The following video shows the opening cinematic sequence of a 1997 PC game titled Wing Commander: Prophecy. It used a combination of live-action performances and 3D graphics to create an immersive experience that was revolutionary for it's time. Interlacing (black lines) was enabled by default due to the limitations of most PC hardware of the time, but could be disabled if desired.

"There shall come a time when one who has the heart of a Kilrathi, but is not Kilrathi born, shall rain cleansing fire down upon us. And Kn'Thrak, a time of great darkness, shall embrace us. Death itself shall pour forth, obscuring the stars in a veil of darkness. Theirs is the claw that tears flesh from bone. Theirs is the poisoned fang. Their numbers shall rend the universe barren and crush the breath from our clans. We shall be bathed in our own blood and rotted flesh shall be our fare. With a deafening thunder shall the dark age begin." ― The Tome of Sivar

Originally Posted by RTM

Most players are familiar with some of the oldest "strategic" space based games such as "Star Trek" (arcade), or "Star Raiders" for the Atari 800, but the grand-daddy was the original "Star Trek" text-based game from way, way back in in early 1970's!!

Thanks for that. You've recovered a memory of playing Star Trek on a PDP-11's line printer somewhere in the mid-1970s. Somewhere near the end of my life, I'll be short on paper--poetic justice for all of those superfluous long range scans back then.

[ TANGENT ALERT ]

The TRS-80 had a real-time version of the game that was also a favorite. You could play it cooperatively to navigate the Endever, and blast Jovians with triton missiles. At the time, the corny renaming seemed lame, but now it's a little wry, like Galaxy Quest. Space Warp, probably more than any other game, demonstrated to me that graphics quality is almost entirely irrelevant to "playability."

https://www.mobygames.com/game/trs-80/space-warp

The following video tells the story of Tengen, a subsidiary of Atari, who was sued by Nintendo for copyright and patent infringement after releasing unlicensed video games for the Nintendo NES video game console.

Nintendo maintains strict control over licensing games for it's consoles, having learned from the mistakes of Atari, who failed to do so, thus contributing to the "Great Video Game Crash of 1983".

Interestingly, Atari never seemed to learn from the mistakes of the past, as demonstrated by their lackluster release of the Atari VCS (codename Ataribox) video game console, which has been plagued by setbacks since it's announcement.

The following chart shows the changing popularity of home video game consoles v/s arcade games in the United States from 1976-2002.



Shortly before the "Great Video Game Crash of 1983", arcade games had begun a steady decline, while home video game consoles were booming. However, a combination of poor business decisions, bad video games, and a saturated market, had caused consumers to lose interest.

Things would begin to change with the release of the Nintendo NES home video game console in 1985. Arcade games also enjoyed a brief resurgence during this time, but it was short-lived, and the arcade game industry would never be the same again. Home video game console popularity began to soar with the release of the Sony PlayStation in 1994 and the Nintendo 64 in 1996.

The following video shows the trailer for a PC video game titled Full Throttle, which was released in 1995 and remastered in 2017. It's a fun little game that still has a cult following today.

The following videos are trailers for a PC video game titled Star Trek: Secret of Vulcan Fury, which was originally scheduled to be released in 1997, then in 1998, but was eventually cancelled in 1999.

The following video is a trailer for the 1995 PC interactive movie game titled Phantasmagoria, which was controversial due to it's depiction of murder using somewhat graphic cutscenes. A sequel titled Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh was released in 1996.

The following video is a documentary about an iconic video game titled Half-Life, which was originally released in 1998 and is considered by many to be one of the best first-person shooters ever made.

The following video is a trailer for a 1992 PC game titled Wolfenstein 3D, which has often been called the "grandfather of 3D first-person shooters". It was released under the shareware model, and the first episode was released for free to drive interest in paying for the rest.

The following video is a documentary about Killer Instinct, a one-on-one fighting video game that was first released for arcades in 1994, then for the Super Nintendo and Game Boy in 1995. It was quite popular, leading to the release of sequels titled Killer Instinct 2 for arcades, and Killer Instinct Gold for the Nintendo 64.