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145-458: The first two games in the series, Castle Wolfenstein and Beyond Castle Wolfenstein , focused on stealth-based gameplay from a top-down perspective . Beginning with id Software 's Wolfenstein 3D , they shifted to, and helped popularize, the first-person shooter genre. After ZeniMax Media acquired id Software, including the Wolfenstein franchise, developer MachineGames became

290-401: A first-person view and 3D graphics , breaking away from the more reserved gameplay of Castle Wolfenstein that valued stealth and resource management . The game instead adapted the run and gun style that would set the template for the first-person shooter genre. Wolfenstein 3D was the first game to feature William "B.J." Blazkowicz , an American spy of Polish descent, who would become

435-694: A procedurally-generated castle of approximately 60 rooms that house standard Nazi guards and SS Stormtroopers identified by their bulletproof vests marked with the SS insignia . Standard guards can be eliminated with a pistol and have a chance to surrender if the player points a pistol at them even if they have no ammunition, and SS Stormtroopers with grenades because they usually wear body armor. Enemies can be looted once surrendered or after they've been eliminated and can possess ammunition, grenades, and keys which can be used on doors and chests. Doors and chests can be opened more quickly by shooting at them but will attract

580-498: A science fiction game by Hall titled It's Green and Pissed , about fighting mutants in a research lab, Romero proposed a 3D remake of Castle Wolfenstein . The team gravitated to the idea as Hall, Romero, and John Carmack had all enjoyed playing the 1981 original Castle Wolfenstein . The team initially believed they would not be able to use the name but found that the trademark had already lapsed by 1986. Production for Wolfenstein 3D began on December 15, 1991. Romero pitched

725-536: A top-down perspective using a keyboard , joystick , or paddles . It has also been described as a maze game . There are eight difficulty levels in the game that are determined by the player's rank. The player takes the role of an Allied spy that has been captured by Nazis and imprisoned in a dungeon within Castle Wolfenstein for interrogation by the SS Stormtroopers . While the spy

870-520: A virtual reality arcade game. The 1994 Acorn Archimedes port was done in UK by programmer Eddie Edwards and published by Powerslave Software. By 1994, a port for the Sega Mega Drive was under development by Imagineer , who intended to release it by September, but it was cancelled due to technical problems. The 1994 Classic Mac OS version of the game had three releases: The First Encounter ,

1015-473: A Death Cam that would show a replay of the death of the final boss of an episode. The team also added " Horst-Wessel-Lied ", the anthem of the Nazi Party , to the opening screen. John Carmack, meanwhile, added in walls that moved when triggered to hide secret areas, a feature that Hall had been pushing for months but which Carmack had objected to for technical reasons. Hall also added in cheat codes, and wrote

1160-492: A High District Frankfurt Court case evaluating the Nazi imagery within Wolfenstein 3D determined that video games did not fall under this allowance. The court ruled that because video games drew younger audiences, "this could lead to them growing up with these symbols and insignias and thereby becoming used to them, which again could make them more vulnerable for ideological manipulation by national socialist ideas". Up through 2018,

1305-425: A Nazi neurologist who has just arrived in the village of Wulfburg. Evidence begins to emerge of supernatural activities taking place under the command of von Schabbs, who is conducting an archaeological excavation in an attempt to find a hidden underground vault containing occult knowledge previously possessed by German King Otto I . The game is a loose remake of Return to Castle Wolfenstein , with similarities in

1450-409: A back story for the game. The team did a month of playtesting in the final stage of the game's development. In the early morning of May 5, 1992, the first episode of the shareware game was completed and uploaded by Apogee and id to bulletin board systems . The other episodes were completed a few weeks later. The total development time had been around half a year, with a cost of around US$ 25,000 to cover

1595-524: A battle with Adolf Hitler in a robotic suit equipped with four chain guns . The Nocturnal Missions form a prequel storyline dealing with German plans for chemical warfare . "A Dark Secret" deals with the initial pursuit through a weapons research facility of the scientist responsible for developing the weaponry. "Trail of the Madman" takes place in Castle Erlangen , where Blazkowicz's goal

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1740-415: A feature from Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss , a role-playing game in development by Blue Sky Productions . Ultima Underworld was planned to display texture-mapped 3D graphics without Hovertank ' s restrictions of flat walls and simple lighting. Deciding that he could add texture mapping without sacrificing the engine's speed or greatly increasing the system requirements as Underworld

1885-709: A genre that the game would go on to popularize. Spear of Destiny is a stand-alone expansion pack for Wolfenstein 3D that was developed by id Software, and published by FormGen Corporation . Set before the events of Wolfenstein 3D , the player assumes the role of William "B.J." Blazkowicz, who is set to reclaim the Spear of Destiny from the Nazis after it was stolen from Versailles. Spear of Destiny had two expansion packs developed by FormGen "Return to Danger" and "Ultimate Challenge". Two operatives of an allied espionage agency, William "B.J." Blazkowicz and Agent One are captured by

2030-408: A knife, a pistol, and eight bullets. The player begins each episode with four lives and can gain more by finding extra-life tokens or by earning enough points. Points are scored by killing enemies or collecting treasures scattered throughout the levels. Points can also be scored by killing all enemies in a level, collecting all treasure, finding all secret areas, or completing a level under a par time;

2175-433: A method of publishing, leading to a wave of other shareware first-person shooters. The game's high revenue compared to prior, smaller 2D titles led Apogee as well as others in the shareware games industry to move towards larger, 3D titles built by larger development teams. During development, id approached Sierra Entertainment , then one of the biggest companies in the industry and employer of several of their idols, with

2320-403: A modified version of the game replacing assets and text with references to The Smurfs , is considered one of the first game mods . Silas Warner died in 2004 after a long illness. Wolfenstein 3D Wolfenstein 3D is a first-person shooter video game developed by id Software and published by Apogee Software and FormGen . Originally released on May 5, 1992, for DOS , it

2465-419: A month, Wolfenstein 3D averaged $ 200,000 per month for the first year and a half. The game sold 250,000 copies by 1995 and grossed $ 2.5 million in revenue. Wolfenstein 3D won the 1992 Best Arcade game award from Compute! , the 1992 Most Innovative Game and Best Action Game awards from VideoGames & Computer Entertainment , the 1992 Reader's Choice — Action/Arcade Game award from Game Bytes ,

2610-537: A near-fatal explosion, residing on a stolen Nazi U-boat commandeered by the Wiesenau Kreis. After an attack ensues on the base orchestrated by Frau Engel , many of the resistance members are captured, and the leader of the group is killed. Escaping the clutches of Nazi forces with the rest of the team, Blazkowicz takes over the leadership of the Resistance and proceeds to what would have been the next step in

