Way back on Feb 6, 2012, id Software released the source code to Wolfenstein 3D — 20 years after it had already been written. The source code release does not come with any support or assets from the originally released game. In fact, id Software is still selling this title on various Internet stores like Steam. I played around with a DOS port of the DOOM source code quite some time ago, but I had never bothered to try and build its ancestral project. Until now!

As it turns out, it’s actually quite straight-forward with only a minor hiccup here and there. The first thing you’ll need is a compiler, that almighty piece of software that transforms your poorly written slop into a form that the operating system can feed to the machine. For this project, the authors decided to settle on the Borland C++ v3.0, but it is 100% compatible with v3.1. I don’t know if more recent compilers from Borland are compatible with the project files, or the code present in the project produces viable targets, so good luck if you decide to make your own roads.

As per the details in the README file, there are a couple of object files you will want to make sure don’t get deleted when you perform a clean within the IDE:

• GAMEPAL.OBJ
• SIGNON.OBJ

You can open up the pre-built project file in the Borland IDE, and after tweaking the locations for the above two files, you should be able to build without any errors. The resulting executable can then be copied into a working test directory where all of the originally released assets are located, I believe my assets were from the 1.2 release.

There are also a few resource files you must have in order for the compiled executable to find all of the right resources. According to legend, the various asset files were pulled from a sprinkling of source formats and assembled into “WL6” resource files. A utility called I-Grab, which is available via the TED5 editor utility, produced header files (.H) and assembler based (.EQU) files from that resource content which allowed the game to refer to them by constant indices once the monolithic WL6 resource files were built. There are annotations in the definition files, using the “.EQU or .H” extension, with a generated comment at the top which confirms part of that legend.

The tricky part in getting the game to run properly revolves around which resource files are being used by the current code base. The code refers to specific WL6 resource files, but locating those resource files using public releases of the game can be very tricky because those generated files have changed an unknown number of times. Luckily, someone has already gone through the trouble of making sure the graphics match up with the indices in the generated files. The files have conveniently been assembled and made available here:

• VGA resource files

After unpacking, you’ll need to copy those to the test directory holding the registered content for the game. Note that without the right resource files, the game will not look right and will suffer from a variety of visual ailments, such as B.J. Blazkowicz’s head being used as a cursor in the main menu, or failing to see any content when a level is loaded.

Categories: DOS, Game Development, Games, Programming, Retro
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Some bored, highly creative minds created a functional Google search page circa 1985, BBS style! Make sure your speaker volume is high enough to hear the bodacious hums, beeps, and cranananghhhhtttth noises coming from the virtual modem.

Categories: Retro
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If you want the feel of a light weight and efficient network protocol, then you can start a multi-player game of DOOM via the Ultimate DOOM Setup utility on one machine and the corresponding IPX setup tool on the other machine. The easiest way to do this is to use the Windows 98 protocol stack with the following components installed:

1. Client for Microsoft Networks
2. Appropriate network adapter
3. IPX/SPX-compatible Protocol
4. NetBEUI
5. TCP/IP (you won’t need this for DOOM, but you probably will want it)
6. File and printer sharing for Microsoft Networks

I have read that you may need to enable both file and printer sharing, but personally I haven’t verified that, and I don’t really see how the components are related. If by some chance they are required, the NetBEUI protocol seems to be a requirement for the sharing to work reliably on networks between two Windows 98 machines or a Windows 98 to a Windows XP machine. I was also running this over a wired network on the same router, so if you have one or more wireless routers, make sure that machines can see each other on the network (one reason to get file sharing working between the two machines). A couple of things to keep in mind:

1. Make sure they are on the same Gateway (mine is 192.168.1.1, which is just my router)
2. Make sure they are using the same sub-net mask (I use 255.255.255.0)

A few notes on the IPX configuration:

1. Make sure the frame type is set to “Auto”
2. Make sure the network address is the same on both machines, I use the default address “0”

I have been trying off and on for a few days to get two machines using DOS-compatible IPX protocol stacks to talk to one another, and it has not been easy. I will post about that once I get them working.

Categories: DOS, Games, Multiplayer, PC
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