Having set the trend on this blog of going from interest to interest giving a grand overview for each, it is now time to live up to the "shareware" term given on the front page subtitle. This post's title, of course, refers to Wolfenstein 3d (or 3D, or 3-D, depending on which version), something I started playing while still well under the intended age; whether I am any better or worse for it is a matter of judgment, but for sure it played a huge part in shaping my gaming interests at that formative age. As Wolfenstein 3d was the climax of the collaboration between developer id Software and publisher Apogee Software that led to an interest in the libraries of both companies plus their shareware competition, Epic Megagames.
In the later 1980s as home computers proliferated and gaming on them was clearly going to prevail in an industry all its own, established retail publishers like Sierra and Electronic Arts competed in their realm which was only so accessible to consumers at retail market price. That Scott Miller started his "Apogee model" of shareware distribution and the future members of id Software were making games for disk magazine Softdisk at about the same time was a fortuitous combination working in the more accessible non-retail computer software realm. This would come to fruition when the two entities met and began their collaboration that would put shareware ahead of retail in computer gaming innovation.
The Softdisk connection runs deep, both before and after the key transitions with id and Apogee: Miller himself and future associate Keith Schuler made submissions to Softdisk's Big Blue Disk, while after the members of id Software abandoned Gamer's Edge it got taken over by Jim Row and Mike Maynard who would go on to develop the Blake Stone duology. Gamer's Edge itself while still under id's control saw continuation of game series and technological leaps that likewise tie the whole pre-Doom era together including Catacomb, Dangerous Dave and Commander Keen, each of which have their own histories to tell. It should have struck someone at Softdisk strange that the chain of innovation was suddenly broken with a basic EGA side-scroller called ScubaVenture but no one was in any position to argue that Miller's investment in Wolfenstein 3d won out for Apogee, demanding higher-end processing hardware for the first significant time in budget PC gaming history.
Softdisk published the following of interest up through the official birth of id Software:
Big Blue Disk #20 includes Kingdom of Kroz by Scott Miller
Big Blue Disk #21 includes Computer Quiz by Scott Miller
Big Blue Disk #25 includes Astronomy Quiz by Scott Miller
Big Blue Disk #26 includes Maze Runner (a.k.a. Rogue Runner) by Scott Miller
Big Blue Disk #28 includes The BASIC Quiz (a.k.a. IBM BASIC Quiz) by Scott Miller
Big Blue Disk #29 includes Dungeons of Kroz by Scott Miller
Big Blue Disk #30 includes Meteors (a.k.a. Asteroid Rescue) by Scott Miller
Big Blue Disk #32 includes Block 5 by Scott Miller
Big Blue Disk #35 has both Caverns of Kroz by Scott Miller and Twilight Treasures by John Romero
Big Blue Disk #36 includes Zappa Roidz by John Romero & Lane Roathe
Big Blue Disk #44 includes Chagunitzu (prequel to Paganitzu) by Keith Schuler
Big Blue Disk #46 has Pyramids of Egypt by John Romero (the game that got Scott Miller's attention)
Big Blue Disk #47 includes Castle of Kroz (a.k.a. Return to Kroz) by Scott Miller
Big Blue Disk #50 includes Catacomb by John Carmack which also launched Gamer's Edge
Big Blue Disk #52 & #54 have the first 2 entries of John Carmack's Dark Designs RPG series which never made the transition to Gamer's Edge nor continued on PC as it became Apple II-exclusive afterwards
Gamer's Edge under the tutelage of id Software, both before their official establishment and afterwards fulfilling contract to Softdisk as a condition of their new independence, produced these games in what is believed to be correct order of release (some of this is uncertain):
Dangerous Dave [in the Deserted Pirate's Hideout]
The Catacomb (a.k.a. Catacomb II)
Slordax: The Unknown Enemy
Shadow Knights [The Shogun of Death] (a.k.a BUDO: The Art of Ninja Combat!)
Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mansion (a.k.a. Dangerous Dave II)
Rescue Rover
Hovertank [One] (a.k.a. Hovertank 3-D)
Commander Keen in Keen Dreams
Rescue Rover 2 (a.k.a. Dognapped!)
Tiles of the Dragon
Catacomb 3-D [The Descent] (a.k.a. Catacombs 3)
Gamer's Edge dabbled in shareware with some of the above but much of that effort was saved for a new 3D Catacomb trilogy that shared the chief villain with the Dangerous Dave sequels created by Row and Maynard. Since Softdisk was primarily a subscription service other channels such as shareware and retail would only be peripheral but they would keep crafting new content on id technology much as Capstone Software would with the Wolfenstein 3d engine. The reason for many of the alternative names above is some (though not all) were later packaged for retail by Froggman, a subsidiary of Expert Software.
Apogee took off with both its then-unique shareware model and first major success in a refinement and repackaging of the initial 3 Kroz games submitted to Softdisk into their own trilogy with 4 more episodes eventually following. Possibly inspired by Kroz was another text-mode overhead adventure trilogy made by Todd Replogle through his studio called Scenario Software, resulting in Apogee publishing his Caves of Thor. The technology advanced from there with Scenario Software building a single-screen platform game in CGA called The Monuments of Mars then jumping to EGA graphics (and Adlib music) for Dark Ages, all around the same time Apogee was publishing id's Commander Keen series and licensing that technology. The mating of id technology with Replogle's game development produced Apogee's first in-house market blockbuster: Duke Nukem.
