Wolfenstein 3D

Wolfenstein 3D
Cover art of the mail order DOS version
Developer(s)	id Software
Publisher(s)	Apogee Software FormGen (Spear of Destiny)
Director(s)	Tom Hall
Designer(s)	John Romero Tom Hall
Programmer(s)	John Carmack John Romero
Artist(s)	Adrian Carmack
Composer(s)	Robert Prince (DOS) Brian Luzietti (Macintosh) Todd Dennis (3DO)
Series	Wolfenstein
Platform(s)	DOS PC-98 SNES Jaguar Classic Mac OS Acorn Archimedes 3DO Apple IIGS Game Boy Advance Xbox Linux iOS Xbox 360 PlayStation 3 (PSN) Android
Release	May 5, 1992 (1992-05-05) DOS May 5, 1992 September 18, 1992 (Spear of Destiny) Arcade (VR) 1993 PC-98 1994 SNES February 1994 Atari Jaguar May 1994 Mac OS December 1994 Acorn Archimedes November 1994 3DO October 19, 1995 Apple IIGS February 14, 1998 Game Boy Advance April 2002 Xbox May 6, 2003 Linux August 3, 2007 iOS March 25, 2009 Xbox 360 June 3, 2009 PlayStation 3 (PSN) June 4, 2009 Android October 1, 2016
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single-player

Wolfenstein 3D is a first-person shooter video game developed by id Software and published by Apogee Software and FormGen. Originally released on May 5, 1992, for DOS, it was inspired by the 1981 Muse Software video game Castle Wolfenstein, and is the third installment in the Wolfenstein series. In Wolfenstein 3D, the player assumes the role of Allied spy William "B.J." Blazkowicz during World War II as he escapes from the Nazi 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 a knife and a variety of guns.

Wolfenstein 3D was the second major independent release by id Software, after the Commander Keen series of episodes. In mid-1991, programmer John Carmack experimented with making a fast 3D game engine by restricting the gameplay and viewpoint to a single plane, producing Hovertank 3D and Catacomb 3-D as prototypes. After a design session prompted the company to shift from the family-friendly Keen to a more violent theme, programmer John Romero suggested remaking the 1981 stealth shooter Castle Wolfenstein as a fast-paced action game. He and designer Tom Hall designed the game, built on Carmack's engine, to be fast and violent, unlike other computer games on the market at the time. Wolfenstein 3D features artwork by Adrian Carmack and sound effects and music by Bobby Prince. The game was released through Apogee in two sets of three episodes under the shareware model, 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 3D was a critical and commercial success and is considered one of the greatest video games ever made. It garnered numerous awards and sold over 250,000 copies by the end of 1995. It has been termed the "grandfather of 3D shooters", and 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, but did license the engine to numerous other titles before releasing the source code for free in 1995, and multiple other games in the Wolfenstein series have been developed by other companies since 2001.