directx 8.0a game development ideas

[cov3rt]

i'm been looking at several games in the past and was interested in the idea of creating or contributing to the development of a video game. i was looking at doing something unique like creating a directx 8.0a compatible game that can look just as good in graphics and realistic aspects and perform as good as games today or ones that are newer than directx 8.0a requirements but which also works on windows 95. but to be more specific, i wanted to have a game that's even better ( graphics, realistic sense, gameplay ) than all of the past directx 8.0a games that were made and ran on windows 95. this includes return to castle wolfenstein, stars wars jedi knight ii jedi acamedy, etc.

one game that specifically caught my eye was project igi: im going in. i wanted to make a game like this possibly, but a directx 8.0a version instead of 7.0a which was limited in some features. it could even be the same engine but a modified one, only problem is, im obviously a noob to all this, i wanted to see what game engine the game uses but i couldn't find out the specific one or if it can be downloaded, it was linked to the flight game joint strike fighter, but i couldn't really find anything on this. im not really a fan of the unreal engines, at least the older ones, the features in the games look a bit like cartoons or not really that natural looking. return to castle wolfenstein uses apparently the id tech 3 from a google search, which looks more realistic and natural looking.

another game of interest is fable lost chapters, gameplay was nice, but it was a directx 9.0 game with graphics being not that good, the terrain and animation for some areas would look almost like 2d images and unnatural. i wanted to create a game almost identical to fable but which looked more realistic, natural looking, possibly better gameplay and to be directx 8.0a and work on windows 95. i guess a specific question would be, which game engine would suit my needs, i would like to create an FPS and / or RPG game, my thoughts link back to the game engine used in project igi: im going in, but modified in a way, or possibly id tech 3 modified, but probably not any unreal engines. i can probably download the id tech 3 game engine but what about the joint strike fighter one used in project igi: im going in?