Wolfenstein 3D is a 1992 first-person shooter game created by id Software and published by Apogee Software and FormGen for MS-DOS. It was inspired by the 1981 game Castle Wolfenstein by Muse Software and is the third game in the Wolfenstein series. In Wolfenstein 3D, the player controls William "B.J." Blazkowicz, an Allied spy during World War II, as he escapes from the Nazi prison Castle Wolfenstein and completes important missions against the Nazis. The player moves through each level to find an elevator to the next level or defeat a final boss, fighting enemies like Nazi soldiers, dogs, and others using a knife and various weapons.

Wolfenstein 3D was the second major game released by id Software after the Commander Keen series. In mid-1991, programmer John Carmack tested a fast 3D game engine by limiting gameplay to a single plane, creating prototypes like Hovertank 3D and Catacomb 3-D. After a design meeting led the company to shift from the family-friendly Commander Keen to a more intense theme, programmer John Romero suggested remaking the 1981 stealth game Castle Wolfenstein into a fast-paced action game. He and designer Tom Hall created the game using Carmack's engine, making it fast and intense, unlike other games available at the time. The game features artwork by Adrian Carmack and sound effects and music by Bobby Prince. It was released by Apogee in two sets of three episodes using the shareware model, where the first episode was free to encourage people to purchase the others. An additional episode, Spear of Destiny, was released as a separate retail game by FormGen.

Wolfenstein 3D was a critical and commercial success and is considered one of the greatest video games ever made. It won many awards and sold over 250,000 copies by the end of 1995. It is called the "grandfather of 3D shooters" and is widely believed to have helped popularize the first-person shooter genre, setting standards for fast action and technical skill in future games. It also showed that the shareware publishing model could be successful. FormGen created two more episodes for the game, while Apogee released a collection of over 800 fan-made levels. Id Software did not return to the series but shared the game's engine with other titles before releasing the source code for free in 1995. Since 2001, other companies have developed additional games in the Wolfenstein series.

Gameplay

Wolfenstein 3D is a first-person shooter game with basic 3D graphics. The game is divided into levels, each of which is a flat map divided into sections and rooms by a grid pattern of walls and doors, all the same height. Each level is set in Nazi bunkers or buildings. To complete a level, the player must move through the area to reach an elevator. The original version includes ten levels grouped into named episodes, with the final level featuring a battle against a powerful enemy. As the player moves through levels, they must fight Nazi guards, soldiers, dogs, and other enemies while managing supplies of bullets and health. Weapons such as a knife, pistol, submachine gun, and rapid-fire chain gun can be found in levels or collected from defeated enemies. Keys are also available to unlock doors. Although levels are shown in 3D, enemies and objects are 2D images displayed from fixed angles, a method sometimes called 2.5D graphics.

The player’s health is shown as a percentage starting at 100, which decreases when attacked by enemies. If health reaches zero, the player loses a life and restarts the level with a knife, pistol, and eight bullets. Each episode begins with four lives, and more lives can be earned by finding special items or scoring enough points. Points are earned by defeating enemies, collecting treasures, or completing tasks like killing all enemies in a level, collecting all treasures, finding hidden areas, or finishing a level quickly. After completing a level, the player’s progress and speed are shown. Secret areas with treasures, health, or bullets can be found in hidden rooms by activating specific wall tiles that move when triggered. The original game allows saving progress at any time, but many versions only let players save between levels.

Plot

Wolfenstein 3D is divided into two three-part series. The first series includes "Escape from Castle Wolfenstein," "Operation: Eisenfaust," and "Die, Führer, Die!" The second series, called The Nocturnal Missions, includes "A Dark Secret," "Trail of the Madman," and "Confrontation." The main character is William "B.J." Blazkowicz, an American spy of Polish heritage. The game follows his mission to stop the Nazi regime. In "Escape from Castle Wolfenstein," Blazkowicz is captured while searching for plans for Operation Eisenfaust (Iron Fist) and must escape from Castle Wolfenstein. In "Operation: Eisenfaust," he discovers and stops a Nazi plan to create an army of undead mutants at Castle Hollehammer. In "Die, Führer, Die!," he enters a bunker under the Reichstag and fights Adolf Hitler in a robotic suit with four machine guns.

The Nocturnal Missions series is a prequel that explains German plans for chemical warfare. "A Dark Secret" follows Blazkowicz as he searches for a scientist who developed dangerous weapons. "Trail of the Madman" takes place in Castle Erlangen, where Blazkowicz finds maps and plans for chemical warfare. "Confrontation" is set in Castle Offenbach, where he faces the Nazi general leading the chemical warfare project.

