Wolfenstein Lore
Lore
= 'Lots of Reading Enjoyment'. In
this area we give you all of the interesting information and
little known facts about the games, that didn't fit in the other pages of this site.
We hope that you find this section enlightening.
Little
Known Facts
- A
Game of Many Names - Although it was finally released
with the title Wolfenstein 3d, Tom Hall came up with
several other names for the game, while it was in production.
While some of them were jokes, others became episode names.
Here's the list:
Castle Ochtenstein Luger's Run The
Fourth Reich Adolph's Bane Hard
Cell Luger Me Now Tank you very much Castle Hasselhoff How
do you Duseldorf? Castle
Verlassen (To abandon the Castle) Sturmwind (Stormwind) Hollehammer
(Hellhammer) Shattensendener
(Shadowsender) Geruchschlect (Bad Smell) Dolchteufel
(Devil Dagger) Grabgrabbener
(Grave Digger) Eisenschwert (Iron Sword) Dammerung (Twilight/Dawn)
-
What's
in a name? - After choosing the iD name, they found that
they weren't the first.
There was also a chain of women's clothing stores called 'iD',
as well as 'The Wizard of iD'
comic strip by Brant Parker/Johnny Hart. They called
the company 'iD' for 4 reasons:
1.
iD is the acronym for 'in demand'. This was also a slogan
for one of their first games. 2.
It was a close incarnation to the name of their previously
named companies. 3. Look
in the dictionary under 'iD' and 'pleasure principle' (Websters)
This is the main appeal
to their name. 4. Last but certainly not least, the Garg,
in their first shareware game
(Keen 1) was the iD incarnate!
-
Museum Art - Tom Hall sketched
4 very rough pictures to be considered
for the title image. Adrian Carmack then too each one and developed them.
The third
of Tom's 4 pictures is the one we've come to see as the title page of Wolf3d.
Tom Hall was the creative director on these projects, and would supply the artists with concept
sketches for just about everything in the games. The artists then turned these crude
drawings into the characters and screens we all see in the final products.
- The
Missing Key - In episode 1 of Wolfenstein 3d, only the
gold key was used, to make the puzzles (maps) easier
to solve. Only in the next 5 episodes did they use the
silver key.
- Engine
John - The part of the game engine that actually puts the graphics onto the screen.
This cool texture mapped engine was written by the resident technical "soopah genius",
John Carmack. By the time Wolf 3d was released, he was already disgusted with the technology
and was working on new ideas like rendering holographic worlds (On his way to Doom).
- The
Music Man - Robert Prince, the musician, was originally
a lawyer. He got tired of
the legal games and decided to pursue his second love - Music.
He provided the music
for both Wolf 3d and Spear of Destiny. The guys at iD
used to joke that their music
was done by "Prince".
- The
Way to Play - Who has the fastest record for completing episode 1 from start to finish?
Well, way back when, John Romero did it in 5 minutes and 20 seconds. Wow... 10
levels. That was going for only the fastest path to the elevator. He welcomes all
challengers!
- Got
Bugs... Use Off - The first shareware release (upload)
had a bug where if you saved
and reloaded, your time wasn't accurate. Version 1.1
fixed the problem (this also
changed all the verification codes). This is the only
version that was valid for attempting
John's challenge.
- Mysterious
Music - No, it's just Robert's Jukebox.
A random menu (there are 3 different menus) of 6 songs will appear, for registered (full) versions
only. Hold the M key as the intro screen displays to bring it up. Shareware users
may have problems playing songs that weren't released with the shareware episode (even though
they appear on the menu).
- Secret
Song - There is a morse code message for BJ hidden within a song in episode 3. For
those morse challenged, the message reads: "To Big Bad Wolf... De Little Red Riding
Hood... Eliminate Hitler... Imperative... Complete Mission within 24 Hours.... Out" (
De is radio slang for the word 'from').
- Clockin'
the Shabs - The boys at iD had quite the imagination,
and were into jokes. Doctor
Schabbs is one of them. The inside joke was that whenever
something lacked quality, they
would say 'Shabs' or 'Clockin' the Shabs'. Someones
attitude became 'Shabatude'
or a bad apartment became 'shabitations'. They also liked
to add the extension 'ness'
to words. Something like hungry for food became 'foodness'.
- Stories
from your Childhood - Remember the story of Hansel and Gretel? Well, the boys at
iD did and have taken it beyond how the witch lured them into the Gingerbread house.
The family that has returned and are so tough that they would not only have eaten the house,
but would have pulled the witch outside and forced her to do that "Ack Ack" dance!
