DF Retro: Gunbuster vs Wolfenstein 3D - How 1992 Revolutionised The FPS

Haven't heard of Gunbuster, or Operation Gunbuster? We're not surprised. It's an arcade shooter from 1992 released mere months after Wolfenstein 3D re-architected the first-person shooter on PC. The thing is... there's a lot of commonality here in terms of presentation, movement and control with the key difference coming down to technology. Gunbuster's entire presentation is based on sprites, a dead-end technology for the FPS revolution to come but in 1992? It was the Wild West and anything was possible.
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[@Renk1]

Good to get a glimpse of a game I’d known nothing about. Thanks for the episode! These smaller ones are a good idea.

[@MadX8]

It's great to have you back John. These DF Retro are something else and your work in general is definitely what I prefer about Digital Foundry. Thank you!

[@whiteflare1000]

I always enjoy the retro looks. I had never heard of this game, but I really enjoy hearing about game history. Thanks, John and DF team.

[@unacomn]

1992 was a hell of a year for first person games. When are you folks going to cover Ultima Underworld?

[@ozzyp97]

This. UW was so far ahead of the curve, released before Wolf3D with real 3D environments more akin to Quake. Granted it didn't run as fast even with the small viewport, but still perfectly playable on a 33 MHz 486 with no FPU.

[@diehlr]

I think John hit the nail on the head in comparing the graphics technique used in this game with how the Saturn handled quads. I don’t think there was anywhere else to go with sprite based tech than to start warping textures using quads / triangles. It saved artists too much time and effort to warp their artwork in realtime rather than spend so much more time and memory to store precalculated versions taken at different angles.

[@TheSurreptitiousSquirrelCabal]

Gunbuster is an evolution of Taitos first-person shooter 'Space Gun', released two years earlier in 1990. The backpedal on the cabinet was an interesting touch in which you could reverse the set and automated forward and side scrolling momentum, to slightly extend your reaction time from the oncoming alien onslaught. The cabinets mounted guns also had a pump action mechanic which were used to launch screen clearing grenades. Check it out if you are able to, one of my favourite arcade games. Simple yet very fun.

[@casedistorted]

I remember Space Gun fondly but I never got to see Gunbuster in action in an Arcade.

[@TheKillerPingu]

I remember playing Gunbuster alot at the arcade when I was a kid. This plus Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Time Crisis, and Gunblade NY were my favourite go-to arcade games.

[@SirCalalot]

Great video, John! Even though it’s a smaller one, I don’t feel short-changed at all! It still has your trademark care and attention. (Not to mention the top-quality, un-stretched capture!) I’d never heard of this game either until now, so I’m off to try it out. Keep up the awesome work, mate!

[@vornchhy3454]

I had to triple check the video title and thought to my “Why is DF retro comparing an 80s anime Gunbuster with wolfenstein? but sure, why not, I’ll check out the video “. Lol. I’ve never heard of this game.

[@CarterDotson]

I played this at Galloping Ghost and was amazed at how advanced it was for 1992!

[@SuperPowerPainter]

This is such a gift. We don't deserve this, John!!! Another masterclass video from ya. I especially loved the Zuntata music montage. Thank you

[@Polyh3dron]

Loved this smaller video, I also never would've known about this game without it. Looking forward to the Road Rash epic too.

[@rickydo6572]

Every single game shown in this video looks absolutely amazing and I'm baffled I had never even heard about most of them. I feel like arcade gaming is largely unrecognized when it comes to gaming, there's an entire universe of absolutely amazing stuff that's just obscure nowdays, thousands of hidden gems most peopl don't know, and this game is absolutely one of those gems.

[@krono5el]

that was an incredible time to be a gaming maniac : D

[@you2be839]

It's the kind of game that only those over 16 frequenting the arcades would stumble upon and play... and even then only a few arcades would feature a cabinet such as Gunbuster

[@pferreira1983]

Antstream will help with your arcade gaming education. 👍

[@Rationalific]

I love DF Retro! It's very apparent that you (John) have a real passion for what you cover. Even with that medley of songs that you thought we had to "survive", we can tell that you love some things so much that you feel you need to share them (which I'm all for!). I was around when Gunbuster came out, but it's a new game to me. Thanks for shedding light on all of this fascinating info!

[@Andrew-wb2zq]

DF Retrooo! Man those CRT captures look great.

