Wolfenstein 3D
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| Wolfenstein 3D | |
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| Developer(s) | id Software |
| Publisher(s) | Apogee Software |
| Designer(s) | John Romero, Tom Hall |
| Engine | Wolfenstein 3D engine |
| Release date(s) | May 5, 1992 (DOS) July 21, 1995 (Source) |
| Genre(s) | First-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Mature (M) OFLC: M OFLC: MA15+ (re-rating) ID Software: PC-13 (Self-applied) |
| Platform(s) | MS-DOS, Mac, Apple IIGS, Acorn Archimedes, RiscPC, SNES, Jaguar, Atari ST, GBA, 3DO |
| Media | Download Four 3½" floppy disks CD |
| System requirements | 80286 class CPU, 640 kB RAM |
| Input | Keyboard, mouse, joystick, or game controller. |
Wolfenstein 3D (originally Wolfenstein 3-D, commonly abbreviated to Wolf 3D) is a video game that is generally regarded as having popularized the first person shooter genre on the PC. It was created by id Software and published by Apogee Software on May 5, 1992 for DOS. The game was inspired by the 1980s Muse Software computer games Castle Wolfenstein and Beyond Castle Wolfenstein. It has been ported to many systems, including 3DO, Super NES, Game Boy Advance, Acorn Archimedes, Atari Jaguar, and the Apple IIGS.
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[edit] Overview
In Wolfenstein 3D, the player is an American soldier named BJ Blazkowicz attempting to escape from the eponymous Nazi stronghold; there are many armed guards, as well as attack dogs. The building has a number of hidden rooms containing various treasures, food supplies, and medical kits, as well as three different guns and ammunition.
Wolfenstein 3D was released as shareware, which allowed it to be copied widely. The shareware release contains one episode, consisting of 10 missions (levels). The commercial release consists of three episodes including the shareware episode, and a mission pack called "The Nocturnal Missions". Like the shareware episode, each commercial episode contains 10 levels, bringing the game to a total of 60 missions.
The episodes are:
- The original trilogy:
- 1. "Escape from Wolfenstein" (shareware episode)
- 2. "Operation: Eisenfaust"
- 3. "Die, Führer, Die"
- The Nocturnal Missions:
- 4. "A Dark Secret"
- 5. "Trail of the Madman"
- 6. "Confrontation"
Each episode has a different boss who has to be killed in the final mission in order to complete the episode. Only 9 of the 10 missions needed to be completed; hidden in one of the first eight missions was an entrance to the tenth, secret level. The secret level of the third episode was notable in that it recreated one of the original Pac-Man levels, complete with ghosts, seen by the player from Pac-Man's perspective.
The game was originally released on the PC and then ported to Macintosh computers, Apple IIGS, Acorn Archimedes and Risc PC, Super NES, Atari Jaguar, Game Boy Advance, and 3DO. The source code of the game was published by id Software on July 21, 1995 under a non-profit EULA, starting the long tradition at id Software of opening the entire source code to an old game. Some enhanced ports to different platforms like Linux and add-ons have been developed.
Wolfenstein 3D was the first game to use the ExMx map/level identity.
[edit] Storyline
The first three episodes of the game focus on the character of William "B.J." Blazkowicz's attempts to escape from Castle Wolfenstein and overthrow the Nazi regime.
B.J., an Allied spy, had been captured while trying to find the plans for Operation Eisenfaust, and was imprisoned in Castle Wolfenstein. Initially armed only with a knife and a pistol (obtained by overpowering the guard in his cell), B.J.'s initial goal is merely to escape the castle prison. Taking on SS guards, stealing their machine guns and ultimately acquiring a chain gun, he eventually finds himself face to face with the Episode One boss, the ultimate prison guard Hans Grosse.
Having defeated Grosse and escaped the castle, B.J. moves on to Operation: Eisenfaust. B.J. finds out that the operation is real, and that the Nazis are creating a mutant army of undead zombies in Castle Hollehammer. When the episode begins, B.J. has just entered the castle; the walls are covered in mulch, and the first enemies found are mutants with machine guns in their chests. The episode boss is the scientist Dr Schabbs, the creator of the zombies. His defeat signals the end of this biological war.
Die, Führer, Die! is, chronologically, the final episode. Fighting through Nazi soldiers, and attacking the bunker under the Reichstag, the major centerpiece of the game is reached in the final mission, where the boss is none other than Adolf Hitler himself (equipped with a robotic suit).
