Spear of Destiny (computer game)
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| Spear of Destiny | |
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| Developer: | id Software |
| Publisher: | FormGen Cooperation |
| Release date: | September 18, 1992 |
| Genre: | First-person shooter |
| Game modes: | Single player |
| ESRB rating: | Mature (M) |
| Platforms: | PC (DOS) |
| Media: | floppy disks |
Spear of Destiny, often also called Spear, Wolfenstein: Spear of Destiny or just SoD, is the sequel to id Software's first person shooter Wolfenstein 3D, which was first published on September 18 1992 by FormGen Cooperation. In this game, like in Wolfenstein 3D, the player assumes the role of allied spy B.J. Blazkowicz, on a mission trying to recapture the Spear of Destiny from the Nazis after it was stolen from Versailles.
In game terms, Spear of Destiny is a prequel to Wolfenstein 3D. The game consists of one 21-level episode, 19 of which need to be completed in order to win the game; graphics, gameplay etc. are very similar to those of Wolfenstein 3D. The game's levels could be divided into four blocks ("Tunnels", "Dungeons", "Castle", "Ramparts"), each ending with the player having to defeat a "boss" in the final level. After defeating the boss in level 18, the player could obtain the Spear of Destiny and proceed to defeat a last boss, the Angel of Death, on the game's 21st level. The remaining two levels of the game were secret levels that could be accessed from within the first 17 levels. Unlike Wolfenstein 3D, the game did not include a shareware version; however, a 2-level playable demo was distributed.
Enemies that player has to face include nazi soldiers and officers, attack dogs and mutants with built-in machine guns.
Two further missions for Spear of Destiny, titled "Return to Danger" and "Ultimate Challenge" were also created and published by FormGen Cooperation in May 1994; these are collectively known as the "lost episodes", due to the fact that even their existence is not widely known. Each of these, too, consists of 21 levels, with a layout similar to that detailed above; they introduced some new graphics to Spear of Destiny, but are otherwise mostly a collection of more levels for the game. A CD version containing all three episodes, titled the "Spear of Destiny Super CD Package", was also released in late 1994.
The source code to Spear of Destiny was released in 1999 and ports to other platforms like Linux were made through the already available Wolfenstein 3D source ports.
External links
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- Official site for Spear of Destiny (http://www.idsoftware.com/games/wolfenstein/spear/index.php)
- Icculus.org/Wolf3D (http://icculus.org/wolf3d/)
- WolfGL (http://wolfgl.sourceforge.net/), an open source OpenGL port of Wolfenstein 3D
- The Spear/Lost Episodes Maps (http://www.belowe.com/lostep.htm)