try to make me run Doom.

Or Deus Ex.

Likely because spending the resources on another Fortnite event is literally more profitable.

Sucks though, I'd love to see them go back to single-player FPS at all.

Epic just have to knock on Night Dive's door.
"Here, take this. Get the resources, find the money, here's your free UE 5.whatever license . Give me back 30-35% in return."
"See ya'all in a year or two."

 

[nikos]

Would love to see Unreal Tournament RTX.

 

[Crayon]

I'm not sure if there was an accelerated version at release. It was like the last great software renderer. There were extended instructions (mmx) on the newest pentiums and I think unreal used them.

 

[Three]

I'm not sure if there was an accelerated version at release. It was like the last great software renderer. There were extended instructions (mmx) on the newest pentiums and I think unreal used them.

There wasn't as far as I know.

Remember the mags:

That's an actual PC game screenshot? NO WAY! And it's coming to N64?

 

[ZehDon]

Unreal was impressive for it's day, but Unreal Tournament was where I jumped on board. Unreal's single player campaign was honestly a little so-so, propped up by terrific visuals that focused on out-door environments and amazing sky boxes when everyone else was still stuck in corridors. Everything was eventually overshadowed by Half-Life, though.

 

[Crayon]

There wasn't as far as I know.

Remember the mags:

That's an actual PC game screenshot? NO WAY! And it's coming to N64?

Ah look, right across the bottom. Which 3d accelerator. I have a lot of this mag burned into my head, and there were several cards in that comparison, essentially incompatible. Supporting games had to make a version for each make individually. iirc, there were very few games that did it at the time. Mech 2, quake maybe, flight unlimited maybe. In all those cases, support would have been added after.

 

[V2Tommy]

I think it supported Voodoo Glide at launch? I was there for launch but didn't have an an 3D accelerator at the time so can't verify this.

 

[Durin]

Or Deus Ex.



Epic just have to knock on Night Dive's door.
"Here, take this. Get the resources, find the money, here's your free UE 5.whatever license . Give me back 30-35% in return."
"See ya'all in a year or two."

Yeah...that's actually a good day. I'm honestly not sure why they don't farm it out to someone else.

Maybe Microsoft could get them to do a Gears 3 remaster already too.

 

[Futaleufu]

Epic just have to knock on Night Dive's door.
"Here, take this. Get the resources, find the money, here's your free UE 5.whatever license . Give me back 30-35% in return."
"See ya'all in a year or two."

They would fuck up by forcing it to be an Epic Store exclusive

 

[asdasdasdbb]

The game is surprisingly very boring.

 

[Gaiff]

The game is surprisingly very boring.

Was okay. Unreal Tournament was the real shit. Unreal wasn't as good as Quake II or Half-Life.

Man, I long for the days where we see such incredible technological jumps again. You really had to be there to witness the glorious foray into 3D graphics.

 

[xenosys]

I was addicted to Unreal Tournament back in 99/2000. Insta-Gib clan matches were my thing. Deck 16, Facing Worlds, Hall of Giants. Loved it.

 

[asdasdasdbb]

Was okay. Unreal Tournament was the real shit. Unreal wasn't as good as Quake II or Half-Life.

Yeah, UT was much better.

 

[Futaleufu]

Nah, the first game had great setpieces, like that corridor trap at the beginning, or the first time you face those aliens that can dodge your attacks. It was a great game for 1998.

 

[kevboard]

Epic just have to knock on Night Dive's door.
"Here, take this. Get the resources, find the money, here's your free UE 5.whatever license . Give me back 30-35% in return."
"See ya'all in a year or two."

the sad reality is that UE5 would be the worst engine choice for a remake of Unreal.

imagine traversal stutters as you move too fast through the level . or animation stutters due to delta time fuckery that we see in basically every UE5 game.

 

[Corporal.Hicks]

Unreal 1 is one of my favourite games from that era. Amazing graphics, atmosphere and memorable music. I must have played this game 30 times over the years.

As for the RTX mod, I feel like they ruined the art direction. Despite using less advanced lighting, the original game is more pleasing to the eye. I wish night dive would remaster Unreal 1 in similar way as Qauke games.

 

[The_Mike]

How this game never received a proper official remake is beyond me.

Epic removed the Unreal franchise off all stores because they dont want to have the series associated with the engine. Which is kinda ironic.

Can still be downloaded legally on old unreal.com

 

[Shadowstar39]

They won't make a new unreal tournament when they had it started (thanks a lot kids and your shitty fort night gahh)... Why would they invest in a single player game only old heads like myself would remember? They won't. They are a shit company anymore, like so many others that throw away the past instead of celebrating it.

