Castle Wolfenstein

1994 · MS-DOS · PC-Crap, after Apogee and iD Software

After starting the game, press the Escape/ESC key twice to move past the two custom title screens and begin the game of Barneystein. Keys can be changed in the controls menu, but are: Arrow keys to move, Space to "Open", CTRL to fire, ALT to strafe. Pressing ESC during the game goes to the menu for BarneyStein, allowing you to change controls, increase the size of the play screen, and restart the game with a different difficulty setting. Created in 1994, the Barneystein patch is one of the earlier examples of what has become known as "modding"; modifying the graphics, sounds or operation of games to reflect improvements, cultural references, or humor. (Examples range well into the 1980s and earlier.) The original program, Castle Wolfenstein 3D, was a shareware hit and one of the earlier examples of iD Software's technically proficient and happily bloody gameplay that would reach a later apex with DOOM and Quake. This program was created at the height of the Anti-Barney the Dinosaur online craze, when the popularity of the children's television program "Barney and Friends", known for simplistic singing and "Barney the Purple Dinosaur" merchandise permeating many stores. The distribution disk this material comes from included anti-Barney writing from Usenet newsgroups, including fiction and "analysis" materials parodying or ranting against Barney. Samples of Beavis and Butthead, as well as Barney the Dinosaur, permeate this game, as well as remixed graphics of the walls and enemies. The level design and gameplay appear to be left completely intact. A full breakdown of the work done to modify the work was done by the lead modder, Michael Adcock (Blackadder), in a textfile, which can be read here . Thanks to Anatoly Shashkin for work in preparing this installation for instant play on the Internet Archive.