Development:Wolfenstein 3D (DOS)
This page details development materials of Wolfenstein 3D (DOS).
A number of work-in-progress art assets have been released from the Wolfenstein 3D development files over the years.
2001 Graphics
The following assets were released by John Romero in a 2001 blogpost commemorating the Wolfenstein franchise's 20th birthday. Please note that they were all originally uploaded as JPGs, and as such will be provided as is (for now at the very least) out of historical accuracy.
The EGA version of the title screen, bearing an "Alpha" watermark. The game was originally planned to support EGA, with alternate artwork created specifically for the mode (primarily by Bio Menace developer Jim Norwood). This plan was apparently ditched a month into development.
The final VGA titlescreen, but with a giant "BETA" watermark and a less-than-veiled threat. Supposedly the game entered Beta just five months into development!
The EGA version of the HUD graphics. You can see a bunch of buttons at the top for different actions that would presumably be bound to the number keys - looking under rugs for items, opening treasure chests for items, opening doors quietly, and dragging a corpse. There is also a HUD element for a stolen uniform. You can see that the stealth elements were already being discarded, as a bunch of extra buttons have been drawn over with elements from the final HUD.
The VGA version of the HUD graphics. These appear to be from an earlier state than the EGA sprites, as several of the face slots (for the difficulty settings) are filled by a cartoony placeholder face, and the buttons that were covered up by final HUD elements in the EGA sheet are fully visible here. They appear to correspond to weapons - bare hands, knife, luger, stick grenade and machinegun. The bare hands and grenade did not make it into the final game, and the Chaingun is not present on the sheet.
2021 Graphics
In 2021, fan website Wolf3d.net released several spritesheets from throughout development, apparently granted by former Capstone programmer Les Bird a couple of years prior.
A sheet of artwork for the "Read This!" help section. Isolated copies of BJ's face from the intermission screen are present, presumably as reference, and there's a graphic of the treasure items and 1UP with their score values that isn't used.
A spritesheet of General Fettgesicht's walking and firing sprites. At the bottom, you can see work-in progress bits and pieces from converting Otto Giftmacher's sprites into Fettgesichts.
General Fettgesicht's death frames. Under them are stretched copies of Giftmacher's frames, presumably used as a base.
The Gatling Gun's sprites, with two grey frames - EGA equivalents?
The Machine Gun's sprites, with some obvious EGA equivalents.
The Guard's pain and death frames, with two unused frames unconverted from EGA - laying stripped and unconscious on the ground after being deprived of his uniform, and with his hands raised in surrender.
Furniture and scenery. An unused alternate vase with an intricate pattern drawn on it is also present.
Debris and scenery. An unused sprite of chunks of meat on hooks is also present, as well as an unfinished piece of placeholder art presumably depicting a surgical curtain.
The same sheet, except the meathooks are replaced with the final game's "DEATHCAM™" sprite, and the surgical curtain is replaced with the final game's vines sprite. The unsquished original version of the "DEATHCAM™" graphic is also present.
The SS's pain and death frames, along with an EGA surrender frame. A blank sprite is present where the guard's unconscious/stripped frame was - the SS would keep his dignity and his bright blue pants.
Wall textures, with an unused variant of the blue-brick-with-a-skull texture replacing the skull with a row of swastikas.