 

[Shadowstar39]

the sad reality is that UE5 would be the worst engine choice for a remake of Unreal.

imagine traversal stutters as you move too fast through the level . or animation stutters due to delta time fuckery that we see in basically every UE5 game.

That would be authentic to unreal 1 though. Well unless you had a pentium 3 and a voodoo card using Glide api you would get stutters in directx6/7 or opengl and outside areas would slow things down.

Back then was crazy. I remember going from generic soundcard to a sblive and havinf the fps raise 10 to 15fps just because the cpu wasn't processing sound anymore. Of course I was using a cyrix m2 cpu (which was shit and only matched Intel pent2 on integer math). Going pentium3 really opened things up. Unreal ran like a champ after that and a voodoo5.

 

[kevboard]

That would be authentic to unreal 1 though. Well unless you had a pentium 3 and a voodoo card using Glide api you would get stutters in directx6/7 or opengl and outside areas would slow things down.

Back then was crazy. I remember going from generic soundcard to a sblive and havinf the fps raise 10 to 15fps just because the cpu wasn't processing sound anymore. Of course I was using a cyrix m2 cpu (which was shit and only matched Intel pent2 on integer math). Going pentium3 really opened things up. Unreal ran like a champ after that and a voodoo5.

slow performance is one thing,
a dysfunctional data streaming system and a dysfunctional delta time interpolation system are a whole nother issue.
and UE5 games are plagued by those issues across the board essentially.

while you could eventually get a PC that runs Unreal 1 perfectly... that will never happen with those UE5 games due to those intrinsic engine issues.

 

[CamHostage]

That's an actual PC game screenshot? NO WAY! And it's coming to N64?

I do wonder what ever happened to the N64 "plans"? It was right there on the cover and was apparently happening (I read that DMA Design of GTA and at the time Body Harvest fame was working on the 64 version, while a PS1 version was also supposedly happening at a company I don't know about called Pterodactyl Software,) but nobody ever talked about that as one of those games they waited forever for as a kid or that they'd be eager to see leaked today.

I don't think anything about the Unreal 1 engine would have been particularly suited for running on N64, but it would have been an interesting sampler alongside Quake 64.

 

[grvg]

When you get off the ship and see the initial view of na pali, with dusk horizon playing...



I didnt even play it as a kid, first took a spin at unreal in 2009, and the vibes/music still blew me away.

Alexander Brandon is an absolute legend.

 

[AeonGaidenRaiden]

Yes I can! On the STeam Deck even all maxed out:

 

[AeonGaidenRaiden]

Yeah...that's actually a good day. I'm honestly not sure why they don't farm it out to someone else.

People need to accept that EPIC dont care at all. It was modders who preserved Unreal 1 to be playable with the latest patches. Unreal Tournament 4 was mainly built by community modders and they still shut it down even though they spent the least amount of time and money themselves on that project. They are all about Fortnite. If they won't preserve their own game, why would they care to give it to someone else? Usually, games like these get outsourced remasters because the publisher or developer has been shut down and there's no official owner of the IP, more or less.

 

[Durin]

People need to accept that EPIC dont care at all. It was modders who preserved Unreal 1 to be playable with the latest patches. Unreal Tournament 4 was mainly built by community modders and they still shut it down even though they spent the least amount of time and money themselves on that project. They are all about Fortnite. If they won't preserve their own game, why would they care to give it to someone else? Usually, games like these get outsourced remasters because the publisher or developer has been shut down and there's no official owner of the IP, more or less.

I accept they don't care, but also they like money. If they farm it out to someone else for a small cost, they'd likely make a profit.

If it doesn't happen, oh well.

 

[AeonGaidenRaiden]

I accept they don't care, but also they like money. If they farm it out to someone else for a small cost, they'd likely make a profit.

If it doesn't happen, oh well.

Probably some measly profit compared to what Fortnite makes. I dont think any of these remasters ever made some mad sales. Its a small niche group that buys mostly. These games will never be mainstream.

 

[keefged4]

Excellent video.

I still play Unreal Gold at least once per year, It's one of my favorites of all time.

The OST is god tier.

As for the RTX mod, I feel like they ruined the art direction. Despite using less advanced lighting, the original game is more pleasing to the eye.

I agree, it loses a lot of it's identity I feel. The original 3dfx aesthetic is a massive part of the charm for me anyway.

 

[Shockwave_Fox]

The gold edition is free and I set it up but couldn't get my controller to work on it.

