John Carmack Plays Wolfenstein 3D

In tribute to Wolfenstein 3D's 20th anniversary, Wolfenstein 3D can now be played online at wolfenstein.bethsoft.com, but that's not all! John Carmack recorded himself playing Wolfenstein 3D, commenting on the various technological advances and glitches in the game. The video can be viewed here.

Website: "Sorry, your IP address shows you are coming from a country that requires us to block access to this particular site."

Youtube: "The user did not make this video available in your country."

Do you live in the center of Germany, or close enough to the border? Maybe you can travel out, find a wireless to piggyback, and watch the video there.

Here is a speedyshare link for those who can't watch the video: http://speedy.sh/wKhpf/Wolf3D.flv

Oh damn does Carmack ever have a nerdy voice... Yet he's somehow still interesting to listen to :\

Phobus said:

Oh damn does Carmack ever have a nerdy voice... Yet he's somehow still interesting to listen to :\

John Carmack is the Platonic ideal of a nerd. If one devised a nerdiness scale, it'd have John Carmack as the asymptotic upper limit.

I don't like the port that's on the website. The video was great though. Wasn't even sure Carmack had even ever played through Wolfenstein, and it turned out I was right to some extent.

And yeah, what Gez said. Carmack should be any nerd's role model.

I can barely wait what they'll come up with for Doom's 20th. What do you think they should do?

Janizdreg said:

I can barely wait what they'll come up with for Doom's 20th. What do you think they should do?

Make a brand new 32 level map pack or something. I mean, I can dream, can't I?

After all these years, I didn't know there was a secret exit in the first map!

Interesting video, though.

Chu said:

After all these years, I didn't know there was a secret exit in the first map!

Even though there is the same secret exit in MAP31 of Doom 2?

glenzinho said:

Even though there is the same secret exit in MAP31 of Doom 2?

Yep. Wall of shame for me.

played the game on website, i found a little bug that sometimes makes the player auto-rotate for some reason....

That was an entertaining video with Carmack and teh Wolfenstein.

Janizdreg said:

I can barely wait what they'll come up with for Doom's 20th. What do you think they should do?

For Doom's 20th I'm going to be saying 'where the fuck did 20 years go to so fast'? Should be interesting to see what they say about it tho.

Brilliant **

Carmack sounds a lot like that ultra-nerdy guy off the big bang theory. Still, a very interesting listen. It's weird and kinda funny when he describes how much trouble he had working out the basic technical details of those early 3D engines. I reckon that's the case with a lot of things though: the hardest part of learning is at the very beginning, managing to grasp new concepts without an existing frame of reference. Once you've got the foundations, everything else can be layered on top.

It'd be great to hear a similar commentary on Doom and Quake as well, particularly since you get the impression Wolfenstein 3D wasn't much of a technical leap beyond Catacombs 3D, whereas those later titles clearly pushed things a lot further.

It still kinda bugs me how none of the Id guys know how to pronounce Wolfenstein as if it were an actual German name (Vollfenshtine).

For Doom they should make a vid where Carmack talks about all the broken stuff and features they took out. He can try playing with only the keyboard and show that his obvious knowledge of the AI doesn't make up for his inability to navigate the maps easily.

For doom he should talk about the original sound effects and textures aswell.

Awesome video! A Doom one would be cool too!