2755-421: A prison guard, B.J. manages to arm himself with a stolen pistol and advance through the subterranean floors of the castle, on his way to accomplish his mission by uncovering the truth behind 'Operation Eisenfaust' and destroy it. Wolfenstein 3D was the first game in the series to be developed by id Software , and published by Apogee Software . It marked the series transition to the first-person shooter genre,

2900-567: A rudimentary 3D game engine that used animated 2D sprites for enemies. Id Software then used the engine for the April 1991 Softdisk game Hovertank 3D , in which the player drives a tank through a plane of colored walls and shoots nuclear monsters. In the fall of 1991, after the team—sans Wilbur—had relocated to Madison, Wisconsin , and he had largely finished the engine work for Commander Keen in Goodbye, Galaxy , Carmack decided to implement

3045-554: A shareware release; The Second Encounter , with 30 exclusive levels; and The Third Encounter , with all 60 levels from the DOS version. An Atari Lynx version of the game was offered earlier by Atari for id, but work on the port was never started, save for a few images. A 3DO version was released in October 1995. The Apple IIGS port was started in Fall 1994 by Vitesse with Heineman as

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3190-437: A single plane , producing Hovertank 3D and Catacomb 3-D as prototypes. After a design session prompted the company to shift from the family-friendly Keen to a more violent theme, programmer John Romero suggested remaking the 1981 stealth shooter Castle Wolfenstein as a fast-paced action game. He and designer Tom Hall designed the game, built on Carmack's engine, to be fast and violent, unlike other computer games on

3335-534: A single game. In 1993 Apogee also published the Wolfenstein 3D Super Upgrades pack, which included 815 fan-made levels called "WolfMaster", along with a map editor titled "MapEdit" and a random level generator named "Wolf Creator". A retail Wolfenstein episode double the length of the Apogee episodes, Spear of Destiny , was released through FormGen on September 18, 1992. FormGen later published two mission packs titled "Return to Danger" and "Ultimate Challenge", each

3480-420: A third Keen trilogy, recognized that Carmack's programming focus had shifted from the 2D side-scrolling platform game series to 3D action games. After an initial proposal by Hall of a sci-fi project, "It's Green and Pissed", Romero suggested a 3D remake of the 1981 Castle Wolfenstein . The team was interested in the idea, as Romero, Hall, and John Carmack all had fond memories of the original title and felt

3625-401: A top secret folder that contains the whereabouts of General Deathshead. The mission goes awry as they are discovered by the Nazi troopers and are captured. During brutal interrogation, Agent One is killed, but Blazkowicz manages to evade the Nazi forces and escape the castle. With the aid of Kessler, the leader of a local resistance group, he discovers that the folder is held by Helga von Schabbs,

3770-427: A wall, the screen "goes into hysterics for a few seconds". Herring added that playing the game with a keyboard is "inconvenient" as the player does not have time to perform game actions quickly enough but concluded by stating Castle Wolfenstein has "simple but effective graphics" and called the game "addicting". InfoWorld 's Essential Guide to Atari Computers recommended the game as among the best adventure games for

3915-455: Is a first-person shooter presented with rudimentary 3D graphics . The game is broken up into levels , each of which is a flat plane divided into areas and rooms by a grid-based pattern of walls and doors, all of equal height. Each level is themed after Nazi bunkers and buildings. To finish a level, the player must traverse through the area to reach an elevator. Levels—ten in the original episodes—are grouped together into named episodes, with

4060-410: Is divided into two sets of three episodes: "Escape from Castle Wolfenstein", "Operation: Eisenfaust", and "Die, Führer, Die!" serve as the primary trilogy, with a second trilogy titled The Nocturnal Missions including "A Dark Secret", "Trail of the Madman", and "Confrontation". The protagonist is William "B.J." Blazkowicz , an American spy of Polish descent , and the game follows his efforts to destroy

4205-459: Is holding secret meetings with his senior staff. The player must retrieve a bomb that the operatives have placed inside the bunker and place it outside the door of the room where Hitler is holding his meeting, a scenario bearing a passing resemblance to the July 20 Plot . Beyond Castle Wolfenstein was the second and final title developed and published by Muse Software, and was released in 1984. After

4350-434: Is often credited as one of the first video games in the stealth genre, as it focuses more on avoiding or disarming enemies, and killing them is considered a last resort. Castle Wolfenstein was the first computer game to feature digitized speech and influenced the development of other similar game franchises such as Metal Gear and Thief . Muse Software released the follow-up, Beyond Castle Wolfenstein in 1984 before

4495-443: Is regarded as the first commercial trainer in video gaming. According to Harvey Bernstein of Antic , after its release, Castle Wolfenstein "quickly shot to the top of the charts" and became "one of the most popular games for any microcomputer". In the October 1982 issue of Computer Gaming World , associate publisher and game merchandiser Dana Lombardy released an incomplete list of top-selling games as of 30 June 1982, where

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4640-417: Is sent to assassinate General Deathshead, as part of a last all-out effort by Allied airborne and commando forces. The mission is a failure and, after the unit is slaughtered by Nazi forces, Blazkowicz barely escapes the compound, sustaining a critical head injury which renders him unconscious and subsequently puts him in a coma. In 1960, fourteen years later, B.J. finds himself settled in an asylum, unaware of

4785-465: Is to escape the eponymous Nazi stronghold, while avoiding, disarming, or at times killing hostile guards. The inaugural game in the franchise was developed and published by M.U.S.E. Inc. in 1981. A sequel to Castle Wolfenstein set in World War II during Adolf Hitler's rule as Chancellor of Germany. The objective of the game is to traverse all the levels of the secret Berlin bunker where Hitler

4930-399: Is to find the Nazis' secret war plans and escape from the castle. Nazi soldiers can be dealt with via impersonation, sneaking, or killing. Warner was inspired by the 1961 film The Guns of Navarone and the 1980 arcade video game Berzerk . The 60 room castle is procedurally generated . Castle Wolfenstein was positively received by critics and became one of the best-selling games of

5075-478: Is to find the maps and plans for the chemical war. The story ends in "Confrontation", which is set in Castle Offenbach as he confronts the Nazi general behind the chemical warfare initiative. An additional episode, titled Spear of Destiny , was released as a retail game by FormGen . It follows Blazkowicz on a different prequel mission, trying to recapture the Spear of Destiny from the Nazis after it

5220-445: Is waiting for interrogation, a dying prisoner emerges from a hiding place and hands the player a fully loaded pistol with 10 rounds, and three grenades before passing away. The objective is to escape from the castle and if the player finds the battle plans before escaping, they will be promoted and the complexity of the subsequent run will be increased, while the castle's layout changes and the game starts again. The game takes place in

