The deadline belonged to someone who could no longer be reached. The date on it did not move.
"Imagineer, this Japanese company, calls and talks to Jay. They want to publish it on Super Nintendo, and they would give us $100,000 down to start," John Romero said. They took the money, signed the contract, and handed the actual work to a programmer outside id Software. Months went by with no build and no answer; when they reached his home, his wife said he was sick. Then Romero said: "Imagineer came back to Jay Wilbur and said, 'Is the Wolfenstein 3D port done yet?' Jay said, 'Oh. Shit.'"
They were in the middle of Doom. They put it down. John Carmack wrote a renderer in 65816 assembly, a language none of them had written in before. Adrian Carmack pushed the PC artwork through a conversion process. "It took us three weeks. We were on turbo speed," Romero said. "Those were 16-hour days. We had to get back to Doom, so we worked really fast."
Somebody sat down and kept it.
— inspired by John Romero
About this game
On February 10, 1994, Imagineer released Wolfenstein 3D in Japan for the Super Famicom under the subtitle The Claw of Eisenfaust. By then Nintendo's content reviewers had been through the game more than once, and Rebecca "Becky" Heineman, a programmer on the port, remembers where that started. "The most notable thing was that we had German Shepherds in the original version of Wolfenstein 3D come ahead and bite you and Nintendo's censors were totally like 'you can't shoot dogs,' so we had to change them to rats."
"Then, when we were about ready to finish this game and ship it out to Nintendo, Nintendo came in and said, 'Oh, when the rat bites you, they're bleeding' and we're like, 'What do you mean bleeding?' 'Look in their mouths; there's red!' We said, 'That's their tongue.'" They took the tongues out. Heineman said: "The censors just made our lives miserable."
The swastikas went. The German voice clips went. The blood was turned green first and then taken out altogether. The maze was still there, and so was the thing the maze was for: not knowing what is around the corner until you are already around it.
Gallery
The Story Behind
id Software released Wolfenstein 3D for PC in May 1992, and it is widely credited with popularising the first-person shooter. Imagineer bought the console rights for Japan and commissioned the Super Nintendo version. The Japanese release came on February 10, 1994 as Wolfenstein 3D: The Claw of Eisenfaust, with North America and Europe following later the same year.
Nintendo's content policy of the period — the same policy that reshaped Mortal Kombat on the Super NES — required the removal of Nazi imagery and German voice clips, turned the blood green before removing it entirely, and replaced the attack dogs with giant rats.
Tricks & Tales
Adolf Hitler was renamed Staatmeister, and lost both his moustache and his armband. Swastikas became eagles. Blood was removed everywhere except B.J. Blazkowicz's own face, which still showed damage as his health dropped.
The PC original had been built in about four months in 1992 — Romero has called it "a luxurious 4-month development" by id's standards — and $5,000 of the budget went to buying the Wolfenstein name outright. The Super Famicom cartridge held 8 megabits of ROM, and the PC version's digitised sound samples had to be rebuilt for the Super Nintendo's audio chip, which is why the gunfire and the enemy voices sound like a different game.
Collector's Guide
Region & Compatibility
Super Famicom and SNES region differences operate on two separate levels. First, there is a physical incompatibility: a Japanese Super Famicom cartridge and a North American SNES cartridge have different shell shapes. NTSC-J (Super Famicom) carts are narrower and will not seat in a North American SNES slot without the slot's internal tabs removed or bypassed; conversely, the wider NTSC-U carts cannot even be inserted into a Super Famicom. Second, even where cartridges physically fit — PAL carts share a shell shape closer to Super Famicom and will insert — a lockout chip on the motherboard (F411 for NTSC, F413 for PAL) will prevent the game from booting on a mismatched console. Running a Super Famicom cartridge on a Super Famicom purchased in Japan is of course straightforward; playing it on a foreign console requires either a mod or an adapter that addresses both the physical and the chip-level lock.
Maintenance Tips
The 72-pin cartridge connector is the most common maintenance point. Clean the gold-plated pins on cartridges with a cotton swab and 90%+ isopropyl alcohol; never use abrasive erasers on cartridge contacts. The connector slot on the console itself can be cleaned by inserting and removing a cartridge several times, or with a dedicated pin cleaner. For video output, S-Video provides significantly cleaner image quality than composite and uses the same multi-out port -- a passive adapter cable is all that is required. On early SHVC board revisions, a capacitor near the power LED can leak; inspect the board if the console shows instability. Use the original AC adapter or a verified equivalent: the SFC runs on 10V DC and is not compatible with Famicom or NES power supplies.
