Wolfenstein series History – Ghosts of the past

Greetings Anyone who is some kind miraculously I stumbled upon this blog! At the end of July, the release of the new Wolfenstein series will be held, I remember that once the story of this series was released on the Stopgame channel, but why not supplement it?
In the meantime, I propose to familiarize the history of the first 20 years of this series.

Castle Wolfenstein.

Castle Wolfenstein is one of the early games in which the gameplay is based on the game mechanics of Stlax and the shooter. In a retrospect Castle Wolfenstein began to be considered as one of the games that served as a prototype and had a direct impact on the Genre Stealth and the first -person shooter game.

The release took place in 1981 year, and the development was engaged in Silas Warner himself, a living legend of the gaming industry of that time.

Future geniusBorn in 1949 in the family of a Chicago entrepreneur. The father of the family almost immediately hated his son for his soreness and subsequently almost killed him.
At school, due to great height and excessive weight, Silas was scheduled from classmates, therefore, his outlet became physics textbooks, science fiction and historical works.
IN 1976 He got a job at the Commercial Credit Company, where he wrote a “sales department simulator” for employees. It was a full -fledged role -playing game, but for all it looked only an incredibly technological textbook.
The simulator liked the colleague of Warner – Ed Zaron, who boasted on one February day of 1978 that it was going to buy a brand new computer Apple II. At home, Silas found him for unpacking the device.
Without unnecessary words, the guest went inside, connected the wires and sat behind the keyboard. Ed, watching how his colleague writes dozens of programs in a row, he finally could not stand it and cried out: “Listen, Saylas, I have to go to the party”, to which he replied: “Well. I puple the door when I leave “. Zaron was dumbfounded, but he had no choice but to have fun. Returning home at one in the morning, he discovered that Silas had left, but left several small toys on the computer.

IN one of them, called Apple Tree, It is necessary to catch apples falling from a tree. The game is simple, but was written in a few hours and, most importantly, worked. The next day, Silas bought himself the same computer.
Zaron was so surprised by the result of his night guest that he proposed to cooperate, and the result was the release of two games. Maze Game, The essence of which was in search of a way out of the labyrinth, and the game was one of the first with a first -person view, and Tank War – duel tank action. Moreover, another player was to act as an opponent of the player.
Such a part -time job brought Not bad money, but friends wanted to do something cooler and founded Muse Studio, obviously tearing with a boring profession.

In addition to games, the newly made developers took up the creation of useful programs for Apple II. This led to the fact that one day Silas wrote the world’s first speech synthesizer, unexpectedly, though, though? The program is called The Voice, And demo with incredibly false Santa received recognition from large media.

But Silas did not relax and In early 1981 I started developing an ambitious project. Initially, the newly made star of the gaming industry dreamed of technological battles in the near future, that is, the scenery of the advancing eighties. True, after watching the film “The Guns of the Island of Navaron”, he was amazed and passionate about the operation of the Commandos fighters who broke into the Navaron fortress in order to destroy the German artillery battery. On the same evening, Silas first played Berzerk’s novelty-a game about shooting robots, it was a project of his dreams, but something was superfluous. “Can replace the robots by the Nazis?”Thought Mr. Warenr. So the idea of ​​the future Castle Wolfenstein was born.

Frame of the film “Guns of the island of Navaron.”