-
Wayside
Ideas - Ideas for the game were scrapped due to lack of
space, lack of quality, or just
plain lack of taste! Some of them included things like:
Youths attacking with knives,
hidden David Puke wall posters (as they called David Duke so
as not to be sued for defamation).
They even decided not to depict other Nazi atrocities as it
was decided that people would think
that they were making light of them. They decided to
stick to reflecting the more realistic
image of war.
- Theory
of Relativity - No, definitely 'non-brotherness'. Adrian Carmack and John Carmack,
while sharing the same last name, come from completely different places and families.
There may be a connection somewhere back in the family tree, but who knows which branch.
- The
Never Starting Contest - Scott Miller of Apogee Software
came up with a contest idea.
You might have seen it... the Arrdwolf sign? Well,
the first person to find it
was supposed to call Apogee and would win, but unfortunately
a simple concept was ruined with
many people making editors that showed both the graphic and
the location in the maps.
iD and Apogee decided that the contest couldn't be fair and
didn't want to reward anyone for
hacking into their game, rather than someone who had actually
played the game. So the
contest was called off. To this day, people are still
calling and saying "Arrdwolf".
Chances are when you find this you may need to reboot, as seeing
it, usually means you've blocked
yourself in within the maze.
- Early
Stages - Did you know that the original concept for Wolfenstein
3d included dragging bodies,
silent attacks, and even changing uniforms. Yes, it's
true.... The programming
was already completed, but the intricate actions made the gameplay
too difficult and required
several extra key sequences. Basically you would have
to play via keyboard and it would
slow down the games action. Can you say 'goneness'.
They did to these and other
ideas.
- Delayed
Development - With the release of games like: Neo-Geo Fatal
Fury (Jay Wilbur called it
'Fatal Production') and SuperNintendo's Street Fighter II,
the makers of Spear of Destiny
were hindered in the development of the Spear project.
All the guys could say was "Thanks
a lot, you other dang game makers".
- Two
Faced B.J. - More inventiveness from the iD team as they
wanted the game to show it's impatience
as you stood there trying to decide what yo do next.
That's right, in Spear of Destiny
if you don't move for 30 seconds B.J. on the status bar starts
to become impatient. Also,
if you cheat and enter God mode (indestructible), the eyes
on B.J. on the status bar start
to glow in a golden light.
- Degrees
& Minutes - It's not about time or tangents on a map, but rather two of the people
at iD (at the time of Spear of Destiny's creation) had programming degrees. Funny fact
is that neither of them of them program. Also there was another college graduate in the
Artistic department... but their degree was in political science.
- The
Spot - The oldest employee at iD Software is given the
Hag Spot prize. The Hag is
revered by the rest of the members of iD as someone with great
wisdom. At the time of Spears
design, the holder of the hag was just 31 years old, and revered
for his ancient knowledge
of the 1970's. Knowledge, which at the time, frightened
and confused the rest of the
iD crew.
- Where's
the Bunny? - Have you heard about the mystery of the hidden iD. Yes, the guys gave
Spear of Destiny an Easter Egg present. Immediately after changing the view screen size
down and pressing enter, hold the I & D keys down until you hear the music change.
You'll be rewarded with a picture of the guys from iD Software (1993).
- The
Spark of the Spear - Kevin Cloud, an artist/layout person,
mentioned the name "Spear
of Destiny" after he saw it discussed on a TV show called
'Now it Can be Told'.
He later found a comic book by DC comics, which was all about
the Spear and Hilter. Tom
Hall loved the name and concept so much, that it became the
central theme and namesake of what
we now know as 'Spear of Destiny'.
- NAZI
- The
word "Nazi" is
an acronym formed from the first syllable of NAtional
and the second syllable of SoZIalist. This
method of creating words or terms was popular in the Third
Reich. Another example is Gestapo
which is formed from GEheime STAatsPOlizei
(Secret State Police).
The Nazis were strongly drawn to symbolism and placed an almost
holy status on some symbols.
- The
Swastika - The swastika (hakenkreuz) is most often associated
with the Nazis,
but was used by many cultures for thousands of years before
being adopted as the official emblem
of the Nazi party. As early as the fourth millennium B.C.,
swastikas appeared on ceramics in
Iran. Later it appeared in Troy, Greece, India, Tibet and Japan.
Sometimes the swastika was
used as a religious symbol. American Indians often used the
symbol in their handicraft work.
- The
Runes - 'Rune' means 'secret script' - rune characters were used in pre-Christian
Europe by the Germanic tribes for magical and ordinary writing. In the 1st century Germans
used runes as a method of gaining insight into the future or the unknown by supernatural means.
By the early 20th century, some groups, notably the Thule Society, began looking again to runes.
