Wolfenstein 3D for the iPhone

March 28, 2009 at 10:32 pm

Wolfenstein 3D came out a few days ago on the iPhone, and it's easily the best iPhone FPS I've ever played. The controls are effective, the framerate is fluid, and the action is rewarding.

I was excited when id released the source code along with the game proper, and I quickly got to tinkering with it. The really big thing I wanted to do was try out an FPS control scheme I had been kicking around in my head for a long time, and the code allowed me to implement at least a rough version of it. You can download my code here. Note that if you're not a registered iPhone developer this code will be of no use to you. Also note that this code only seems to run on the device itself, not in the simulator. Finally, please be sure to read Donald_Hays_Notes.txt for in depth information about my code changes as well as a few details about compiling and running the game. In summary, though, here's what I did.

• The game no longer plays the extra life sound effect
• Full heal powerups now give a +5 health bonus if you're already past full
  health
• The concept of a discreet fire button has been discarded in favor of an attack model where you simply tap the enemies directly to fire at them

That last item is the really big change. If you're an iPhone developer and feel like trying my code out, please feel free to comment on whether or not you like the new control scheme.