5365-475: The Apple II and published by Muse Software in 1981. It is one of the earliest games based on stealth mechanics. A port to Atari 8-bit computers was released in 1982, followed by Commodore 64 (1983) and MS-DOS (1984). The player takes the role of an Allied prisoner of war during World War II who is held captive in the fictional Castle Wolfenstein. After escaping from a cell, the player's objective

5510-550: The Game Boy Advance (2002), Xbox Live Arcade , and PlayStation Network . These ports' sound, graphics, and levels sometimes differ from the original. Many of the ports include only the Apogee episodes, but the iOS port includes Spear of Destiny , and a 2007 Steam release for PC, macOS, and Linux includes all of the FormGen episodes. Bethesda Softworks , whose parent company bought id Software in 2009, celebrated

5655-450: The "Black Sun" dimension. The 2009 game was a loose sequel to Return to Castle Wolfenstein developed by Raven Software , produced by id Software, and published by Activision . The New Order is set after the end of World War II, in an alternate universe where the Axis powers won World War II. In 1946, as the Nazis expand their regime over the world, OSA agent William "B.J." Blazkowicz

5800-403: The 1961 British-American war film The Guns of Navarone , which follows the efforts of an Allied commando unit as they attempt to destroy a seemingly impregnable German fortress . That same day, Warner played the multi-directional shooter arcade game , Berzerk , in which the player navigates through a maze with laser-shooting robots. After playing the game, Warner thought about taking

5945-419: The 1992 game Wolfenstein 3D developed by id Software . John Romero stated the original idea was to create a 3D Castle Wolfenstein but did not have the rights to the game during development. Many options for the game's title were proposed and rejected and, eventually, id Software bought the rights to use Wolfenstein from Silas Warner. The original concept of Wolfenstein 3D changed significantly because

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6090-571: The 1993 Best Action/Arcade Game, Best Entertainment Software, and People's Choice awards at the Shareware Industry Awards , the 1993 Best Action Game award from Computer Gaming World , and a Codie award from the Software Publishers Association for Best Action/Arcade Game. It was the first shareware title to win a Codie, and id (with six employees) became the smallest company to ever receive

6235-399: The 20th anniversary of Wolfenstein 3D ' s release by producing a free-to-play browser-based version of the game in 2012, though the website was removed a few years later. Id had no clear expectations for Wolfenstein ' s commercial reception, but hoped that it would make around US$ 60,000 in its first month; the first royalty check from Apogee was instead for US$ 100,000. The game

6380-678: The Apple II and the game was made on other platforms. A port to the Atari 8-bit computers was published six months after the Apple release, and a Commodore 64 version in 1983 and to MS-DOS in 1984. Following the game's release, a software developed by Moxie, The Great Escape Utility , was marketed in 1983, promising bug fixes to speed up the opening of chests and the startup time of the game. It also allowed players to choose their starting location and gain an unlimited amount of items. The software

6525-484: The Atari 8-bit, stating that while entertaining it was "too gory for young kids". Antic criticized the Atari 8-bit version's use of the Apple II original's " lousy sound and black-white-green-purple graphics ". In a 1991 Computer Gaming World survey of strategy and war games, M. Evan Brooks called the game an "arcade classic", and stated that despite the outdated graphics, it had remained in his "fond memories". In 1996,

6670-770: The Deep developed the three-part video game Commander Keen in Invasion of the Vorticons , the first game in the Commander Keen series. The group, who worked at Softdisk in Shreveport, Louisiana , developing games for the Gamer's Edge video game subscription service and disk magazine , was composed of programmers John Romero and John Carmack , designer Tom Hall , artist Adrian Carmack , and manager Jay Wilbur. After

6815-643: The Germany software ratings board, the Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (USK) refused to rate any game that included inappropriate symbols and imagery, effectively banning the game for sale within the country. By May 2018, a new court ruling was made in response to a parody web browser game, in which the Public Prosecutor's Office confirmed there were no breaches of the law in the game's content. Following this,

6960-507: The Nazi regime in Europe that still remains. Youngblood was developed by MachineGames in collaboration with Arkane Studios and was published by Bethesda Softworks on July 26, 2019. The game can be played in single-player and multiplayer modes for the story campaign. Those who purchase the Deluxe edition of the game are able to invite other players to their sessions, regardless of whether

7105-616: The Nazi regime. In "Escape", Blazkowicz has been captured while trying to find the plans for Operation Eisenfaust (Iron Fist) and imprisoned in Castle Wolfenstein, from which he must escape. "Operation: Eisenfaust" follows his discovery and thwarting of the Nazi plan to create an army of undead mutants in Castle Hollehammer, while in "Die, Führer, Die!" he infiltrates a bunker under the Reichstag , culminating in

7250-523: The Nazis and imprisoned in Castle Wolfenstein during their attempt to investigate rumours surrounding one of Heinrich Himmler 's personal projects, the SS Paranormal Division . Agent One is killed during the interrogation, while Blazkowicz escapes custody, fighting his way out of the castle. As the challenge is still afoot, Blazkowicz discovers that the Nazis are constructing a plan called 'Operation Resurrection', which oversees resurrecting

7395-580: The Paranormal Division of the Axis military, William "B.J." Blazkowicz is captured and held prisoner in The Tower. He escapes the enemy forces, and sets himself to stop them and their operation that involves supernatural activities once and for all, infiltrating Castle Wolfenstein to continue his escapade deep inside. It is a mobile phone game developed by Fountainhead Entertainment, and published by EA Mobile in 2008. John Carmack , one of

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7540-534: The Super NES version a good conversion that retained the good music, huge levels, and overall fun of the original game and dismissed the censoring in the version as inconsequential. In 1995, Total! ranked the game 84th on their "Top 100 SNES Games" list. Electronic Gaming Monthly rated the Jaguar version similarly to the Super NES version, commenting that the graphics and audio were superior to other versions of

7685-612: The Triad: Wolfenstein 3D Part II , designed by Tom Hall using the Wolfenstein 3D engine, but during development the game was changed into a stand-alone title with an enhanced engine, Rise of the Triad . Additionally, Softdisk produced Catacomb Abyss using the prototype Wolfenstein 3D engine from Catacomb 3-D as part of the Catacomb Adventure Series trilogy of sequels. Although Wolfenstein 3D

7830-449: The advent of Castle Wolfenstein , after which other games using the same ideas began to appear. In its review of the series, Xbox Wire called Castle Wolfenstein a "proto-stealth game" that contains "innovations that would go on to become standards in the stealth genre". When speaking with Retro Gamer , Wolfenstein 3D co-creator John Romero credited Castle Wolfenstein as the "original stealth shooter". Castle Smurfenstein ,