[@baldinggrey5368]

I loved that you included that Night Boat clip, classic Simpsons is such a gem

[@crestofhonor2349]

Always preferred the look of sprite scaling in 3D over the polygons of this era. Way more variety, smoother performance, and better visuals in my opinion

[@0ring0]

Short videos, long videos, multi-episode series. All are welcomed in this house, John! Whatever you can produce and fits you schedule, we appreciate it! I'm honestly really hyped about the Road Rash video(s) I may finally see Road Rash 64 and Road Redemption (if you talk about modern successors) getting some time in the spotlight!

[@ArchThaBoss]

You just took me back. Road rash was my absolute favorite game series as a kid. I just loved the fact you could kick riders off their bikes 😂

[@videothumbtv]

Phenomenal work as always, love the smaller focused format in between bigger projects, just the right amount of info and entertainment. Nobody does it better

[@Nice_Places]

1992 was a great year for games! You forgot to mention Streets of Rage 2, Contra III The Alien Wars, Thunder Force IV, Desert Strike, Axelay and that’s before we mention anything released in arcades and Neo-Geo! Great video and more arcade games please!

[@cutter6900]

Dude, your capture game is top-notch - besides being an awesome video, all the footage was absolutely gorgeous!

[@90lancaster]

I disagree the presentation is overly zoomed in and artsy for the sake of it.

[@SneakyFox195]

Witnessing the technological and design methods to implement concepts we take for granted today is always a fascinating time - even more so when you guys do it! Also, I may need to go to a Taito music deep dive soon...

[@knightsabre2k]

IT's really cool seeing an episode dedicated to a single game which many may not have heard about but is still fascinating. And it doesn't have to a super long episode covering an entire series of multiple versions of the same game! Hope to see more!

[@BeersYourFriend]

It's so interesting to see these old games in action and what made them so special. The peeks behind the scenes explaining a games history, comparison videos of other classics at that time, and even covering the in-game music is just top-notch. Keep the retro videos coming. Excellent video John! Cheers! 🍻

[@Zionfarm]

Wow just wow. This episode blew me away. The content and delivery was spot on. I never saw or knew of this gem. Considering I have a Taito F3 PCB, I appreciate their sound delivery and style of graphics.

[@mazziecat]

Ultima Underworld and Catacomb 3-D says hello. Both 1991. "However, Doug Church has said that John Carmack saw the game's summer 1990 software convention demo, and recalled a comment from Carmack that he could write a faster texture mapper. Paul Neurath has recounted the incident similarly, with both Carmack and Romero present." So 1990, even. Underworld is low key one of the most influential games of all time.

[@deucemcallister13]

DF Retro is a gem, John. Short form or long form, I'm starved for more. Thanks for your continuous contributions to this great idea.

[@jotakux7489]

This was like the best idea. You guys of had a long time. Thank you for this.

[@superbro6413]

The sprite scaling tech Taito used in Gunbuster looks fantastic! Never heard of this game either, thanks for sharing this beautiful work of 90's arcade action with us all!

[@AndreZelak]

I loved this bite size DF Retro. Great work as always, John!

[@Daz555Daz]

Man Wolf 3D still holds up superbly to this day. Surprising now to look back and remember that most of us played this on keyboard using arrow keys and a strafe button!

[@leonkenedy4616]

That´s why games back in the day 90´s-2000´s are the best, That search for breach the boundaries, the desire to be the best, the passion. Nowadays most developers and publishers aim to play safe.

[@Crackalacking_Z]

I love this shorter format, really nice way to spot light these forgotten gems.

[@TheBig451]

DF Retro is probably my favorite thing on the entire platform, always a joy to see a new episode!

[@kylebookout1789]

Love that quick Wii mote insert for some reason I picture John digging through a bunch of old accessories like "Yes, this will be perfect for this 5 second clip."

