• There have been many pioneering games with 3D animation.Penguin image by Sergey Tokarev from Fotolia.com
  
  In 1981, a historically important computer game called 3D Monster Maze was released. This game was the first for the home computer to include three-dimensional (3D) animation which included the walls of the maze and a monstrous tyrannosaurus rex. Since then the use of 3D computer graphics has been refined and it finds its way into most computer games on the market.
  
  

Spaism

• Spaism is the earliest known example of a 3D animated computer game. Released in March 1974 by developer Jim Bowery, it was a networked computer game that focused on space simulation. Players flew around space attacking each other in wire-frame space ships. This game was played on the PLATO network (Programmed Logic for Automated Teaching Operations) at the University of Illinois. This meant that very few people had access to the game and it would take until 3D Monster Maze for 3D to reach a home computer.
  
  

Wolfenstein 3D

• This game was not the first of the first-person-shooter games to have 3D graphics but it was one of the most groundbreaking. The game followed many maze-based action games like Catacomb 3-D and Hovertank 3D, but it included choices for many different weapons and had much more realism than the previous games. The game had more enemies, bosses, detailed walls and other elements that made it a bestseller. The success of the game led to similar but more complex games like Doom, Quake and Halo that took the first-person-shooter world by storm. The game is available for free on the Steam downloading service.
  
  

Super Mario 64

• Super Mario 64 was released in Japan in 1996 and a year later in North America. This was one of the first games for a gaming platform that contained true 3D polygons. It began a departure for video game manufacturers away from the traditional 2D sprites and side scrolling games. This gave characters full freedom of movement in an open-ended area. Players were encouraged to explore the large worlds through complex missions. The game is available for the Nintendo 64 and it was remade as Super Mario 64 DS in 2004 for the Nintendo DS.
  
  

World of Warcraft

• In 2004, World of Warcraft was released for the PC. This game immersed millions of players in a three-dimensional world that let them interact with each other in battles and quests. Classified as a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), the fourth in the series has more than 11 million subscribers who participate in this diverse graphical land that includes such features as variable weather like rain, dust storms and snow. The game took nearly five years to develop and it received many positive reviews upon release.