Will
Scarlet
October 02, 2024

Wolfenstein (1992)

The grandfather of first person shooters.

Wolfenstein (1992)

This was the beginning of Id Software and the so-called “boomer shooter” genre of arena games. This was a stepping stone for John Carmack that led to DOOM, DOOM2, and Quake.

It was a landmark game. But the question is, is the game worth going back to? No, it’s not.

Instead, I present to you Brutal Wolfenstein, a DOOM2 mod by Zio McCall from Italy. This mod packs all the original levels, plus several episodes more, culminating in the ultimate Wolfenstein 3D experience.

Take a step back in time to WW2 and play the role of Capt. B.J. Blazkowicz as you escape imprisonment in the Castle Wolfenstein!

Install

Roll over to GZDOOM and install the latest release for Linux. You’re looking for a DEB file, there is no reliable package manager version.

(Don’t waste your time w/ the Flathub version of GZDOOM bc it won’t allow you to do the handy command line tricks you’ll need to effectively play the game w/ mods.)

You’ll need to find the original Id Software WAD files. These are the “base game” files on which all GZDOOM mods are built. You can’t play w/out the original game files.

In this case you need DOOM2.WAD, as Brutal Wolfenstein is a mod of DOOM2. You will also, obviously, need the files for Brutal Wolfenstein.

So, now where do you put these things?

Make a directory you can use to store all your GZDOOM wad and mod files, I use ~/Games/Linux/DOOM/, and then prepare to put these files into a particular structure:

launcher.sh
IWAD/
    DOOM2.WAD
PWAD/
    DOOM2/
        Brutal Wolfenstein v7.wad

What is this launcher.sh file?

It’s a shell script DOOM Launcher that manages all the complicated command line arguments to run your various GZDOOM mods.

Unlike Windows (which has ZDL), Linux doesn’t have a fancy UI mod loader, so this shell script is my version of one.

So w/ all these items in place, you are ready to go, my friend.

$ cd /path/to/doom/
$ sh launcher.sh

Notes

  • The difficulty settings on this game are harder than regular DOOM, so don’t jump into Ultraviolence and think you’re going to dominate.
  • Getting all the treasure in a map gives you a bonus, like more ammo or a new weapon you didn’t have before.

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