
The man who made Wolfenstein - doppp
https://www.polygon.com/features/2019/12/24/21029936/castle-wolfenstein-silas-warner
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TedDoesntTalk
I played this game more than any other in the 1980s. The title screen had the
name "Silas Warner" and over the years, I've periodically searched the web for
information about this man. There's not much out there; the comments from the
Id guys always come up as do his death in 2004.

This article is hands-down the most information you'll ever read about him.

If you're old enough to know the difference between Wolfenstein 3-D and Castle
Wolfenstein, and enjoyed the first one, you'll appreciate this article.

~~~
alamortsubite
> I played this game more than any other in the 1980s.

Me, too. My brother and I played whenever we couldn't be outside, or needed a
break from Legos.

One of the best aspects of the game is that it featured cooperative play: it
could be configured such that one player would move the character, and the
other would aim and fire the pistol. It was a clever enhancement to single-
player, and made the game twice as fun. We almost never played alone.

An interesting bug we discovered was that you could shoot, toss grenades, and
even search and stick up guards through walls at outside corners. We mostly
played on our Atari 800; I've always wondered if the Apple II version behaved
the same way.

If anyone is interested, just 'sudo apt install atari800' and get the ROM from
atarimania. (Don't be too critical of the controls if you're playing with
xbox-style controllers- they're a terrible substitute for Atari joysticks.)
Also, be sure to check out the PDF of the original game instructions, which
include handy German translations of all the in-game dialog. ;)

~~~
transitorykris
Very much the same experience. A small plug for archive.org’s copy of the MS-
DOS version which we played:
[https://archive.org/details/msdos_Castle_Wolfenstein_1984](https://archive.org/details/msdos_Castle_Wolfenstein_1984)

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DrTung
The article just briefly mentions it, but the game I remember most from my
AppleII days was RobotWar
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RobotWar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RobotWar)

We were a couple of guys (and one AppleII) staying up all night designing
robots, I still remember the names of some of my robots.

Like M.U.L.E. it was a good multiplayer game way ahead of its time.

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NoPiece
_Castle Wolfenstein in 1981, which was the first game to include digitized
speech and an early example both of stealth gaming and of the World War II
shooter._

It was also an early example of procedural generated levels. During startup,
it would create and write the castle map layout to the floppy disk. If you
wanted to replay the level, you could pull the disk out and add a write
protect tab so it couldn’t be overwritten.

~~~
alamortsubite
It's a minor nitpick, but it's more accurate to say the game would create the
room configurations on startup (inner walls, doors, enemy players, chests,
stair locations, etc.); the castle map for each level was fixed (Beyond Castle
Wolfenstein worked the same way). I still have the maps my brother and I drew
to aid in our escapes!

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CPLX
I still have that half-distorted digital German voice screaming at me to halt,
and then screaming because I shot them, imprinted in my brain.

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georgeecollins
If you sell your IP, ask for an ongoing royalty, even if you only get a very
small one. Sometimes this is called (forgive the phrase) "schmuck insurance".
The idea is, if you sell something and it blows up you won't regret it because
your small piece becomes meaningful.

I have worked in games a long time and in retrospect I really appreciate how
big a difference business savvy can have on your career. Experienced people
can't necessarily make you talented, but they may be able to improve your deal
choices.

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ksaj
I think I just suffered a bout of the Mendela Effect.

The Commodore 64 release of Ghostbusters in 1984 had digital speech that said,
"I've been Slimed." Also, if you pressed <space> while the intro song was
playing (with the bouncing ball lyrics) you'd hear "Ghostbusters!"

I thought that was the first use of digitized voice, and is certainly the
earliest one that immediately comes to mind.

What I didn't remember is that Castle Wolfenstein came out in 1981! I forgot
the 2D version entirely.

Funny way our brain warps history...

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NetOpWibby
I’m so glad I read this. I have fond memories playing Wolfenstein 3D on my
dad’s computer and then downloading the shareware to my own computer later.

Silas Warner sounds like he was an awesome dude.

~~~
TedDoesntTalk
This article is not at all about Wolfenstein 3D. It's about the predecessor,
Castle Wolfenstein, which has almost nothing to do it Wolfenstein 3D.

~~~
thrower123
I, too, first played Wolf3D, and was thrown for a loop when I booted up the
originals from a shareware sampler CD years later.

Duke Nukem is another one that has a less-well-known 2D version before the
leap to 3D.

~~~
seattle_spring
I loved Duke Nukem and Duke Nukem 2. They would be perfect mobile games and I
really wish someone would release them

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ceratopisan
I have the original Wolfenstein disk for the Apple ][, complete with typed
label.

Out of curiosity, I did email people at id software asking about Castle
Wolfenstein and what the copyright status was, in maybe... 1997?, and got a
emailed shrug, effectively. Not the biggest issue on their radar at that
point.

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dekhn
My dad completed the game (escaped from the castle) back in '85\. I actually
have an Apple IIe with CW, it's still fun to play. The sound is excellent!

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grugagag
Wow, what a story! Silas was an early game pioneer and even many dont remember
his games they were inspiration for the very known games to follow. It’s said
that he was dumped to the side, he could have been productive if he’d been
given the chance. Capitalism is quite brutal with its workforce, especially
the ones who reach a phase in their life when they need some help. Sad..

~~~
ksaj
While there is that, I think also people in the industry didn't know what they
had on their hands. While it was new, so was just about everything else about
the games. Minds were being blown pretty continually as the gaming industry
and computers themselves improved.

There was no way of knowing Silas had basically invented the experience we
expect for the entire industry from that point forward.

Mostly, I think it wasn't obvious until the 90's - a full decade later.

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chrismmay
This article seems to me somewhat a rebuttal to the recent Scientific American
article posted here a couple days ago supporting the popular notion that
physical fitness and exercise go hand-in-hand with "brain health".
[https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-your-brain-
ne...](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-your-brain-needs-
exercise/) Some people have brilliant souls. Our bodies are just vessels that
our souls drive around for a while. They wear out eventually no matter what.
Stephen Hawking. Kim Peek. Silas Warner.

~~~
0xBA5ED
Being intelligent does not mean your brain is healthy. See Terry Davis for a
tragic counterexample.

~~~
chrismmay
And conversely, being healthy doesn't mean you're intelligent, or that you
will make better "executive decisions" than someone who doesn't get up at 5am
and do crossfit for 3 hours before they arrive at work.