7975-545: The award. Wolfenstein 3D was noted as one of the top games of the year at the 1993 Game Developers Conference . Wolfenstein 3D was well received by reviewers upon its release. Chris Lombardi of Computer Gaming World praised the "sparse [but] gorgeous", "frighteningly realistic", and "extremely violent" graphics, as well as the immersive sound and music. Noting the violence, he warned "those sensitive to such things to stay home". Lombardi concluded that Wolfenstein 3D , alongside Ultima Underworld released two months prior,

8120-567: The ban was reversed by the German government in August, having determined that the Wolfenstein 3D decision was outdated since the USK now included age ratings alongside other content warnings, and that video games should be considered as art under the social adequacy allowance. In November 2019, Wolfenstein 3D was formally struck from the "Index", the list of games banned from sale in Germany. After

8265-593: The behavior of the castle's guards, while the third disk handled the player character's behavior. According to Warner, a lot of work went into synchronizing the programs, and he was satisfied with the result. For the soundtrack, he implemented his own voice for the German guards, using Apple II software called The Voice (also published by Muse Software). He used German phrases such as Achtung , Schweinhund , Halt , and five other German phrases. Muse Software released Castle Wolfenstein in September 1981 for

8410-494: The best arcade games ever created for PC", highly praised the graphics and sound, and said that the "fast-paced action" could keep players enthralled for weeks if they were not concerned about the violence. Sandy Petersen , in the first "Eye of the Monitor" column, claimed that "there is nothing else quite like Wolfenstein " and that it had "evolved almost beyond recognition" from the original 1981 game. He enthusiastically praised

8555-512: The bosses and the title screen. Carmack programmed "the core" of the game's engine in a month; he added a few features to the Wolfenstein 3D engine from Catacomb 3-D , including support for doors and decorative non-wall objects, but primarily focused on making the game run smoother and faster with higher-resolution graphics. The game was programmed chiefly in ANSI C , with its scaling and ray casting routines written in assembly . The graphics for

8700-576: The company estimated that one million shareware copies were distributed worldwide. Over 20 percent of its sales were from outside of the US, despite the lack of any marketing or non-English description and despite the game being banned from sale in Germany due to its inclusion of Nazi symbols by the Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons in 1994, and again in 1997 for Spear of Destiny . Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu reviewed

8845-399: The company legally disestablished on October 7, 1987. In November 1991, the recently established video game development company Id Software , founded by programmers John Carmack and John Romero , game designer Tom Hall , and artist Adrian Carmack , were planning their next major game after finishing their contract with their former employer Softdisk . After an initial suggestion for

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8990-436: The company out to Mesquite, Texas , near where Apogee was located. Scott Miller of Apogee was pleased to have his star developers nearby, and agreed to not only increase their royalty rate to 50 percent, but have Apogee create their next game for Softdisk, ScubaVenture , so that id could focus on Wolfenstein . The game was intended to be released using Apogee's shareware model of splitting it into three episodes and releasing

9135-402: The controls as overly sensitive. He concluded that the game, then over three years old, "still packs a punch as a first-person shooter". Wolfenstein 3D won GamePro ' s Best 3DO Game of 1995 award, beating the acclaimed The Need for Speed and D . Maximum , on the other hand, while stating that the 3DO port was better than the original and as good as the Jaguar version, felt that it

9280-478: The dead as well as dealing with supernatural elements, using them for their own advantage to win World War II against the Allied power. The game was developed by Gray Matter Studios and published by Activision , and released in 2001 on Microsoft Windows. The game would be ported to consoles two years later. Originally planned to be released as an expansion pack to Return to Castle Wolfenstein , Enemy Territory

9425-471: The deal rather than solely accepting payment in Sierra stock as a measure of Williams's seriousness. Williams refused, which id interpreted to mean that Williams did not truly recognize the potential of Wolfenstein 3D and the company, and the deal fell through, causing id to decide to remain an independent company for the foreseeable future. By the end of 1993 just before the release of their next game, Doom ,

9570-407: The death of the original designer of the program, the widow of Silas Warner released a ported version of the game, as well as its reconstructed source code in his honor in 2004. After the Nazis apprehend an American spy, William "B.J." Blazkowicz, who was sent to sabotage the enemy's regime and foil their schemes, they imprison him under the grounds of Castle Wolfenstein. Finding a way to incapacitate

9715-421: The design of Berzerk and replacing the robots with Nazis. He eventually settled on the idea of a game based on the arcade shoot 'em up genre, where players dodge enemies with the intent of killing them, but instead changing the objective to escape the enemy guards and their castle, not necessarily to kill and destroy them; this made shooting guards a means to an end and not an end in itself. Castle Wolfenstein

9860-513: The developers decided the core of the gameplay would be fast and simple so features such as the ability to drag and loot fallen enemy soldiers were withdrawn. Further development by other studios led to the emergence of one of the longest-living video series; as of 2021, there are 13 Wolfenstein games, the most recent of which, Wolfenstein: Youngblood and Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot , are spin-offs released in 2019. Multiple media outlets considered Castle Wolfenstein to be significant in

10005-432: The early 1980s. The game was praised for its graphics, and gameplay, but criticized for long waiting times when opening chests. It had a direct influence on modern stealth games. A sequel was released in 1984: Beyond Castle Wolfenstein . The rights to the Wolfenstein name were purchased for the 1992 first person shooter Wolfenstein 3D . Castle Wolfenstein is a two-dimensional action-adventure game played from

10150-415: The escape" is "worth the wait". Richard Herring of Ahoy! , reviewing the game's Commodore 64 version, also complained about Castle Wolfenstein ' s slow gameplay, especially the long time it took to open the chests. He also stated that each room must be loaded from the floppy disk , causing a lag when each room is entered. Herring also mentioned a bug , in which if the player character bumps into

10295-755: The events that took place during his coma, and about to be executed by the Nazis who have ordered the asylum liquidated. Awakened into full strength, Blazkowicz fights his way out of the building, escaping with a wounded nurse, Anya. B.J. locates the Resistance and helps them fight the Nazis, dismantling them and ultimately crippling their dominance around the world. After the publishing rights were moved from Activision to Bethesda Softworks following ZeniMax Media 's acquisition of id Software, development on The New Order began in 2010 by MachineGames . A prequel to The New Order , The Old Blood follows William "B.J." Blazkowicz and Richard Wesley, also known as Agent One, who are sent to infiltrate Castle Wolfenstein and obtain

10440-502: The final level focusing on a boss fight with a particularly difficult enemy. While traversing the levels, the player must fight Nazi guards and soldiers, dogs, and other enemies while managing supplies of ammunition and health . The player can find weapons and ammunition placed in the levels or can collect them from dead enemies; weapons include a knife, a pistol, a submachine gun, and a rapid-fire chain gun . The player can also find keys that allow them to pass through locked doors. While

