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''Super 3D Noah's Ark'' is a non-violent
Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...
first-person shooter A first-person shooter (FPS) is a video game genre, video game centered on gun fighting and other weapon-based combat seen from a First person (video games), first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action directly through t ...
developed and published by Wisdom Tree for the
Super Nintendo Entertainment System The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly shortened to Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a Fourth generation of video game consoles, 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan, 1991 in No ...
(SNES) in 1994 and
MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few op ...
in 1995. Its
gameplay Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game. The term applies to both video games and Tabletop game, tabletop games. Gameplay is the connection between the player and the game, the player's overcoming of challenges, and t ...
is similar to that of ''
Wolfenstein 3D ''Wolfenstein 3D'' is a 1992 first-person shooter game developed by id Software and published by Apogee Software and FormGen for DOS. It was inspired by the 1981 Muse Software video game '' Castle Wolfenstein'', and is the third installment ...
'', as Wisdom Tree had licensed that game's engine from
id Software id Software LLC () is an American video game developer based in Richardson, Texas. It was founded on February 1, 1991, by four members of the computer company Softdisk: game programmer, programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer T ...
. Wisdom Tree opted not to secure a license from
Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...
for the game's SNES release. While not illegal, it prevented the game from being sold at most video game retailers, which were under a contractual agreement with Nintendo not to sell unlicensed games for the company's consoles. As a result, the SNES release of ''Super 3D Noah's Ark'' was sold primarily via Christian bookstores. The game was re-released for Windows, macOS, and Linux on itch.io on May 26, 2014 and
Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...
on June 23, 2015.


Gameplay

The game plays similarly to ''
Wolfenstein 3D ''Wolfenstein 3D'' is a 1992 first-person shooter game developed by id Software and published by Apogee Software and FormGen for DOS. It was inspired by the 1981 Muse Software video game '' Castle Wolfenstein'', and is the third installment ...
'', but the graphics were changed to reflect a non-violent theme. Instead of killing
Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
soldiers in a castle, the player takes the part of
Noah Noah (; , also Noach) appears as the last of the Antediluvian Patriarchs (Bible), patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5–9), the Quran and Baháʼí literature, ...
, wandering the Ark, using a slingshot to shoot sleep-inducing food at angry attacking animals, mostly goats, in order to render them unconscious. The animals behave differently: goats, the most common enemy, will only kick Noah, while the other animals such as sheep, ostriches, antelopes and oxen will shoot spittle at him from a distance. Goats are also unable to open doors, while the other animals can. The gameplay is aimed at young children. ''Noah's Ark'' includes secret passages, food, weapons and extra lives. There are secret levels, and shortcut levels as well. The player eventually comes across larger and more powerful
slingshots A slingshot or catapult is a small hand-powered projectile weapon. The classic form consists of a Y-shaped frame, with two tubes or strips made from either a natural rubber or synthetic elastic material. These are attached to the upper two ends ...
, and flings coconuts and watermelon at the larger boss-like animals, such as Ernie the Elephant and Carl the Camel.


Development

The game that would eventually become ''Super 3D Noah's Ark'' was originally conceived as a licensed game based on the film ''
Hellraiser ''Hellraiser'' is a 1987 British supernatural horror film written and directed by Clive Barker in his directorial debut. Based on Barker's 1986 novella ''The Hellbound Heart'', the film's plot concerns a mystical puzzle box that summons the ...
'', a movie that Wisdom Tree founder Dan Lawton was a great fan of. Wisdom Tree acquired the game rights to ''Hellraiser'' for $50,000, along with a license to use the ''Wolfenstein 3D'' game engine from id Software, believing that the fast, violent action of ''Wolfenstein'' would be a good match for the mood of the film. Development initially began on the
Nintendo Entertainment System The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on 15 July 1983 as the and was later released as the redesigned NES in several test markets in the ...
, with Wisdom Tree intending to ship the game on a special cartridge that came equipped with a co-processor that could increase the system's RAM and processing speed several times over. Eventually the ''Hellraiser'' game concept was abandoned due to several issues: the hardware of the NES was found unsuitable because of its low color palette and the addition of a co-processor would have made the cartridge far too expensive for consumers. According to Vance Kozik of Wisdom Tree, little progress was made on the NES incarnation of the game, which he described as "a barely up-and-running demo". The platform for ''Hellraiser'' was then switched to the PC, and the developers were able to make more progress on this version. However, by the time the first prototype was finished, '' Doom'' had been released, and Wisdom Tree felt that ''Hellraiser'' would not be able to compete. In addition, the management at Wisdom Tree decided that developing and publishing a horror-themed game would clash with their religious, family-friendly image. With these factors in mind, Wisdom Tree decided to let their ''Hellraiser'' license expire, transfer development to the
Super Nintendo Entertainment System The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly shortened to Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a Fourth generation of video game consoles, 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan, 1991 in No ...
, and redesign the game with a Christian theme, eventually coming up with a game about Noah's Ark. As the game was not officially sanctioned by Nintendo, Wisdom Tree devised a pass-through system similar to the
Game Genie The Game Genie was a line of Video game accessory, video game accessories that allowed players to alter codes transmitted between ROM cartridge, game cartridges and a video game console, known informally as a cheat cartridge. Developed by Codemas ...
to bypass the system's copy protection, where the player had to insert an officially licensed SNES game into the cartridge slot on top of the ''Super 3D Noah's Ark'' cartridge. A popular rumor claims that id Software licensed the ''Wolfenstein 3D'' engine to Wisdom Tree in retaliation against Nintendo for the content restrictions Nintendo placed on the Super NES version of ''Wolfenstein 3D''. In actuality, Wisdom Tree offered id Software very lucrative terms for the ''Wolfenstein 3D'' game engine, which id regarded as having already outlived its usefulness, and id staff have stated that they never had any problems with Nintendo in the first place.


Re-release

In January 2014, to mark the game's 20th anniversary, Wisdom Tree licensed the game to
Piko Interactive Piko Interactive LLC is an American video game publisher based in San Antonio, Texas. Founded in early 2013 by Eli Galindo, the company focuses on physical re-releases of games from older video game consoles and digitally released ports to newer ...
for a digital re-release and a SNES cartridge reproduction run. Cartridges were initially available to order via email before an order page was established on the Piko Interactive website. The digital re-release, dubbed the "20th Anniversary Edition", used the ECWolf source port developed for ''Wolfenstein 3D'' and ''ZDoom'' to support modern controllers and enable
widescreen Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratio (image), aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ...
gameplay. Developed for Windows, macOS, and Linux, the game released on itch.io on May 26, 2014 and
Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...
on June 23, 2015. The digital re-release also includes digital copies of the game's original SNES and MS-DOS versions for use in
emulators In computing, an emulator is hardware or software that enables one computer system (called the ''host'') to behave like another computer system (called the ''guest''). An emulator typically enables the host system to run software or use perip ...
.


See also

* '' Chex Quest'' *
Christian media Christian media refers to media that is Christian, or refers to various aspects of Christian demographic. As a genre its conventions originated in sermons, Christian literature, literature, and gospel music, and it has been adapted into Christ ...


References


External links


Official website (archive)

Wisdom Tree Games website
* * {{Authority control 1994 video games Christian video games Commercial video games with freely available source code DOS games Linux games MacOS games Noah's Ark in popular culture North America-exclusive video games Piko Interactive games Single-player video games Sprite-based first-person shooters Super Nintendo Entertainment System games Unauthorized video games Video games based on the Bible Video games developed in the United States Windows games Wisdom Tree games Wolfenstein 3D engine games