Wolfenstein 3D

                  Wolfenstein 3Dis afirst-person shooter video game developed byid Softwareand published byApogee SoftwareandFormGen. Originally released on May 5, 1992, forMS-DOS, it was inspired bythe 1981Muse Softwarevideo gameCastle Wolfenstein. InWolfenstein 3D, the player assumes therole ofAlliedspyWilliam "B.J." BlazkowiczduringWorld War IIas he escapes from theNazi Germanprison Castle Wolfenstein and carries out a series of crucial missions against the Nazis. The player traverses through each of the game's levels to find an elevator to the next level or kill afinal boss, fighting Nazi soldiers, dogs, and other enemies with knives, pistols, and other guns.Wolfenstein 3Dwas the second major release by id Software, after theCommander Keenseries of episodes. In mid-1991, programmerJohn Carmackexperimented with making a fast 3Dgame engineby restricting the gameplay and viewpoint to a singleplane, producingHovertank 3DandCatacomb 3-Das prototypes. After a design session prompted the company to shift from the family-friendlyKeento a more violent theme, programmerJohn Romerosuggested remaking the 1981 stealth shooterCastle Wolfensteinas a fast-paced action game. He and designerTom Halldesigned the game, built on Carmack's engine, to be fast and violent, unlike other computer games on the market at the time.Wolfenstein 3Dfeatures artwork byAdrian Carmackand sound effects and music byBobby Prince. The game was released through Apogee in two sets of three episodes under thesharewaremodel, in which the first episode is released for free to drive interest in paying for the rest. An additional episode,Spear of Destiny, was released as a stand-alone retail title through FormGen.Wolfenstein 3Dwas a critical and commercial success, garnering numerous awards and selling over 200,000 copies by the end of 1993. It is widely regarded as having helped popularize the first-person shooter genre and establishing the standard of fast-paced action and technical prowess for many subsequent games in the genre, as well as showcasing the viability of the shareware publishing model at the time. FormGen developed an additional two episodes for the game, while Apogee released a pack of over 800 fan-created levels. Id Software never returned to the series, butdid license the engine to numerous other titles before releasing the source code for free in 1995, and multiple other games in theWolfensteinserieshave been developed by other companies since 2001.