Wolfenstein 3D on Unix

You don't need to run Microsoft® DOS to play your favorite first-person shooter! Turn your Unix workstation into a gaming platform for the fast-paced action world of id Software's Wolfenstein 3D.

The hardware accelerated port Wolf4SDL for X11 runs perfectly on FreeBSD, Dragonfly BSD, NetBSD, and other BSD derivates. This short HyperText tutorial shows you the installation. Let's start.

: Pro Tip: You can also play with a screen resolution higher than 320×200.

Get the Game Data!

To play the game on Unix, you need to get the files of version 1.4 of Wolfenstein 3D. Hopefully, you have the original 3,5" game disk. Otherwise, try to download a full copy from somewhere within the Internet …

Anyway, when you got the files, rename them to lower case:

AUDIOHED.WL6 --> audiohed.wl6
AUDIOT.WL6   --> audiot.wl6
CONFIG.WL6   --> config.wl6
GAMEMAPS.WL6 --> gamemaps.wl6
MAPHEAD.WL6  --> maphead.wl6
VGADICT.WL6  --> vgadict.wl6
VGAGRAPH.WL6 --> vgagraph.wl6
VGAHEAD.WL6  --> vgahead.wl6
VSWAP.WL6    --> vswap.wl6

Then, copy the files to /usr/local/share/games/wolf3d/:

# mkdir -p /usr/local/share/games/wolf3d
# cp *.wl6 /usr/local/share/games/wolf3d/

Instead of that, the files can also be stored somewhere else, but a symlink has to be created:

# cd /usr/local/share/games/
# ln -s /home/<user>/games/wolf4sdl/ wolf3d

Install SDL

Wolf4SDL uses the Simple DirectMedia Layer library. Just install the packages of SDL 1.2 and SDL Mixer with your package manager or build them from source. On FreeBSD, you can run:

# pkg install sdl12 sdl_mixer

That's it.

Compile Wolf4SDL

Now, you just have to compile Wolf4SDL. Download the source code:

# cd /tmp
# fetch https://github.com/mozzwald/wolf4sdl/archive/master.zip
# unzip wolf4sdl-master.zip
# cd wolf4sdl-master

Edit the file version.h. For version 1.4 of the game you have to set:

//#define UPLOAD
#define GOODTIMES
#define CARMACIZED

Unfortunately, Wolf4SDL can't be compiled with clang—so you will need gmake and gcc. To compile the source code, run:

$ gmake

Run the Game

Just copy the compiled executable wolf3d to your home directory and start the game:

$ ./wolf3d --windowed --res 640 480

Prepare yourself.

Mecha Hitler