![]() ![]() Here is where Id has potentially made its biggest impact on the PC game industry. The free teaser file spread like a virus until it was all over the world, with over 20% of the orders for the complete version coming in from overseas. This allowed people to copy the first part of the game, which was public domain, and see how well the game performed on their machines before they bought the whole game. It was the additional levels that were sold directly through the distributor, a shareware game company called Apogee. Using a time-honored shareware technique, the first 10 levels of Wolfenstein 3D were free. Perhaps, the most amazing aspect of Wolfenstein 3D had to do with its distribution. Id made use of a technique known as texture mapping that, combined with a raycasting engine written in assembly language, allowed the three-dimensional graphics to be playable on the lowest common denominator machine, at the time a 286. What made Wolfenstein 3D stand out was its brilliant use of bitmapped images, digitized sounds, and blazing speed to give the illusion of a three-dimensional world. The premise of Wolfenstein 3D was straight out of a B-movie, where players battles their way out of a Nazi castle. It was actually Id's previous game, Wolfenstein 3D, that earned its accolades. They are the programmers at Id Software, and what they are doing could change the PC game industry forever. They write games that would take larger companies 30 people or more, and the whole company comprises seven people. As many larger game companies are coming to terms with cross-platform development, to them it comes naturally. At a time where soundcard compatibility was a big problem, they added on Disney Sound Source as an afterthought for demonstrations. In an era of where it often takes 20MB to put in all the advertised features, they did it in less than four. ![]()
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