Id Software has finally made its debut on the iPhone and iPod touch, releasing its classic 3D shooter Wolfenstein 3D for the system. It’s available for $5 from the App Store.
The game has been completely redone for the iPhone, including an all-new control system for the iPhone made by John Carmack, Id Software co-founder.
System requirements call for an iPhone or iPod touch running iPhone 2.0 software or later.
Wolfenstein 3D was, long ago, released under the Gnu General Public License (GPL) as open source code, to enable game developers and others to tinker with the game’s underpinnings. Carmack has released the iPhone game’s source code as well. The code is of little to use to non-iPhone app developers, but it’s there for anyone who’s interested.
In a document posted to the Web site and attached to the source code dump— available for FTP download from Id Software’s Web site, Carmack explained the process behind bringing Wolfenstein 3D to the iPhone, including some failed attempts to bring other games like Orcs & Elves—a game Id Software created especially for mobile phones.
Clearly, Carmack’s hoping that Wolfenstein 3D’s release as open source code will lead to new games on the iPhone from developers other than him. “If anyone makes a quality product and links to the original Wolf app, we can start having links to ‘Wolf derived’ or ‘Wolf related’ projects. That should turn out to be a win for everyone,” said Carmack.
Carmack also remarked that Classic Doom should come to the iPhone “fairly soon.” Quake is also planned for release, and Wolfenstein RPG is planned for a release by EA Mobile, as well.