[@eSKAone-]

The whole japanese culture seems like an alternate timeline of everything, hence it being so interesting 💟

[@niveketihw1897]

Excellent retrospective. I'll admit about as far back as I can go is Doom / Doom ][. Played through Doom 64 on Steam a couple years back and had a blast. I've never seen Gunbuster but it initially reminded me of Space Harrier. Sprite-fantastic graphics. I love going back in time for a few minutes with these vids! There was also a jet / air speeder arcade sim called Lock-On that I remember with sort of a similar look to Gunbuster. Cruis'n USA too. Those bright 8 bit color scaling sprites were SO in your face. Not very subtle. The sprite scaling wasn't TOO dissimilar from 5th gen console 3D (3DO, Jaguar, Saturn, PS1) with their swimming, glitching, non-perspective-corrected textures (and yes, the PS1 also had this despite the Saturn's weird texturing), even if the methods were pretty different. Also I owned an FPS that I bet most people have never heard of -- Robotica on the Saturn. I wouldn't say it was good, but it had a certain old-skool 2600 charm + FPS-ish motif that was interesting. Lots and lots and lots of fogging -- you mostly couldn't see more than 4 meters in front of yourself. Framerate was a nice and consistent 18 fps.

[@HimmelFlugzeug]

Great work as always and a lot of fun to watch. Thanks John! I'd love to see more of those shorter, so to say retro DF Retro videos like the ones you made in the beginning. Nice game choice also, would never have known about it otherwise!

[@noodleknight7924]

Street Fighter 2 was released early 1991 in arcades. 1992 was the date of it's first home console release.

[@SHGames97]

ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT 🔥 Brings me back to the first Quake/Duke episodes of DF Retro. An absolute potent, dense & action packed episode long enough to finish out my lunch break after eating. Still positively ADORE the formats throughout, 100% unique with differentiators making each addition to the wide pallette of "DF RETRO DELIVERY"* flavor!

[@HoroJoga]

Thanks for making this video, John!

[@nastybun]

Love the episode and the format! Keen to have these sorts of curios documented and explored like this.

[@vornchhy3454]

Thanks John for this. I grew up in the 80s and 90s arcades. There’s so many games that I want to play back then as a kid but lack the quarters for them. I’ll definitely check out all the Taito games mentioned in this video. Keep up the great work.

[@MikkoHiiri]

Great video and this short form has its benefits, just the "snack" I needed.

[@mejia29]

I'm glad you highlighted some of Zuntata's work. I feel they go overlooked and underappreciated.

[@Eu023]

Quality of this video is unbelievable! I could not skip ahead 10 seconds in the whole video, everything here was perfect. Thanks John!!!

[@afropovic]

Street Fighter 2 came out in 1991. 92 saw the SNES home release and Championship Edition in the arcades.

[@SteveBrandon]

Yeah, I don't think we'd likely have gotten a Mortal Kombat if it wasn't for Street Fighter II, or perhaps we would have but it would've been a lot more like Pit Fighter.

[@GameplayandTalk]

This era of 2D sprite scaling to form 3D environments was so cool!

[@IanSlutz]

I think about this game way more often than anybody could imagine. Especially, because most people don't know this game existed. My friends and I had lots of fun in the arcade.

[@massivepileup]

It's interesting that they used different sprites even for rotating walls since quite a few Taito arcade games use surfaces dynamically rotating around a vertical axis, see e.g. the walls in Kaiser Knuckle. And even if that was only available on tech later than 1992 or cannot handle that many wall objects, they could at least do ground distortion like in 1992's Riding Fight. Though I suspect that the sprite based 3D has trouble with higher world complexity compared to raycasting which avoids overdraw. I think the reason corpses in Doom don't rotate is because they didn't want to bother drawing 8 angles for every death animation, I believe most monsters have more death frames than frames for all their alive actions (which are drawn from 8 angles).

[@Wobbothe3rd]

Memory limitations.

[@BigBangBlitz]

I'm so glad Gunbuster is getting it's proper due somewhere on the internet. It's one of the coolest games nobody seems to recognize nowadays.

[@michalmarek77]

Outstanding episode! Everything you do for DF, John, is simply stellar. Love your worki!

[@vertigoz]

For those enjoying going down the rabbit hole, what about to search for "kk altair dread ep 01". This is a series of episodes from the author of a 3D FPS game that plays on a Vanilla Amiga 500. He goes on explaining the work behind it, it's very interesting, even because it's one genre that Amiga seriously lacked back then and one of the reasons of its demise.

[@steve43ful]

This rules.

[@Agamemnon2]

I never saw Gunbuster in the 90s, but I have vivid memories of seeing Space Gun on the Stockholm ferry in the period, and being blown away by the graphics and the lightgun controllers. It was like nothing I could ever imagine seeing on a home PC or console. I don't think I ever played it, my parents never liked me spending money on coin-op games and whatever pocket money I had on those trips was more likely to go into the soda machine instead :D

[@krono5el]

Something about destructible glass in gaming was so satisfying, cool, and fun, it always seemed to blow my mind and i kinda miss it nowadays.