An additional episode called "Spear of Destiny" was released by FormGen. It follows Blazkowicz on a mission to recover the Spear of Destiny from the Nazis after it was stolen from Versailles. Later, FormGen created two sequel episodes, "Return to Danger" and "Ultimate Challenge." These missions involve Blazkowicz fighting through Nazi bases to reclaim the Spear of Destiny, which was stolen again as part of a plan to build a nuclear weapon or summon demons.

Development

In October–December 1990, a group of employees from programming studio Softdisk, who called themselves Ideas from the Deep, created the first game in the Commander Keen series, Commander Keen in Invasion of the Vorticons. The team worked at Softdisk in Shreveport, Louisiana, and developed games for the Gamer's Edge subscription service and disk magazine. The team included programmers John Romero and John Carmack, designer Tom Hall, artist Adrian Carmack, and manager Jay Wilbur. After the game was released in December through shareware publisher Apogee Software, the team planned to leave Softdisk and start their own company. Their boss, Al Vekovius, confronted them about their plans and their use of company resources to make the game, which they had created on work computers during office hours and at John Carmack’s home on weekends. The team did not hide their intentions. After several weeks of discussion, the team agreed to create a series of games for Gamer's Edge, one every two months.

Ideas from the Deep, now officially named id Software, used some of these games to test ideas for their own projects. Adrian Carmack used them to try out a dark art style, while John Carmack began experimenting with 3D computer graphics. At the time, 3D graphics were mostly used in flight simulators like Wing Commander (1990) and slower adventure games like Mercenary (1985). Carmack noticed that personal computers had limited power, making it hard to display fast action games in 3D. However, he believed that as computers became more powerful, it might become possible. In 1991, Carmack tested ways to reduce the number of surfaces a computer needed to calculate for 3D games. He designed game levels using flat grids instead of complex shapes or angles. He also used a technique called ray casting, which only calculated surfaces visible to the player instead of the entire area around them. After six weeks of work, Carmack created a basic 3D game engine that used animated 2D images for enemies. Id Software used this engine for the April 1991 Softdisk game Hovertank 3D, where players drove a tank through colored walls and shot enemies.

In the fall of 1991, after the team—without Jay Wilbur—moved to Madison, Wisconsin, and Carmack finished the engine work for Commander Keen in Goodbye, Galaxy, he added a feature from Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss, a role-playing game being developed by Blue Sky Productions. Ultima Underworld planned to use texture-mapped 3D graphics, which did not have the same limitations as Hovertank 3D. Carmack believed he could add texture mapping without slowing the engine or increasing system requirements. He improved the engine over six weeks for another Softdisk game, Catacomb 3-D, released in November 1991. Scott Miller of Apogee saw the game and encouraged the team to create a 3D shareware action game.

In November 1991, as the second Commander Keen trilogy neared completion and their contract with Softdisk was nearly finished, id Software planned their next major game. Designer Tom Hall, who had initially wanted to create a third Keen trilogy, noticed that Carmack’s focus had shifted from 2D side-scrolling platform games to 3D action games. After Hall proposed a sci-fi project called "It's Green and Pissed," John Romero suggested a 3D remake of the 1981 game Castle Wolfenstein. The team liked the idea because they had fond memories of the original game, and they believed its maze-like shooter gameplay would work well with Carmack’s 3D engine. Adrian Carmack wanted to move away from the child-friendly art style of Keen to something more intense. Romero expanded the idea, proposing a fast action game where players could shoot enemies and loot their bodies. He believed the game would be unique in an industry dominated by slower simulation and strategy games. Adrian and John Carmack were excited, while Hall thought it was enjoyable enough and could return to his ideas later.

At first, the team thought they could not use the Wolfenstein name due to trademark issues. They contacted Silas Warner, the developer of Castle Wolfenstein, and learned that Muse Software, the original publisher, had shut down in 1986, selling all rights to someone in Michigan. The team purchased the trademark for $5,000 in mid-April 1992, gaining the right to use the name Wolfenstein 3D. Scott Miller of Apogee immediately supported the project and guaranteed id Software $100,000. Mark Rein, id’s probationary president, convinced FormGen, the publisher of Commander Keen in Aliens Ate My Babysitter, to approve the game despite concerns about its content. This allowed id Software to sell the game to both shareware and retail markets at the same time.

