Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Open world" in English language version.
Seven Cities of Gold, an Ozark Softscape title produced for EA in 1984 that eventually became the best-selling game of Bunten's career, was one of the first video games to take a stab at an 'open world' concept, allowing players to explore a virtual continent and set their own path rather than follow a regimented series of events.
Amazingly, open-world games can be traced back to the days of mainframes—namely, to the 1976 text-only game Colossal Cave Adventure for the PDP-10. Adventure at its core wasn't much different to the GTAs, Elites, and Minecrafts of today: you could explore, freely, in any direction, and your only goals were to find treasure (which is scattered throughout the cave) and to escape with your life.
Colossal Cave Adventure was a direct inspiration on 1980 Atari 2600 game Adventure. Its open world may have been sparse and populated by little more than dragon-ducks and simple geometric shapes, but its relative vastness enabled players to imagine magnificent adventures of their own making.
Zelda, alongside games like Ultima and Hydlide, are among the first to be considered open world.
Seven Cities of Gold was one of the first games with randomized maps and an open world...
Lords Of Midnight's wonderful storyline (inspired, unsurprisingly, by The Lord Of The Rings), open-world gameplay and elegant graphics were one thing - its seemingly effortless welding of the traditional adventure game to these features set a new standard for software that remains an amazing feat over 30 years later.
Wasteland, which launched in 1988, spawned the Fallout series and won plaudits for its open-world design.
The first game to feature an open-world environment was the 1986 Turbo Esprit for the ZX Spectrum.
Still, for a pre-King's Quest graphic adventure, Valhalla remains pretty unique with its open-world aspects. Being able to kill anyone and anything can be great fun, and seeing what weird things the NPCs will do on autopilot is strangely endearing.
The game's design even proved to be a precursor to key elements of modern day open world games like BioWare's Dragon Age, Mass Effect, and Baldur's Gate series.
The sequel to Skool Daze is even better than the first and a prime example of the '80s approach to open world adventure.
With nothing but 1990s 3D technology, it presented an open world action game set in modern-day Los Angeles...
An open-world taxi game set in a hyperviolent dystopian futurecity, 1994's Quarantine is hugely exciting in my foggy memory.
Pirates! was probably the second open-world game after Seven Cities of Gold.
While Turbo Esprit sounds like a racing game, this quite revolutionary release is actually a very early example of an open-world driving game.
Still, for a pre-King's Quest graphic adventure, Valhalla remains pretty unique with its open-world aspects. Being able to kill anyone and anything can be great fun, and seeing what weird things the NPCs will do on autopilot is strangely endearing.
Pirates! was probably the second open-world game after Seven Cities of Gold.