10585-423: The first for free, with ten levels per episode. The level maps were designed in 2D using a custom-made program called Tile Editor (TEd), which had been used for the entire Keen series as well as several other games. Upon finding out that the team was able to create a level in a single day using the program, Miller convinced them to instead develop six episodes, which could be sold in different-sized packs. Around

10730-486: The game five months after release, describing it as: "View from the character's point of view: It's a real shooter. The game is easy to play, and it runs well ... This is the only game of its type." The Apogee episodes' sales vastly exceeded the shareware game sales record set by the developer's earlier Commander Keen series and provided id with a much higher profit margin than the sales of its retail counterpart; where Commander Keen games were bringing Apogee around $ 10,000

10875-450: The game further. He was uninterested in using space as a setting due to his belief that there were so many of them on the market. The concept changed after Warner watched the 1961 British-American war film The Guns of Navarone and was amazed by the Allied commandos who broke into a German fortress to destroy the German artillery battery . Within the same day, he played Berzerk , a multidirectional shooter arcade video game in which

11020-428: The game landed in 13th place with 20,000 copies sold. The game ultimately sold about 50,000 copies by 1983. Creative Computing Video and Arcade Games ' s Andrew Brill complained about the Apple version's slow gameplay, which according to Brill is mainly due to the time taken to open chests that contain "completely useless" items, which Brill regarded as the game's "most frustrating feature", but added "thrill of

11165-459: The game restarts with the castle's layout preserved and the same chests and guards. If they are killed by their own grenade, the game restarts in a newly generated castle. Castle Wolfenstein was developed by Silas Warner at Muse Software and the game's cover art was drawn by John Benson. The game was initially conceptualized as a game set in the mid-1980s in what Warner describes as "a guy running around rooms" and did not know how to develop

11310-523: The game to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) for a US$ 100,000 advance. The team was busy with the development of Doom , plus their work on Spear of Destiny , and ignored the project for seven or eight months, finally hiring Rebecca Heineman to do the work. She made no progress on the port, however, and the id team members instead spent three weeks frantically learning how to make SNES games and creating

11455-507: The game were planned to be in 16 color EGA , but were changed to 256 color VGA four months before release, which also enabled the game to have higher resolutions. Romero in turn worked on building a game with the engine, removing elements of the initial design, like looting enemy bodies, that he felt interrupted the flow of fast gameplay. The sprites for the enemies and objects were hand drawn at eight different angles by Adrian Carmack using Electronic Arts 's Deluxe Paint II . Initially

11600-423: The game's levels to find an elevator to the next level or kill a final boss , fighting Nazi soldiers, dogs, and other enemies with a knife and a variety of guns. Wolfenstein 3D was the second major independent release by id Software, after the Commander Keen series of episodes. In mid-1991, programmer John Carmack experimented with making a fast 3D game engine by restricting the gameplay and viewpoint to

11745-601: The game's release, id Software licensed the engine to other developers, like the Commander Keen engine before it, as part of a series of engine licensing deals that id has made throughout its history; games using the Wolfenstein 3D engine or derivatives of it include Blake Stone , the Capstone Software games Corridor 7 and Operation Body Count , as well as Super 3D Noah's Ark . Apogee intended to produce an expansion pack in 1993 titled Rise of

11890-411: The game, but criticizing the faster movement of the player character as making it less fun to play. A GamePro review of the Jaguar port was highly complimentary, saying Wolfenstein 3D "set a new standard for PC gaming" and that the Jaguar version was the best to date, and better than the original due to its increased graphics and sound capabilities. A Next Generation review of the Jaguar version

12035-475: The game, which took 35 to 60 seconds to complete before the gameplay of the original Apple version started; as a result, the game produced a new set of 60 rooms, the arrangement of which was nearly always different. He designed the game's architecture using three programs, each of which was on separate floppy disks and later integrated into a single floppy disk. The first one initialized the graphics and shuffled 64 interchangeable floor plans. The second disk governed

12180-449: The gameplay and aesthetics. Romero wanted the goal to be "to mow down Nazis", with the suspense of storming a Nazi bunker full of SS soldiers and Hitler himself, as well as dogs, blood "like you never see in games", and straightforward, lethal weapons. He also composed the general storyline for the game. Hall designed the levels while also adding collectible objects in the form of treasure and food for health items. He also did sketches for

12325-429: The gameplay would be fast and simple, for Romero believed that due to the novelty of a 3D game and control scheme, players would not be receptive to more complicated, slow gameplay. He felt the game would occupy a unique place in the industry, which was then dominated by slower simulation and strategy games. Adrian and John Carmack were excited by the prospect, while Hall felt that it was enjoyable enough, and that since he

12470-480: The genre, as well as showcasing the viability of the shareware publishing model at the time. FormGen developed an additional two episodes for the game, while Apogee released a pack of over 800 fan-created levels. Id Software never returned to the series, but did license the engine to numerous other titles before releasing the source code for free in 1995, and multiple other games in the Wolfenstein series have been developed by other companies since 2001. Wolfenstein 3D

12615-530: The genre. More modern reviews include one for the Xbox 360 port in 2009 by Ryan McCaffrey of Official Xbox Magazine , who heavily criticized it for non-existent enemy AI and bad level design and found it notably inferior to Doom , and one that same year by Daemon Hatfield of IGN , who gave the PlayStation Network release of the game a warm reception, saying that while it was "dated and flawed", it

12760-478: The goal of seeing if they could make a deal with the company. After viewing Commander Keen and an early version of Wolfenstein 3D , CEO Ken Williams offered to buy id Software for US$ 2.5 million and turn it into an in-house development studio. The team was excited by the deal, but had felt there was a large culture clash between the two companies during their visit to Sierra and were hesitant to accept; Romero proposed asking for US$ 100,000 in cash up front as part of

12905-486: The government. But, before they ignite the operation, the resistance must attack and take over Engel's airship, the Ausmerzer, to disable its use against their own by the Nazis, and hijack its command systems in order to start a revolution, thus reclaiming the land of freedom that was once theirs. The New Colossus is the third title in the series to be developed by MachineGames and published by Bethesda Softworks . It

13050-421: The guards in the room, and if the chest contains ammunition and grenades, they will explode resulting in immediate death. Chests may contain bulletproof vests, uniforms, and secret documents, or sauerkraut , sausages, and schnapps that do not affect the gameplay. Uniforms allow the player character to pass guards unnoticed, but they are ineffective against SS Stormtroopers. If the player dies from enemy gunfire,

