Ultima Underworld was impressive for its time, but it doesn''t really compare to Quake''s (or even Doom''s) 3D engine. The maps in UW are just a 2D grid of squares, which is primative compared to the flexibility in level design you get in Quake. Purely from a technical point of view, Quake was in a class of its own, almost... descent was, I guess, true 3D too (whatever that means), and had 3D enemies etc. As for Quake2, well that added OpenGL (miniGL anyway) support, true colour (no more brown!), and a few other tweaks, but was essentially Quake1 (although I gather the engine was largely rewritten).

But for me, Elite on the BBC beats them all hands down: True (wireframe) 3D, 3 degrees of freedom (well, 2 actually, but I''m sure they could''ve added that Y axis if they''d wanted to), and made in 1982.

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