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RetroBIOS

Wolf4SDL

Wolf4SDL emulates Wolfenstein 3D. It reads 56 files, none of them required: it starts games without them.

About this profile
Detail Value
Type standalone
Classification Game engine
Source https://github.com/KS-Presto/Wolf4SDL
Version 2.0
Revision KS-Presto/Wolf4SDL@dc8b250af35f
Profiled 2026-10-20
Profile YAML, JSON
Cores wolf4sdl
Systems Wolfenstein 3D
Checks the file by existence
Install this emulator's files

With RetroPie: the installer finds RetroPie and its BIOS folder, then downloads only the files Wolf4SDL reads there and checks each one.

Open a terminal on the device. Or connect from a computer with SSH, a terminal over the network. Paste the line. Press Enter.

Terminal
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Abdess/retrobios/main/install.sh | sh -s -- --emulator wolf4sdl
Technical notes

SDL port of the Wolfenstein 3D and Spear of Destiny engine, from the id Software source release. The game a binary plays is chosen at build time: version.h:4 skips its own defaults when VERSIONALREADYCHOSEN is set, and the build then takes UPLOAD, GOODTIMES, SPEAR and SPEARDEMO from the compiler flags. RetroPie builds five binaries this way: shareware v1.4 (CARMACIZED UPLOAD), Apogee v1.4 (CARMACIZED), GT v1.4 (CARMACIZED GOODTIMES), Spear of Destiny (CARMACIZED GOODTIMES SPEAR) and the Spear demo (CARMACIZED SPEAR SPEARDEMO).

CheckForEpisodes (wl_menu.c:3740) picks the data extension by probing for vswap.<ext> in the working directory: wl1 for a shareware build, wl6 then wl3 then wl1 for a full Wolfenstein build, sdm for the Spear demo, and for Spear of Destiny sod, sd1, sd2 or sd3 after --mission 0 to 3 (wl_main.c:1721-1730). Every data file is then opened as <name>.<ext> with a lowercase name and no directory, so it is read from the working directory. A file that cannot be opened ends in CA_CannotOpen and the program quits.

Each binary reads eight files: vswap (id_pm.c:36), vgadict, vgahead and vgagraph (CAL_SetupGrFile, id_ca.c:440), maphead and gamemaps (CAL_SetupMapFile, id_ca.c:531, gamemaps because every build is CARMACIZED), audiohed and audiot (CAL_SetupAudioFile, id_ca.c:599). The help and end texts and the demos come from vgagraph, since version.h defines ARTSEXTERN and DEMOSEXTERN (wl_text.c:762-766, wl_game.c:1139-1146).

The only content check is the length of vgahead: it must hold NUMCHUNKS + 1 three byte offsets or the engine quits with "Wolf4SDL was not compiled for these data files" (id_ca.c:473-480). NUMCHUNKS is 156 for the shareware build, 161 for Apogee, 149 for GT (gfxv_wl6.h:187), 169 for Spear and 133 for the Spear demo, so each binary accepts only the release it was built for.

Spear of Destiny mission 1 reads the original game under the sd1 extension, hence the sd1 aliases on the sod set.

The shareware Wolfenstein 3D v1.4 and Spear of Destiny demo files carry hashes of the archives RetroPie downloads. The retail files carry none: the engine checks no hash, and the md5 table in RetroPie's launcher script only picks which of its binaries to start.

Written by the engine, not read as data: config.<ext> and savegames in ~/.wolf4sdl (wl_menu.c:3745-3760), and screenshots.

Files

Section titled “Files”

56 files: 0 required, 56 optional.

By kind: 56 game data.

