3D Games

It should be noted that in the history of computer gaming 3D has stood for quite different things. Roberta Williams' original 1984 King's Quest for example was marketed as a 3-D animated adventure since the display was layered: the hero sprite would move behind some of the decorations. More consistently it was used well into the 90s for what is nowadays known as the isometric view, mostly in the term 3D action adventure, a popular genre at the time.

The Beginnings

Some of the first 3D games were developed for the BBC, a platform that, like the PC, had decent computing power but no hardware sprites.

Elite

Komplex

Arcade

The Sentinel

Atari ST is the original

1992: Wolfenstein 3D

With Wolfenstein 3D came the FPS genre, and this is where 3D development now mainly took place, though RPGs also liked to experiment with this technology.

Intermezzo: The Classic Platforms

There had always been 3D games on the Amiga, ported and original. From about 1995 on, many developers tried to recreate the Doom experience on their platform. The results were in general not very successful.

1995: New Engines

Hexen was the last game built on the Doom engine. The developers tought the old dog a few new tricks, like dead leaves blowing in the wind, but VGA simply wouldn't cut it any more. The future belonged to higher resolutions. Ken Silverman's Build Engine supplied them. It did a good job in faking a true 3D environment as well and allowed for fairly realistic maps.

Parallely Bethesda developed their XnGine, which they used the first time in 1995 for Terminator: Future Shock. It had a true 3D environment and totally free mouselook, but supported only VGA up to 1997.

Bad Toys	FPS	95
3D Tetris	Blockout		Jon Mayfield
Descent	FPS
Hexen
William Shatner's TekWar			Build Engine
Witchaven	RPG		Build Engine
Daggerfall	RPG	96	XnGine
Genocide	Artillery		James Payne
Duke Nukem 3D	FPS		Build Engine
Descent II			3Dfx Voodoo patch
Quake			The first FPS that used 3D actors
SimCopter	sim		3Dfx Voodoo patch
Amulets & Armor	RPG	97
Blood	FPS		Build Engine
Chasm: The Rift
Shadow Warrior			Build Engine
Dungeon Keeper	strat
Mobile Rage	Racing	98

1997: Hardware Acceleration

1996/97 there are several important changes in 3D games:

While previously most games had been map-based, not allowing rooms above rooms (2½D), the subsequent ones increasingly model their world in true 3D. The first games to do this had been Ultima Underworld, Quake, and Daggerfall; the Build engine had done a very good job at faking it.
Sprites are increasingly replaced with 3D actors. Alone in the Dark had already used them on pre-rendered backgrounds, now the pioneers are Tomb Raider and Quake.
Games usually support, and increasingly require, hardware acceleration, the by far most popular being 3Dfx Voodoo cards and their Glide API. Again, the first ones to do so had been Tomb Raider and Quake, the latter in its Windows version only.
The Sony Playstation becomes the dominant console. It is 3D by default, typically using 3D actors over pre-rendered background, a combination previously only used by Alone in the Dark. Many Playstation games are ported to Windows.

Additionally, 2D games now increasingly use 3D effects, Diablo, for example, for the lighting of the dungeons.

Galapagos			97
Quake II		FPS
Streets of SimCity		Racing
Final Fantasy VII	PSX	RPG	98
Half-Life		FPS
Unreal		FPS
Sentinel Returns	PSX
Carnivores 2		hunt	99
Dungeon Keeper 2		strat		Playing Guide
Final Fantasy VIII	PSX	RPG
Hidden & Dangerous		Tactical		Michal Bačik
The Longest Journey		Adventure		Ragnar Tørnquist
Descent³		FPS
Gabriel Knight 3		Adventure
Nightfall		Adventure

2000: 3D Goes Mainstream

Around 2000, the previously dominant Glide standard was more and more replaced by Microsoft's Direct3D, which in turn was now supported by most video cards on the market. Thus 3D games were no longer restricted to gamers with specialized hardware.

The Sims		00
Evolva	Action
Ground Control	RTS
ZetriX	Tetris		Vesa Halonen
Anarchy Online	RPG	01	Surround Gaming
Max Payne	Action
Serious Sam	FPS
Torrente	Action
Return to Castle Wolfenstein	FPS		Surround Gaming
Wizardry 8	RPG
Carnivores: Cityscape	FPS	02
Hooters Road Trip	race
Morrowind	RPG
Neverwinter Nights	RPG		Surround Gaming
Beyond Good & Evil	Adventure	03	Michel Ancel
Manhunt	Action
Railroad Tycoon 3	strat
Doom 3	FPS	04
The Sims 2
Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel	RPG
The Bard's Tale	RPG		Windows 2005
Playboy: The Mansion	strat	05
Vivisector	FPS	05
Blazetris	Tetris	06	Dmitri Kuznetsov
Oblivion	RPG	06
Fallout 3	RPG	08

Wolfenstein 3D	FPS	92
Spear of Destiny	FPS	92
Betrayal at Krondor	RPG	93
Ultima Underworld	RPG
Blake Stone	FPS
Doom	FPS		Pre-Alpha Slide Show
Arena	RPG	94
Heretic	FPS
Rise of the Triad
System Shock
Marathon

Alien Breed 3D	FPS	95	AGA only
Gloom	FPS
Whale's Voyage 2	RPG
Alien Breed 3D II	Action	96
Black Viper	Action
Nemac IV	FPS
Running	FPS	97
Testament	FPS	97