Disappointed as really wanted to give it a go.

 

[freemandos]

Wonderful FPS, the atmosphere is still impressive...and nobody can't buy it nowadays because some reason.

 

[keefged4]

The gold edition is free and I set it up but couldn't get my controller to work on it.

Disappointed as really wanted to give it a go.

Add it to steam as a non steam game and set up steam input for it. Works perfectly.

Wonderful FPS, the atmosphere is still impressive...and nobody can't buy it nowadays because some reason.

Available for free now here - https://www.oldunreal.com/

 

[nkarafo]

I'm probably going to get some angry emojis for this but i'll say it. I never liked Unreal. Not even the visuals, yes i said it.

Both Quake 2 and even Quake 1 looked better IMO. That's because the architecture of the structures/buildings you explored was far more interesting to look at with more geometry, more detail and better art direction.

Unreal had the "benchmark software" look. Like it was something straight out of an early 3D Mark build. Impressive visual/effects but ugly as sin at the same time.

And sure, that glance at the open area with the waterfall was impressive for most people but open areas in FPS weren't a new thing for me as i had already played Goldeneye's Dam level and the final area of the map where you go to the actual dam with the mountains in the background was more impressive a year before.

The skyboxes were great. And the close up textures made me inspect every surface. But ultimately, the whole thing still has that empty, boxy look compared to both Quake games. Which made it much less interesting to explore and that's why i didn't even bother finishing the game back then.

I was more impressed with Unreal Tournament tbh but i still liked Quake 3 a little more visually because of the art direction again. It wasn't until Unreal Tournament 2003 where i was really into exploring the maps.

 

[YeulEmeralda]

When people bitch about Nvidia and PC gaming prices I think to myself: in the late 90s your expensive hardware was obsolete after just 2 years.

 

[Shockwave_Fox]

Add it to steam as a non steam game and set up steam input for it. Works perfectly.

Available for free now here - https://www.oldunreal.com/

Ah ok, not sure I tried that will give it a go

 

[nkarafo]

When people bitch about Nvidia and PC gaming prices I think to myself: in the late 90s your expensive hardware was obsolete after just 2 years.

Yeah but at the same time you had big graphical jumps. So there was something to look forward to at least.

Nowadays the minor graphical improvements don't justify buying new cards. But you still need them because the code in modern games gets more bloated and less optimized.

 

[JCK75]

I had a shitty PC (486/33 SX) and I just gave up on gaming for a long time due to that.. when I finally got a PC that could run games I went to staples just to see what games they had and two boxes caught my eye and I purchased them both on sight knowing nothing about them..
Half-Life and Unreal

luckiest impulse buys ever.

 

[Herbspiceguy]

I skipped Unreal, because at that time all I cared for was online multiplayer, as QuakeWorld totally blew my teenage mind, so UT was the next step, which felt like an evolution of the foundation laid by QuakeWorld.

There was this UT mod called Tactical Ops, basically scuffed CS, which I played a lot on a competitive level. Doing 'clan wars' and posting results on clanbase to climb the cup ladders. Being accused of cheating cause of my super-human skills, and catching/reporting actual cheaters. Some funny/weird stories from real life meet-ups. Also LAN-party's were the shit. Sweet memories of a bygone era.

 

[popeutlal]

I was addicted to Unreal Tournament back in 99/2000. Insta-Gib clan matches were my thing. Deck 16, Facing Worlds, Hall of Giants. Loved it.

Same, had a ton of fun with insta-gib only servers for years. There were some amazing custom maps too, they're all lost in time and no one will ever experience them again.

 

[Mattyp]

Unreal its self had some of the very first great co-op multi, on gamespyarcade at the time.

The maps people made were ridiculous along with servers spawning in whatever seemed fit to make your life more hard.

All lost to time now but.

 

[V2Tommy]

At times, in the moment, Unreal 1 had me dreaming of a 3D Metroid game and the first few minutes of the game certainly had that vibe.

That is all.

 

[Alexios]

I always thought its visuals suffered from the giant button switches and levers stuff, that shit was like what you'd expect to see in the map editor, not an actual in-game model.

Quake II is more fun yet I only played it way later. Actually with the recent re-release I think, outside trying the impressive but lesser PSX "port" (demake really) back in the day.

I was never so impressed by that sort of blocky PC stuff, brief and transitional take. Japanese devs were doing greater things with characters and environments (but not in FPS).