The Nocturnal Missions form a prequel storyline, focusing on the Germans' plans for chemical warfare (Giftkrieg). A Dark Secret deals with the initial pursuit of the scientist responsible for the development of the weaponry; B.J.'s task is to enter the weapons research facility and hunt down Dr. Otto Giftmacher (Poison Maker).
Trail of the Madman is a rather ornate episode taking place in clean and stylish Castle Erlangen. Ostensibly, the episode's goal is to find the maps and plans of the chemical war, guarded by Gretel Grosse (Hans' sister). Hitler's image appears throughout this episode, as posters and wall mosaics, symbolising his imminent rise to power. All levels are designed with fashion, much decoration, and opulence.
The story comes to a close in Confrontation, set in Castle Offenbach; a summation of everything that has gone before, including the mutants (in the secret level only), Hans Grosse (in the secret level only), and the overall "feel". The final battle is fought between B.J. and the leader of this war, General Fettgesicht (Fat Face).
It should be noted that, despite the presence of Hitler as an episode boss, the game bears no resemblance to any actual Nazi plans or structures. Indeed, many of the level designs are highly fanciful; at least three levels heavily feature swastika shaped room layouts and maps, going as far as having one level built entirely of a tessellation of them. However, the overall premise could be said to be loosely based on the frequent and elaborate escape attempts made by Allied POWs from such Nazi prison strongholds such as Colditz Castle.
[edit] Technical implementation
To render the walls in pseudo-3D, the game used ray casting, a special case of ray tracing. This technique sent out one ray for each column of pixels, checked if it intersected a wall, and drew textures on the screen accordingly, creating a one dimensional depth buffer against which to clip the scaled sprites that represented enemies, powerups, and props.
Before Wolfenstein 3D, the technology had already been used by id Software in 1991 to create Hovertank 3D and Catacomb 3D for Softdisk, albeit using only EGA 16-color graphics (which the game was designed to use, early in development). Other games using the Wolfenstein 3D game engine or developments of it were also produced, including, Blake Stone, Corridor 7, Operation Body Count, Super Noah's Ark 3D, Rise of the Triad, Shadowcaster, and Hellraiser.
According to id Software programmer John Carmack, the game's engine was inspired by a technology demo of Looking Glass Studios'/Origin's first-person CRPG, Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss from 1991. Carmack claimed he could make a faster renderer. In this he was successful. The Wolfenstein engine lacks many features present in the Underworld engine, such as height changes, sloped floors and lighting, but it runs well on relatively weak hardware.
"Holo-walls" are walls created by mapmakers using a glitch in the PC version's engine. They are walls that the player can walk through, and are used in some total conversions to simulate windows that players can climb through, and hedges that players can walk through. One way of creating holo-walls is to place a dead guard in a wall.
[edit] Gameplay
[edit] Enemies
Guard - A standard German soldier armed with a pistol and wearing a brown uniform. Can usually be taken down by one or two bullets, and have relatively slow reaction times.
Quotes:
- "Achtung!" (Attention!)
Dog - A German shepherd attack dog. Unlike soldiers, who are often found standing in place when first encountered, the dogs are always running. They are by far the weakest enemy, since they have no ranged attack and can always be killed by a single bullet. Their one strength is their speed.
Waffen SS - A considerably bulkier fellow with a blue suit, MP40, and body armor. Their reaction times are about as bad as the Guards', but they are more accurate and deadly with their automatics.
Quotes:
- "Schutzstaffel!"
- "Mein Leben!" (My life!)
Mutant - Also known as the 'Zombie Knife Thrower', it's a Frankenstein Monster-like creature in a filthy dark purple suit, brandishing a pair of knives and a pistol held by a hand sprouting out of his chest. They don't move any faster than guards, but their reaction times are instant, remain silent upon spotting an enemy rather than bark out an alert cry, they fire much more quickly, and are a good deal harder to kill. Appears only in Operation: Eisenfaust.
Officer - A member of an elite Nazi unit, they wear white uniforms and carry pistols like the regular soldiers. They are about as powerful as Mutants; and in addition, they move more quickly. They appear only in the last four episodes.
Quotes:
- "Spion!" (Spy!)
- "Nein, so was!" (Well, I never!)
[edit] Bosses
At the end of each episode, on floor nine, the player has to face a boss enemy. Unlike normal enemies, boss enemies are drawn from one angle instead of eight, so the player can't sneak up on them or take them by surprise. Bosses are also deaf, and won't notice you, or become active until they see you. When a boss is killed, "Let's see that again" is displayed on the screen, and a replay (called a "deathcam") of the bosses' death is shown; the episode then ends. In the version released for the Macintosh, all the bosses (except Adolf Hitler, who is the final boss) drop gold keys which opens a door to the end of the level.