56 rows
File Hash
vswap.wl1 MD5 6efa079414b8
vgadict.wl1 MD5 76a6128f3c0d
vgahead.wl1 MD5 61bf1616e783
vgagraph.wl1 MD5 74decb641b1a
maphead.wl1 MD5 7b6dd4e55c33
gamemaps.wl1 MD5 30fecd7cce6b
audiohed.wl1 MD5 58aa1b9892d5
audiot.wl1 MD5 4b6109e957b5
vswap.wl3 -
vgadict.wl3 -
vgahead.wl3 -
vgagraph.wl3 -
maphead.wl3 -
gamemaps.wl3 -
audiohed.wl3 -
audiot.wl3 -
vswap.wl6 -
vgadict.wl6 -
vgahead.wl6 -
vgagraph.wl6 -
maphead.wl6 -
gamemaps.wl6 -
audiohed.wl6 -
audiot.wl6 -
vswap.sod -
vgadict.sod -
vgahead.sod -
vgagraph.sod -
maphead.sod -
gamemaps.sod -
audiohed.sod -
audiot.sod -
vswap.sd2 -
vgadict.sd2 -
vgahead.sd2 -
vgagraph.sd2 -
maphead.sd2 -
gamemaps.sd2 -
audiohed.sd2 -
audiot.sd2 -
vswap.sd3 -
vgadict.sd3 -
vgahead.sd3 -
vgagraph.sd3 -
maphead.sd3 -
gamemaps.sd3 -
audiohed.sd3 -
audiot.sd3 -
vswap.sdm MD5 35afda760bea
vgadict.sdm MD5 2f85b6763a58
vgahead.sdm MD5 18c03cb401ed
vgagraph.sdm MD5 1cc5ceb8e43c
maphead.sdm MD5 40fa03caf7a1
gamemaps.sdm MD5 4eb2f538aab6
audiohed.sdm MD5 f0022742f86c
audiot.sdm MD5 fcde1333c941

In this collection: 16 in repo and 40 missing.

Game data

Section titled “Game data”
56 files

vswap.wl1 optional in repo game data

Wolfenstein 3D shareware page file: wall textures, sprites and digitized sounds

  • Hashes of the v1.4 shareware file in wolf3d14.zip, the archive RetroPie downloads from maniacsvault.net. The engine checks no hash.

vgadict.wl1 optional in repo game data

Wolfenstein 3D shareware Huffman dictionary of the graphics file

  • Hashes of the v1.4 shareware file in wolf3d14.zip, the archive RetroPie downloads from maniacsvault.net. The engine checks no hash.

vgahead.wl1 optional in repo game data

Wolfenstein 3D shareware graphics chunk offsets

  • Hashes of the v1.4 shareware file in wolf3d14.zip, the archive RetroPie downloads from maniacsvault.net. The engine checks no hash.

vgagraph.wl1 optional in repo game data

Wolfenstein 3D shareware graphics chunks: pictures, fonts and text articles

  • Hashes of the v1.4 shareware file in wolf3d14.zip, the archive RetroPie downloads from maniacsvault.net. The engine checks no hash.

maphead.wl1 optional in repo game data

Wolfenstein 3D shareware map offsets and tile info

  • Hashes of the v1.4 shareware file in wolf3d14.zip, the archive RetroPie downloads from maniacsvault.net. The engine checks no hash.

gamemaps.wl1 optional in repo game data

Wolfenstein 3D shareware level maps

  • Hashes of the v1.4 shareware file in wolf3d14.zip, the archive RetroPie downloads from maniacsvault.net. The engine checks no hash.

audiohed.wl1 optional in repo game data

Wolfenstein 3D shareware audio chunk offsets

  • Hashes of the v1.4 shareware file in wolf3d14.zip, the archive RetroPie downloads from maniacsvault.net. The engine checks no hash.

audiot.wl1 optional in repo game data

Wolfenstein 3D shareware AdLib sound effects and music

  • Hashes of the v1.4 shareware file in wolf3d14.zip, the archive RetroPie downloads from maniacsvault.net. The engine checks no hash.

vswap.wl3 optional missing game data

Wolfenstein 3D, three episode release page file: wall textures, sprites and digitized sounds

vgadict.wl3 optional missing game data

Wolfenstein 3D, three episode release Huffman dictionary of the graphics file

vgahead.wl3 optional missing game data

Wolfenstein 3D, three episode release graphics chunk offsets

vgagraph.wl3 optional missing game data

Wolfenstein 3D, three episode release graphics chunks: pictures, fonts and text articles

