Robert Prince (DOS) Brian Luzietti (Macintosh) Todd Dennis (3DO)
Series
Wolfenstein
Platform(s)
DOS
PC-98
SNES
Jaguar
Classic Mac OS
Acorn Archimedes
3DO
Apple IIGS
Game Boy Advance
Xbox
Linux
iOS
Xbox 360
PlayStation 3 (PSN)
Android
Release
May 5, 1992 (1992-05-05)
DOS
May 5, 1992 September 18, 1992 (Spear of Destiny)
Arcade (VR)
1993
PC-98
1994
SNES
February 1994
Atari Jaguar
May 1994
Mac OS
December 1994
Acorn Archimedes
November 1994
3DO
October 19, 1995
Apple IIGS
February 14, 1998
Game Boy Advance
April 2002
Xbox
May 6, 2003
Linux
August 3, 2007
iOS
March 25, 2009
Xbox 360
June 3, 2009
PlayStation 3 (PSN)
June 4, 2009
Android
October 1, 2016
Genre(s)
First-person shooter
Mode(s)
Single-player
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 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 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 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 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 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 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.
Wolfenstein3D is a first-person shooter video game developed by id Software and published by Apogee Software and FormGen. Originally released on May 5...
Wolfenstein and Beyond Castle Wolfenstein, focused on stealth-based gameplay from a top-down perspective. Beginning with id Software's Wolfenstein3D...
Castle Wolfenstein is a 1981 action-adventure game that was developed by Muse Software for the Apple II home computer. It is one of the earliest games...
Software developed its multiplayer mode. id Software, the creators of Wolfenstein3D, oversaw the development and were credited as executive producers. The...
including work done for the Wolfenstein, Doom, and Quake franchises at the time. id's work was particularly important in 3D computer graphics technology...
had developed 3D engines for several games before Wolfenstein3D. Each engine had progressively more advanced 3D technology. Hovertank 3D (1991) used solid-color...
and Wolfenstein3D. In 1994, Apogee decided to launch different brand names for each genre of games they published; it created 3D Realms for 3D games...
another, they may not partially overlap or intersect. The video game Wolfenstein3D was built from a square based grid of uniform height walls meeting solid-colored...
3D features the adventures of the titular Duke Nukem, voiced by Jon St. John, who fights against an alien invasion on Earth. Along with Wolfenstein 3D...
and Wolfenstein3D the same way. Apogee began using the brand name 3D Realms for its 3D games in 1994, and in 1996 rebranded the company itself to 3D Realms...
to use the WinG interface. The visuals are similar to those used in Wolfenstein3D with perpendicular walls and no textures on the floors and ceilings...
release. "id Software: Hovertank 3D". id Software. Archived from the original on March 21, 2007. "How id built Wolfenstein3D using Commander Keen tech". Gamasutra...
Software and 3D Realms. Some of his most notable works include Wolfenstein3D, Doom, Doom II: Hell on Earth, Duke Nukem II, and Duke Nukem 3D. Bobby Prince...
late 1992, after the release of Wolfenstein3D and its sequel Spear of Destiny. John Carmack was working on an improved 3D game engine from those games,...
Softdisk, before releasing the "grandfather of first-person shooters", Wolfenstein3D, in 1992 through both shareware and retail. It was followed by Doom...
of its 1990s games Commander Keen, Wolfenstein3D, Doom, Quake, and their sequels. Carmack made innovations in 3D computer graphics, such as his Carmack's...
iOS. While the original Wolfenstein3D contained Nazi castles full of swastikas and sour-looking Hitler portraits, Wolfenstein RPG is decidedly lighter...
third trilogy were cancelled after the success of Wolfenstein3D (1992) and development focus on 3D first-person shooters such as Doom (1993). The final...
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