Wolfenstein 3-D

Original North American box art.

Wolfenstein 3-D is a World War II themed first-person shooter developed by id Software and published by Apogee Software for MS-DOS on 1992-05-05, then ported to several other platforms. There are effectively three versions of the game: the original MS-DOS release, the SNES and Apple IIgs port, and the Macintosh, 3DO, and Jaguar port. The game is the third game in the Wolfenstein series, and the first to use the Wolfenstein 3-D Engine. It's also a video game milestone as it was one of the first widely popular FPSes.

The game is based on a much older game, Castle Wolfenstein, and, like the original, you play a prisoner of war trying to escape from a Nazi dungeon. Additional episodes were added where you infiltrate Nazi strongholds and kill Hitler and fictional Nazi leaders.

Personal

I first played Wolfenstein 3-D in the early 1990s and was really impressed, not just by the 3D perspective, but also the gratuitous violence and digital speech. My favorite animation is the liquefaction death of Hitler. I rarely played the game fairly, usually relying on cheats to skip through most of the game, but, on 2022-01-18, I finished playing through all six episodes at Bring 'Em On difficulty.

This was also one of the first games I spent a lot of time trying to modify. Before I had Internet access, I was able to get my hands on a map editor, and I made several custom maps for the game.

Status

I own Wolfenstein 3-D on Steam. I have beaten all six episodes at Bring 'Em On difficulty.

Review

4	5	7	6	6

Best Version: DOS

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• The game, for its time, is a beautiful example of a first-person shooter done right.
• John Carmack's 3D engine is lightning fast, it even worked on medium-level hardware of the time.
• Though cartoonish, the graphics are well-drawn and attractive. Adrian Carmack's pixel art is top-notch.
• The enemy AI is pretty dumb, but it does sometimes cause some rather shocking results when they inadvertently sneak up on you from behind and strafe to avoid your gun fire.
• Bobby Prince's soundtrack is really good, and his incorporation of Nazi and American political music was a fitting touch.
• The sliding secret doors is a really cool addition. Tom Hall was right to nag John Carmack until he added them.
• The addition of a secret 3-D Pac-Man level was pretty cool.

Bad

• The game becomes monotonous pretty quickly. After the third episode, you've seen nearly everything the game has to offer, save the remaining bosses.
• The player turns too slowly.
• NPCs are able to shoot around corners even when their guns are clearly behind the wall.
• In several levels NPCs will open a locked door before you get the key allowing you to short-cut large sections of the map or get stuck.
• The use of lives and points doesn't really fit the game's theme and serves no measurable purpose.
• Many of the levels have a ridiculous layout. While this makes the game more playable (a realistic map would be dull), it also hurts immersion. Also, the boss levels are usually pretty small and boring.

Ugly

• Allowing save scumming kind of defeats the difficulty, but, if you try to play without it, the game is ridiculously hard. So, unless you've memorized where all the enemies are, you're kind of forced to use it.
• There are several levels that require you go through long twisting mazes which are just obnoxious.
• A large portion of the secrets have no hints as to where they are. This means, if you want to uncover 100% of the secrets, you'll have to check every wall in every map, a tedious task.

Media

Box Art

Due to the Nazi imagery, Apogee used their logo as the cover art in several European countries.

• 

  This is the original US mail-order art by Ken Rieger. It was later reused for the Shareware copies and the digital release. BJ looks like a roided out murderous psychopath, especially when the only notion he's killing Nazis is the helmet of the dead guard. Still, it's well-painted, and I like the logo. This is my favorite.

• 

  This is the US box art used in stores, by Julie Bell. BJ is just as much a body builder, but a little less insane. The guards look even less like Nazis than before, although the top guard is reminiscent of the cover of the original Castle Wolfenstein. This art was reused for the Game Boy Advance, iOS, and modern emulated platforms.

• 

  The UK release went all out with swastikas and Hitler, too bad it's amateurishly painted.

Documentation

• 

  Manual - MS-DOS.

• 

  Manual - MS-DOS - Australia.

• 

  Manual - 3DO.

• 

  Manual - Jaguar.

• 

  Official Hint Manual.

• 

  Masters of Doom. Describes the development process.

Maps

• 

  DOS - Episode 1.

• 

  DOS - Episode 2.

• 

  DOS - Episode 3.

• 

  DOS - Episode 4.

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  DOS - Episode 5.

• 

  DOS - Episode 6.

Screenshots

• 

  Title.

• 

  The start of episode 1, mission 1.

Graphics

• 

  DOS - Wall textures.

• 

  DOS - BJ Blazkowicz.

• 

  DOS - Objects.

• 

  DOS - Guards.

• 

  DOS - Bosses.

• 

  Graphics sheet from the Macintosh version.

• spriters-resource.com/pc_computer/wolfenstein3d - Additional sprite sheets.

Fan Art

• 

  Fan art by Pierre-Henri Parisod.

• 

  Robo-Hitler fan art by Deimos-Remus.

• 

  Enemy collage.

Videos

John Carmack's commentary.

Did You Know Gaming?

Longplay - Bring 'Em On difficulty.

Download

• Download (Info) - Version 1.4, shareware.
• Download (Info) - Editors.

Credits

Role	Staff
Chief Operating Officer	Jay Wilbur
Director	Tom Hall
Designers	Tom Hall, John Romero
Writer	Tom Hall
Engine Programmer	John Carmack
Programmer	John Romero
Additional Programming	Jason Blochowiak
Graphics	Adrian Carmack
Music, Sound Effects	Robert Prince
Sound Driver	Jason Blochowiak
Voices	Tom Hall, John Romero, Scott Miller
Documentation	Kevin Cloud

Links