Wolfenstein 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. Released on May 5, 1992 for MS-DOS, the game was inspired by the 1980s Muse Software computer games Castle Wolfenstein and Beyond Castle Wolfenstein . It has been ported to a wide variety of systems.
In Wolfenstein 3D , the protagonist is an American soldier (Polish descent) named William "B.J." Blazkowicz attempting to escape from the titular 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 game was originally released on the PC and then ported to Macintosh computers, Apple II, Acorn Archimedes, 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 (but not data) to an old game. Some unofficial ports to different platforms like Linux and add-ons have been developed.
Synopsis
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.
In the first episode, Escape from Castle Wolfenstein , 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 head prison guard Hans Grosse.
Having defeated Hans and escaped the castle, B.J. moves on to the second episode, Operation: Eisenfaust . B.J. finds out that the operation is real, and that the Nazis are creating an army of undead mutants 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 third arms grafted into their chests holding pistols. The episode boss is the mad scientist Dr. Schabbs, the creator of the mutants. 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 and four chain guns).
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 another mad scientist, 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, symbolizing 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), three clones of Hans Grosse (in the secret level only), and the overall "feel". The final battle is fought between B.J. and the leader of the chemical war initiative, General Fettgesicht (Fat Face).
Gameplay
Each episode features ten levels (or "missions") which have to be finished sequentially. Only nine levels need 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. Wolfenstein 3D was the first game to use the ExMx map/level naming convention.
Each episode has a different boss who has to be killed in the final mission in order to complete the episode. 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; when first encountered they are always facing the player. Bosses also won't notice the player or become active until they see the player. When most bosses are killed, a replay (called a "deathcam") of the boss's death is shown; the episode then ends. In other levels, behind the boss is an exit from the stronghold; entering it causes the camera to rotate around to face Blazkowicz and show him running out and jumping in elation (complete with a freeze frame of him in mid-air). In the version released for the Macintosh, all the bosses, except the final boss, Adolf Hitler, drop a gold key when killed which opens a door to the end of the level. Hitler was proclaimed the 15th greatest video game boss in history by The Phoenix .
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.
The early concept of the game included some innovative stealth concepts - dragging dead bodies, swapping uniforms with fallen guards, silent attacks, etc., like in the old 2D Wolfenstein games, which focused more on stealth than action. These ideas were dropped however, since they drastically slowed the game down and made the controls complicated.
Development
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 derivatives of it were also produced, including, Blake Stone , Corridor 7: Alien Invasion , Operation Body Count , Super 3D Noah's Ark , Rise of the Triad , and Hellraiser (Unreleased Color Dreams game planned for the PC and the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)).
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 ceiling or floor 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.
Wolfenstein 3D supports the following sound technologies: for sound effects, PC speaker and Sound Blaster; for digitized sound, Disney Sound Source and Sound Blaster; and for music, Adlib and Sound Blaster.
Reception
Reviews
The game was reviewed in 1993 in Dragon #192 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 5 out of 5 stars.
The game was also reviewed in 1993 in Dragon #197 by Sandy Petersen in the first "Eye of the Monitor" column. Petersen also gave the game 5 out of 5 stars.
Controversy
Due to its use of Nazi symbols such as the Swastika and the anthem of the Nazi Party, Horst-Wessel-Lied , as theme music, the PC version of the game was confiscated in Germany in 1994, following a verdict
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