This author remembers playing Wolfenstein 3D on a 286 machine “back in the day” – and that machine must have been pretty fancy, as the game also required a VGA card.
Well, 30 years later and that steep requirement is thankfully finally no longer the case, and now even owners of lesser PCs can finally enjoy iD Software’s masterpiece of a first person shooter. Thanks to a modern engine rewrite by jhhoward over on GitHub, the game now runs on 8088 CPUs and CGA graphics, meaning that even your original 1981 IBM 5150 should be able to handle it.
There’s also a composite CGA mode (if your card supports it), the slightly better Tandy mode, and even modes designed for monochrome LCD screens as found on many vintage portables.
You can check out the Twitter thread and all of its glorious embedded videos here, and read more or even download it on GitHub – but you’ll have to provide your own shareware or registered 1.4 game files!