maphead.wl3 optional missing game data

Wolfenstein 3D, three episode release map offsets and tile info

gamemaps.wl3 optional missing game data

Wolfenstein 3D, three episode release level maps

audiohed.wl3 optional missing game data

Wolfenstein 3D, three episode release audio chunk offsets

audiot.wl3 optional missing game data

Wolfenstein 3D, three episode release AdLib sound effects and music

vswap.wl6 optional missing game data

Wolfenstein 3D page file: wall textures, sprites and digitized sounds

vgadict.wl6 optional missing game data

Wolfenstein 3D Huffman dictionary of the graphics file

vgahead.wl6 optional missing game data

Wolfenstein 3D graphics chunk offsets

vgagraph.wl6 optional missing game data

Wolfenstein 3D graphics chunks: pictures, fonts and text articles

maphead.wl6 optional missing game data

Wolfenstein 3D map offsets and tile info

gamemaps.wl6 optional missing game data

Wolfenstein 3D level maps

audiohed.wl6 optional missing game data

Wolfenstein 3D audio chunk offsets

audiot.wl6 optional missing game data

Wolfenstein 3D AdLib sound effects and music

vswap.sod optional missing game data

Spear of Destiny page file: wall textures, sprites and digitized sounds

vgadict.sod optional missing game data

Spear of Destiny Huffman dictionary of the graphics file

vgahead.sod optional missing game data

Spear of Destiny graphics chunk offsets

vgagraph.sod optional missing game data

Spear of Destiny graphics chunks: pictures, fonts and text articles

maphead.sod optional missing game data

Spear of Destiny map offsets and tile info

gamemaps.sod optional missing game data

Spear of Destiny level maps

audiohed.sod optional missing game data

Spear of Destiny audio chunk offsets

audiot.sod optional missing game data

Spear of Destiny AdLib sound effects and music

vswap.sd2 optional missing game data

Spear of Destiny mission pack 2 page file: wall textures, sprites and digitized sounds

vgadict.sd2 optional missing game data

Spear of Destiny mission pack 2 Huffman dictionary of the graphics file

vgahead.sd2 optional missing game data

Spear of Destiny mission pack 2 graphics chunk offsets

vgagraph.sd2 optional missing game data

Spear of Destiny mission pack 2 graphics chunks: pictures, fonts and text articles

maphead.sd2 optional missing game data

Spear of Destiny mission pack 2 map offsets and tile info

gamemaps.sd2 optional missing game data

Spear of Destiny mission pack 2 level maps

audiohed.sd2 optional missing game data

Spear of Destiny mission pack 2 audio chunk offsets

audiot.sd2 optional missing game data

Spear of Destiny mission pack 2 AdLib sound effects and music

vswap.sd3 optional missing game data

Spear of Destiny mission pack 3 page file: wall textures, sprites and digitized sounds

vgadict.sd3 optional missing game data

Spear of Destiny mission pack 3 Huffman dictionary of the graphics file

vgahead.sd3 optional missing game data

Spear of Destiny mission pack 3 graphics chunk offsets

vgagraph.sd3 optional missing game data

Spear of Destiny mission pack 3 graphics chunks: pictures, fonts and text articles

maphead.sd3 optional missing game data

Spear of Destiny mission pack 3 map offsets and tile info

gamemaps.sd3 optional missing game data

Spear of Destiny mission pack 3 level maps

audiohed.sd3 optional missing game data

Spear of Destiny mission pack 3 audio chunk offsets

audiot.sd3 optional missing game data

Spear of Destiny mission pack 3 AdLib sound effects and music

vswap.sdm optional in repo game data

Spear of Destiny demo page file: wall textures, sprites and digitized sounds

  • Hashes of the file in soddemo.zip, the archive RetroPie downloads from maniacsvault.net. The engine checks no hash.

vgadict.sdm optional in repo game data

Spear of Destiny demo Huffman dictionary of the graphics file

  • Hashes of the file in soddemo.zip, the archive RetroPie downloads from maniacsvault.net. The engine checks no hash.

vgahead.sdm optional in repo game data

Spear of Destiny demo graphics chunk offsets

  • Hashes of the file in soddemo.zip, the archive RetroPie downloads from maniacsvault.net. The engine checks no hash.

vgagraph.sdm optional in repo game data

Spear of Destiny demo graphics chunks: pictures, fonts and text articles

  • Hashes of the file in soddemo.zip, the archive RetroPie downloads from maniacsvault.net. The engine checks no hash.

maphead.sdm optional in repo game data

Spear of Destiny demo map offsets and tile info

  • Hashes of the file in soddemo.zip, the archive RetroPie downloads from maniacsvault.net. The engine checks no hash.

gamemaps.sdm optional in repo game data

Spear of Destiny demo level maps

  • Hashes of the file in soddemo.zip, the archive RetroPie downloads from maniacsvault.net. The engine checks no hash.

audiohed.sdm optional in repo game data

Spear of Destiny demo audio chunk offsets

  • Hashes of the file in soddemo.zip, the archive RetroPie downloads from maniacsvault.net. The engine checks no hash.

audiot.sdm optional in repo game data

Spear of Destiny demo AdLib sound effects and music

  • Hashes of the file in soddemo.zip, the archive RetroPie downloads from maniacsvault.net. The engine checks no hash.

Next steps

Section titled “Next steps”
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Maintained by Abdess on GitHub. Report a problem.

Packs from release v2026.10.10, .

MIT for the tooling and metadata. BIOS and firmware files are third-party system software, preserved for personal backup, archival and interoperability.