Wolfenstein 3D innovations

[Doominator2]

So we all know that Wolfenstein 3d was one of the first "modern" FPS, but the other day I noticed that it also had a kill cam when you kill a boss, which would be used many years later in modern fps.

[Platinum Shell]

Yeah, Wolfenstein 3D had some really neat ideas, some of which that didn't make it into the final game; like being able to drag corpses around and dress in their clothes.

One little fact for the game: if you get killed by one of Dr. Schabb's syringes you turn into a mutant.

[Doominator2]

Platinum Shell said:

Yeah, Wolfenstein 3D had some really neat ideas, some of which that didn't make it into the final game; like being able to drag corpses around and dress in their clothes.

One little fact for the game: if you get killed by one of Dr. Schabb's syringes you turn into a mutant.

Ya I remember that very well, I also heard some say that it was the first game with iron sights, but I would not consider it true iron sights.

[Aliotroph?]

A lot of id's original ideas for Wolfenstein 3D were borrowed directly from Castle Wolfenstein.

[Technician]

Did they acquire the franchise name legally? I've always wondered that.

[Marnetmar]

I think the copyright was expired when they made Wolf3D actually.

[printz]

Wolf3D has a splash screen that hides the initialization process (the first screen you see when you start Wolf). It was lost on subsequent games (Doom, Quake, Quake 2) in favour of a bare console.

Huge FPS (70), not 35 like in Doom which is below the human sensation threshold.

Internally, moving and static things are classified separately, like in Quake and other sane games.

Fullscreen ornate modal menu, like in modern games.

In-game configuration settings, unlike in Doom.

[Marnetmar]

Human threshold of what? Motion sickness?

[Aliotroph?]

Technician said:

Did they acquire the franchise name legally? I've always wondered that.

They did. John Romeo has mentioned that in a couple places.

[Maes]

If anything, Wolf3D successfully proved that game speed/smooth controls are of paramount importance to good gameplay, even if it comes at the -relative- expense of the visuals' lack sophistication.

Certainly, it was not as detailed as Ultima Underworld (in fact, a mainstream fully 3D texture-mapped engine with full freelook would take some more years to reappear), but the fast gameplay made up for the fact that it played essentially like a top-down 2D shooter (or a real-time Dungeon Master, depending on how you look at it).

Ultima, by comparison, barely looked any more real-time than an actual Dungeon Master type of RPG game, slow as it was. Even games with plain polygon engines seldom had as smooth/responsive controls as Wolf3D or even a better frame rate than it.

I wondered what would happen if a game with the exact same gameplay as Wolf3D and/or Doom had been released, but with polygon graphics. Would they somehow detract from the experience, if everything else was equal (level design, gameplay, controls etc.)?

[Avoozl]

One problem I find with Wolf3D is the fact that enemies can shoot you from behind other enemies.

[Maes]

Avoozl said:

One problem I find with Wolf3D is the fact that enemies can shoot you from behind other enemies.

...which you would easily glance over if it was indeed a 2D top-down shooter, where this is, in fact, very common ;-)

[printz]

Avoozl said:

One problem I find with Wolf3D is the fact that enemies can shoot you from behind other enemies.

That made them more powerful in groups without having to be tactically smart. It was lost in Doom because it was more fun (and fitting for demonkind) to make them non-cooperative and even hateful.

[Gez]

Marnetmar said:

I think the copyright was expired when they made Wolf3D actually.

Copyrights on the original Wolfenstein games isn't going to expire anytime soon. Published 1981, copyright lasts for 95 years after publication, so Castle Wolfenstein's copyright will expire in 1981+95=2076. Only 64 more years to wait! Who wants to bet we'll be all dead by then?

Anyway. What did expire was the trademark. Also known as the name. Contrarily to copyright, trademarks don't have a set duration. They last as long as you actively protect them. (This involves taking legal action against anybody who infringes on your trademark.)

So for instance, anybody here could create something that completely goes against something's trademark, and if you get away with it, then the trademark expires! (Or at least, your precedent can be used to argue that it wasn't adequately defended.)

This is also why big companies often have their lawyers going on completely retarded trademark stuff (see ZeniMax vs Notch on "Scrolls", or the recent Candy Crush "Saga" thing).

[Technician]

Gez said:

Copyrights on the original Wolfenstein games isn't going to expire anytime soon. Published 1981, copyright lasts for 95 years after publication, so Castle Wolfenstein's copyright will expire in 1981+95=2076. Only 64 more years to wait! Who wants to bet we'll be all dead by then?

Implying copyrights won't be extended to indefinite by 2025.

[Scypek2]

Wolfenstein 3d also had Demos! Nothing competition-friendly, though, as they were limited to a quite short length and didn't save the random seed, so every demo branched to about three more or less desynched version and one correct one.