13195-643: The guns sound exciting. Prince took some inspiration from his days as a platoon soldier in the US Army. With the aid of a 16-bit sampler keyboard and cassette recorder, he composed realistic sounds from a shooting range in addition to Foley sounds. The development team along with Scott Miller did the voicing for the enemies. Some of the enemy shouts were based on the original Castle Wolfenstein game. As development continued, id Software hired their former Softdisk liaison Kevin Cloud as an assistant artist, and moved

13340-405: The idea as a 3D version of Castle Wolfenstein and the team initially planned to include many of the same features that Castle Wolfenstein and its sequel had introduced, such as dragging and looting dead bodies, and opening crates. They began to implement other ideas inspired by the stealth aspect of Castle Wolfenstein such as swapping uniforms with guards, and stealth attacking enemies; the team

13485-485: The idea of doing a retail Wolfenstein project to FormGen , which had published id's December 1991 Commander Keen in Aliens Ate My Babysitter , overcoming the publisher's concerns over Wolfenstein ' s proposed content. This put id in the unique position of selling simultaneously to the shareware and retail markets. The project officially began on December 15, 1991. Romero and Hall designed

13630-420: The idea. Additionally, after completing an episode the player is given a three-letter code in addition to their total score and time. This code was intended to be a verification code as part of a high-score contest, but the sudden prevalence of editor programs resulted in the cancellation of the contest without ever being formally announced. Imagineer bought the rights for the game, and commissioned id to port

13775-516: The initial developer, with later graphics assistance by Ninjaforce Entertainment, but due to licensing problems with id it was not released until February 1998. An open source iOS port programmed by John Carmack himself was released in 2009. An unofficial port for the Game Boy Color was made in 2016. An Android port titled Wolfenstein 3D Touch (later renamed ECWolf ) was released and published by Beloko Games. Other releases include

13920-473: The invitee owns the game. Set twenty years after the events of The New Colossus , the protagonist is depicted as a computer hacker known as Cyberpilot who works for the French Resistance against the Nazi regime. Cyberpilot is a side story that takes place chronologically a week prior to the events of Youngblood . Unlike previous entries, Cyberpilot is a virtual reality experience. The game

14065-517: The key people of Wolfenstein 3D , reprised his role as the sole programmer. Blazkowicz discovers an unnatural medallion containing supernatural powers while on a mission on a German battleship. Learning the Nazis had begun digging deep into crystal mines to obtain more of the material, the OSA sends their operative to the fictional town of Isenstadt, which the Nazis had taken complete control of in order to excavate rare Nachtsonne crystals necessary to access

14210-415: The levels are presented in a 3D perspective, the enemies and objects are instead 2D sprites presented from several set viewing angles, a technique sometimes referred to as 2.5D graphics. The player's health is represented by a percentage starting at 100, which is diminished when they are shot or attacked by enemies. If the player's health falls to zero, they lose one life and start the level over with

14355-444: The main protagonist of the series. id Software was hoping to make around $ 60,000 from the game upon its release. By the end of 1993, the game had sold over 100,000 copies, plus a further 100,000 units of its prequel Wolfenstein 3D: Spear of Destiny . A stealth-adventure game set during World War II, in which the player controls an unnamed American prisoner of war as he steals German files containing secret war plans. The main goal

14500-635: The map editing tools id Software used with the games. The source code for the original Wolfenstein 3D engine was released by id in 1995; when making the 2009 iOS port, Carmack used some of the enhancements to the engine made by fans after its release. The game's technical achievements also led to numerous imitators such as Ken's Labyrinth , Nitemare 3D , The Terminator: Rampage , Terminal Terror and The Fortress of Dr. Radiaki , among others. Although id Software did not develop another Wolfenstein game, as their development focus shifted to Doom shortly after release, and has never returned to

14645-421: The maps with the promise of being able to buy himself a brand new car. The team was going to include some anti-fascist references and Nazi atrocities, but left them out to avoid controversies. They ensured that the presentation of the game created the atmosphere that they wanted, adding violent animations by Adrian Carmack for enemies being shot and music and sound effects by Keen composer Bobby Prince to make

14790-431: The market at the time. Wolfenstein 3D features artwork by Adrian Carmack and sound effects and music by Bobby Prince . The game was released through Apogee in two sets of three episodes under the shareware model, in which the first episode is released for free to drive interest in paying for the rest. An additional episode, Spear of Destiny , was released as a stand-alone retail title through FormGen. Wolfenstein 3D

14935-465: The market towards first-person shooters. It has also been credited with confirming shareware distribution as a serious and profitable business strategy at the time; VideoGames & Computer Entertainment claimed in September 1992 that the game "justified the existence of shareware", and in July 1993 Computer Gaming World claimed that it "almost single-handedly" demonstrated the viability of shareware as

15080-400: The maze-like shooter gameplay fit well with Carmack's 3D game engine, while Adrian Carmack was interested in moving away from the child-friendly art style of Keen into something more violent. Encouraged by the reception to his idea, Romero expounded on it by proposing a "loud" and "cool" fast action game where the player could shoot soldiers before dragging and looting their bodies. The core of

15225-458: The original Apogee release, both of which were cancelled. A pushable wall maze led to a sign reading "Call Apogee and say Aardwolf " ("Snapity" in beta versions); it was intended that the first person to find the sign and carry out its instructions would win a prize (consisting of US$ 1,000 or a line of Apogee games for life), but the quick creation of level editors and cheat programs for the game soon after release led id and Apogee to give up on

15370-417: The plan to liberate America from the Nazis and use the country as a center base to free the rest of the world from their monstrous regime. Recruiting new members to the resistance along the way, Blazkowicz and the group intend to assassinate prominent leaders in the Nazi regime to bring the public conscious into the idea of liberty and freedom, thus urging everyone to rise against the hefty powers who are running

15515-470: The player navigates through a maze with laser-shooting robots. He decided to use the same concept but with Nazi soldiers instead of robots. His idea was to take the basic common concept of an arcade shoot 'em up, where players dodge enemies with the intent of killing them, and change the objective to escape the enemy guards and their castle with shooting guards simply a means to an end and not an end in itself. Warner implemented procedural level generation to

15660-426: The player's completion ratio and speed is displayed when a level is completed. Secret areas containing treasure, health refills, or ammunition can be found in hidden rooms revealed by activating certain wall tiles that slide back when triggered. The original version of the game allows the player to save their progress at any point, though in many of its ports the player can only save between levels. Wolfenstein 3D

15805-560: The port by March 1993. This version was written in C and compiled in the 65816 assembly language, making use of binary space partitioning rather than raycasting in order to give it speed. Carmack had to resize existing images to fit the SNES resolution. Nintendo insisted on censoring the game in accordance with their policies; this included first making all blood green and then finally removing it, removing Nazi imagery and German voice clips, and replacing enemy dogs with giant rats. The port