First A step towards the creation of the ancestor of the famous series was the recording of phrases “Achtung”, “Schweinhund”, “Halt!”, And “Kaput!”. This was necessary due to the fact that in 1981 to create games Not used the usual engines for us, and any sounds had to be “sewn” into the game code. Moreover, The Voice could not reproduce phrases in German, so Silas shouted into a microphone in someone else’s language all day. Also, the developer added procedural level generation. At the time of loading at the start of the game, the player received absolutely new A set of 60 rooms located in a new order.
The release of the creation took place in September 1981. Castle Wolfenstein diverged in the circulation in the year 20,000 copies, What brought Muse Software along with their other programs about $ 6 million.
Commercial success allowed a company consisting of 6 people to increase the staff to 40 employees, as well as to portle the project on other platforms: on Atari 8-bit already in 1982, and on DOS and Commodore 64 in 1983.
But what did the game deserve Such popularity? It’s time to move to gameplay and plot.
Plot can be described literally with two sentences. The main character is captured by the Nazis, who enclose him in the Wolfenstein fortress, and tries to escape, having a gun and three grenades with him. Along the way, he learns that the fortresses stored secret plans for military operations that it would be nice to take with him.
The castle, which is a labyrinth, as I said, has a procedural generation, and is also filled with a huge number of enemies. I note that the player will not work to kill them all, t.To. there will always be less cartridges than opponents. And here the second feature of the game is the scene-stealth mechanics.
Firstly, The protagonist can disarm the enemy, just instructing him a trunk. After that, the blanch himself will turn out his pockets and give everything that he has: cartridges or keys to chests. In the chests of the player, the player is waiting for body armor, documents, uniforms, sausage or apple shnaps, which adds the effect of intoxication. True, without finding the key, you can open the necessary box with a targeted shot, but here we are met by “Secondly“. Enemies hear the noise created by the player, and if ordinary guards notice a shot within the same room, then the SS ones can come from the other end of the lock. The already named uniform can save you from the first, but the latter will immediately notice the substitution.

Third, The game even Encourages stealth, because a shot, opening the desired box, can provoke the detonation of ammunition and grenades, and death from the explosion, in turn, leads to a complete restart of the game. The usual death makes it only revive, preserving all objects, chests and so on.
Well, if you Against the murders, then the game carefully gives the hero to pass by opponents, since they are not all -seeing and you can calmly smash behind them.
For projects of that time, it was extremely unusual, therefore, players who wanted something new, warmly perceived Castle Wofenstein.

Beyond Castle Wolfenstein.

No wonder, that an unusual type of project: 2D graphics using a combination of only 4 colors, as well as an innovative gameplay, a possible sequel was brought in by the output.
Already in July 1984 The Apple II and Commodore 64 took place Beyond Castle Wolfenstein – The ideological heir to the first game. In terms of graphics, he practically did not differ from the original, but the gameplay received many innovations, and the plot was significantly transformed, more precisely, appeared.
In Beyond Castle Wolfenstein, the player is again placed in the skin of the nameless soldier of the American army. This time he will find a powerful portable bomb and, having penetrated the secret shelter of Hitler, blow up the door of the room in which the Fuhrer’s meeting with the command of the Third Reich will be held. In some ways, the story reminds real operation “Valkyrie”, during which the conspirators wanted to kill Hitler and make a coup.
Shelter is a shelter, How could you already guess, Castle with procedural generation of labyrinth from rooms and corridors. Instead of grenades at the start of the player, a knife is given, with which you can eliminate the enemy silently, but only at a small distance. Quite dangerous boxes from the first part were replaced by cabinets and other furniture in which you can store provisions, clothes and weapons.
Stealth, who has already become social. Its essence is that the player, along with useful consumables, finds money in the castle, with which you can bribe security that blocked the passage to the right room. Muse Software has introduced a five -level passage system that allows you to go into specially protected locations. If the player presents the right pass, then the soldier will miss him, shouting “Heil”. In the case of an error, the game refers with understanding to an inattentive player and gives another chance to show a pass or bring money to a greedy guard, but when making a repeated mistake, anxiety is turned on, and the player begins to attack all the opponents they meet.

Dramatically The game did not differ from Castle Wolfenstein, but the newly made fans were only important that the project gameplay became even more variable, and the entry threshold decreased due to the decreased complexity. Critics, according to accessible sources, appreciated work on errors, and the new project of the team of Silas Warner received his next 15 minutes of fame ..

And then the series disappeared from radar on the whole 6 years, for which I managed to go out and Metal Gear, and Super Mario Bros, and a huge number of other famous games that have changed the entire game industry.