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Hans Grosse (Hans Big) - A huge Nazi superman who guards the exit to castle Wolfenstein. He is Gretel's brother. He wields two large chainguns. Unlike other bosses, he does not display a deathcam when he is killed. Instead, he drops a gold key. The player uses the gold key to open a locked door, which then results in a cutscene of BJ Blazkowicz running out of Castle Wolfenstein.
Quotes:
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Dr. Schabbs - The doctor behind the creation of an army of mutants employed under Hitler. Unlike any other foe, he is equipped with syringes which can take about 25% of the player's health. If the player is killed by him, the status bar face turns grey and emotionless, like one of his mutants.
Quotes:
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Fake Hitler - A mimic of the real Hitler. It is not really a boss but it is stronger than the other enemies, and drawn from 1 angle. It has a machine mounted with a flamethrower in its chest. They only appear on Episode 3, Floor 9, guarding Hitler's secret bunker room.
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Adolf Hitler - The leader of the Nazi regime, first appears in robotic armor, wielding four chainguns. When the suit is destroyed, he keeps two of the chainguns.
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Otto Giftmacher (Otto Poison Maker) - The poison maker, the scientist behind chemical warfare. He attacks with a missile launcher.
Quotes:
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Gretel Grosse (Gretel Big) - She is the sister of Hans Grosse, guarding the key to the room with mapped plans. She has double chainguns. Like Hans, a deathcam does not appear and she drops a key.
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General Fettgesicht (General Fat Face) - The top general in the chemical assault against the allies. The final enemy of the Nocturnal Missions, he has a chaingun and a missile launcher.
Quotes:
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The marked (*) quotes are grammatically incorrect.
[edit] Reception
[edit] Legal issues
Due to its use of Nazi symbols and the Horst-Wessel-Lied as theme music, the PC version of the game was confiscated in Germany in 1994, following a verdict by the Amtsgericht München on January 25, 1994 (Az. 2Gs167/94); the use of these symbols is a federal offence in Germany unless certain circumstances apply (see articles 86 StGB and 86a StGB (in German)). Similarly, the Atari Jaguar version was confiscated following a verdict by the Amtsgericht Berlin Tiergarten on December 7, 1994 (Az. 351Gs5509/94). [1]
Due to concerns from Nintendo, the Super NES version was modified to not include any swastikas or Nazi references; furthermore, blood was replaced with sweat to make the game seem less violent, and the attack dogs in the game were replaced by giant mutant rats. The dogs were removed due to complaints from animal-rights activists that it was immoral to have a game in which the player is required to kill dogs. Employees of id Software are quoted in The Official DOOM Player Guide about the reaction to Wolfenstein, claiming it to be ironic that it was morally acceptable to shoot human beings, but not dogs. Three new weapons were added as well. The Super NES version was not as successful as the PC version. Many reviewers and Wolfenstein enthusiasts believed that the censorship of elements regarding Adolf Hitler and Nazis made the title incomplete and almost an entirely different game.
[edit] Aborted contest attempts
Level 2-8 features a giant hidden "pushwall" maze consisting of 181 nearly identical 2x2 rooms. Depending on the path taken through the maze, the player is eventually led to treasure, an extra life, or a surprise encounter with Hans Grosse. One and only one correct path leads to a room containing a sign saying "Call Apogee Say Aardwolf." (In some versions there is also an extra life in this room.) This was to have been part of a contest, where the first person to find the sign and carry out its instructions would have won a prize. The actual prize was never decided upon.
However, because the first level editors and cheat programs for the game were released within days of the full version of Wolfenstein 3D, many players were able to find the sign with minimal effort, and so the contest was abandoned before it was ever officially announced. One of the discussed prize options was to be registered copies of all Apogee games for life, but the contest was scrapped before any executive decisions had been made. The maze and the sign were left in the game; a text file included with the registered version distributed by Apogee explained the story behind the "Aardwolf" sign and asked gamers not to call in and say it (many did anyway). A 1997 commercial re-release by Activision, however, removed the sign and replaced it with graphics depicting a pile of bones, evidently to remove any reference to Apogee.
After completing an episode, the player is given a three-letter code in addition to a total score and time. This was part of a high-score contest that was abandoned for similar reasons to the "Aardwolf" one; the code would have been used to verify that a player got that score legitimately, without use of cheat codes.
