The walking movement was unrealistically smooth and the corridor map was always rectangular - combine that with may hours game play and Wolfenstein remains the only game which made me feel genuinely queasy! The VGA gore was amusing and you could defeat a robotically-enhanced Hitler at the end of the game. More importantly, the game was fun you played a prisoner trying to escape from a Nazi-controlled castle in World War II. While it looks basic today, having the freedom to explore realistic 3D rooms blasting stuff was revolutionary - and shouldn’t have been possible given the hardware limitations. I remember playing Wolfenstein for the first time it changed my perceptions about what could be achieved on a PC. True 3D games were available in the arcades (I-Robot, Hard Drivin’) but they took themselves a little too seriously and couldn’t be replicated on the 16-bit PCs of the day. In 1992, there were relatively few 3D games and most resorted to isometric graphics (Marble Madness, Paperboy), wire-frame (Star Wars, Elite, Starglider) or faked overlaid 2D sprites (Outrun, Chase HQ, Space Harrier).

So why the fuss? Wolfenstein started the 3D first-person gaming genre. Suddenly, there was a reason to use a PC for more than Lotus-123 spreadsheets. The web was largely unknown and bulletin boards were the reserve of rich geeks but, despite a lack of social networks and online file sharing, word spread and so did thousands of 720kB floppy disks. Wolfenstein was released as DOS shareware in 1992. The game is mouse-enabled (set it within the configuration options) although few PCs had mice in 1992 and you’ll find keyboard control best. The site states it’s compatible with IE9, Firefox, Chrome and Safari - although Opera seems to work if you’re not too bothered by a few graphical glitches.

(Note the game is recommended for those over 12 and banned in Germany and several other countries). Perhaps I’m showing my age but is it really 20 years since Wolfenstein 3D exploded onto the PC gaming scene? To celebrate that momentous occasion, the full game can now be played online within your browser at:

Wolf 3d html5