Catacomb 3D

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2D DOS Games:

3D DOS Games:

Apple II & IIGS:

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Recreations:

Homage Games:

"In CATACOMB 3-D you are the high wizard who must rescue your friend from the clutches of the evil lich Nemesis. Using your magical powers, you venture forth into the bizzare dimensions of the Catacombs."
--readme.txt

Catacomb 3-D (also known as Catacomb 3-D: A New Dimension, Catacomb 3-D: The Descent, and Catacombs 3) is the third in the Catacomb series of video games (created by the founders of id Software), and the first of these games to feature 3D computer graphics. Originally the game was published by Softdisk under the Gamer's Edge label, and is a first-person shooter with a dark fantasy setting. The player takes control of the high wizard Petton Everhail, descending into the catacomb to defeat the evil lich Nemesis and rescue his friend Grelminar.

Catacomb 3-D is a landmark title in terms of first-person graphics. The game was released in November 1991 and is arguably the first example of the modern, character-based first-person shooter genre, or at least it was a direct ancestor to the games that popularized the genre. It was released for MS-DOS with EGA graphics. The game introduced the concept of showing the player's hand in the three-dimensional viewpoint, and an enhanced version of its technology was later used for the more successful and well-known Wolfenstein 3D. The game's more primitive technological predecessor was Hovertank 3D.

Production[edit]

"You are Petton Everhail, High wizard of Thoria, the most powerful living wizard in the world and you've got a problem. The evil lich Grelminar, undead for over 200 years, has imprisoned Nemesis of Kelquest. (Nemesis is troublesome, but he's the only accessible person that can walk the Wildways, the super-natural paths to other dimensions.) Even you, an archmage, cannot travel to the places that Nemesis can. And so you journey to retrieve his body, now frozen in magical amber but still alive, from Grelminar's Keep on the dark island off the coast of Garacy. You had best be careful, or you'll be Grelminar's next prize. . ."
--Game manual, see Grelminar#Trivia

The origin of the games is Catacomb by John Carmack for the PC and Catacombs for the Apple II. These were a two-dimensional games utilizing a third-person view from above, released in 1990-1991. A differing array of sequels using the same engines were released on either platform.

The first release of Catacomb 3-D was called Catacomb 3-D: A New Dimension, but the name was later re-released as Catacomb 3-D: The Descent, as well as Catacombs 3 for a re-release as commercially packaged software (the earlier versions had been released by other means such as disk magazines and downloads). The game creators were John Carmack, John Romero, Jason Blochowiak (programmers), Tom Hall (creative director), Adrian Carmack (artist), and Robert Prince (musician). The game was programmed using the Borland C++ programming language.

id Software's use of texture mapping in Catacomb 3-D was influenced by Ultima Underworld (still in development at Catacomb 3-D's release). Conflicting accounts exist regarding the extent of this influence, however. In the book Masters of Doom, author David Kushner asserts that the concept was discussed only briefly during a 1991 telephone conversation between Underworld developer Paul Neurath and John Romero. However, Paul Neurath has stated multiple times that John Carmack and John Romero had seen the game's 1990 CES demo, and recalled a comment from Carmack that he could write a faster texture mapper.

Cheats[edit]

  • F-10+G (Triggers God Mode ON or OFF)
  • F-10+W (Warps To Any Level Throughout Game)
  • F-10+I (Gives You Many Items)
  • F-10+B (Trigger Different Game Border Colours)
  • F10+E (End Level)
  • F10+O (Map)
  • F10+S (Slow Motion)
  • F10+P (Exits Game)
  • F10+X (Extra Stuff)
  • F10+M (Memory Usage)

Walkthrough[edit]

Reception[edit]

External links[edit]

Catacomb 3D
Characters: Petton Everhail - Grelminar - Nemesis
Enemies: Orcs - Trolls - Bats - Mages - Demons - Fireballs
Items: Magick Missile - Cure Potions - Treasure Chests - Keys - Bolts - Nukes - Scrolls - Gates