Wolfenstein 3D

The first-person shooter game Wolfenstein 3D (created by id Software) was released on 5 May 1992 for DOS by Apogee Software and FormGen. The game was inspired by the 1981 Muse Software game Castle Wolfenstein.

In Wolfenstein 3D, the player assumes the role of Allied spy William “BJ” Blazkowicz during World War II as he escapes from the 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 knives and a variety of guns.

Programmer John Romero and designer Tom Hall designed the game (built on programmer John Carmack’s engine) to be fast and violent, unlike other computer games on the market at the time.

Wolfenstein 3D was a critical and commercial success and widely considered to be one of the greatest video games ever made.

Garnering numerous awards and selling over 200,000 copies by the end of 1993. It has been termed the “grandfather of 3D shooters”, and is widely regarded as having helped popularise the first-person shooter genre.

Id Software released the source code for free in 1995 and multiple other games in the Wolfenstein series have been developed by other companies since.