Castle Wolfenstein

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Castle Wolfenstein

Developer(s)	Muse Software
Publisher(s)	Muse Software
Designer(s)	Silas Warner
Engine	Custom
Release date(s)	1981
Genre(s)	Stealth-based game
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	N/A
Platform(s)	Apple II, DOS, Atari 400/800, Commodore 64
Input	Keyboard, joystick

Castle Wolfenstein is a stealth-based computer game, the first of its genre, developed by Muse Software for the Apple II. It was first released in 1981 and later ported to DOS, the Atari 8-bit family and the Commodore 64.

1 Description
2 Gameplay
3 Analysis
4 Author
5 Legacy
6 External links

[edit] Description

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The emphasis on espionage can be seen here in the Apple II version of the game as the player attempts to pick the lock on a chest in the castle. A dispatched guard's body can be seen near the middle bottom of the screen.

Castle Wolfenstein is a slow-paced stealth game set in World War II. The game's main objectives are to traverse the levels of the castle to find the secret war plans and escape alive.

The game is played from a top-down perspective, though the characters are seen upright like in a side-scroller. The player traverses the levels by sneaking past guards, impersonating Nazi soldiers and sometimes even killing opponents. Castle Wolfenstein can be controlled with a joystick, paddles, or a keyboard. The game is over once the plans have been found and the player escapes the castle.

[edit] Gameplay

Upon starting the game, the player is equipped with a gun and bullets, which were taken from a dead cellmate. Once the player starts moving, he attracts the attention of the guards, who will try to shoot or apprehend him. He must either run from the guards, or kill them.

Unlike most games of the era, not only did the player have to kill and defeat enemies, he also needed to search their bodies for possibly useful items. Here a player can be seen searching a guard's body in the Apple II version of the game.

There are two styles of guards, the basic guards, and the SS Stormtroopers who wear bullet-proof vests marked with the SS insignia. The regular guards are not very intelligent, reacting only to the sounds of gunshots and grenades, or after seeing the player wandering around without a uniform. The SS guards are much smarter and once alerted, tend to chase the player. They require a large number of bullets or a grenade to kill.

The player has two means of killing enemies. The first is to shoot the enemy, but this expends bullets, a scarce commodity, and risks raising the alarm if another guard is present. Alternatively, a grenade can be used, though this will also attract the attention of nearby guards. The guards die with a scream of "Aieegh!", which is in the form of a digital sample. Once an enemy soldier is dispatched, his body can be searched for bullets, keys, grenades and bullet-proof vests.

An alternative to the player shooting his way out of the castle is to find a uniform (either in a chest or from a dead guard), at which point the normal guards will think the player is one of them. However, the SS guards are smarter than that, and will usually expose the player as an impostor. This typically means that the best strategy is to quickly obtain a uniform, then attempt to sneak by any SS guards found along the way, since it can be very difficult (especially at higher levels) to win in a shootout.

Guards do not always have to be killed, however. Pulling a gun on a guard usually will cause him to put his hands up, allowing him to be frisked for ammo, bullet-proof vests, grenades, and keys. The player can still choose to kill the guard at this point, but it is not strictly necessary.

Some rooms contain locked chests that can be picked and searched. Some are empty, but others contain useful items such as bullets, grenades, uniforms, bullet-proof vests and the war plans. Chests can also contain Liebfraumilch wine, Schnapps, Eva Braun's Diaries, and other items, though they are worthless in terms of gameplay. Edible items, when ingested, result in comments on their flavor.

After drinking an alcoholic beverage, a message of "Hic!" is displayed on screen and the player's aim is temporarily thrown off balance, resulting in bullets and grenades missing their target.

[edit] Analysis

The Commodore 64 version of the game features improved graphics over the original Apple II version. For example, distinct colors and uniform emblems were possible with the Commodore's superior graphics technology.

One of the main drawing points for fans was its unprecedented use of digitized voices. Though hard to understand, the voices added to the game's atmosphere and made Castle Wolfenstein stand out from other games released at the time.

With an emphasis on trying to avoid detection for as long as possible, Castle Wolfenstein and its sequel are considered by gamers to be prototypical stealth-based games—the first in a genre that wouldn't gain popularity until the late 1990s.

The disks save the player's progress as they enter each room; because they are continually being used, the disks cannot be write protected. This allows players to cheat by opening the drive door before the game can write the death status to disk; one can simply reload the game as if he or she had just entered the room.

In the Apple II version, the player could hold down the spacebar while picking a locked chest resulting in a faster unlocking of the chest.

[edit] Author

Castle Wolfenstein was written by Silas Warner (1949-2004). He was one of the original employees of Muse. In addition to developing Castle Wolfenstein, he wrote the sound engine (called "The Voice") and the game engine. He would typically program while wearing only his underwear, even in the office [1].

Original artwork for the box was created by John D. Benson.

[edit] Legacy

Muse followed Castle Wolfenstein with Beyond Castle Wolfenstein which is very similar in terms of game play and appearance. The objective of that game is to kill the Führer himself.

Around the same time, an unauthorized parody called Castle Smurfenstein began circulating in the computer underground. Castle Smurfenstein was a hacked version of the original Castle Wolfenstein; it used the same game engine, but replaced the graphics and sound assets with cartoon characters from The Smurfs TV series.

Arguably, Castle Wolfenstein's greatest legacy is inspiring the game Wolfenstein 3D by id Software. Though id's game shares its name (and some of its plot) with Castle Wolfenstein, its game play, look and feel are vastly different. Wolfenstein 3D helped popularize the first-person shooter genre on the PC. Fans of the original game now call it "Wolfenstein 2D" to differentiate it from id's game.[2]