The American intelligence officer BJ Blaskovitz was captured, trying to find plans for the mysterious operation “Iron Fist”.
In the first episode, “Escape from Castle Wolfenstein”, The protagonist runs from the famous Castle Wolfenstein, at the final level the main character meets the first boss – Hans Gross.
After the escape from the castle, the bi-jaja again begins to fulfill his mission in the episode “Operation: Eisenfaust”, in which the Nazis’s plan to create the Army of mutants in the castle of Hollehamma, defeating Dr. Shabbs, is torn off.
In the third and chronologically last episode, “Die, Fuhrer, Die!”, Blaskovitz penetrates the bunker near the Reichstag and destroys Adolf Hitler, chained into robotic armor and armed with four machine guns of Gatling.
The episodes published after the trilogy are a prequel and tells a holistic story about how the Nazis created a chemical weapon, and the brave soldier Bija came and violated everything. In the first episode “A Dark Secret” The hero penetrates the laboratory, where he must find and destroy Dr. Giftmacher. The next episode, “Trail of the Madmen”, tells about the search for plans for the operation “Giftkried” – a lightning attack using the development of Dr. Giftmacher, a kind of deadly gift to hundreds of thousands of the enemy of the Reich. Plans are protected by the warlike woman Gretel Gross. The final episode will encounter Blaskovitsa and the main ideologist of the lightning -fast war – General Fettegzikhtom.

The newborn took up the development of the new part of Wolfenstein ID Software, On the account of which were two trilogies of the Commander Keen and several little -known projects, including a couple of air systems.
Initially The main designer Tom Hall wanted to start creating the third trilogy “Commander Keen”, but the leading programmer John Karmak hinted that he was not interested in 2D projects, but 3D.
Thinking over his colleagues, Hall invited the developers a science fiction project called it’s Green and Pissed. The idea seemed interesting to the team, but another talent of the gaming industry of those years-John Romero suggested making a 3D-radiation of the favorite trinity of Castle Wolfenstein. Hall and both Karmaks supported it, especially since the concept of the gameplay in the building with many labyrinths was suitable for development on the new engine of John Karmak.
But almost immediately the team faced the idea that it could not get the rights to the name “Wolfenstein”, but luck, if I may say, contributed to the developers, and he almost immediately learned that Muse Software no longer exists, and the right to name and trademark is expired. In addition, Scott Miller from Apogee Software promised the $ 100 thousand for the finished project, and Formgen agreed to sell the project in retail. Later, this allowed the project to be distributed in a conditionally deposit form, that is, the first episode was free, but the rest of the players were invited to buy.
Thanks to practically unlimited budget, the pockets were able to turn around in full. The game has now used a 256-color VGA schedule, with pseudo-item, and wall visualization was carried out using one of the methods of tracing-throwing rays.

The picture turned out to be juicy, beautiful, even too colorful, that is, the completely opposite desire of Andrian Karmak to make a gloomy brutal shooter. But Andrian did not give up, he began to pour over the cruel scenes of the destruction of enemies and bosses. The composer Bobby Prince, who recorded the realistic sounds of shooting, the fall of bodies, dying cries and other sounds, made his contribution to the creation of a gloomy atmosphere. But opponents, as in the case of Castle Wolfenstein, was voiced by the developer team itself.
True, not everything was so rosy, before the end of the first episode, the same Formgen contacted the developers, promising to break the contract if the project fail due to excessive cruelty. The team answered decisively: Adrian Karmak added skeletons, corpses, terrible posthumous wounds to long -suffering bosses and blood spots on the walls, hall and Romero – screams on the purest German, Death Cam, showing the death of the boss at the end of each episode. And also in the main menu appeared the anthem of the NSDAP.

The first episode was published on May 5, 1992, soon a complete original trilogy was on sale, and a little later, the trilogy-convert. In 1993, Apogee Software released a Wolfenstein 3D Super Upgrades set in which it was 815 levels, created by fans of the game. In the same year, all 6 episodes went on retail sale.
Subsequently, Wolfenstein 3D ported on Huge Number of platforms: SNES, Mac OS, VR, Atari Jaguar, PC-98, 3DO, Game Boy Advance and others.
In 2007, the game became available on Steam. In 2009, a port for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and iOS was released.
The most important, That the versions for each platform were different: some were censored due to prohibitions on fascist symbols, some became even more beautiful because of more powerful devices, some turned into soap porridge, but the fact is that at the end of the 90s, if you were the owner of a platform that resembled a game or computer, you could calmly enjoy Wolfenstein 3D.

