10 "Firsts" That Changed Video Games Forever

First: Die Hard Arcade (1996)

Love them or hate them, quick-time-events – on screen button prompts which perform actions beyond the player’s immediate control – have become a significant aspect of modern gaming. In particular, action games indulge in the practice in order to encourage player involvement throughout otherwise non-interactive portions of the game. In fairness – while a good many people despise them – QTEs are not inherently a bad thing; they’re just overplayed, often being used inappropriately, or as a substitute for actual gameplay.

In the 1980s, QTEs were a primary means of telling a story, the vast majority of laserdisc games – such as Dragon’s Lair, Cliff Hanger and Road Blaster – using them to progress the action in a forward motion, thereby simulating the effect of a television show, or an animated blockbuster. With that being said, these games were essentially just movies with interactive elements, leaving little room for more complex, or interesting gameplay mechanics, and requiring nothing more of the player than the occasional button press.

As a result, the first genuine example of quick-time-events can be found in Die Hard Arcade, a beat ‘em up from 1997, published by SEGA, released two years before the term would be coined by Yu Suzuki, the creator of Shemue.