Id Software designer and project manager Graeme Devine recently updated his .plan file with a short but important message to Mac gamers curious to know if the forthcoming game Return to Castle Wolfenstein is planned for a Mac release.
Return to Castle Wolfenstein is a new game currently in development at Id Software and Gray Matter Interactive. The game will be published by Activision when it’s finished. While Id Software is best known for its Doom and Quake games, the company made a splash years in the then-nascent 3D game market with Wolfenstein 3D, a primitive first-person shooter that put players in the role of an allied officer who takes on a Nazi stronghold in World War II.
Return to Castle Wolfenstein puts players back in B.J. Blazkowicz’s boots as he takes on legions of Nazi soldiers and horrible, grotesque creatures ostensibly created as a result of Nazi leaders’ dabbling in the occult. The title is built on the same engine that is used in Id’s popular game Quake 3 Arena, which has served as the basis for a variety of different games that have made it to the Mac over the past couple of years.
Activision has indicated that a multiplayer compatibility test version of Return to Castle Wolfenstein would be available for download, perhaps even as early as today. Activision notes that the test app will contain a special multiplayer map from the game. The test game “pits players in a team-based Axis versus Allies contest for front-line domination, where multiple player classes must mobilize and work together to accomplish mission objectives,” according to Activision. The multiplayer element of Return to Castle Wolfenstein is in development by Nerve Software, with help from Id and Gray Matter.
This process is consistent with what Id did when Quake 3 Arena was still in development — various public “Q3Test” versions were released to help smooth out the core engine prior to the full game’s release. But until now, we’ve had no direct suggestion from Id Software that a Mac version of the test would be available.
“I’ve been playing the WolfMP test natively under Mac OS X,” noted Devine. “I’ve also got the OS X installer for WolfMP all wrapped up and standing by.”