But how The players enjoyed? What became gameplay after switching to 3D-rams?

The basis remained The same – The player needs to go through a labyrinth consisting of several rooms, but now the labyrinths have become 10 for each episode, and the rooms are several times less, even given the secret. But this time, the player needs to clean every room from all kinds of opponents: soldiers, SS-vats, mutants and dogs, and in some versions-rats. And all this bestiaria attacks you at the moment as the Bi-Jei model falls into their field of vision, and sometimes having heard shots in the next room. As you know, Stlass completely disappeared, yes, according to developers, enemies can be secretly killed with a knife, but you will probably not be able to go completely quietly, believe me, believe me. And if it doesn’t work out, then you need something slaughter, and even shooting at a distance. The game has almost no problems with this. At first you are given a gun, and in the course of the game you will find a submachine gun and a Gatling machine gun, a flamethrower and a rocket launcher were added in later versions. Perhaps the arsenal was stingy, but the players were enough at that time and such a set. Change The system of the character’s lives. The protagonist has an indicator of the number of health points – 100% at the beginning, as well as the ability to make up for it, finding food and first -aid kits. The “lives” themselves, which make it possible to revive after death at the beginning, but with the loss of all weapons, and also preserved in the middle of the levels, that is, the player could maintain progress at any necessary moment. I note that different ports are different, t.To. On the same Game Boy Advance, saving is available at the end of the level.
And all these innovations in the genre of critics appreciated the extremely high. Many liked both the gloomy atmosphere and the brutality that ID Software will later move to doom.

A For me personally, This game has become one of the first in my life, and I still have warm memories of the watches in this game. True, creating this story story, I understand that objectively Wolfenstein is a wide step back. At a time when Kodzima created the Stlax Exchehenov genre in Japan, in the west of Tom Hall and his team reflected on the need for real action, destroying the named genre in the bud.

Another The commercial success of the game of the Wolfenstein series prophesied the fast exit of the sequel. And he went out. Already September 18, 1992, 4 months after the release of Wolfenstein 3D, the prequel – Spear of Destiny came out.
The gameplain project did not differ from the original game, however, ghosts, demons and other hellish evil spirits were added as opponents, and some locations turned into a kind of hell. And at first it seemed the result of the work of a tired and inflamed imagination, but on December 10, 1993 the first doom was released, and all the players realized that Spear of Destiny was, in fact, an ideological “demo” of the new ID Software project.
Game Contains three episodes again, but there is one catch. The fact is that the first episode of the same name was created ID Software itself, But the other two did Slaves Formgen, replacing the scenery, sprites and other cosmetic components of the game.
But we will not be distracted.

Episode “Spear of Destiny” It begins with the fact that, by order of Adolf Hitler, the Nazis steal the legendary artifact from Versailles – a spear of fate. The task of the b-jae Blaskowess is to return the artifact. Blaskowitz penetrates the Nazi fortress, breaks through the Nazis, the trance of Gross, Barnak Wilhelm, the Ubermutant and the Knight of Death, the Bosses of the episode, and meets the main boss – the death angel and returns the spear in battle,.
IN “Return to Danger” And “The Ultimate Challenge” the Nazis again abduct the spear of fate. In these episodes, Bija meets new bosses: Willy submariner, Dr. Kvarklitz, Hans with an ax von Schliffen, a robot, in the final battle defeats the embodiment of the devil, called by Hitler, and twice returns this artifact.

How are you Could Notice, the originality of “Return to Danger” and “The Ultimate Challenge” do not pour, but the new bosses and locations are brought.

Given ..project It was accepted enough Cold, Fans of the main game, of course, Flooded for a few days, but he did not go to the masses.
It is not surprising that until now, Spear of Destiny is remembered only by hardcore fans Wolfensteind 3D.
Although, even such a seemingly failed, tracing paper allowed ID Software forget about financial difficulties in general and engage in the development of doom.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein.

