I’ve had a lot of fun with this journey back in time. Back to the era of my generation’s childhood, it’s all the more important to look at a period in the world that wasn’t plague ridden or on fire. Back in June I looked at some of the most iconic records of the 1990s, and last month I reviewed two equally iconic 90s Sci-Fi anime. This month I’ve decided to devote to games, and they’re both titles that are still talked about in 2022. One might not have as much shine to as before, but they’re both games that are quite enjoyable still. So, salute the American flag, chamber a round into that Luger you grabbed off the guard in front of you, and enjoy my review of Wolfenstein 3D. Let’s begin!
Development History
Taken from Wikipedia:
“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 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 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 straightforwa In October–December 1990, a team of employees from programming studio Softdisk calling themselves Ideas from 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 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 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 was largely the purview of flight simulation games such as Wing Commander (1990). 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 rd, 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 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 in ANSI C and assembly language. The graphics for 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 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. 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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, except John Carmack, who instead experimented with a new graphics engine that was licensed for Shadowcaster and became the basis of the Doom engine. The one episode of Spear of Destiny was a prequel to Wolfenstein 3D and used the same engine, but added some new audio, graphics, and enemies. It took two months to create, and 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 didn't think it was that different from the Indiana Jones films.”
In-Game Story
Taken from the game manual:
“You’re William J “B.J.” Blazkowitz, the Allies’ bad boy of espionage and a terminal action seeker.
Your mission was to infiltrate the Nazi fortress Castle Hollehammer and find the plans for Operation Eisenfaust (Iron Fist), the Nazi’s blueprint for building the perfect army. Rumors are that deep within Castle Hollehammer the diabolical Dr. Schabbs has perfected a technique for building a fierce army from the bodies of the dead. It’s so far removed from reality that it would seem silly if it wasn’t so sick. But what if it were true?
You never got a chance to find out! Captured in your attempt to grab the secret plains, you were taken to the Nazi prison, Wolfenstein, for questioning and eventual execution. For 12 long days you’ve been imprisoned beneath the castle fortress. Just beyond your cell door sits a lone thick-necked Nazi guard. He assisted an SS dentist/mechanic in an attempt to jump start your tonsils earlier this morning.”
Let’s get this out of the way: id Software was never deep with a game’s lore. Outside of Doom 2016 & Doom Eternal (Maybe even Doom 3), stories were kept incredibly simple. As John Carmack once said:
“Story in a game is like story in a porno. It’s there, but you’re really not there for that.”
Gameplay
The dawn of the FPS genre was exceedingly simple in 1992, and Wolfenstein 3d is no exception. In this game’s case, you shoot nazis, you find keys to unlock doors, etc. However, it’s the little things that leave an impression. For starters, you got a live system. You earn lives through killing enemies, grabbing treasure, and finding live orbs, as well as getting points at the end of a level for how much you stuff you did. When you die with a life, you’re respawned at the start, but no weapons. It’s cool, but oddly pointless since there’s also a save system. Health is also interesting, as there are a variety of items that refill various amounts of health (10% from dog-food, and full health with a life orb), but if you have an incredibly low amount of health (below 10), you can actually get some hit points back if you drink blood off of the floor. That’s gimmicky, but is actually really useful if you can’t find any immediate health items!
However, there are some significant issue with this game. Chief among them are the secrets. For starters, it’s incredibly difficult to find them. Due to the graphics (More on that below), you will constantly be clicking on ever single wall to find them. On top of that, there’s almost never a sign that show’s a secret nearby, and you can even theoretically block a secret off due to how a wall moves, which means the only way to access it is if you reload a save from before. Another issue is how damage is dealt. There is an odd hitscan like system in place, and if you or a target are far away enough you won’t deal damage. It’s only until either side gets close enough that you can hit somebody, and even then it seems oddly random at how much you get hit by, This doesn’t help when you’re playing on high difficulties, as it seems so much more potent a lot of the time.
But, the biggest problem with Wolfenstein 3d is that the whole experience is so.....overwhelmingly.....repetitive! Back in 1992 gamers probably didn’t notice this since the FPS genre was so new at the time, but over 30 years later it’s far too obvious. It doesn’t help the fact that some levels are far too big & maze-like (Especially in later episodes), and as such you’re more than likely to get lost, and with the lack of a map button you will stay lost for a bit unless you’re a master at the game. This isn’t so bad if you play just the 3 original episodes, but if you decide to go through the extra 3 in the Nocturnal Missions, then it becomes obvious. I don’t have as much issue with this since the game has been with me since I was a kid, but every once in a while I do notice it.
Graphics
So, back in 1992 Wolfenstein 3d was oddly impressive to look at. Regardless of the genre, games didn’t exactly look all that impressive (Alone In The Dark was an exception in my view), but id Software really did step up the game. There was more fluidity in the movement of enemies & objects, and there was much more color than normal, giving things a “realistic” appearance in 92. I definitely recall my 5-year old mind being blown away by it back then, and I have to admit it still has a nostalgic charm to it. That being said, things have aged horribly over 30 years since it’s release (Hell, it was aged horribly even by the end of the 90s). Limitations back then included non textured floors & ceilings, and no realistic lighting. To simulate lighting, there were certain wall textures that were either a little darker or lighter, and the illusion was further enhanced by lamps or other light fixtures. However, I hinted at this earlier, but this makes finding secrets an absolute pain. There’s no slight texture change to even remotely show that there’s something off about a particular wall you can push, and even when there’s some object placed nearby to give you a hint, you still can’t tell. It was infuriating back in 1992, but nowadays it’s more of an annoyance thanks to guides (Video & readable).
Other
If you’re curious about this game, click on this link below:
Wolfenstein 3d (Longplay)
Overall Impression & Rating
Wolfenstein 3d is ageless & timeless. Doom may have pushed the FPS genre into the spotlight, but it wouldn’t have been possible without the actions of Mr. Blaskowitz. Yes, by today’s standards it is exceedingly dated & repetitive, but back in 1992 it was something special. It’s a game of 2 sides: one side is just fun & nostalgia, while the other side shows that time hasn’t been kind. It’s strange, but at the same time it’s a game I still have fun with whenever I have the urge to play. If you’ve wondered what the beginning of the FPS genre was like, then I suggest you give it a go.
Wolfenstein 3d gets a 10 out of 10 due to pure nostalgia, but perhaps a 7 to 7.5 out of 10 practically.
And that was my look at Wolfenstein 3d. It was special in 1992, and it’s managed to remain so over 30 years later. If this game isn’t on anyone top 10 FPS list, then I will pray for those people. So before we get to my other game for this month, I’ll be showing off the albums from the 1990s you need in your musical library. See you next week!
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