15950-402: The port's graphics and quality to what he later claimed was four times more detail than the DOS version. He also removed the changes that Nintendo had insisted on. The game itself, however, had to be slowed down to work properly on the console. Wolfenstein 3D has also been ported to numerous other platforms. In 1993, Alternate Worlds Technology licensed Wolfenstein 3D and converted it into

16095-420: The possible surfaces the computer needed to display, creating game levels with walls designed only on a flat grid rather than with arbitrary shapes or angles. He also took the unusual approach of creating the displayed graphics through ray casting , in which only the surfaces visible to the player were calculated rather than the entire area surrounding the player. After six weeks of development, Carmack had created

16240-474: The release of the game in December through shareware publisher Apogee Software , the team planned to quit Softdisk and start their own company. When their boss, Softdisk owner Al Vekovius, confronted them on both their plans and their use of company resources to develop the game—the team had created it on their work computers, both in the office after hours and by taking the computers to John Carmack's house on

16385-480: The same length as Spear of Destiny , in May 1994, and later that year published Spear of Destiny and the two mission packs together as the Spear of Destiny Super CD Package . Id released the original six Apogee episodes as a retail title through GT Software in 1993 and produced a collection of both the Apogee and FormGen episodes released through Activision in 1998. There were two intended promotions associated with

16530-441: The same magazine listed Castle Wolfenstein as the 116th best game of all time. In 1984, Muse Software released a sequel, Beyond Castle Wolfenstein , with similar graphics and gameplay. It adds some new features, such as the use of a knife, the ability to bribe guards, and a pass system in which guards periodically summon the player character and ask him or her to show the correct pass. Castle Wolfenstein directly influenced

16675-678: The same time, the team changed members and structure: id fired probationary president Mark Rein and brought back Jay Wilbur, who had stayed in Shreveport, to be both their CEO and business team; Bobby Prince moved into the office temporarily to record sound effects, while Adrian Carmack moved out of the office to get away from the noise. As the game neared completion, FormGen contacted id with concerns over its violence and shock content. In response, id increased these aspects; Adrian Carmack added skeletons, corpses, and bloody wall details, and Hall and Romero added screams and cries in German, along with

16820-400: The series' primary developer. Castle Wolfenstein was developed by programmer Silas Warner , along with Dale Gray and George Varndell, and published in 1981 by his company M.U.S.E. Inc. (later known as Muse Software). Warner is cited as a pioneer in the early eras of video gaming, especially in the stealth genre. Castle Wolfenstein was initially conceptualized by Warner after he saw

16965-527: The shaping of the stealth games genre. Though no more Wolfenstein games were released by Muse Entertainment after Beyond Castle Wolfenstein , Metal Gear series and several other video games took elements and inspiration from the two original games. Casey Alkaisy, marketing manager at DICE , in his review of stealth games on Gamasutra , said the first foundations of the stealth genre were laid down in Pac-Man but its game mechanics only took shape with

17110-513: The shareware episodes. Formgen's Spear of Destiny mission packs "Return to Danger" and "Ultimate Challenge" were reviewed by Paul Hyman of Computer Gaming World , who praised the updated graphical details and sound, as well as the smooth gameplay, but noted its overall dated graphics and lack of gameplay changes from the original game. The early ports of the game also received high reviews, though their sales have been described as "dismal". The four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly called

17255-403: The speed and gameplay, calling it "a fun game with lots of action" and "a fun, fairly mindless romp", though he did note that at higher difficulty settings or later levels it became extremely hard. The Spear of Destiny retail episode was also rated highly by Computer Gaming World ' s Bryan A. Walker, who praised the added enemy types, though he noted that it was essentially the same game as

17400-410: The storylines of the two games, as well as the existence of various characters as homages to the ones from the older title. Developed by MachineGames and published by Bethesda Softworks, the game is a stand-alone expansion to The New Order , and was released in 2015. Set five months after the events of The New Order , "B.J." Blazkowicz awakens from the coma he succumbed to in the aftermath of surviving

17545-584: The success of Wolfenstein 3D led id to receive multiple calls every month from investment companies looking to make id a publicly-traded company, which were all turned down. In 1996, Computer Gaming World declared Wolfenstein 3D the 97th-best computer game ever released. The game is also recognized as the principal cause for Germany banning video games that contain certain types of symbols and imagery from extremist groups like Nazis under its Strafgesetzbuch section 86a up through 2018. Section 86a had "social adequacy" allowances for works of art, but in 1998,

17690-463: The team had an external artist who assisted him and created animated wall textures, but the team felt that the quality was poor and did not use it in the game. The level design, by Romero and Hall, due to the grid-based level design, took some inspiration from Pac-Man , and paid homage with a hidden Pac-Man level. Romero later said in 2017 that making the levels was uninteresting compared to those from Commander Keen and had to prompt Hall to finish

17835-413: The team was able to purchase the trademark around mid-April 1992 for US$ 5,000. Thus they were free to use the name Wolfenstein 3D . The game concept met with immediate approval from Scott Miller of Apogee, who considered id Software his star developer, and he guaranteed id a US$ 100,000 payment on the project. Mark Rein , who had been brought on a few months prior as id's probationary president, also sold

17980-475: The team's rent and US$ 750 per month salaries, plus around US$ 6,500 for the computer John Carmack used to develop the engine and the US$ 5,000 to get the Wolfenstein trademark. The following summer, most of the id Software team developed Spear of Destiny . The single-episode game was a prequel to Wolfenstein 3D and used the same engine, but added new audio, graphics, and enemies. It was created in two months, and

18125-454: The weekends—the team made no secret of their intentions. After a few weeks of negotiation, the team agreed to produce a series of games for Gamer's Edge , one every two months. Ideas from the Deep, now formally established as id Software , used some of these to prototype ideas for their own games. Adrian Carmack used them to push his preferred, dark art style, while John Carmack began to experiment with 3D computer graphics , which until then

18270-568: Was "required playing for any first-person shooter fan". Wolfenstein 3D has been called the "grandfather of 3D shooters", specifically first-person shooters, because it established the fast-paced action and technical prowess commonly expected in the genre and greatly increased the genre's popularity. It has also been called "the Citizen Kane of shooters". Although some prior computer shooting-based games existed, they were generally scrolling shooters , while Wolfenstein 3D helped move

18415-464: Was "the first game technologically capable of creating a sufficient element of disbelief–suspension to emotionally immerse the player in a threatening environment", stating that they knew of no other game that could "evoke such intense psychological responses from its players". Wolfenstein twice received 5 out of 5 stars in Dragon in 1993; Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser termed it "definitely one of