After the release of Spear of Destiny and many ports to various Wolfenstein 3D platforms, the Wolfenstein series disappeared from sight for another 6 years.
November 20, 2001 a release took place soft Return of the series – Return to Castle Wolfenstein, based on the plot component. Unfortunately, the development of this game is practically unknown. We only know that the release took place under the protection of Activision, which bought the right to a series of ID Software. The plot was developed by the Gray Matter Interactive studio, which will later create Call of Duty: United Offensive and Call of Duty 2: Big Red One. Yes, Id Software stood aside, while their brainchild was softly turned into a plot gloomy shooter, according to sources, the studio acted only as a producer. Nerv Software, founded by a former ID officer, Brandon James, was responsible for the multiplayer. Later, it is she who will attach her hand to the development of Doom 3 and the transfer of Doom and Doom 2 to Xbox, but more on this another time.
In the end, It so happened that only remained from the ID in the game engine, used before in Quake 3: Arena and modernized for the sake of beautiful decorations and high performance.

Gameplay game also Dramatically Different from the predecessor. The arsenal of the protagonist increased, appeared: silencers, allowing to quietly kill opponents, shelters, saving the opponents from the gaze, the movement of the squat, hiding excessive noise, and so on. The most important thing is that the game has not left the main concept of the labyrinths inside a huge building, however, in Return to Castle Wolfenstein, they also modified and vertical locations appeared.
The main, as I already noticed, the trump card was a full -fledged logically completed plot.

“The player has to visit the agent-2 from the organization Office of Secret Actions (OSA), named William Bija Blaskovitz, who was also the main character Wolfenstein 3D. He was captured on March 17, 1943 and, together with agent-1, was sent to prison in the castle of Wolfenstein, where agent-1 dies under torture with electricity. Having managed to escape and interrupting the bulk of the lock of the castle, Blaskovich leaves him on a funicular and meets with the fighter of the Resistance Group “Kraza” Kessler. Wounded in a shootout, Cessler cannot follow the hero, but gives him a task – to get the diary of Professor Zemfa, conducting under the guidance of an officer of the paranormal division of SS Helgi von Bulov excavation in an old crypt. Blaskovitz leaves Kessler’s house through a secret exit and goes there. After eavesdropping on the negotiations of the Nazis, he learns about certain terrible creatures that they inhabit the crypt.”

This is how the description sounds only Beginning games, and then the player is waiting for a trip to Europe, penetration into secret laboratories and to the places of mysterious excavations. I will not go particular to details, because the storyline draws along A huge number of locations, And the story about them will take too much time.
In the end, The game will hit mysticism and occultism, and the usual fascists will replace zombies, the generation of hell and other evil spirits. The player finds out that the paranormal division of the SS wants resurrect King of Saxony Henry I, famous for his offensive foreign policy and strengthening, the German kingdom. After all, it is he who can lead the Third Reich in the event of Hitler’s death and the novel by the brave fascists in a victorious battle.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein Received enthusiastic Reviews from critics and fans who called the game a worthy receiver of the series. The domestic magazine Gamemenia gave the third place in the nomination “Best 3D Action 2001”, not surprisingly, the game combined the thoughtful stealth, dynamic shootouts, and cinematic screensavers that tell about what is happening. The game was remembered by the fans for a long time, and I had to remember it, because then the Wolfenstein series Troubles began.

Over your first 20 years The Wolfenstein series was subjected to colossal changes, but everywhere she was one of the first, in the chosen genre, she was loved by fans, later fans became critics, and critics – fans, are still the games that have come out during this period, are religious. Unfortunately, For many, this legacy is only a phantom, the ghost of the past. Many projects are simply unknown to the general public, they are as it were, but you can only learn about them from hardcore fans. But personally, I even Rad, that in one of the most famous game series, there are projects that almost no one knows about, which means that someone was interested in learning about them. Bis Bald!

P.S. Most likely, this article was not very colorful, or maybe you did not recognize something new, but, all the same, thanks for devoting time to read the first part of this story of the series.