Wolfenstein 3D

HaltedPlayableDOS

Based on Spear of Destiny

Based on Wolfenstein 3D

Image of the original game, Spear of Destiny. This project has no screenshots of its own yet.

Spear of Destiny (original game, not this project) — Image of the original game, Spear of Destiny. This project has no screenshots of its own yet.

Links, repository & details

About

This is id Software's official GPL source-code release for the original 1992 Wolfenstein 3D, covering the DOS engine built with Borland C++ 3.0/3.1. It was originally distributed via the DEICE self-extracting-zip floppy-disk installer, and running the resulting binaries still requires the actual game data from a released version of Wolfenstein 3D or Spear of Destiny (the shareware version is sufficient).

History

The release notes include retrospective commentary from id's John Carmack, who describes the ray-casting rendering architecture as still reasonably appropriate, calls the dynamically compiled wall-scaling routines a performance liability on processors newer than the original 486 target, and criticizes the page-manager caching scheme as unnecessarily complex. He also suggested follow-on project ideas such as new monsters or weapons, taller walls with vertical motion, a 32-bit compiler port, and multiplayer support via DOOM's serial/IPX setup drivers.

Requires original assets. You need the data from a released version of Wolfenstein 3D or Spear of Destiny; the shareware version can be used.

Licensing & legal

The accompanying license restricts use of the source to non-commercial 'Educational Use' only — commercial exploitation of the code is explicitly prohibited.