The Nazi "SS" symbol is drawn as a rune consisting of two lightning bolts. Lightning
is associated with evil and the devil.
-
Dr.
Paul Joseph Goebbels - It was the Dr. who popularized the swastika as the official Nazi
emblem. Goebbels was Hitler s Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. Goebbels
is said to be more responsible for Hitler s rise to power than any other individual. Here is
an interesting quote from Goebbels:
"Propaganda can be taught by the
average person, like playing a violin. But there comes a point at which one must say:
This is where you stop. What remains to be learned can be achieved only by a genius!
What else is Jesus Christ? Did he not make Propaganda? Did he write books or did he preach?
And what about Muhammad? Did he compose sophisticated essays, or did he go to the people and
tell them what he wanted? Were not Buddha and Zoroaster propagandists?"
- The
Hitler Salute - The famous Hitler Salute was performed when Nazis greeted each other. Originally,
Hitler had instituted a traditional military salute, hand to cap. However, the young Storm
Troopers of the SA (precursors to the SS), had no military training and found that the regular
salute too much effort and started greeting their comrades with a wave of the hand!
As it
developed, the salute stiffened into a quick upward thrust, typically accompanied with the
phrase "Heil Hitler!"
- The
SS - The Schutztaffel (Elite Guard) originated as Hitler's personal body guard.
- Albert
Einstein - At the time when Hitler came to power in 1933, Einstein was in California. As
the world's most famous living Jew, Einstein was a prime target of Nazi hostility and his post
in Berlin was taken away from him almost immediately. Although retiring by nature, Einstein
was resolute in his opposition to Hitler and Nazism. In 1939, Einstein signed a letter to President
Franklin D. Roosevelt noting German advances in physics and warned of the real possibility
of the Nazis developing a uranium bomb.
- Operation
Flash - In 1943, an attempt on Hitler s life failed due
to a defective detonator. On March
13, 1943 Maj. Gen. Henning von Tresckow asked Col. Heinz Brandt
to take some brandy to an old
friend Brandt agreed. Brandt unsuspectingly took
the package containing a time-delayed
bomb aboard the Fuehrer s plane. When news came two and one-half
hours later that Hitler had
arrived safely, von Tresckow had to deal with a problem he
hadn t expected retrieving
the defective bomb. He telephoned Brandt and asked that he
hold the gift until he arrived:
the date was wrong. Von Tresckow arrived with two bottles of
real brandy and exchanged it for
the package containing the faulty bomb. Later that evening
he dismantled the bomb in a railway
car.
- The
Thule Society - This secret society worshiped the sun as a sacred symbol of the Aryans.
It also practiced Satan worship the inner core of the society were all Satanists
who practiced Black Magic. Members of the society were not simply working-men, but included
scientists, doctors, university professors and other men of high standing. The members of the
Thule Society were the foundation of the Nazi Party. The committee and the forty original members
of the New German Worker s Party were all from the Thule Society. In the Thule Society, Hitler
found the perverted beliefs that were to lead him to power and have such a devastating effect
on the world. Dietrich Eckart was a dedicated Satanist and co-founder of both the Nazi party
and the Thule Society.
On his death bed, Eckart is quoted: "Follow Hitler.
He will dance, but it is I who have called the tune! I have initiated him into the 'Secret
Doctrine' - opened his centers in vision and given him the means to communicate with the Powers.
Do not mourn for me as I shall have influenced history more than any German."
- The
Death's Head - The one symbol most firmly associated with the SS is The Death s Head or
Totenkopf. The grinning skull and crossed bones could be seen on Nazi caps, daggers, jackets
and other articles.
- The
Death Head's Ring - Struck in solid silver, The SS Death's Head Ring was instituted by
Himmler in 1934 as a symbol of recognition of loyalty to Hitler and his ideals. The design
of the ring was adapted from Pagan Germanic mythology Thor had a silver ring on
which oaths could be taken - and binding treaties were carved in Runes on Wotan s spear. On
either side of the Totenkopf, the ring was embossed with numerous symbolic runes.
The
rings were held in such reverence that when an SS soldier was killed in action the ring had
to be retrieved from the body. Himmler kept these retrieved rings at his castle in Wewelsburg
as a "Shrine to Holders of the Death s Head Ring".
To prevent the allies from
capturing the rings, Himmler ordered that the rings from the Shrine be blast-sealed into the
side of the mountain near his castle in the spring of 1945. They have never been found.
The iD Crew
Here is the
list of people working on the Wolfenstein
and Spear of Destiny Projects:
-
Wolfenstein 3d
-
Spear of Destiny
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