Wolfenstein 3D for 8086 (CGA version)

Wolfenstein 3d continues to be modified and launched on various platforms. Yesterday a CGA version was released, which allows you to run it on computers with an 8086 processor (previously a minimum of 286 was required).

The Great and Terrible DOOM will be released in a year, but in 1992 we were amazed by Wolfenstein 3D and could not imagine something more 3-dimensional. In addition, DOOM required the 486th PC, and Wolfenstein went perfectly even on the 286th, not to mention computers based on the 386 processor.

I remember the time when I drove through the corridors of the dungeon for days and destroyed the hated fascists. The only BUT - this game could not be run on computers running an 8086 processor. At that time, 286 and 386 PCs were still rare for us, and I, an 11-year-old child, basically managed to get some clone of an 8086 machine at my disposal rather than something more modern.

I carried floppy disk copies of my favorite games, and Wolfenstein 3D was one of them. Closing my eyes, I still remember the "aroma" of that game: it's a unique palette, sound through the PC-Speaker, endless corridors and that "childish" 3D! But we didn’t need another 3D, we didn’t know it, and sincerely considered what was happening on the screen to be the most real three-dimensional world!

Oh, if I had this version, which I am writing about now, in those distant years. CGA graphics wouldn't be a problem. How many games of that era are there that are interesting with their gameplay to this day. After all, even my children, spoiled by the modern graphics of games, sometimes ask me to play "Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mansion" for them.

So, user jhhoward from GitHub.com (whose portfolio also has other interesting projects) posted the first release of the WolfensteinCGA game two days ago, which, as I indicated earlier, can be run on a computer with an 8086 processor.

The game has support for video modes:

- 4 color RGB mode with red palette;
- 4 color RGB mode with magenta palette;
- Composite CGA mode;
- Tandy 160x200 mode;
- LCD inverse monochrome mode (For machines that feature inverse monochrome LCDs, run with the command line WOLF3DC.EXE lcd to run in 640x200 monochrome with the colors inverted.)

Running Wolfenstein 3D CGA

Check the releases page on Github for prebuilt binaries. A demo based on the shareware release is included in wolf3dc_shareware.zip if you don't own a full copy of Wolfenstein 3D.

To play the full, registered version you will need the 1.4 release. This is available to purchase on Steam. Before you can play in CGA, you will need to convert the original VGA textures, sprites and images. To do this:

1. Unpack the contents of wolf3dc_registered.zip into the same folder as your Wolfenstein 3D installation.
2. On a modern Windows machine, run cgaify.exe which will read the VGA assets and create new CGA versions.
3. Wolfenstein 3D CGA is now ready to play! Run WOLF3DC.EXE on your DOS machine or emulator. See the Supported video modes section for launch options.

NOTE: The shareware .exe will only work with the shareware files, and the registered .exe will only work with the registered files.

Extra features

Also included is a benchmarking feature that will play a demo as fast as possible, quit and report the average frames per second. Run with the command line WOLF3DC.EXE timedemo to measure the performance on your machine.

Reception

Upon release, Wolfenstein 3D received positive reviews from critics and gaming magazines. Wolfenstein 3D won the 1993 "Best Arcade/Action Game" award at the Shareware Industry Awards and the Software Publishing Association's Codie award. Wolfenstein 3D was the first shareware game to win Codie, and id Software (with 6 employees) is the smallest company ever to win the award. In the same year, Wolfenstein 3D was named one of the best games of the year at the Game Developers Conference, VideoGames & Computer Entertainment magazine awarded it the victory in the categories "Best Action Game" and "Most Innovative Game" in 1992, the editors of Compute! selected it as "Best Arcade/Action Game" and Computer Gaming World named it "Action Game of the Year".

Praised the game for its sparse but still great, "eerily realistic" and "extremely violent" graphics, as well as the appropriate sound and music score reviewer Chris Lombardi of Computer Gaming World

There is nothing quite like Wolfenstein", it has "evolved almost beyond recognition" from its parent game in 1981 reviewer Sandy Petersen for Dragon magazine

Wolfenstein 3D for 8086 | YouTube video

This is not a complete review of the game. It's more of a poster for the owners of the 8086 and a new feature for them, as well as fragments of memories that arose in my head when I launched the GOOD OLD Wolfensyein 3D.

All the best to you, my friends!