Vintage Games

4

DIABLO (1996): THE ROGUE GOES TO HELL

Perhaps the handiest way to illustrate Diablo's (Blizzard, 1996; Apple Macintosh, PC, Sony PlayStation) impact is by comparing it to another breakout hit of the 1990s: id's first-person shooter Doom (1993; Apple Macintosh, Atari Jaguar, PC, and others; see Chapter 5, “Doom (1993): The First Person Shooter Takes Control”). The two games have much in common. First, they both introduced critical innovations that established new genres. Second, they were staggeringly successful in their own right, inspiring other developers to shamelessly duplicate their formula. Both games offer similar plots (go to hell, confront demons). Finally, and perhaps most importantly, both games took full advantage of the tremendous ...