Holy crap, Silas Warner is dead

[Erik]

I can't think of anything else to say about Silas Warner being dead. No wait: I heard he insisted on working in the nude. And he wasn't working alone at home either. Totally true. Well, it's totally true that I heard it.

[Silverlight]

Uh...

[DrCrypt]

http://www.mobygames.com/images/portraits/small/1078577470-00.jpg

[Peter Olafson]

The Moby "rap sheet":

http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId=673/

[Jobe]

Silas Marner was dead to me back in junior high.

[Allagash]

http://scottmace.typepad.com/service_provider_blog/2004/02/silas_warner_re.html

The original Castle Wolfenstein and Beyond Castle Wolfenstein are such great, great games. They surpass the id software remake, which didn't even allow you to hold up a Nazi, take his uniform, and *then* shoot him. (Okay, maybe you have to shoot him first, then take the uniform. It's been 20 years.)

I remember how scary it was trying to sneek past the SS, having them spot you AND THEN THEY'D YELL AT YOU IN GERMAN. This was back when almost no other game included actual voice samples. The first time a character in the game spoke something I almost jumped through the roof.

Looking back, it was, in its way, a sneaker game. You couldn't just plow your way through the game by shooting everyone & killing everyone with grenades. Ahhh, grenades, I loved throwing a grenade at a chest of other grendes, even though the whole screen would blow up and it would end the game.

[Creole Ned]

They were indeed great games. Castle Wolfenstein was one of the first co-op games I played, with me controlling the player character's arms and a friend controlling his legs. :P

[Dave Long]

Castle Wolfenstein was really cool because it's a precursor to Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes on GAMECUBE NINTENDO. You guys should try it.

--Dave

[Bub, Andrew]

Actually it was cool for a lot of reasons other than it being a precursor to anything. I still remember in Beyond Castle Wolfenstein what happened when you grabbed the artwork hidden in a Nazi locker.

"Too surrealistic"

Beyond was the original stealth game, I think. You could don the uniform of an SS, flash them the right pass, say "Heil" to them, and then shoot them in the back. As I recall, the original let you use grenades but Beyond didn't. But... beyond had Hitler and let you bomb him with a suitcase!

Man, I must have played the original and Beyond more than any other game of that period. Including Ultima IV and Wizardry.

[Andrew Mayer]

Amazing game that original Wolfenstein was.

Except for the part where you had to wait for the countdown before the chests would open.

If you rapidly pressed the space bar it would cut the waiting time in half.

[chumpface]

Wolfenstein was also a predecessor to Thief, and we took a lot from Silas' design: the stealth aspect (germans couldn't see you from behind). The guards' multiple states of alert. The fact that even a single german was quite often more powerful than your character.

If there was no Castle Wolfenstein, I don't think there would have been a Thief.

[awdougherty]

Great games. Loved Airborn Ranger with a passion. Even Red Storm Rising was fun. Of course, nothing more need be said about Wolfenstein.

[DennyA]

Wow. His personal home page (http://pwp.value.net/~penomee/silas.html) is still up.

I'm guessing he'd been having health problems since he was looking for a telecommuting job. Sucks that someone who was such a game pioneer was out of work. Hope he was having fun during his last couple of years.

I never met him, but according to his resume, he was 6'9" and 320 pounds. He had to be one imposing guy.

Particularly when programming naked.

[mutt]

Wolfenstein was also a predecessor to Thief, and we took a lot from Silas' design: the stealth aspect (germans couldn't see you from behind). The guards' multiple states of alert. The fact that even a single german was quite often more powerful than your character.

If there was no Castle Wolfenstein, I don't think there would have been a Thief.

Wow, that's incredible to learn that. I don't know why exactly, but it is. I never would have made that connection myself without the head's up. Thanks, chumpface!

(Jesus, do I wish T3 were in your hands...)

[synic]