18560-414: Was a critical and commercial success and is considered one of the greatest video games ever made . It garnered numerous awards and sold over 250,000 copies by the end of 1995. It has been termed the "grandfather of 3D shooters", and is widely regarded as having helped popularize the first-person shooter genre and establishing the standard of fast-paced action and technical prowess for many subsequent games in

18705-465: Was able to get it working so if a guard saw a dead body they tried finding the player. However, the stealth related features were eventually removed as Romero found that they impeded the flow of the game; Romero stated in an interview that "the problem is that the game came to a dead stop when you did these things... we didn't want to slow it down so we actually removed the features and left it fast." As Romero further explained in another interview: "The game

18850-506: Was developed by MachineGames and Arkane Lyon, and published by Bethesda. The game was released alongside Youngblood on the same day to mixed reviews. In 2012, movie producer Samuel Hadida and Panorama Media announced plans to make a film adaptation of Wolfenstein , with Roger Avary attached to write and direct. Castle Wolfenstein Castle Wolfenstein is a 1981 action-adventure game developed by Silas Warner for

18995-552: Was doing, Carmack enhanced the engine over six weeks from Hovertank 3D for another Softdisk game, the November 1991 Catacomb 3-D . Upon seeing it, Scott Miller of Apogee began to push the team to make a 3D shareware action game. In November 1991, with the second Commander Keen trilogy of episodes nearing completion and their contractual obligations to Softdisk almost finished, id Software sat down to plan out their next major game. Designer Tom Hall, who initially wanted to do

19140-530: Was inspired by the 1981 Muse Software video game Castle Wolfenstein , and is the third installment in the Wolfenstein series. In Wolfenstein 3D , the player assumes the role of Allied spy William "B.J." Blazkowicz during World War II as he escapes from the Nazi German prison Castle Wolfenstein and carries out a series of crucial missions against the Nazis. The player traverses each of

19285-399: Was instead released as a standalone, free to play multiplayer title. Instead of a single-player campaign mode and storyline, the game features an expanded edition of the previous title's multiplayer. The game was developed by Splash Damage and published by Activision . A commercial follow-up, called Enemy Territory: Quake Wars , was later released in 2007. In a mission to investigate

19430-482: Was largely the purview of flight simulation games such as Wing Commander (1990) or wireframe 3D in games on mainframe computers . Carmack found that this was largely due to the limitations of personal computers of the time, which had difficulty displaying a fast action game in 3D due to the number of surfaces it needed to calculate, but felt that the increasing computational power of PCs meant that it may be possible. During 1991, he experimented with limiting

19575-494: Was less enthusiastic, terming it good but not up to the standards of newer games. Its review of the Macintosh version of the game was also mild, stating that "there isn't a staggering amount of freshness here, but the action is fast, deadly, and (surprise) addictive". Major Mike of GamePro commended the 3DO version's complete absence of pixelation , fast scaling, "rousing" music, and high quality sound effects, but criticized

19720-405: Was most fun when it was a breakneck run through maps with tons of blasting down Nazis. Anything that slowed down that gameplay had to go." id's Wolfenstein 3D was released on May 5, 1992, and published by Apogee Software . The game has been credited with helping to establish the first-person shooter genre, and marked a new direction for the franchise itself. 3D was the first game to feature

19865-469: Was not designed to be editable or modified, players developed character and level editors to create original alterations to the game's content. John Carmack and Romero, who had played numerous mods of other games, were delighted, and overrode any concerns about copyright issues by the others. The modding efforts of Wolfenstein players led id Software to explicitly design later titles like Doom and Quake to be easily modifiable by players, even including

20010-528: Was published commercially by FormGen in September 1992. The publisher was concerned that the material would be controversial due to holy relics associated with World War   II, but Romero felt it was similar to the Indiana Jones films. Instead of working on the game, John Carmack experimented with a new graphics engine that was licensed for ShadowCaster and became the basis of the engine for id's next game, Doom (1993). The first episode

20155-441: Was released as shareware for free distribution by Apogee and the whole original trilogy of episodes made available for purchase on May 5 as Wolfenstein 3D , though the purchased episodes were not actually shipped to customers until a few weeks later. The second trilogy that Miller had convinced id to create was released soon after as an add-on pack titled The Nocturnal Missions . Players were able to buy each trilogy separately or as

20300-588: Was released in Japan on February 10, 1994, under the name Wolfenstein 3D: The Claw of Eisenfaust before being released in North America and Europe later that year. Using the source code of the SNES port, on a whim John Carmack later converted the game to run on the Atari Jaguar . Atari Corporation approved the conversion for publication and Carmack spent three weeks, assisted by Dave Taylor , improving

20445-648: Was released on multiple platforms in 2017. Two decades after liberating the United States from the Nazis occupation in the Second American Revolution in 1961, the newest members of the Global Resistance, twin sisters Jessie and Zofia Blazkowicz embark on a search mission to France in the capital city of Paris when B.J., their father, goes missing in action. As they task themselves to locate and reclaim B.J., they must also fight

20590-589: Was selling at a rate of 4,000 copies a month by mail order. PC Zone quoted a shareware distributor as saying Wolfenstein 3D was the top shareware seller of 1992. By the end of 1993, sales of the Apogee episodes of Wolfenstein 3D as well as Spear of Destiny had reached over 100,000 units each, with the Apogee game still selling strongly by the end of the year as its reach spread without newer retail titles to compete with it for shelf space. By mid-1994 150,000 shareware copies were registered and id Software had sold another 150,000 retail copies of Spear of Destiny ;

20735-567: Was so aged compared to recent releases like Hexen: Beyond Heretic and the PlayStation version of Doom that a new port was pointless, with the game now "somewhat tiresome and very, very repetitive". A reviewer for Next Generation asserted that Wolfenstein 3D was "still as addictive as it ever was" but essentially agreed with Maximum , contending that anyone interested in first-person shooters would have either already played it on another platform or "moved on" to more advanced games in

20880-485: Was stolen from Versailles . FormGen later developed two sequel episodes, "Return to Danger" and "Ultimate Challenge", each of which feature Blazkowicz as he fights through another Nazi base to recover the Spear of Destiny after it has been stolen again as part of a plot to build a nuclear weapon or summon demons . In October–December 1990, a team of employees from programming studio Softdisk calling themselves Ideas from

21025-504: Was the company's designer that they could return to his ideas at a later date. Initially the team believed that they would be unable to use the Wolfenstein name due to trademark issues, and came up with multiple possible titles. They contacted Castle Wolfenstein developer Silas Warner , but learned that Muse Software had shut down in 1986, with all rights to Wolfenstein sold. The rights last belonged to someone in Michigan , and

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