The show featured 1,500 new titles from 500 exhibitors on a record 534,000 square feet area (the size of 35 football fields). There were six game conferences covering some of the big issues of the day, including trends in online gaming and the future of development.

While the genre hadn't caught hold on consoles yet, at the time, PC FPS were all the rage -- although they were commonly called "Doom clones." Half-Life, Unreal, SiN, Daikatana, Prey, Quake II, and Star Wars: Jedi Knight Dark Forces II all made their debut at E3 1997. But the biggest surprise in the genre emerged as GoldenEye 007. Already a game watched closely by the press, the demos convinced everyone in attendance that Rare was creating something special. Compared directly with the stars of the time, namely Doom, Duke Nukem, and Quake, GoldenEye's four-player split-screen had showgoers hooked.

Metal Gear Solid for PlayStation made a big splash on Day 2 of E3, being shown in non-playable form as a video loop at Konami's booth. Duke Nukem Forever was also announced, with the tagline: "Always Bet on Duke." The game would take more than a decade to actually get to market.

All eyes were on Nintendo to showcase how it would improve its sparse games library for the Nintendo 64. Instead of pushing internally-developed software, Nintendo focused on its US and UK-developed lineup. Rare was well-represented with GoldenEye 007, Conker's Quest (a very different game from what eventually became Conker's Bad Fur Day), and Banjo-Kazooie. Hopes were high for an official 64DD US announcement from Nintendo, but chairman Howard Lincoln told press attendees that although the hardware was ready, software was not. "When we get that exactly right, we'll introduce the 64 Disk Drive," Lincoln said to IGN, referring to the software.

Notorious no-shows at E3 1997 included Nintendo's Zelda game (then, a 64DD title -- later to become Ocarina of Time) and the later cancelled Robotech: Crystal Dreams. Instead, Superman 64 debuted to a tepid reception.

SEGA had a big booth at the show, but the company's representatives looked awfully subdued. Word had it that SEGA was pulling all of its advertising.

One company that was not subdued at E3 1997 was 3Dfx. 3Dfx came out swinging that year. Nearly every PC game worth looking at on the show floor had a "Powered by 3Dfx" sign. Even a few arcade games, Mace comes to mind, had 3Dfx signs on them.

Another company at the top of the world was Eidos. Lara Croft was everywhere. This was the year of Tomb Raider II -- Lara Croft was bigger than Mario and Sonic combined. (No pun intended.) Eidos had a Lara Croft look-alike. A huge contingent of show attendees stood by the booth for long stretches of time just to get a look at some model in a green tank top, black shorts, and sunglasses.

There was a small pornography area for the first few years of E3. By 1997, that small area went away. Interestingly, the disappearance of real sexploitation from the show opened the way for a more innocent style of sexploitation.

A Duke Nukem look-alike walked the show floor with two nubile models. Pandemic sent around a sweet young thing in a pristine nurse's outfit passing out invitations to their booth. Upon closer examination, the invitations contained condoms.

Atlanta's convention center was not a good place for E3. The floor space was bigger and less expensive, but badly laid out for the show. Instead of having three square floors it had two endless rectangles. You could get from end-to-end in Los Angeles in 10 hectic minutes. Atlanta took twice as long.

Despite disappointment that the show failed to yield "A Main Event," there was general optimism at the number of high quality and original games coming later this year. Following the show, industry analysts predicted strong growth for third parties like Activision, GT Interactive, Electronic Arts, and Midway.

Major Announcements

Duke Nukem Forever

Fallout

Half-Life

Metal Gear Solid

N64 Modem

Panzer Dragoon Saga

PlayStation Double Analog Controller

Quake II

Sonic 3D Blast for PC



Notable Games

Banjo-Kazooie

Conker's Quest

Final Fantasy VII

F-Zero 64

GoldenEye 007

Half-Life

Metal Gear Solid

Oddworld

Panzer Dragoon Saga

Prey

Quake II

Resident Evil 2

Star Fox 64

Tetrisphere 64

Time Crisis

Unreal

Trivia