Hi. Are you new? If so, allow me to briefly show you what's what in the community, where to go for general purposes and where to look for specific things.
But before we begin for good, one thing... Since finding Wolf4SDL, unlike the ECWolf download, can apparently be a bit challenging these days, please visit the following MediaFire folder:
Since Discord constitutes the main means of communication between video game players nowadays, it's prudent to start this guide out with a couple Discord links. They are:
The Wolf3D Fugitives
A pretty active place and easily my server of choice. Oldfartenstein, Untergang and MacenWolf were conceived and created here, with another project in the making. All in all, a nice community with a penchant for getting things done. Mostly DOS/SDL focused.
The Wolf3d.net Discord
The other major server. Mungfunger and the LZWolf Open Invite Mapset originated here, sort of. It's much quieter than it used to be a few years ago, but still probably the best place to go if you want to pester AstroCreep about ECWolf stuff.
Other than that, you might encounter occasional Wolfenstein 3D chat in the following places: Wolfden, the Team Raycast server, Aardwolf, Apogee server, Romero's server. I can't make any guarantees as to the quality of your experience though.
Forums are a dying breed these days, but they're still nice to have and be around. There are, again, two main Wolfenstein 3D message boards:
Die Hard Wolfers
THE Wolf3D forum, it's been around since 2001, first as a Yahoo! group, then as a bona fide phpBB message board. Yes, it's actually older than some of you. While it's not nearly as active as it used to be in its heyday, it has accumulated a considerable amount of knowledge and stuff like coding tutorials or mapping advice. Well worth visiting.
Wolf3D Haven
The other Wolf3D forum. Founded in 2007 as an alternative to DHW, it did a pretty good job of it for a time, even outdoing DHW in terms of activity for a while, but time eventually caught up with it and it died like most forums do these days. Still, there's some interesting content over there, like Nexion's guide to guides. And who knows, maybe you will be the person to lead the site towards its grand revival?
Team Raycast Message Board
While not nearly as big as the other two (there's actually a lot of content, but most of it is locked behind team member permissions), it's still one of the few still active Wolf3D-related forums. About as active as Haven nowadays.
Now let's cover a few general-purpose websites. They host a large amount of diverse content: mods first of all, but also other downloads, tutorials, news, what have you. You're unlikely to find Doom mods like Brutal Wolfenstein in there though.
The Wolfenstein 3D Dome (plus assorted Brian Lowe pages)
Arguably the most important website in the history of Wolfenstein 3D. Brian Lowe has been at it since 1999, providing content and helping out upcoming modders on the rocky path towards Wolf3D modding stardom. The site has been inactive for years now, but it still holds a great wealth of content, both in terms of mod downloads as well as modding resources.
The ModDB mod directory
Most mods go to ModDB nowadays. This is the place to browse for the most recent stuff.
The Wolfenstein 3D Vault
Similar in scope to the Wolfenstein 3D Dome, just more recent. Has unfortunately been inactive since 2017, even as far as going completely offline recently. Fortunately MCS was able to come up with a working mirror and even posted a few news items in the meantime.
Wolf3d.net
The most recent Wolf3D website around, like the others it offers a host of mods to download, community resources to use and guides to follow. Its current status is unknown as the administrator has been largely silent for the past few months and community uploads are scarce.
The WL6 Wiki
Started by yours truly, over a few years the wiki has grown from a rather inauspicious start towards the most comprehensive base of knowledge on Wolfenstein 3D mods in existence. While there are still some holes in the coverage, especially for the most recent mods, the sum total is still pretty impressive. Many thanks to our saintly contributors (mostly Thomas).
Honorable mention goes to AReyeP's website, which contains tons of useful stuff specific to his own mods, as well as a library of textures, coding tutorials and some basic downloads.
I could link quite a few places here, but I think the smartest way to go around it is to link Nexion's Ultimate Guide Tour. Posted on Haven, it has links to almost every guide and tutorial aggregation in existence, and provides some pointers to boot. An obligatory read.
Guide to columns
It's listed in the above guide tour, but I'm mentioning it specifically because it's mine and because it's the most recent guide around, on mapping or on any topic in general. It's meant for total beginners, hopefully helping to ease them into the world of Wolfenstein mapping.
My Mediafire mod directory: PC mods and MacenWolf mods
Just my collection of mods, in two parts. Other than every MacenWolf mod released up until today (and updated on a regular basis) conveniently in one place, you can also find a huge collection of PC mods (also updated regularly). I dare say both are notable enough to be featured here.
WL9
A pet project of mine, WL9 is a repository of Wolfenstein-related documentation. If a game or mod has a readme or some in-game text, it's here (assuming I'm able to get my hands on it). WL9 also contains stuff like Apogee catalogs or transcribed game manuals.
MacenWolf
If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants. Nexion's coding capabilities and infinite patience combined with my flailing about combined to create the MacenWolf project. It aims to be the most faithful Windows re-creation of the Mac game around, at the same time allowing me to port many forgotten Mac mods (scenarios) for Windows players to enjoy.
I also made a few other mods of my own and contributed to a bunch of community projects. These include Trilogy Revisited + Nocturnal Missions, Treasure Hunt, Untergang, Oldfartenstein, and Meep Meep. For a full list, visit my WL6 wiki page.
A few interesting Youtube channels wouldn't hurt, now would they? Let's see...
RetroGamerBunny or Atina - doesn't post very often, but always picks interesting stuff to play. Expect lots of navigational confusion exacerbated by alcohol consumption.
Balames and RussianStorm - old, experienced Youtubers, though with a propensity for deleting their channels. RussianStorm curses and rages a lot, so careful if you dislike this kind of content.
LY203 - tons and tons of uncommentated Wolf3D mod footage. You can watch them for fun or use as a guide in case you get lost somewhere on the way to the elevator.
골든리즈리버 - fresh out of Korea. Some very good playthrough choices over here, though you have to sift through the videos page a bit to get to the Wolf content.
Dosgamert - a retro Youtuber who's played a few Wolfenstein 3D mods, most notably Oldfartenstein.
MrWolfForever - assorted Wolf3D gameplay videos. Most of them are old, but that doesn't lower their value. No polls.
And while we're here, I might as well link my own Youtube channel, though there's not that much good content over there. Still, it's something
And that's that. I hope this little page helps you navigate the community. If you have any suggestions or questions concerning this guide, contact me at the Wolf3D Fugitives Discord server. Peace.
-serpens