The project officially began on December 15, 1991. Romero and Hall designed the gameplay and visuals. Romero wanted the game’s goal to be “to mow down Nazis,” including storming a Nazi bunker filled with SS soldiers, Hitler, dogs, and blood. He also created the game’s storyline. Hall designed the levels and added collectible items like treasure and health food. He also sketched the bosses and the title screen. Carmack programmed the game’s engine in one month, adding features like doors and decorative objects from Catacomb 3-D, but focused on improving speed and using higher-resolution graphics. The game was mostly written in ANSI C, with some parts in assembly language. Originally planned for 16-color EGA graphics, the team changed to 256-color VGA four months before release, allowing higher resolutions. Romero simplified the game by removing elements like looting enemy bodies, which he felt slowed the gameplay. Adrian Carmack hand-drew enemy and object sprites at eight different angles using Deluxe Paint II. The team initially used an external artist for animated wall textures but stopped because the quality was poor. The level design, inspired by Pac-Man, included a hidden Pac-Man level. Romero later said in 2017 that designing levels for Wolfenstein 3D was less interesting than for Commander Keen and had to promise Hall a new car to finish the maps.

Release

The first episode of Wolfenstein 3D was given away for free as shareware by Apogee. The entire original trilogy of episodes was made available for purchase on May 5, 1992, under the title Wolfenstein 3D. However, the purchased episodes were not sent to customers until several weeks later. A second trilogy, created after Miller convinced id Software to make it, was released later as an add-on pack called The Nocturnal Missions. Players could buy each trilogy separately or as a single game. In 1993, Apogee also published a pack called Wolfenstein 3D Super Upgrades, which included 815 levels made by fans called "WolfMaster," along with a map editor named "MapEdit" and a random level generator named "Wolf Creator." A retail version of Wolfenstein 3D called Spear of Destiny, which was twice as long as the Apogee episodes, was released by FormGen on September 18, 1992. FormGen later published two mission packs titled "Return to Danger" and "Ultimate Challenge," each the same length as Spear of Destiny, in May 1994. These mission packs and Spear of Destiny were later released together as the Spear of Destiny Super CD Package. In 1993, id Software released the original six Apogee episodes as a retail game through GT Software. In 1998, id and Activision released a collection of both Apogee and FormGen episodes.

Two promotions were planned for the original Apogee release, but both were canceled. One involved a pushable wall maze leading to a sign that read "Call Apogee say 'Aardwolf'" (called "Snapity" in early versions). The first person to find the sign and follow its instructions was meant to win a prize, such as $1,000 or a lifetime supply of Apogee games. However, the quick creation of level editors and cheat programs after the game's release led id and Apogee to abandon the idea. Another promotion involved giving players a three-letter code after completing an episode, which was meant to be used for a high-score contest. This contest was also canceled due to the widespread use of editor programs.

Imagineer bought the rights to the game and asked id Software to port it to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) for a $100,000 advance. However, id was busy working on Doom and Spear of Destiny and ignored the project for seven to eight months. Eventually, Rebecca Heineman was hired to work on the port, but she made no progress. Instead, id team members spent three weeks learning how to create SNES games and completed the port by March 1993. This version used C programming and 65816 assembly language, and it used binary space partitioning instead of raycasting for faster performance. Carmack resized images to fit the SNES resolution. Nintendo required changes to the game, including making blood green, removing blood, Nazi imagery, and German voice clips, and replacing enemy dogs with giant rats. The SNES version was released in Japan on February 10, 1994, under the name Wolfenstein 3D: The Claw of Eisenfaust. It was later released in North America and Europe. John Carmack later converted the game to run on the Atari Jaguar using the SNES source code. Atari approved the conversion, and Carmack, with help from Dave Taylor, improved the port's graphics and quality. He also removed the changes Nintendo had required. However, the game had to run slower on the console.

