Over 15 years since its initial release the team that ported Doom RPG and Doom II RPG to PC has released a Wolfenstein RPG port. At the end of February, Erick194(Erick Vásquez García) posted on the DoomWorld forums that they had brought yet another mobile id title to PC. Originally released on Java’s Micro Edition platform in September of 2008, it received an iOS version shortly after in May of 2009. Up until now, the Wolfenstein RPG and most of the id mobile games have been relegated to emulation via android emulator. However, thanks to the work of Erick194, at least 3 of those titles has been preserved and made available to be played on PC without the need to install or run a cumbersome Android emulator.
As Allied forces bombard Axis strongholds and Allied victory is close at hand, the Axis Paranormal Division ramps up activity in a bid to destroy the world. The Office of Secret Actions has sent an elite force of Rangers into enemy territory to infiltrate and destroy the weapons known to be secreted away inside the infamous Castle Wolfenstein. Sergeant B.J. Blazkowicz, squad leader of the elite force, has been captured. The whereabouts of the others are still unknown.
That’s right, B.J. Blazkowicz has been captured and it’s up to us to break out of nazi jail and find him. Wolfenstein RPG has you infiltrating Castle Wolfenstein and investigating the Special Weapons and Paranormal Division of their intelligence. Wolfenstein RPG, like Doom RPG and Orcs & Elves, is a Dungeon Crawler-lite, having combat take place in real time on the overworld in favor of a battle screen. While still turn-based, everything happens in the overworld and menus are always accessible. Wolfenstein RPG is a little more light-hearted than previous entries and future entries in the series. One of the first prisoners you free has been stuck in a cell with a bunch of chickens, all of which you can shoot and receive a chicken health-up item. The nazi flags have been replaced with flags that have the Castle Wolfenstein black eagle logo on them, and Hitler’s iconic mustache has slid down his evil face to resemble a goatee. Some very strange changes. Still, the game follows the same mechanics from the Doom RPG releases and fans believe is part of a connected multiverse.
id Mobile in a Decade
In 2002, Fountainhead Entertainment teamed up with id and produced Doom III: The Legacy, a short 7-minute documentary on the release of Doom 3. Originally founded with an emphasis on exploring machinima, the company was eventually merged with id Software and became id Mobile. In that time they helped produce several games in the Doom, Wolfenstein, Orcs & Elves, and Rage series of games. While the Rage HD and Doom Resurrection were more similar to an on-rails shooter with an active-reload system, the rest of the titles were very similar to Doom RPG. Doom RPG, initially released in 2005 for Java supported phones, was a variant of the Doom 3 story and featured a lot of the same weapons and monsters you’d see in the previous Doom titles.
Following Doom RPG was Orcs & Elves, a game about a young elf that must retake a Dwarven city from an evil army. A breakaway from normal id fare, this title was a fantasy-based game with swords and magic. The reception was so positive that the game was eventually remade for the Nintendo DS, moving away from the initial 2.5D gameplay into a new 3D engine. Unfortunately, the DS version saw less acclaim as the nuances of a mobile title became more clear on a device with a little more power. Still, Orcs & Elves received a sequel, just one that remained on mobile devices.
In 2008, Wolfenstein RPG released via EA Mobile. While the game removed a lot of Wolfenstein elements in favor of a more humorous and cartoonish take, it was generally received favorably. In 2009, EA Mobile announced Wolfenstein RPG would be released on the app store and id Mobile got their first iOS release. Eventually, id Mobile would go on to release Doom Resurrection in 2009 along with Doom II RPG, and Rage HD in 2010 before being officially closed in 2012. A studio originally founded to explore and produce machinima content ended up producing some very cool titles for mobile devices leaving a legacy of lost content until recently.
Wolfenstein RPG, Doom RPG, and Doom II RPG Ports
The Doom community is famously passionate about id titles, to the point where the DoomWorld forums are fairly active discussing a game that came out over 30 years ago. Likewise, Doom is regularly run at speedrunning events, including the biggest one GDQ as recently as SGDQ 2024 with Doom 64. It’s no surprise these titles would eventually get preserved. Erick194’s track record is pretty impressive as well, with the Doom RPG PC port initially released on June 28th, 2022 and the Doom II RPG PC port getting its release less than a year later on May 7th, 2023. Now, with the release of the Wolfenstein RPG PC port, what’s next? Taking a look at Erick194’s Github profile, it seems like Erick is pretty busy with lots of Doom and id related projects. Orcs & Elves PC ports may not be far behind.
Directly porting games to run natively on PC is becoming more popular as Sonic Unleashed just got an unofficial PC port. Like the Doom RPGs and Wolfenstein RPG before it, game assets are not included in these releases and people must search for them on their own. Like a group of internet archivists, I’m sure you’ll be able to find them. But seeing mobile game preservation is huge. Last week I talked about the Xenosaga: Pied-Piper mobile game being preserved via emulation. These titles were almost lost to time and it’s important we keep this history preserved. Even if you don’t plan on playing them, just sharing the news and links to the projects themselves gives them a huge boost and chance to see them live on.
