Unreal Engine is perhaps the most well-known game development tool on the planet, and some images of its first tech demo have surfaced.
Those who are perhaps a bit older will probably remember a time when gaming was a simpler affair. At the time, studios were much smaller, budgets were smaller, and development cycles were shorter, all of which meant it wasn’t the gigantic industry enjoyed today. Over the years, there have been many incredible advances in video game technology, both software and hardware, and things like unreal engine it is an example of technology that has helped things move forward significantly. Of course, the Epic Games engine had to start somewhere.
In a recent video, YouTuber Cycu1 managed to boot up an old version of the Unreal Engine on his much more contemporary PC. Specifically, the footage shows a playable tech demo of the first iteration of the engine from 1995. This means that the demo predates even the first one. Unreal 1998 game, for which the software was originally created.
The video shows the player wandering around a dark interior, which appears to be some kind of castle. Looking at it through modern eyes, it’s clear that the graphics are now dated. But at the time, it was an impressive engine, and even id Software’s John Carmack complimented it. With the recent release of Unreal Engine 5, many can see just how much the technology has come along over the decades. Even the original version was improved between the demo and when it was used to create Unrealwhich came out three years later.
The YouTuber says they had some trouble getting it to run on Windows 11 and had to run it using Windows XP compatibility mode. Even with an Nvidia RTX 3080 graphics card, the video seems to have some frame rate issues, probably because the Unreal Engine wasn’t ready for future PC hardware three decades later. Cycu1 even said that this video was captured after numerous accidents.
The Unreal Engine is one of the most popular engines in video game development today, used in the creation of many indie and AAA titles, as well as some fan remakes. With upcoming titles like red fall, Stalker 2and the new sorcerer game using it, the games industry at large continues to put Epic’s long-running software to use. Development has really come a long way in what some would consider a relatively short period of time, and the video that Cycu1 has uploaded really shows the evolution.
Source: DSO Games
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