After id went independent for Doom Apogee was already in a good position, Replogle having used his designs for Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure and Duke Nukem II. Elsewhere within Apogee the long-delayed project using the full engine licensed from id, Bio Menace, finally released but was dated in the era that had seen Wolfenstein 3d for a year already. That engine would be used to produce Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold, which would have trouble finding its own success due to having released a week before Doom. Taking the Wolfenstein 3d engine to the best level they could, an Apogee team led by former id director Tom Hall made an honest attempt to best id at their own game with Rise of the Triad which would attain some success and fond remembrance but once again prove that it was better in this competitive market to lead rather than follow.
That leading edge would come from an unlikely source, a kid genius programmer who had produced a Wolfenstein 3d-like adventure for shareware competitor Epic Megagames: Ken Silverman. Epic was yet another publisher that, even more than Apogee, found itself following in the wake of others rather than blazing any trails, and this trend would only change after the shareware era ended with their first release of the Unreal franchise. Meanwhile, they exploited enough of their own originality (as seen in Jill of the Jungle and Jazz Jackrabbit) while delving into genres Apogee had yet to touch (One Must Fall 2097 and Epic Pinball being key examples) to keep strong. Ken's Labyrinth fell into the former category, but once Silverman joined the Apogee camp his Build Engine would power Apogee's most successful game ever, Duke Nukem 3D, as well as such a host of other projects that went to other companies due to Apogee being stretched too thin to complete any aside from Shadow Warrior.
During development of Doom id Software began their long relationship with Raven Software who would go on to make original games on every generation of id's engines all the way through the 2000s. After Doom found runaway success combining id technological innovation with network multiplayer capacity a new trend would be set in that id games would be, while not tech demos per se, like proofs of concept for the new engine while companies like Raven would turn those engines into even better games. Tom Hall and John Romero had both seen this shift in focus to technology away from gaming and had left id Software over circumstances involving their separate attempts to buck that trend, eventually once again joining forces in their new venture Ion Storm which was founded on the premise of making the best kind of games possible with the id engines. Daikatana and Anachronox were the only results of this and each is a fine game in its own right, though troubled development of both would sink Ion Storm, the company surviving for a time on its more-successful Deus Ex franchise which used Epic's Unreal engines.
While Raven was the only company to really take advantage of the first Quake engine while they and Ion Storm were the primary exploiters of the Quake II engine, it was the variety of games utilizing the Quake III Arena engine that saw not only the most success for id to that point but some of the best games ever to grace PC or console: Quake III Arena itself made by id, Return to Castle Wolfenstein (the next entry in the classic id property) by Gray Matter Interactive, no less than five games by Raven Software including a pair of licensed works each based on Star Trek and Star Wars, and the premier entry of the best-selling Call of Duty franchise by Infinity Ward. The successful relationship now well-established Raven Software was entrusted with the engine that powered id's Doom 3 to make Quake 4 and a new Wolfenstein, but after id was acquired by ZeniMax that would come to a screeching halt and Raven would opt to maintain their own relationship with longtime publisher Activision which got them involved in more recent entries of the Call of Duty series. Meanwhile new id engines are still being produced, however id Tech 5 and beyond would only be used to power games published by their new parent company.
That engine void was already being filled by succeeding generations of the Unreal engine which was the cash cow of partially-rebranded Epic Games. Ironically it would be the point id once again embraced a fuller gaming experience with Doom 3 that Epic took over the position id once held developing games that were fun enough on their own but served also as showcases for new technology up for licensing so that others could exploit it. Similar to id each generation had its own Epic-produced game marking the transition from old to new, but what was different about Epic's approach was its greater console focus:
Unreal Engine 1) Unreal: PC
Unreal Engine 2) Unreal Tournament 2003/Unreal Championship: PC & Microsoft Xbox
Unreal Engine 3) Gears of War: Microsoft Xbox 360 & PC
At this point not only had use of the engine expanded exponentially beyond its Epic origins but it grew beyond the first person shooter genre to a capacity of powering just about any conceivable game. What id had started Epic is finishing, and gaming overall seems to be better for it even if advancements keep calling for more powerful system upgrades to enjoy them.
What there is to take in from all this is how these companies which continue to blaze new technological ground through the computer gaming medium started far more humbly in the budget software market called shareware. Not competing with the large retailers directly they often appealed to lower common denominators of computer users: those still equipped with CGA systems in the late 80s then going into the 90s with EGA and maybe Adlib sound. It was not that retail developers eschewed compatibility with these older systems, just that they had a more advanced target audience leaving the shareware houses with incentive to maintain that backwards compatibility longer. Then with Wolfenstein 3d shareware was suddenly where the cutting edge was found, and though shareware as a distribution platform would die off in the Windows 95 era that only meant yesterday's budget software publishers became the new retail leaders.
All 3 companies are still alive in some form, Epic being the only one that is more-or-less the same group from its shareware days. Apogee spun off from its 3D Realms iteration, the mid-1990s rebranding of the original company to focus on those types of games (which is now owned by Saber Interactive) in the late 2000s and has revisited several entries of its classic library with good-looking results. It was already said id is owned by ZeniMax Media (publishing through the brand of another of their acquisitions, Bethesda Softworks) and continues to add to the Doom and Quake franchises, Wolfenstein having been licensed to MachineGames (another ZeniMax company) for new entries all powered by id engines. None of the above shy away from the legacies that built them, with shout-outs to their classic shareware titles found throughout the new ones they continue churning out today.
Apogee Entertainment: https://www.apogeeent.com/
3D Realms: https://3drealms.com/
id Software: https://www.idsoftware.com/en-us
Epic Games: http://epicgames.com/
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