Wolfenstein 3-D/Cheats
This pages lists all the known cheats and debugging codes for Wolfenstein 3-D and Spear of Destiny.
Conventional cheats
A conventional cheat is a cheat that is valid in-game, and can be triggered unconditionally by pressing the appropriate keys simultaneously. These cheats work in all versions of their respective releases.
| Name | Key combination | Release |
|---|---|---|
| MIL cheat | M + I + L | All |
| BAT cheat | B + A + T | All |
| God Mode | F10 + Tab + G | All Spear of Destiny |
Note that this particular method of enabling God Mode is a 'customer cheat', in that it does not require the debug keys to be active.
Using conventional cheats in these particular games has the side effect of resetting audio playback. TODO: alternate God Mode cheat in SOD makes sound; does reset take place?
Instantaneous cheats
An instantaneous cheat is a cheat which takes effect immediately, and can not be turned off. In most cases, instantaneous cheats may be used repeatedly.
MIL cheat
This cheat works in all versions of the indicated release.
| Type | Key combination | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Conventional | M + I + L | Gives goodies, but takes away score and time |
The MIL cheat gives the player full health, all guns, full ammo and both keys. It also resets the player's score to zero, and adds 10 minutes to the level time. TODO: naming -- Scott MILler?
BAT cheat
This cheat works in all versions of the indicated release.
| Type | Key combination | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Conventional | B + A + T | Displays a message |
When entering this cheat from Commander Keen, the following message is displayed:
Commander Keen is also available from Apogee, but then, you already know that - right, Cheatmeister?!
Debug mode
Category:id Software has a history of including a set of similar debug keys in their earlier games. In some games, these cheats can be activated in-game; in others, a command line parameter must be used to trigger them. Both Wolfenstein 3-D and Spear of Destiny use the latter method.
Once the games are loaded with the correct command line parameter, in-game debugging functions are unlocked by entering a three-key combination. The name of the command line parameter and the keys to press vary with the specific game and versions.
| Release | Version | Parameter | Key combination |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shareware | ? | -next | Tab + Enter + Ctrl |
| Shareware | 1.4 | goobers | Alt + Shift + Backspace |
| Commercial | 1.0 | debugmode | Alt + Shift + Backspace |
| Registered | 1.1 | goobers | Alt + Shift + Backspace |
Example:
C:\WOLF3D>wolf3d goobers
Demo recording
When in debug mode, pressing and holding Tab on the title screen will pop up a window allowing you to record a demo. The demo can't be too long though, or the game will crash with an error. When you die, or if you enable debugging codes and use Tab + E to complete the level (see below), the screen will go black - there seems to be a prompt asking you which position to save the demo in, so type in a single digit number and press enter. If you typed in 3, the demo will be saved as DEMO3.WLx.
In-game debugging
Upon entering the three-key combination, a message will be displayed and a number of debugging functions will become available. To access a debug function, press Tab simultaneously with the corresponding key. These debugging functions are only valid in-game and will remain available until the game program exits.
| Release | Version | Key | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | All | B | Change VGA border colour | |
| All | All | C | Map statistics | Shows item, actor and door count. |
| All | All | E | End level | Due to a bug this skips a level, so if you're in level one it will "end" level two, and you'll then go on to level three. |
| All | All | F | Show current map coordinates (X, Y and angle) | Reports X, Y and angle. |
| All | All | G | Toggle God Mode | 'God Mode' is a synonym for 'invincibility'. |
| All | All | H | Hurt yourself | Repeat rapidly to simulate heavy attack. |
| All | All | I | Free items | Gives 1000 points, next best gun, and 99 ammo. |
| All | All | M | Display memory usage | |
| Commercial | All | N | No clipping | Allows walking through walls. |
| Demo | All | N | No clipping | Allows walking through walls. |
| All | All | O | Display overhead map | |
| All | All | P | Pause game | Unlike the Pause key, this doesn't display a message and leaves the music going. TODO: Also seems to crash the game when unpausing. Investigate. |
| All | All | Q | Instant quit | |
| All | All | S | Slow motion | |
| All | All | T | Game content information | Displays walls, sprites, and sounds, including information from the memory manager. Use left and right arrows to browse. |
| All | All | V | Add extra VBLs | Increase the number of Vertical BLanks between frames. |
| All | All | W | Warp to a level | |
| All | All | X | Extra stuff | TODO: doesn't seem to do anything? |
TED level warp
Specifiying the command line parameter tedlevel and a level number will cause the game to start in the specified level immediately after the diagnostic screen. Upon completion of an episode, the game will quit. The loss of any extra lives is also disabled. TODO: What skill setting does this use?
For example, the following command line will cause the game to start in Episode 4 on Level 3:
wolf3d tedlevel 32
The tedlevel parameter is named after id Software's Tile Editor, which was used to create the floors for this game.
Jukebox
In the registered version, pressing and holding M on the diagnostic screen (the first screen to appear when running the game) will cause a jukebox to appear containing a random selection of songs. This will only work if the key is pressed as soon as the diagnostic screen appears.