Castle Assault

Title screen

### Awards

**Castle Assault** is a mod for registered Wolfenstein, made by Thomas Weiling. It was released on February 12, 2007.

## Genesis

Though work on the mod had begun in December 2006, it was released only 17 days after Thomas' extensive 70-level set All This & Wolf 3D. Though both projects look very similar on the surface, immersed in classic Wolfenstein 3D, Castle Assault was very much made as the antithesis of All This & Wolf 3D in that it used a simpler, less decorative design and aspired much more to be a pendant of a map set rather than a mod as such.

In terms of aesthetics, the mod had been dreamed up over the course of late 2006. Thomas converted the Mac Wolfenstein BJ face from a WolfenDOOM project, and stuck it to the status bar, having been enticed to do so after seeing a screenshot of an abandoned Dugtrio17 project in 2004.

The title was very much in the mold of *Nazi Operation*; a simple kind of title, yet one that was indicative of Wolfenstein 3D. Other titles considered were *Bunker Blaster*, *Dungeon Hack* (finding out it had already been taken) and *Fahnflucht* (which would later also be considered for The Bitter End).

## Description

The mod features 35 new levels; 30 regular and 5 secret levels. Initially inspired by Schabbs 2000 and the works of Laz Rojas, the mod was started immediately after putting the finishing touches on All This & Wolf 3D. Most maps for this mod were made in December 2006 and January 2007; sometimes as many as two or three per day.

The coding was done by Havoc, who also beta tested the levels. Coding changes include new ceiling colors, changed music order, the addition of an ammo box and seamless level progression; a lot more subdued than the flights of fancy of All This & Wolf 3D undertaken by Chris Chokan. Two custom bosses were made for the project by graphics artist Bruno Déo Vergílio, who also contributed to the Image World. Thomas would also collaborate with Vergílio for NovoWolf.

The mod also features HELPART and ENDART, of which Thomas had to be guided by Brian Lowe to maneuver in. Even with Lowe's coaching, many mistakes appear, including the lack of filling in dates as well as a false description of a new SS guard supposedly made by Bruno Déo Vergílio; the SS guard is the exact same as original Wolfenstein 3D.

## Map source/reuse

28 out of the 35 levels were constructed specifically for Castle Assault. The remainder of the levels (8, 9, 16, 17, 19, 20 & 28) were taken from two different projects; the canceled project Quest for the General, which would be released on its own later in 2007, and a community map set that later got released as the Wolf3D Community Map Pack. These maps were made in mid-2006 with a traditional Wolfenstein 3D environment in mind, and thus they differ slightly in quality and overall structure from those made specifically for this mod. However, at the time of Castle Assault's release, these maps had not featured in any publicly available project.

Havoc was particularly fond of level 18, which Thomas would later recycle in The Bitter End.

## Aftermath

After the mod's release, Thomas would remain less active for a few months, after two and a half years of constant modding activity. At one point considering calling it quits, he was reinvigorated via the Map of the Month contests that started in the early summer of 2007. The subdued atmosphere of the mod, including its very basic title screen, would later be revisited by Thomas on occasion, all the way through The Dying Embers.

## Ports

Only available in DOS initially, the mod was released in SDL on June 10, 2013. The porting was overseen by Havoc who also cleaned up certain aspects of the code. Sadly still, the HELPART remained unchanged and thus contained the exact same flaws and false credits as that of the DOS version.

Thomas had often wanted to fix Castle Assault in terms of map reuse, as 7 of the 35 maps were made with entirely different projects in mind, all of which had become available to the public over the course of 2007. A more complete going over of the maps was considered for the 2013 SDL port, but as this was a very inactive period for Thomas, this idea was abandoned.

## External links

* Download Castle Assault (DOS) at The Wolfenstein 3D Dome
* Download Castle Assault (SDL) at The Wolfenstein 3D Dome
* Download Castle Assault (SDL) at The Wolfenstein 3D Vault
* Download at MediaFire: DOS | SDL
* Thread at DieHard Wolfers
* News at the Dome: JAN/FEB 2007 MAY/JUN 2013
* Youtube videos: D1m3 Sunder Shadows Korean guy