[@andreadolci9263]

The first episodes of DF Retro were 20 minutes or less long and focused on a single game, like this one. In my opinion this is the perfect format for covering most games

[@dingo535]

I love when “Adam” kicks in! Beautiful touch, Zuntata is soo good.

[@TwinOpinion]

Thanks, John! 1992 really was one of the best years in history for video gaming! We didn't know how well we had it...

[@iPlaySEGA]

Yay! Finally again some RETRO stuff!

[@asdfjklo234]

I love the deep knowledge and passion you bring to the table, John, game after game, giving our gaming heritage the attention it deserves. Thank you.

[@metalagent47]

What I appreciate most about John is his excellent eye for detail. John would never allow for retro games footage to be recorded in subpar conditions. These Close up captures either through emulation effects and shaders or what it may be. John would be the one to require the gameboy footage to appear in dot matrix shader. Love it

[@gridline]

I like that this experimentally short video is still four times as long as the first DF Retro on Quake.

[@susu5331]

These shorter episodes allow you to introduce us to retro games that are awesome but doesn't make an hour-long episode, please make more of them

[@TheSoleDweller]

Thanks for the reminiscences this video summoned. I was living in my 2nd decade back then: you've waken up the child in me and I'm grateful for that. Plus, the in-depth technical explanation of it all I couldn't know of, in these old days. 👍

[@WalrusFPGA]

Ah such great timing on this one- been spending the weekend revisiting early 90's FPS games 🙂 Thanks as always for sharing your insight into retro experiences here! Great way to start the day ☕

[@AntneeUK]

The nostalgia is strong, John! What gorgeous visuals, and a great video

[@ScavengerFX]

I've been looking for the game night striker for decades now and you found it for me! I had forgotten the name of it but I had a blast when I was a kid. Thanks!

[@SeaToSkyImages]

I'm always amazed by how many arcade games from the late 80s/early 90s that I've never heard of. I was an arcade nut back then (still am), and figured I'd be getting close to knowing about every arcade game from that era. Not even close. Thanks so much for bringing this game to my attention, John. It looks really cool.

[@DonkeyRhubarb21]

Absolutely loved this. Superb work.

[@jonnyeh]

As a gamer that loves this era of gaming it's so easy to overlook these arcade only releases since they got little coverage in Magazines of the time, and are buried in the giant lists of MAME roms today. I will absolutely check this game out, thank you John!

[@Doomster-jl9rx]

Great episode, John. Watching this one gave me a bit of an idea. How about a few episodes that cover arcade games? Most gamers these days don't know what arcade games were like, back in the day, and won't have a clue what it was like for us back in the 70s, 80s and 90s. I'll never forget moments like when I played Pong and Space Invaders back in the 70s, or the likes of Outrun, Gauntlet and After burner in the 80s. It would be fascinating seeing a video that covered these games and times. It's just a though, buddy.

[@ZinhoMegaman]

Survived the Montage, come on John, I only listen to soundtracks, I don't even bother with post-1999 traditional music anymore, so give me more OST Montage to listen, it is always a pleasure!

[@AP-hn8wd]

Who else thought it was the 6-part anime mini-series, “Aim for the top” GunBuster?

[@sinbadthejunglist]

Welcome back, John! Great to see you well and hitting the ground running! Fantastic retro video, as always, and yes, do love the shorter vibes of this video... there's a lot of MAME to cover, so I'm sure it would be to everyone's benefit! I've been a fan of Taito and arcade games in general for many years, such a shame current access to these more obscure games are limited to emulation. ACA has, at least, been instrumental in bringing many arcade classics to console in a meaningful way; here's hoping they or any other company for that matter, start to tackle these more obscure titles and release them to the public at large! The kids of today don't know what they are missing 😁

[@jeanfcp]

Thanks for the video. It's always nice to discover gems I had never heard about. And I always liked the Darius OSTs but didn't know about Zuntata. I now have a new massive playlist to listen to, lol.