Wolfenstein 3D was also ported to many other platforms. In 1993, Alternate Worlds Technology licensed the game and created a virtual reality arcade version. In 1994, Eddie Edwards in the UK ported the game to the Acorn Archimedes for Powerslave Software. Imagineer planned a port for the Sega Mega Drive but canceled it due to technical issues. The 1994 Classic Mac OS version had three releases: The First Encounter (shareware), The Second Encounter (with 30 exclusive levels), and The Third Encounter (with all 60 levels from the MS-DOS version). Atari offered to port the game to the Lynx but never started the project beyond a few images. A 3DO version was released in October 1995. Vitesse began a port for the Apple IIGS in Fall 1994, with Heineman as the initial developer and later help from Ninjaforce Entertainment, but it was not released until February 1998 due to licensing issues. An open-source iOS version was created by John Carmack in 2009. An unofficial port for the Game Boy Color was made in 2016. An Android version titled Wolfenstein 3D Touch (later renamed ECWolf) was released by Beloko Games. Other ports include the Game Boy Advance (2002), Xbox Live Arcade, and PlayStation Network. These versions sometimes have different sound, graphics, and levels compared to the original. Many ports include only the Apogee episodes, but the iOS version includes Spear of Destiny. A 2007 Steam release for PC, macOS, and Linux includes all FormGen episodes. In 2012, Bethesda Softworks, which owns id Software, celebrated the 20th anniversary of Wolfenstein 3D by offering a free-to-play browser version, though the website was later removed.

Reception

The developers of Wolfenstein 3D did not know how well the game would sell, but they hoped it would earn about $60,000 in its first month. Instead, the first payment from Apogee, a company that distributed the game, was $100,000. The game sold 4,000 copies each month through mail order. A gaming magazine called PC Zone reported that Wolfenstein 3D was the top-selling shareware game in 1992. By the end of 1993, sales of the Apogee episodes of Wolfenstein 3D and Spear of Destiny reached over 100,000 copies each. The Apogee version of Wolfenstein 3D continued to sell strongly in 1993 because there were no newer games competing for space on store shelves. By mid-1994, 150,000 shareware copies of the game had been registered, and id Software sold 150,000 retail copies of Spear of Destiny. The company estimated that 1 million shareware copies were sent worldwide. Over 20% of its sales came from outside the United States, even though the game had no marketing in other languages and was banned in Germany because of its use of Nazi symbols. A Japanese gaming magazine, Famitsu, reviewed Wolfenstein 3D five months after its release and called it "a real shooter" that was easy to play and ran smoothly. It said the game was the only one of its kind at the time. Sales of the Apogee episodes of Wolfenstein 3D far exceeded the shareware sales record set by the developer’s earlier Commander Keen series. This gave id Software a much higher profit than selling retail copies. While Commander Keen games earned Apogee about $10,000 a month, Wolfenstein 3D averaged $200,000 a month for the first 18 months. By 1995, the game had sold 250,000 copies and earned $2.5 million in revenue.

Wolfenstein 3D won many awards, including the 1992 Best Arcade Game award from Compute!, the 1992 Most Innovative Game and Best Action Game awards from VideoGames & Computer Entertainment, the 1992 Reader’s Choice — Action/Arcade Game award from Game Bytes, and the 1993 Best Action/Arcade Game, Best Entertainment Software, and People’s Choice awards at the Shareware Industry Awards. It also won the 1993 Best Action Game award from Computer Gaming World and a Codie award from the Software Publishers Association for Best Action/Arcade Game. Wolfenstein 3D was the first shareware game to win a Codie award, and id Software, which had only six employees, became the smallest company ever to receive the award. The game was noted as one of the top games of 1993 at the Game Developers Conference.

Reviewers praised Wolfenstein 3D when it was released. Chris Lombardi of Computer Gaming World called the game’s graphics "sparse [but] gorgeous" and "frighteningly realistic" and said the sound and music were immersive. He warned that people sensitive to violence should avoid the game. Lombardi said Wolfenstein 3D and Ultima Underworld, a game released two months earlier, were the first games capable of making players feel emotionally immersed in a threatening environment. Dragon magazine gave Wolfenstein 3D five out of five stars twice in 1993. Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser of Dragon called it "one of the best arcade games ever made for PC" and praised its graphics, sound, and fast-paced action. Sandy Petersen, in a column called "Eye of the Monitor," said Wolfenstein 3D was unlike any other game and had evolved far from its 1981 version. He called it a fun game with lots of action but noted it became very difficult at higher difficulty levels or later levels. Spear of Destiny, the retail version of the game, was also praised by Computer Gaming World’s Bryan A. Walker, who said it had new enemy types but was similar to the shareware episodes. Formgen’s Spear of Destiny mission packs, "Return to Danger" and "Ultimate Challenge," were reviewed by Paul Hyman of Computer Gaming World, who praised the updated graphics and sound but said the game’s visuals were outdated and the gameplay had not changed much from the original.

