There is no consensus on what the earliest open world game is, due to differing definitions of how large or open a world needs to be.
[22] Ars Technica traces the concept back to the free-roaming exploration of 1976
text adventure game
Colossal Cave Adventure,
[23] which inspired the free-roaming exploration of
Adventure(1980),
[24][25] but notes that it wasn't until 1984 that what "we now know as open-world gaming" took on a "definite shape" with 1984
space simulator Elite,
[26]considered a pioneer of the open world game concept;
[27][28][29][30] Gamasutra argues that its open-ended
sandbox style is rooted in
flight simulators, such as
SubLOGIC's Flight Simulator (1979/1980), noting most flight sims "offer a 'free flight' mode that allows players to simply pilot the aircraft and explore the virtual world".
[28] Others trace the concept back to 1981
CRPG Ultima,
[31][32][33] which had a free-roaming
overworld map inspired by
tabletop RPG Dungeons & Dragons.
[26]The overworld maps of the first five
Ultima games, released up to 1988, lacked a single, unified scale, with towns and other places represented as icons;
[26] this style was adopted by the first three
Dragon Quest games, released from 1986 to 1988 in Japan.
[34][4]