[@RidgeRacer]

That Taito montage is more than excused, that bit was so cool

[@ImOnlyJoeKing]

Enjoyed the montage at the end. The Psychic Force music is awesome

[@bunnybreaker]

Playing Gunbuster on a modded Xbox with a lightgun that had a dpad is legit one of my favourite gaming memories. Never saw the actual cabinet in the wild though.

[@TheLastLineLive]

I never heard of Gunbuster. But it looks pretty damn cool. I’ll have to check it out. First fps I played (if you don’t count flight games like Top Gun) was Faceball 2000 on the snes which was pretty cool for the time but Wolf 3d was a huge leap ahead of that.

[@Xsetsu]

Taito's arcade catalog is quite insane. They do not get the credit they deserve.

[@MetalJody1990]

Wonderful episode, John! I'm gonna try this game asap! Thanks a ton for the instructions. EDIT: Just played thru the whole thing... Damn, I'm impressed! I had a lot of fun. Aiming with the mouse felt similar to how aiming felt in the Wii port of Metroid Prime with keyboard & mouse in the emulator Dolphin (not the PrimeHack version), so it took me like no time to get used to turning and aiming at targets. Kick-ass game for 1992 for sure. Would love to have the actual arcade machine in my house.

[@wusstunes]

Cool episode. Loved the music montage.

[@StillTheVoid]

I discovered Taito's Zuntata through the Saturn port of Darius Gaiden and was one of its notable features on why I'd enjoyed the catalog of Taito games from the start. Even in Darius II's moody and space adventure music, I knew I was in for a wild ride. A reminder of how arcade games of the time transported us to another dimension releasing us from the shackles of society. Thank you guys for this vid. As always, I will be looking forward to your next videos. Until next time... ✌

[@johnclark926]

I really wish arcade machines hadn’t died outside of Japan after the 90s. No matter how powerful consoles or PCs have gotten, the tailor-made hardware, controllers, and even displays for each arcade machine allowed for unique games that just don’t have modern day equivalents. It’s not just the sprite-scaling Gunstar that provides an alternative to the foundation of the FPS genre laid by Id Software, games like Battlezone does away with pixel art entirely with its vector wireframe look. Racing games could have their own steering wheel, platformers and schmups could have vertical displays, and then there are games like Cube Quest that are just like nothing else made before or since. I feel like arcade games occupied a seriously interesting niche, and after they went away because they tried to chase the success of consoles and lost, nothing has really filled in the void they left behind.

[@damnkris]

I LOVE this video. It has such good pacing and storytelling! The music segment mixed with gameplay was downright beautiful! Some of your best stuff ever John! After writing this comment I'm off to try out MAME

[@Breakfastnooka]

Lure me in with Wolfenstein 3d and then hit me with the Taito history lesson and jam session. Always premium content with the DF team

[@werewolfy6]

Great video and thanks for making me discover arcade games I’ve never heard of before! I love this short format so don’t hesitate to talk about more games in this way

[@spyhardman]

This was excellent; I’d be thrilled to get more videos like this.

[@ilkeryoldas]

We need more retro videos.. went back 6 years on the playlist!

[@Simpyphus]

I have played a lot of Taito arcade games, but I am less familiar with the content you covered in this video. Very interesting stuff, I took some notes on games I will try out. Thanks for the upload.

[@ArchThaBoss]

Any drop from digital foundry makes for a good Sunday 😎

[@slaterbreaker]

Never heard of this, it looks incredible! Great video and continually great professional content!

[@kohlmannj]

Great episode, loved the music focus as well. Short episodes are great, and a relaxed, well-rested John Linneman is even greater!

[@Garrad3]

Aside from the feature length. These short videos and E3 ones are my favourite. Love to see more E3 coverage from the veterans.

[@EyesArePlanets]

Great video Jon. Loved the montage, never heard of that in-house band!

[@WH250398]

Speaking of retro shooters, I am having an absolute blast with Prodeus. Genuinely one of the best fps games I have played in years.

[@RicochetForce]

Yeah, Prodeus is excellent.

[@hotdogflavoureddrink]

Short or long, I just want more of those excellent Retro videos!

[@thebizzle413]

This is my favorite series on KZbin.

[@BAMozzy69]

I don't recall Gunbusters but I do remember Wolfenstein. To me, this was an evolution from the 3D 'Maze' games that were often First Person.

[@Xpert74]

I literally had no idea this game existed until this video - it looks amazing though. Thank you for shining a light on Gunbuster!