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Erik spends his night and weekends saving worlds, slaying beasts and organizing mismatch shapes into straight lines. While First-person shooters (FPS),
survival horror and platformers are some of his favorite, there are no genre of game he won't play. From PC to PSP, Xbox to Wii. Erik is just as passionate
with playing games as he is talking about them.
J.R. is the sorta-completionist gamer. He almost always completes the main story arc in all games he plays, but seldom plays the "gamer's game" to complete everything. He'll never get all 120 stars or fight Emerald Weapon, but he will save the day. His favorite genres are RPG, Action/Adventure, Platformer, and MMO. He doesn't like fighting games and is rather picky about FPSs.
Ted has been hooked on gaming since the birth of the Atari 2600, when high fantasy adventure consisted of maneuvering a colored square through a castle maze while dodging pesky dragons that looked like 2D seahorses with beaks and wacky bats that took great pleasure in stealing your keys. To this day, while he enjoys platformers, first-person shooters and puzzlers, he is most passionate about RPGs and any other games which weave great stories into the overall experience.
Amethyst, a gamer that giggles at calling herself a gamer because she fits none of the glamorous stereotypes of female gamers, has been gaming since her father brought home the sparkly new Nintendo Entertainment System back in '89. Up until then she had dabbled with the Atari at a cousin's, but it was Super Mario Brothers, Duck Hunt and pounding with her hands on the Power Pad in World Class Track Meet that sealed her fate. Despite a three year stint that she doesn't talk about, she has been playing video games and other nerdly activities with enthusiasm. She enjoys puzzlers, RPGs, MMORPGs, certain shooters/fighters, platformers, magic carpet rides and um, mechanical pencil sharpeners. She hates, despite a couple of exceptions, racing games and sports games. Amethyst is married to Erik and is friends with J.R. and Ted.
Happy Birthday, Wolfenstein 3D
chillzilla
| 5/08/2008 7:54 am |
Game On
Monday, May 5th, 2008 was Wolfenstein 3D's 16th birthday.
Its a little shocking to think that 16 years ago I was sitting on my Dad's computer downloading Wolfenstein 3D for the first time. In 1992 I would download many demos from the local BBS and I remember seeing two strange game titles, Jill of the Jungle and Wolfenstein 3D. I don't think I even loaded Jill after playing the soon-to-be iconic first-person shooter.
I grew up in a Macintosh household, so the only time I ever got to play Wolfenstein 3D were during the summers I spent with my father or when my mother allowed me to use the one accounting PC she had at her work place (after hours, of course). I even bought the DOS version of Spear of Destiny and never got to play it because of the limited amount of PC time.
By the time the Mac version came out, I was too busy with Doom 2 and the hundreds of other FPS clones that Wolfenstein 3D had spawned.
I did get to re-live the classic adventure not that long ago with the Xbox version of Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Tides of War. Upon beating the single player campaign, I unlocked the original game. I do recommend playing that version because it uses both analog sticks. In the original game, the player had to hold down a "strafe" modifier key and then push left or right to strafe in either direction. Thankfully, the unlockable bonus did away with that button configuration.
Awhile back I bought the ID Complete Pack off of Steam and found Wolfenstein 3D & Spear of Destiny were included. The games play well on the modified Dosbox emulator that they use, but I was quickly reminded of the dreaded "strafe" modifier key. I use the standard WASD control set-up for most FPS games. "W" & "S" tell your character to move forward and backward, while "A" and "D" strafe to the left and right. The mouse points to where your character faces. I was not able to find a comfortable control scheme for the original game. I still got through Episode 6, but I died a bunch while pressing the wrong button.
I highly recommend using WinWolf3D. It plays well, but allows for "Strafe Right" and "Strafe Left" buttons. I have gotten through the first 5 levels on Spear of Destiny using the engine. I'm excited to play more.
Happy Birthday Wolfenstein 3D! Thanks, ID software, for what you started.
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