Return to Castle Wolfenstein: 5 Open Source Clones Compared
neortcw is an actively developed fork of iortcw (and ioq3) that replaces iortcw's legacy Makefiles with a unified CMake build producing single-player, multiplayer, and ET binaries together; iortcw itself, while still playable, is no longer under active development. vitaRTCW is a separate, PS Vita-specific port, unlike the other options which target Windows/Linux/macOS. The two bare GPL source releases (multiplayer-only and single-player-only) require the player to patch and compile them without the modernization iortcw and neortcw provide.
Comparison table
Availability
- Status
- Playable
- Platforms
- Windows, Linux, OSX
- Play in browser
- No
- Mobile
- No
Project health
- Development status
- Halted
- Last updated
- 2y ago
- Stars
- 751
- Contributors
- 18
- License
- GPL-3.0
- Engine
- SDL2
Compatibility
- Requires original assets
- YesRequires original Return to Castle Wolfenstein game data files (pak files from Main folder).
- Modding support
- YesSupports mod creation and modification through game libraries and QVM files.
- Multiplayer
- Online, LAN
Availability
- Status
- Playable
- Platforms
- Windows
- Play in browser
- No
- Mobile
- No
Project health
- Development status
- Halted
- Last updated
- 5y ago
- Stars
- 627
- Contributors
- 1
- License
- GPL-3.0
- Engine
- —
Compatibility
- Requires original assets
- YesGame data is not included; the original game data must be patched to the latest version.
- Modding support
- —
- Multiplayer
- —
Availability
- Status
- Playable
- Platforms
- Windows
- Play in browser
- No
- Mobile
- No
Project health
- Development status
- Halted
- Last updated
- 15y ago
- Stars
- 378
- Contributors
- 1
- License
- GPL-3.0
- Engine
- —
Compatibility
- Requires original assets
- YesGame data is not included; the original game data must be patched to the latest version.
- Modding support
- —
- Multiplayer
- Online
Availability
- Status
- Playable
- Platforms
- PSVita
- Play in browser
- No
- Mobile
- No
Project health
- Development status
- Sporadic
- Last updated
- 4mo ago
- Stars
- 59
- Contributors
- 3
- License
- GPL-3.0
- Engine
- —
Compatibility
- Requires original assets
- YesGame data from original RTCW must be patched to the latest version; source does not contain game data.
- Modding support
- —
- Multiplayer
- Online
Availability
- Status
- Playable
- Platforms
- Windows, Linux, OSX
- Play in browser
- No
- Mobile
- No
Project health
- Development status
- Active
- Last updated
- 3mo ago
- Stars
- 9
- Contributors
- 19
- License
- GPL-3.0
- Engine
- SDL2
Compatibility
- Requires original assets
- YesRequires game data files from Return to Castle Wolfenstein (pak0.pk3, sp_pak*.pk3, mp_pak*.pk3, etc.) or automatic detection from Steam.
- Modding support
- —
- Multiplayer
- Online, Multiplayer
| Title | iortcw | Return to Castle Wolfenstein Single Player | Return to Castle Wolfenstein Multiplayer | vitaRTCW | neortcw |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Status | Playable | Playable | Playable | Playable | Playable |
| Platforms | Windows, Linux, OSX | Windows | Windows | PSVita | Windows, Linux, OSX |
| Play in browser | No | No | No | No | No |
| Mobile | No | No | No | No | No |
| Project health | |||||
| Development status | Halted | Halted | Halted | Sporadic | Active |
| Last updated | 2y ago | 5y ago | 15y ago | 4mo ago | 3mo ago |
| Stars | 751 | 627 | 378 | 59 | 9 |
| Contributors | 18 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 19 |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Engine | SDL2 | — | — | — | SDL2 |
| Compatibility | |||||
| Requires original assets | YesRequires original Return to Castle Wolfenstein game data files (pak files from Main folder). | YesGame data is not included; the original game data must be patched to the latest version. | YesGame data is not included; the original game data must be patched to the latest version. | YesGame data from original RTCW must be patched to the latest version; source does not contain game data. | YesRequires game data files from Return to Castle Wolfenstein (pak0.pk3, sp_pak*.pk3, mp_pak*.pk3, etc.) or automatic detection from Steam. |
| Modding support | YesSupports mod creation and modification through game libraries and QVM files. | — | — | — | — |
| Multiplayer | Online, LAN | — | Online | Online | Online, Multiplayer |
Known limitations
- platform: Linux users must install and update the game using WINE to extract the game data from the Windows CD.
Frequently asked questions
Are the Return to Castle Wolfenstein clones on this page open source?
Yes — every clone catalogued here is an open-source project. Availability, license, and development-status details for each one are listed in the comparison table above.
What license do these Return to Castle Wolfenstein clones use?
iortcw, Return to Castle Wolfenstein Single Player, Return to Castle Wolfenstein Multiplayer, vitaRTCW, and 1 more (GPL-3.0).
Do I need to own the original Return to Castle Wolfenstein to play these clones?
iortcw, Return to Castle Wolfenstein Single Player, Return to Castle Wolfenstein Multiplayer, vitaRTCW, and 1 more require original game assets to play.
Which Return to Castle Wolfenstein clone is the most actively maintained?
neortcw is currently under active development, based on recent commit activity. See the "Development status" row above for every clone's current status.
See the full write-up for each clone, or go back to Return to Castle Wolfenstein.