…to have the screen flash red when the player was injured? This is a pretty common effect in many modern games, and I’m having trouble remembering where I first saw it.
I first saw it on Doom.
Castle Wolfenstein was the first. It predates doom.
I believe it was the first viable and successful 3D First Person Shooter as well. By iD games, which also made Doom.
I agree with Eidolon. The name of the game was Wolfenstein-3D, and AFAIK, it was the first First Person Shooter period. I still have a 3.5" floppy of it around here somewhere, I think it’s from roughly 1989-'90.
Come to think of it, I had Elvira: Mistress of the Dark on floppy for my Amiga 1000 back in 1988. I can’t remember when fighting the guards if the screen flashed red or the whole screen jumped. Either way, the screen itself told you when you were hit without having to squint at some hard to see graphic or number in a particular spot.
So before your health would just go down without you knowing whether or not you were being hurt? :eek:
I’m glad I’m in the higher-tech generation 
I’d say that in most, if not all graphical, pre-Wolfenstein games, one touch from an enemy = death. And the few that had any kind of life meter would’ve been third person so you would’ve seen your character get hit and [possibly] react to it.
The eye of the beholder series was pre-wolfenstein, and first person, and let you know when your party was being attacked.
The first I can remember was BattleZone. Of course it didn’t turn red 'cause the game was black & white, but the screen did flash, then your window broke.
The screen flashed red when you died in the old laserdisc game Cobra Command, too.
Oh, wait! How could I forget?
Star Wars
Whenever your shields took a hit, the screen would flash, but you wouldn’t die.
I seem to remember some '80s games that had the screen flash when you were hurt…I know there were NES games where getting hit did not automatically kill you, Rygar for instance. I’m not sure if Rygar did the screen flash, though. I do think the first video game where you could be hit and survive was Galaga.
Hmm, possibly Missile Command? Did the screen flash when one of your cities got nuked?
That was only if you had a double-ship. Even if you did have a double-ship, you did risk one of your lives in doing so.
No, but it did have that flashy nuclear explosion when you lost.
Sub Rock a mid eighties arcade game by Sega flashed and shook the screen when you got hit. It was a first person game with hit points.
Eye of the Beholder shook the screen if I recall.
These kids today with their sideburns and rock music!
I remember when “video games” were played on a view master! And WE LIKED IT!
Subroc 3-D, the Sega arcade game you’re thinking of, most assuredly did not have hit points. You had 3 lives, just like in most other video games of the time, and getting hit cost you a life. (The screen did flash when you lost a life, though.)