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Information About

Wolfenstein 3d




  developer Id Software
  publisher Apogee Software
  designer John Romero , Tom Hall
  engine Custom
  released May 5 1992 ( DOS )<br/> July 21 1995 ( Source )
  genre First-person Shooter
  modes Single Player
  ratings : M (1994 Rating), MA15+ (1998 Re-rating)
  platforms MS-DOS , Mac , Apple II<small>GS</small> , Acorn Archimedes , RiscPC , SNES , Jaguar , Atari ST , GBA , 3DO
  media Download ( Shareware ), or one to four 3½" Floppy Disks (one for Shareware , two for Original Missions only, four for full game)
  requirements 80286 class CPU , 640 kB RAM
  input Keyboard


''Wolfenstein 3D'' (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 '' for the Apple II . It has been ported to many systems, including 3DO , SNES , Game Boy Advance , Acorn Archimedes , and the Apple IIGS .


OVERVIEW

In ''Wolfenstein 3D'', the player is an American soldier named BJ Blazkowicz attempting to escape from the Eponym ous 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 Gun s and Ammunition .

''Wolfenstein 3D'' was originally released as called "''The Nocturnal Missions''" (consisting of "''A Dark Secret''", "''Trail of the Madman''", and "''Confrontation''") was also available. Like the shareware episode, each commercial episode contained 10 levels, bringing the game to a total of 60 missions.

Each episode had a different Boss who had to be killed in the final mission in order to complete the episode. In order to complete an 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.

A Prequel , '' Spear Of Destiny '', was also released.

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.


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.

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''. Immediately the episode begins, it becomes apparent that the environment is no longer that of a prison; the walls are covered in mulch, and the first enemies found are mutants with machine guns in their chests. The Operation of the title appears to be the creation of these mutants; the episode boss, the scientist Dr Schabbs, throws syringes at you. 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.

''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) that fires rockets at him.

''Trail of the Madman'' is a rather ornate episode taking place in a clean and stylish castle. Ostensibly, the episode's goal is the maps and plans of the chemical war (Giftkrieg), guarded by Gretel Grosse (Hans' sister; essentially the same character, only in a pink suit instead of a blue). 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''; 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, head planner and all-round very bad guy, 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 .


LEGAL ISSUES

shows the level is made almost entirely of swastikas.]]
Due to its use of Nazi symbols and the version was confiscated following a verdict by the Amtsgericht Berlin Tiergarten on December 7 , 1994 (Az. 351Gs5509/94). {Link without Title}

Due to concerns from Nintendo , the Super NES version was modified to not include any swastikas or Nazi references; furthermore, the attack dogs in the game were replaced by giant rats, and blood was replaced with sweat to make the game seem less violent. (The dogs were removed due to complaints from animal-rights activists that it was immoral to have a game in which it is required of the player to kill dogs. Employees of id Software are quoted in ''The Official DOOM Player Guide'' about the reaction to ''Wolfenstein'', ironically observing that it was morally acceptable to shoot human beings, but not dogs.) Three new weapons were added as well. However, 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.


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. 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 '' from 1991. Carmack claimed he could make a faster renderer. In this he was successful. The Wolfenstein engine does not have many features present in the Underworld engine, such as height changes, sloped floors and lighting, but runs well on relatively weaker hardware.


LEGACY

Wolfenstein Series:

''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 game 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.

A new first-person shooter, '''', was released in 2003, which was a free full-version multiplayer-only game, featuring elements from ''RtCW''.

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. However, the Xbox version of ''RtCW'' contains the full emulated version of ''Wolfenstein 3D'' as a bonus for beating the game.

Also, a new ''Castle Wolfenstein'' game has been announced for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 .


TRIVIA

  • The game manual mentioned that maybe you would have "a story to tell your grandchildren", if you 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 Noah's Ark 3D ''. 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.

  • Hans and Gretel Grosse is a reference to Hansel And Gretel .

  • Tom Hall originally did not want to make this game. They originally had plans for another '' Commander Keen '' game (hinted at in the end of the last one), but John Carmack and the rest of the team persuaded Hall to make a game based on the ''Catacomb 3D'' engine.

  • The Apple IIGS port is the only version to use authentic German voices and speech, recorded by native Germans. The other versions, however, contains broken German phrases, with incorrect article and adjective usages, mostly stemming from the misunderstanding of the gender of the nouns.



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EXTERNAL LINKS