Going deeper
Explore the machine this game ran on, and what to check before you buy or care for one:
What to Watch Out For
Before buying, these are the points worth knowing — from someone who handles original Japanese Wolfenstein 3D copies regularly.
Will a Super Famicom work in my country? Do I need a voltage converter?
The Super Famicom is a Japanese domestic unit designed for 100V AC. Most modern power adapters (after-market SFC AC adapters sold internationally) handle 100-240V automatically -- verify the input rating on the adapter label before use. The original Nintendo AC adapter is 100V only and should not be used outside Japan without a step-down converter. Region-wise, Japanese SFC cartridges will not fit in a North American SNES without a physical adapter (the cartridge slots are shaped differently), and vice versa. The game code region lock was also enforced in software on some titles.
What is the best video output option for a Super Famicom on a modern TV?
The Super Famicom outputs through its AV multi-out port. Composite is the most common cable but gives a soft, slightly blurry image. S-Video is the recommended upgrade for analogue TVs and CRT monitors -- it separates luminance and colour, producing a noticeably sharper picture with no extra hardware. On modern flat-panel TVs, HDMI upscalers (such as the RetroTINK series) give the best results with S-Video or RGB SCART input. RGB SCART is available on the PAL Super Nintendo via a SCART cable; on the Japanese SFC, RGB is present on the multi-out port and accessible via a SCART cable as well. HDMI is not natively supported without an upscaler.
A game cartridge is not loading or shows a black screen. What should I try first?
This is almost always a pin contact issue, not a hardware fault. Remove the cartridge and clean the edge connector contacts with a cotton swab moistened with 90%+ isopropyl alcohol. Allow to dry completely (30 seconds) before reinserting. On the console side, inserting and removing a clean cartridge several times can mechanically clean the 72-pin slot. Do not blow into the cartridge slot -- moisture from breath causes oxidation and worsens contact over time. If cleaning does not resolve it, the cartridge connector on the console may need professional cleaning or pin retensioning.
Do Super Famicom games save to battery-backed RAM? How do I check if saves are still working?
Save functionality is in the game cartridge, not the console. Many RPGs and action games use a CR2032 lithium coin cell soldered inside the cartridge. These batteries have a rated life of 10-20 years; cartridges manufactured in the early 1990s should be tested before purchase if save functionality matters. To check: power on, enter the game, attempt to save, power off completely, power on again, and verify the save appears. If saves disappear after a full power cycle (not just reset), the cartridge battery is depleted. Replacement is a standard soldering repair.
Before You Buy
Things worth knowing before you buy Wolfenstein 3D
A short checklist for buying a used Super Famicom cartridge wisely — useful with any seller, anywhere.
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Choose a seller who tests it before shipping
A copy that has actually been powered on and checked is a known quantity. An untested one is a gamble you only settle after it arrives.
Look for a seller who states it was function-tested and says what they confirmed. A serious seller can tell you exactly what was checked.
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Make sure it fits your console
This is a Japanese Super Famicom cartridge; its shell is shaped differently from the North American SNES and will not fit without modification.
Play it on a matching Japanese console or a region-free system, and confirm the listing states the region.
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If this title saves your progress, check the battery
Cartridges that save use a small coin-cell battery that fades over decades — a dead one wipes your save without warning.
Ask the seller whether the save function was tested. Replacing the battery is possible, but doing so erases any existing save.
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Check that the contacts are clean
Dirty edge contacts are the most common cause of startup and sound trouble in cartridges of this age.
Choose a seller who cleans the contacts before shipping. A note that it was tested and cleaned means the basics were handled.
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Confirm it is genuine, not a reproduction
Sought-after titles are targets for reproduction boards with replacement labels.
Ask for a photo of the circuit board and look for factory markings. Favour a shop with a licensed second-hand dealer permit (古物商) — by law its stock has a traceable origin, your simplest guard against fakes.
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Read the seller's reviews and return policy
A 100% positive record across thousands of sales is close to a guarantee — packing, communication and problem-solving all work for everyone. A return policy protects you if something is off.
Read the feedback and confirm a clear return window before you buy.
The last step before buying anywhere is knowing what it's worth.
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Rooms this game lives in
Wander deeper — explore the themed rooms where Wolfenstein 3D sits alongside its kin.
Memories from around the world
This is a young museum, and this page is still waiting for its first voices. The memories people send reach Taisei personally, and the ones that move him find a home here over time — always with the writer's blessing. Yours could be the very first for this game.
Share your memory ↑From the Museum's Screening Room
Wolfenstein 3d — Max Explains