Game: Catacombs 3D
Year (s): 1991
Company: dev. id software
pub. Softdisk
Engine: Wolfenstein 3D Engine (an earlier-than-Wolfenstein version)
Type: First-Person Shooter
Reminiscing
After Space Invaders, this was one of my earliest computer games. Our version was titled Curse of the Catacombs, but it's the same game. This isn't only the first shooter I ever played, it was one of the first shooters, period.
Ultima Influence
The Catacomb games previous to this were 2D, with an overhead view. Though Catacombs 3D came out first, it was arguably influenced by a demo of Ultima Underworld that featured texture mapping. One member of the Ultima team "recalled a comment from Carmack that he could write a faster texture mapper" (Wikipedia).
Hey! Look at all the id guys!
Adrian Carmack, John Carmack, John Romero, and Tom Hall. These guys were in the credits for Doom 3 thirteen years after Catacomb 3D. I'm pretty sure they'll be in the credits for Doom 4 (slated 2013) twenty-two years after this game. I guess it's more fun to make and play games than retire.
Plot
I really don't remember a plot, just that you're a wizard roaming a dungeon/fantasy landscape. You throw fireballs at gorgons, tree-monsters, skeletons, vampire bunnies, and other mean critters.
Combat
I already mentioned throwing fireballs.
This game introduced showing the character's hands in the player's view.
If you throw a fireball at particular walls, they are destroyed and you can find secret areas!
Sequels
Three Catacombs 3D games were released after this. Catacomb Abyss was developed by Gamer's Edge (published by Softdisk).
Catacomb Armageddon and Catacomb Apocalypse were developed by Softdisk and published by Frogman. All sequels use the original engine and, except for Apocalypse, follow the original protagonist.
Final Thoughts
We got rid of our copy of this probably about the same time we threw away the 3.5-inch floppy drives. I thought this would be a fun one to do mostly by reading online, unfortunately, it's so old (and, compared to later games, not a big splash in the water) that aside from a short Wikipedia article, sites that copy/paste that article, and a ton of damn youtube videos, there's nothing to read.
Fortunately, you can relive the game (minus the combat) by watching the Windows 95 Maze screensaver! Always reminded me of Catacomb 3D, anyway.
3 comments:
Retire? The id guys are in, like, their early/mid 40s. I've seen pictures on what I think was John Romero's website a few months back, shots he dug up and scanned of their work areas. It looked like they were having a goddamned awesome time. There were hand-made sculptures of Barons of Hell and the pink demon dudes. I imagine they made those first, then drew the sprites for the game.
id Software is 20 years old as of February 2011!
http://planetromero.com/2011/02/id-software-20-years-old-today
that link is pretty awesome. and the job probably is awesome.
i'd just thought maybe ONE of the original key people might have said, "you know, i've helped make several games that sold millions. i think i'm going to i think i'll drink tequila and go fishing for the rest of my life." but no one did!
turns out, the guy that created mario is still working (he's almost sixty). i guess this isn't a field where people want to retire. lucky bastards.
After further reading, my statement that all those guys are still at id is totally wrong.
John Romero left after Quake to found the short-lived development company Ion Storm Inc (best known for Deus Ex).
Tom Hall was forced to resign before Doom was released. He worked at Apogee for a bit, later joining Romero at Ion Storm (defunct after six games).
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