 

[skit_data]

My moms colleague was somewhat of a computer nerd (in the most positive sense) so when he was getting a new dedicated GPU he gave his still relatively new Vooodoo2 card to me and installed it on our home computer along with Unreal. Didn't realize until now that my first experience with Unreal was pretty much the optimal, "hi-end" experience at the time.

Edit: I was 8 at the time so that into sequence with the screaming, sounds of slaughter behind metal doors and sudden gurgling jumpscare-guy in the chair made quite the impression.

 

[Alexios]

My moms colleague was somewhat of a computer nerd (in the most positive sense) so when he was getting a new dedicated GPU he gave his still relatively new Vooodoo2 card to me and installed it on our home computer along with Unreal. Didn't realize until now that my first experience with Unreal was pretty much the optimal, "hi-end" experience at the time.

Voodoo2 launched a couple months before the game, what did he replace it with?

 

[skit_data]

Voodoo2 launched a couple months before the game, what did he replace it with?

I have no idea tbh I was 8 at the time. It's entirely possible it was some time after Unreal launching, ca 98-99.

 

[Corporal.Hicks]

Excellent video.

I still play Unreal Gold at least once per year, It's one of my favorites of all time.

The OST is god tier.


I agree, it loses a lot of it's identity I feel. The original 3dfx aesthetic is a massive part of the charm for me anyway.

The Unreal engine was designed to showcase 3dfx cards and the Glide API. Epic soon released a D3D renderer for nvidia / matrox / ati cards, but it wasn't very good. Performance was much worse compared to glide and some effects were missing or not working (such as detail textures). Also, the game just looked ugly in 16-bit colour in D3D. Thanks to the dithering technique (also known as 22-bit colour) and gamma ramp used by 3DFX, 16-bit colour looked much better on 3DFX cards (smooth gradients and much richer colours). To achieve similar colours, Nvidia / matrox / ati / S3 cards had to run Unreal 1 in 32-bit colour. However, running games in 32-bit colour was very expensive back then because the first 3D accelerators had very limited memory bandwidth. IMO people who bought the 3DFX Voodoo 2/3, had the best experience with Unreal 1 engine games because they could achieve a good balance of image quality and performance.

But despite all that, when I played Unreal 1 for the first time in 1999 on my TNT2 M64 32 MB in Direct3D, I was still blown away. I played the game at 800x600x32 with around 30fps, so the colours were beautiful and the missing texture detail didn't bother me that much. I soon bought the Geforce 2MX 32MB (128-bit), and I remember installing a modded D3D renderer for this game. Compared to the default (and unoptimized) D3D renderer, the performance boost was massive, and all effects that previously required 3DFX Glide worked. I was also able to use S3TC textures which drastically improved the graphics.

I'm probably going to get some angry emojis for this but i'll say it. I never liked Unreal. Not even the visuals, yes i said it.

Both Quake 2 and even Quake 1 looked better IMO. That's because the architecture of the structures/buildings you explored was far more interesting to look at with more geometry, more detail and better art direction.

Unreal had the "benchmark software" look. Like it was something straight out of an early 3D Mark build. Impressive visual/effects but ugly as sin at the same time.

And sure, that glance at the open area with the waterfall was impressive for most people but open areas in FPS weren't a new thing for me as i had already played Goldeneye's Dam level and the final area of the map where you go to the actual dam with the mountains in the background was more impressive a year before.

The skyboxes were great. And the close up textures made me inspect every surface. But ultimately, the whole thing still has that empty, boxy look compared to both Quake games. Which made it much less interesting to explore and that's why i didn't even bother finishing the game back then.

I was more impressed with Unreal Tournament tbh but i still liked Quake 3 a little more visually because of the art direction again. It wasn't until Unreal Tournament 2003 where i was really into exploring the maps.

I love Q1-Q2, but the graphics in Unreal 1 was simply on another level. The levels were much bigger and Unreal engine used many new amazing effects such as animated water (water ripples in unreal 1 were unsurpassed till pixel shaders era), mirror and shinny surfaces, advanced sky rendering instead of simple texture (moving clouds and planets), much more varied textures with detail maps (detail textures), volumetric volumetric and fog. Even lightmaps were more precise and arnt as pixelated. I also preferred the art direction in Unreal 1 compared to quake 2. Unreal 1 was a much more colorful game with more complex maps and varied locations. It made me feel like I was exploring a real planet with real places. Almost every map in Quake 2 looked the same and had distinctive orange hue.

The difference between the Quake II engine and the Unreal engine was significant.

Quake 2 engine

UNREAL ENGINE

 

[Polaris]

Bruh, I'm barely running Realtek.