Wolfenstein
The "Wolfenstein" series of video games started with the 1981 stealth-adventure video game "Castle Wolfenstein". It was developed by American programmer Silas Warner, a pioneer in the early eras of video gaming, especially the stealth genre. It was published by his (then) company M.U.S.E. Inc. (Muse Software). The player controls an unnamed American prisoner of war as he steals war files containing information about secret German war plans while avoiding or sometimes killing guards, and tries to escape the fortified Nazi stronghold Castle Wolfenstein, set during World War II. The game is often credited as one of the first video games of the stealth genre, since it focuses more on avoiding or disarming enemies, and killing them is considered a last resort.
Wolfenstein 3D
Initially the team believed that they would be unable to use the "Wolfenstein" name due to trademark issues, and came up with multiple possible titles. They contacted "Castle Wolfenstein" developer Silas Warner, but learned that Muse Software and successor companies no longer existed and the trademark had lapsed, leaving them the option to use the name "Wolfenstein 3D". The game concept met with immediate approval from Scott Miller of Apogee, who considered id Software his star developer, and he guaranteed id a US$100,000 payment on the project. Mark Rein, who had been brought on a few months prior as id's probationary president, also sold the idea of doing a retail "Wolfenstein" project to FormGen, which had published id's December 1991 "Commander Keen in Aliens Ate My Babysitter", overcoming the publisher's concerns over "Wolfenstein"s proposed content. This put id in the unique position of selling simultaneously to the shareware and retail markets.
Romero and Hall designed the gameplay and aesthetics; Romero wanted the goal to be "to mow down Nazis", with the suspense of storming a Nazi bunker full of SS soldiers and Hitler himself, as well as dogs, blood "like you never see in games", and straightforward, lethal weapons. Hall designed the levels while also adding collectible objects in the form of treasure and food for health items. Carmack programmed "the core" of the game's engine in a month; he added a few features to the "Wolfenstein 3D" engine from "Catacomb 3-D", including support for doors and decorative non-wall objects, but primarily focused on making the game run smoother and faster with higher-resolution graphics. The graphics for the game were planned to be in 16 color EGA, but were changed to 256 color VGA four months before release. Romero in turn worked on building a game with the engine, removing elements of the initial design, like looting enemy bodies, that he felt interrupted the flow of fast gameplay. The sprites for the enemies and objects were hand drawn at eight different angles by Adrian Carmack. Initially the team had an external artist who assisted him and created animated wall textures, but the team felt that the quality was poor and did not use it in the game. The level design, by Romero and Hall, due to the grid-based level design, took some inspiration from "Pac-Man", and paid homage with a hidden "Pac-Man" level. The team ensured that the presentation of the game created the atmosphere that they wanted, adding violent animations by Adrian Carmack for enemies being shot and music and sound effects by "Keen" composer Bobby Prince to make the guns sound exciting. With the aid of a 16-bit sampler keyboard and cassette recorder, Bobby Prince composed realistic sounds from a shooting range in addition to Foley sounds. The development team along with Scott Miller did the voicing for the enemies.