Wolfenstein 3D (SNES)

Wolfenstein 3D
Also known as: Wolfenstein 3D: The Claw of Eisenfaust (JP) Developer: id Software Publisher: Imagineer Platform: SNES Released in JP: February 10, 1994 Released in US: March 1994 Released in EU: 1994 This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused music. This game has debugging material. This game has a hidden sound test. This game has a hidden level select. This game has regional differences. This game has a prototype article

The SNES port of of the DOS classic. Aside from being heavily cut down compared to the original version, featuring only 30 levels (2 of them being secret) and half the bosses (all of which are taken from Wolf 3D's sequel Spear of Destiny for some reason), this version is particularily notorious for its censorship: a game where you go up against nazis certainly wasn't safe from Nintendo of America's policies at the time, as had been proven six years earlier, so Hitler (or Staatmeister, as he's now known) had his mustache shaved, all the swastikas were scrubbed, and the infamous German voice acting has been redubbed in English. Oh, and the dogs are now giant rats, because Nintendo can't be having you kill man's best friend.

It also ended up spawning an unlicensed and decidedly more kid-friendly reskin from Wisdom Tree known as Super 3D Noah's Ark.

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Prototype Info

Debug Modes

There are a few different debug screens which can be accessed from the title screen. To see them, hold R while turning the game on. Let go of the button once the title screen appears, then press one of these button combos:

• Up + Select - Level Select
• Right + Select - Music Test
• Down + Select - Sound Test

There is also a MIDI instrument test which can be accessed by using Pro Action Replay (PAR) codes C043F659 C043F768 and pressing Start at the title screen.

Level Select

Lets you choose from any of the normal levels, boss levels (*B), and secret levels (*S).

Music Test

It's a music test, you know the drill. Press Up or Down to choose a song, and just about any other button to play it. Pressing Start returns to the title screen while the current music continues playing.

Sound Test

Covers both sound effects and music samples. Values 25 and above are all silent. Pressing Start goes back to the title screen.

Instrument Test

A bit more detailed than the last two screens. The "Instrument" option selects one of the only 8 or so instrument samples available. "MIDI note" controls pitch, while "MIDI velocity" controls volume (the higher, the louder). "Pitch scale" and "Velocity scale" probably have something to do with per-instrument pitch and volume correction. Pressing B will play a single note with the current instrument settings.

"Test song" allows you to listen to music tracks, just like the actual music test. Pressing A starts the currently selected song. Pressing B to play an individual note will cause the music to stop playing.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Unused Song

This song is used in the PC version when completing a level. The SNES version uses the Game Over/High Scores theme instead.

Unused Graphics

Multicolored stone wall with a red sign text. In Spear of Destiny it was a swastika.

It's unused because the multicolored stones replace a yellow brick wall, which has no ornament-type variations.

Also unused in the Jaguar version, but it has a swastika emblem and is visibly unfinished.

Hellish stones from the final level from Spear of Destiny. Also unused in the Jaguar version, and was replaced with yellow bricks.

Placeholder texture. This completes a set of 64 wall.

Third frame of the Ubermutant firing. Also unused in the Jaguar version.

Development Text

Starting at 000FF5FF are various messages pertaining to errors:

CONSOLE
Error occurred at line
in procedure
Line
Name
Subrange exceeded.
File is not open.
Read while at end of file.
Set overflow
Jump to undefined case statement label.
Integer math error.
Real math error.
Underflow.
Overflow.
Divide by zero.
Inexact.
Stack overflow.
Stack error

In addition to this, there are also error strings littered within the first several banks of the ROM, mostly used for sanity checking while testing/debugging.

01F6F: StackCheck error
07F78: Walk: Bad dir
07F86: Enemy walked into a solid area!
084A0: MoveActoron: bad dir!
095B7: Static overload!
098FB: Actor overload!
09A5E: Door overload!
09DA7: Bad spawn type
09DB6: Bad spawn type
09DC5: Bad spawn type
09DD4: Bad spawn type
09DE3: Bad spawn type
0B02F: Bad ChangeWeapon
0B0A7: Bad fire
0C0CE: pwall seg not found
0C98E: boxpos == 5
0DC90: Bad secret elevator

(Source: catzlol from the RTC Discord server)

Regional Differences

The game was also released in Japan. It is pretty much the exact same game with a few exceptions mostly with the storyline.

Intro Screen

US/Europe	Japan

The Japanese version removes the "Licensed by Nintendo" text, thus shifting the rest of the text down a little.

Cutscenes

The mission briefings in the US/Europe version were replaced in the Japanese version with black splash screens with the name of the episodes.

Also note how in the 5th episode cutscene, the boss is still referred to as the "Death Knight", which somehow made it past Nintendo of America's censors.

US/Europe	Japan	Japanese Text/Romaji	Translation
		ウルフェンシュタインの災厄 Urufenshutain no Saiyaku	The Disaster of Wolfenstein
		死霊の巣窟 Shiryou no Soukutsu	The Den of the Dead
		アイゼンファウストの爪痕 Aizenfausuto no Tsumeato	The Clawmarks of Eisenfaust
		呪いの木偶人形 Noroi no Dekuningyou	The Curse of the Wooden Figurines
		戦友 Senyuu	The Comrade
		勝利なき戦い Shouri naki Tatakai	The Battle Without Victory

Oddities

The ending screen of the game shows Dr. Schabbs before the Trans Grosse boss, which is the order which the bosses appeared in the prototype.

It seems the Jaguar version attempted to correct this, but swapped the names of Hans Grosse and Dr. Schabbs instead.