Wolfenstein 3-D Celebrates 20 Years With Free Browser-Based Version

Dr Herbert West writes "20 years ago today, id software released Wolfenstein 3D, inspired by the classic Apple II game, Castle Wolfenstein. To celebrate, Bethesda Softworks on Wednesday released a free, browser-based version of the iconic first-person shooter. Users can pick which level they wish to play in the browser version, even the secret levels."

Comments

Slow as hell

[Dwedit]

Yes, let's take a game originally coded in tight X86 assembly language, then shit all over it by converting it into super slow Javascript.

Re:Slow as hell

[Anonymous Coward]

I have a quad-core CPU and a mid-range GPU that pushes more FLOPs than a PS3, so I can run Crysis at decent framerate.
But this version of the game stutters horribly and gets less than 10 frames/sec when enemies appear.

F------. Would not play again.

Re:Slow as hell

[93 Escort Wagon]

I have a quad-core CPU and a mid-range GPU that pushes more FLOPs than a PS3, so I can run Crysis at decent framerate.
But this version of the game stutters horribly and gets less than 10 frames/sec when enemies appear.

Yeah, Internet Explorer 6 sucks.

Re:Slow as hell

[monkeyhybrid]

What's wrong with that? I think it's pretty cool to see classics like this ported to 'super slow Javascript'. Kind of puts things in perspective when a game I saved up to buy all those years back (after playing the hell out of a magazine demo) and also led me to save up more money to upgrade from my AdLib soundcard to a SoundBlaster Pro (so I could hear more than what seemed like white noise sound effects), is now fully playable in my web browser, for free, with no install, and barely touching my CPU.

doesn't look like much now, but...

[Xtifr]

It's hard to tell from looking at it now, just how much of a revelation Wolfenstein3D really was. Compared to modern games, the graphics look like crap, and even back then, we had games with better graphics in the cut scenes, but we all knew that cut-scenes were pre-rendered, slowly, on much bigger machines. The idea that our simple desktop systems could create that level of 3D realism on the fly was astonishing! The first time I saw it, I kept wondering if it was going to make my CPU explode from all the calculations it must be performing.

Re:doesn't look like much now, but...

[I.M.O.G.]

I recall the same experience... Prior to seeing Wolfenstein3D, I had graduated from Intellivision to the Nintendo NES, and that constituted my main gaming exposure, other than some early versions of Flight Simulator. Wolfenstein3D blew me away with the graphics possible on a computer, and I probably jumped out of my seat a number of times as the immersion was like nothing I'd seen before. A lot of games with impressive graphics since then, but nothing like that first impression... Kind of a cool experience, yields a different sort of appreciation I think compared to that of younger gamers who have a more modern sense of graphics expectations.

70% CPU usage and crappy sound!

[JackAxe]

I'm pretty sure that my old 386 DX 40 -- of which I played Wolfenstein 3D through several times via my gravis game pad -- can't even manage 1% of the power of my current MacBook Pro; but yet this browser based bloat really knows how to suck up my resources for something that's so simple compared to today's games.

Maybe I should be playing this on my PC instead, since JavaScript is such a resource hog? My PC is an i7 at 4Ghz with a GTX 580. Maybe it can manage better? Then again, some of my modern games use less resources than this abomination. <sarcasm>Hurray for progress.</sarcasm>