Early versions of the game for other platforms received high praise, though their sales were low. Four reviewers for Electronic Gaming Monthly called the Super NES version a good conversion that kept the original game’s music, large levels, and fun but said the censored content was not important. In 1995, Total! ranked Wolfenstein 3D 84th on its "Top 100 SNES Games" list. Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the Jaguar version similar praise to the Super NES version, saying its graphics and audio were better than other versions but criticized the faster movement of the player character as making the game less fun. A GamePro review of the Jaguar version said Wolfenstein 3D "set a new standard for PC gaming" and called the Jaguar version the best to date, better than the original because of improved graphics and sound. A Next Generation review of the Jaguar version was less enthusiastic, calling it good but not up to the standards of newer games. The magazine also gave the Macintosh version a mild review, saying the game was not very fresh but had fast, deadly, and addictive action.

Major Mike of GamePro praised the 3DO version of Wolfenstein 3D for having no pixelation, fast scaling, "rousing" music, and high-quality sound effects but criticized the controls as too sensitive. He said the game, which was over three years old, "still packs a punch as a first-person shooter." Wolfenstein 3D won GamePro’s Best 3DO Game of 1995 award, beating games like The Need for Speed and D. Maximum, a reviewer, said the 3DO version was better than the original and as good as the Jaguar version but noted the game was too old compared to newer releases like Hexen: Beyond Heretic and the PlayStation version of Doom. He said a new port was unnecessary because the game was now "tiresome and very repetitive." A Next Generation reviewer said Wolfenstein 3D was "still as addictive as it ever was" but agreed with Maximum that most first-person shooter fans had already played it on other platforms or moved on to newer games. A 2009 review of the Xbox 360 version by Ryan McCaffrey of *

Legacy

Wolfenstein 3D is often called the "grandfather of 3D shooters," specifically first-person shooters, because it introduced fast action and advanced technology that became common in the genre. It also earned the nickname "the Citizen Kane of shooters." While earlier games existed, they were usually scrolling shooters, and Wolfenstein 3D helped shift the industry toward first-person shooters. The game also showed that shareware distribution—selling games in parts before full release—could be a successful business model. In 1992, VideoGames & Computer Entertainment said the game "justified the existence of shareware," and in 1993, Computer Gaming World claimed it "almost single-handedly" proved shareware could work, leading to more shareware first-person shooters. Wolfenstein 3D’s high sales encouraged companies like Apogee to create larger 3D games with bigger teams.

During development, id Software approached Sierra Entertainment, a major company, to discuss a partnership. After seeing Commander Keen and an early version of Wolfenstein 3D, Sierra’s CEO offered to buy id for $2.5 million and make it an in-house studio. The team was excited but felt cultural differences with Sierra. They asked for $100,000 in cash upfront instead of stock, but Sierra refused. id interpreted this as a lack of belief in Wolfenstein 3D’s potential, and the deal failed. id decided to stay independent. By 1993, before releasing Doom, Wolfenstein 3D’s success caused investment companies to contact id about going public, but all offers were rejected. In 1996, Computer Gaming World ranked Wolfenstein 3D as the 97th-best computer game ever released.

Wolfenstein 3D also influenced Germany’s laws. Under its Strafgesetzbuch section 86a, video games containing Nazi symbols were banned until 2018. A 1998 court case ruled that video games did not qualify for "social adequacy" allowances for art because they attracted younger audiences, potentially making them vulnerable to extremist ideas. Until 2018, Germany’s USK rating board banned games with inappropriate symbols, including Wolfenstein 3D. In 2018, a court case involving a parody game led to the ban’s reversal, as the USK now included age ratings and content warnings. In 2019, Wolfenstein 3D was removed from Germany’s "Index" of banned games.

After its release, id Software licensed the Wolfenstein 3D engine to other developers, like those who made Commander Keen. Games using the engine or its derivatives include Blake Stone, Corridor 7, Operation Body Count, and Super 3D Noah’s Ark. Apogee planned an expansion pack, Rise of the Triad: Wolfenstein 3D Part II, but it became a standalone game with an improved engine. Softdisk also used the Wolfenstein 3D engine for Catacomb Abyss. Though Wolfenstein 3D was not designed for editing, players created tools to modify the game. id Software later made Doom and Quake easier to modify, including map editing tools. The original engine’s source code was released in 1995, and fans’ improvements were used in the 2009 iOS version. Wolfenstein 3D inspired many similar games, such as Ken’s Labyrinth and The Fortress of Dr. Radiaki.

Although id Software shifted focus to Doom after Wolfenstein 3D, other companies later made new Wolfenstein games, sometimes using id’s engines. The first was Return to Castle Wolfenstein in 2001, and recent titles include Wolfenstein: Youngblood and Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot (2019).