Apocalypse Then: Unreal

Developers: Epic Games, Digital Extremes
Publisher: GT Interactive (now owned by Atari)
Engine: Unreal Engine
Platforms: Mac OS, Microsoft Windows
Release date: May 22, 1998

On this day in gaming, in 1998, Unreal was released.

It was hailed as revolutionary due to its advanced graphics, competent enemy AI, and for its use of music modules rather than MIDI or CD audio. It was also hailed as a “Quake killer”, due to being released in the same six months as Quake II, and people claiming it was technically superior engine wise to id Tech 2 (Quake II).

The game has had one expansion pack, Unreal Mission Pack I: Return to Na Pali, which would be bundled together with Unreal later as Unreal Gold, an official map pack called the Fusion Map Pack which can be downloaded from the internet for free, a sequel in Unreal 2: The Awakening, and spawned a series of games in another series, starting with Unreal Tournament.

In addition to this, Unreal ended up spawning a series of Unreal engines by Epic Games, now at Unreal Engine 3. Many games have ended up using these engines, notably the Brothers in Arms series, Rainbow Six series, and Duke Nukem Forever.

Companies such as Unreal FX took their name from the game.

Not bad for a game developed in a garage for over three years.

Games also released on this day:

Red Faction- May 22, 2001 (PS2)

Apocalypse Then: Unreal