[edit] Ports
The game was ported to the Atari Jaguar, Apple IIGS, Acorn Archimedes, Mac OS, RiscPC, Super NES, Jaguar, Atari ST, GBA, and 3DO. Many of the ports had different sounds, graphics, and levels. Some didn't even use the DOS version's episode format.
The Super NES version of the game is notable for being heavily censored and edited, due to the Nintendo of America's censorship policy at the time. Due to this, most of the blood in the game was replaced with sweat, nazi references were removed. Notably, Adolf Hitler, who was a character in the game, had his moustache removed and was renamed "Straatmeiser" as well.
In several of the ports (specifically, the Mac, Atari Jaguar, and 3DO versions) the game's sprites and textures are redrawn as 128x128 pixel sprites, rather than 64x64 pixel sprites, allowing more detail in the game's characters and objects. However, they are drawn from one angle, like the bosses, eliminating the stealth element of the game.
The Apple IIGS port is the only version to use authentic German voices and speech, recorded by native Germans. The other versions contain broken German phrases, with incorrect article and adjective usages, mostly stemming from the misunderstanding of the gender of the nouns.
In the Atari Jaguar version of the game, the pistol sprite is actually a modified version of the pistol sprite from Doom. The hands on the gun are modified to look like BJ's.
[edit] Sequels
Wolfenstein 3D was followed by several related games:
- Spear of Destiny, a prequel to Wolfenstein 3D, released a short time after the original game, using the same engine.
- Return to Castle Wolfenstein (RtCW), a loose first-person shooter sequel to Wolfenstein 3D, released in 2001. The gameplay and the setting are similar to the original, but the graphics and audio elements receive an upgrade due to the Quake III Arena rendering engine. RtCW begins as the first game does, but from there the two games' storylines diverge. Overall, RtCW bears little resemblance to its predecessor, beyond the title and the setting. A small bit of nostalgia is available to players of RtCW with a console command. Activating 'cg_uselessnostalgia' via the in-game console overlays a replica of the original game's interface across the bottom of the screen. However, as the name of the command implies, this interface does not keep track of vital game statistics, such as the player character's health or remaining ammunition. The Xbox version of RtCW contains the full emulated version of Wolfenstein 3D as a bonus for beating the game.
- Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, a spinoff to RtCW, released in 2003. It is a free full-version multiplayer-only game, featuring elements from RtCW.
Also, a new Castle Wolfenstein game has been announced for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360. [2]
[edit] Legacy
Wolfenstein 3D is generally credited as being responsible for the first-person shooter craze that continues to this day. Released at the height of the 'Interactive CD-ROM' era, there were surprisingly few clones until Doom's release in 1993, the most notable being Rise of the Triad in 1994 and Duke Nukem 3D in 1996. Most of these games were distributed via the same shareware strategy as the original.
The games success ensured that id Software quickly became a high profile developer. id's development efforts were closely watched by fans of the game, and when it released its next first-person shooter, Doom, it was guaranteed a receptive audience. Rather than rely on the technology that made Wolfenstein a hit, however, Doom introduced several technological leaps over Wolfenstein 3D. Doom's technology outdid that of Wolfenstein by providing multiple levels of detail and characters with more detail and animation than those in its predecessor. Wolfenstein would later be recreated in a Doom II fan modification aptly titled WolfenDoom. id again later revolutionised the FPS genre with the release of Quake in 1996, the first FPS to feature full 3D graphics.
[edit] Influences and connections
[edit] Culture & geographical
- Wolfensteindamm is a street in Berlin-Steglitz, named after Moses Wolfenstein, a Jewish merchant [3] also remembered by Wolfenstein House
- The Wolfenstein is a rock formation in Germany near Tirschenreuth [4]
- Burgruine Wolfstein is a castle ruin in Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz [5] [6] [7]
- A real Blaskowitz was fighting in WWII in the rank of a General - of Germany's Wehrmacht
- Hans and Gretel Grosse is a reference to Hansel and Gretel.
- Wolfenstein 3D is the first in a long line of computer and video games to feature players and non-player characters wielding man-portable Gatling guns. To date, no armed forces has ever fielded such a weapon, as the weight of the gun and ammunition would be prohibitive.
- Secret level 3-10 is a replica of the maze from the arcade game Pac-Man, complete with ghosts which chase the player. The ghosts cannot be killed, and drain health from the player when touched (On easier difficulty settings, they don't do any damage). The dots are replaced with treasure items and the power pills are replaced with extra lives. To exit the level, the player must find and enter one of the two side tunnels, both of which lead to standard exit rooms. One of the Pac-Man ghosts can also be found in secret level 6-10.
