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, f

or MS-DOS, it was inspired by the 1981 Muse Software video game Castle Wolfenste
in. 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 through each of the game's levels to find an elevator to the ne
xt level or kill a final boss, fighting Nazi soldiers, dogs, and other enemies w
ith knives, pistols, and other guns.
Wolfenstein 3D was the second major 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 sing
le 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 vi
olent theme, programmer John Romero suggested remaking the 1981 stealth shooter
Castle Wolfenstein as a fast-paced action game. He and designer Tom Hall designe
d the game, built on Carmack's engine, to be fast and violent, unlike other comp
uter 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 throu
gh 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, garnering numerous awards
and selling over 200,000 copies by the end of 1993. It is widely regarded as hav
ing helped popularize the first-person shooter genre and establishing the standa
rd of fast-paced action and technical prowess for many subsequent games in the g
enre, as well as showcasing the viability of the shareware publishing model at t
he 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 t
he 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 se
ries have been developed by other companies since 2001.