The Vintage Flop That Introduced Ragdoll Physics to the World

Today, almost every game uses a physics engine. They realistically apply gravity and other forces to a digital environment, making the experience more realistic for players. They can also create humorous, chaotic situations as assets crash together or flop around the map. Known affectionately as ragdoll physics, this gaming fundamental wasn’t always so popular. Ironically, the first game to use it was also a flop.

Physics in Games

The earliest video games were Tennis for Two and Pong, which both simulate a ball getting knocked between paddles. Without getting into details, those games worked using basic collision detection that reversed the direction of the ball. It’s a simple simulation that shows how physics has always been important in games. It was far from the physics engines we have today, however.

We use physics engines for a lot of things, from particle physics experimentation to development in the gaming industry. Both 2D and 3D games benefit from physics simulations, including certain iGaming activities that rely on fake gravity for randomness. This can be seen with Plinko, which plays similarly to the famous game from The Price is Right. It relies on artificial physics for the chip to fall, where it’s influenced by the pins on the way down.

Before its use in gaming, physics engines started with strictly military/scientific applications. Much like the internet itself, physics engines are one of those technologies that were first developed with government backing. Then, when its other applications became apparent, civilian businesses started to adopt the technology and use it for entertainment purposes. That brings us to 1998, in the middle of the dot-com bubble, when one game implemented a physics engine for the first time.

The First Physics Engine Game

That game was Trespasser, a videogame sequel set in the Jurassic Park universe. Set after the events of 1997’s The Lost World: Jurassic Park, it allowed players to explore the franchise’s infamous Site B after crashlanding on the island. It was created by the now-defunct DreamWorks Interactive (who would go on to develop the Medal of Honor series) and published by industry constant Electronic Arts. It was also quite star-studded for games at the time, with voicework from Minnie Driver and Richard Attenborough voicing John Hammond, while John Williams provided an exclusive score.

Before release, Trespasser claimed it would take PC gaming to the next level. It had several firsts for gaming, such as being the first engine to display hundreds of trees, mainstreaming the use of asset impostors, and of course, implementing classical mechanics to create ragdoll physics. It used a box system combined with the penalty force method which, put simply, meant every object had a collision field around it. Then, if the objects collide, they’d actively push away from one another until the fields no longer overlap. It also featured a cumbersome arm movement system, where you’d need to manually control each arm. In short, it made you the ragdoll.

Trespasser’s Legacy

On release, Trespasser sold just 50,000 copies and received a lot of negative, disappointed press. It sometimes finds itself on lists of the worst games of all time, if the author is old enough to have witnessed its Jurassic flop. It was also reported that Steven Spielberg, co-owner of DreamWorks, was almost scared away from game development by its reception.

In 2012, Spielberg contacted the original creators of Trespasser to develop a sequel. A game concept called “Jurassic World” was created, but ultimately canceled when Universal Pictures got the assets. Instead, they produced the 2015 franchise revival using the game’s ideas.

The game still has its fans, including industry figures who have praised it for introducing new concepts. Among them is DOOM’s John Carmack, who praised it for its use of audio logs and voiceover narration for in-game storytelling, instead of cutscenes.

More notably, Gabe Newell cited Trespasser as the main inspiration behind Half-Life 2’s physics engine. Both games are remembered fondly for refining the physics engines that are found in most releases today.