- In some levels during Episode 3, a monotonal "beeping" sound can be heard underneath the background music. This is a Morse Code message; when translated, it reads as the following:
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TO: BIG BAD WOLFDE: LITTLE RED RIDING HOODELIMINATE HITLERIMPERATIVE: COMPLETE MISSION WITHIN 24 HOURSOUT
[edit] Wolfenstein in other games
- The game manual mentioned that maybe the player would have "a story to tell your grandchildren", if he survived. William Blazkowicz's grandchild is Billy Blaze, aka Commander Keen, who is an early id Software game character. The following is an excerpt from the Official Hint Manual for Wolfenstein 3D which explains the relation with Commander Keen: "William Joseph Blazkowicz was born August 15, 1911, to Polish immigrants. Blazkowicz was a top spy for the Allied Forces, receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor and other accolades for heroism. "B.J.," (as he was called by his friends) married after World War II, at age 40, to Julia Marie Peterson. Their son, Arthur Kenneth Blazkowicz, became a television talk show personality in Milwaukee. For show biz purposes, Arthur changed his last name to Blaze. Arthur later married Susan Elizabeth McMichaels. They had one son (which they named after Arthur's father), William Joseph Blazkowicz II, or as he signs his grade school homework, B. Blaze...."
- In another id Software game, Doom 2, there are two secret levels that are based on E1M1 and E1M9 of Wolfenstein 3D. The blue SS soldiers make a guest appearance, demons take the place of the guard dogs and the Cyberdemon takes the place of Hans Grosse.
- Christian game makers Wisdom Tree bought the Wolfenstein graphic engine to create a non-violent game called Super 3D Noah's Ark. The game narrative is about Noah, armed with a slingshot trying to stop the restless animals on the Ark. The game was released for the Super Nintendo and DOS. It is commonly rumored that id Software gave Wisdom Tree the Wolfenstein 3D code, because Nintendo made id change the SNES port in order to make the game look less violent, which turned off many players and made this port very unpopular (unlike most game manufacturers, Wisdom Tree circumvented the "lockout" technology on the Super Nintendo and paid no licensing fees to Nintendo).
[edit] Miscellanea
- Before acquiring the rights to the Wolfenstein name from Silas Warner, the id Software team considered many alternative names, some less seriously than others, such as Castle Ochtenstein, Luger's Run, The Fourth Reich, Adolph's Bane, Hard Cell, Luger Me Now, Tank You Very Much, Castle Hasselhoff, How Do You Dusseldorf?, Castle Verlassen, Strumwind, Hollehammer (Later used as the setting for episode 2), Shattensendener, Dolchteufel, Grabgrabbener, Eisenschwert, and Dammerung.
- In Version 1.0 of the game, BJ's shirt sleeves on the HUD are brown. In later versions, this was changed to grey, to match his clothing on the title screen, intermission screen, and ending screens.
[edit] See also
- List of computer and video games by genre
- Spear of Destiny - The prequel to Wolfenstein 3d
- 3D Monster Maze (1981) – Credited as the original first person perspective game released for a home/personal computer.
- Spasim (1974) – The very first FPS computer game, played on graphical terminals of a multi-user university computer (the PLATO network)
- Ken's Labyrinth - a game written in the same time period completely independently to mimic the Wolfenstein 3D engine graphics before the source was released.
[edit] References
- id's Official Wolfenstein 3D site
- Wolfenstein 3D at MobyGames
- Apogee FAQ: Wolfenstein 3D and Spear of Destiny
[edit] External links
- The DieHard Wolfers forums - The social center of the Wolfenstein 3D community
- Wolfenstein Mods - At the Mod DB
- The Wolfenstein 3D Dome - A fan site
- A link to Wolfenstein Trivia
Ports and remakes
- NewWolf - Port for OpenGL
- Wolfenstein 3D for Atari ST
- Wolfenstein 3D for Apple IIGS
- Wolf3D S60 - Port for S60 mobile phones
- Wolfenstein 5K - Port in 5K of JavaScript
- WolfenDoom Home Page - Remake on Doom
Categories: Atari Jaguar games | Fictional Nazis | First-person shooters | Linux games | DOS games | Super NES games | Apple IIGS games | Game Boy Advance games | Acorn Archimedes games | 3DO games | Mac OS games | Banned computer and video games | 1992 computer and video games | 1995 computer and video games | World War II computer and video games | Polish superheroes
