Wolfenstein 3D

1992 · First-Person Shooter · PC/DOS

Overview

Wolfenstein 3D (1992) is id Software's fast first-person shooter, in which Allied spy B.J. Blazkowicz fights his way out of a Nazi castle — the game that set the template for the genre.

Deep Dive

B.J. Blazkowicz, an American spy, escapes from Castle Wolfenstein and battles through Nazi strongholds level by level. Every level is a flat maze of equal-height walls drawn in real time with ray casting, while guards, dogs and objects are flat sprites drawn from several angles. It made fast action the standard for 3D shooters, and is often called the grandfather of the genre. The original release was divided into six episodes of ten levels, three of them sold as The Nocturnal Missions.

Developer Story

John Romero proposed remaking Muse Software's 1981 Castle Wolfenstein as an action game, and id bought the Wolfenstein trademark for $5,000. John Carmack built the engine, Tom Hall directed and Adrian Carmack drew the sprites. Apogee released it as shareware on 5 May 1992, and FormGen published the retail episode Spear of Destiny that September.

Did You Know?

Germany banned the game in 1994 over its Nazi symbols; the ban was lifted in 2018 and the game removed from the index in 2019.
For the Super NES version, Nintendo required the Nazi imagery and German voice clips to be cut, the blood removed and the attack dogs replaced with giant rats.