Wolfer Q & A: Brian E. Lowe

Today sees the start of a new feature where each time I'll be asking question of someone involved in the Wolf 3d Community about their mods and their love for Wolf. Brian from the Wolfenstein 3d Dome has been kind enough to be the first.

Name: Brian E. Lowe
Location: London, England
Nickname: Schabbs

Q. Where did your nickname come from and why did you choose it?
A. One night back in 1998 there were 4 of us on Chris Chokan's chat. Chris was Chris, Gary Ragland was Giftmacher and Colonel Bill was Fettgesicht. I didn't want to be on there as Brian so I chose another Wolf 3d boss called Schabbs.

Q. When did you first play Wolfenstein 3d?
A. Way back in 1997, on an Acorn computer (known as an Archimedes in the USA)

Q. How did you come to be part of the Wolfenstein 3d community?
A. Once I finished playing all the 60 Wolfenstein 3d levels, I started looking for other levels on the web. Among the sites I found was the Chris Chokan site advertising the Wolfenstein 3d Chat. From there I found there was a sizeable following for the game and I started making my own levels. My first set was called Wolfbel.

Q. What led you to create your website, The Wolfenstein 3d Dome?
A. I felt my own Mr Lowe's 3d page looked a bit dated so I teamed up with Parafriction and together we came up with what we hoped was a more modern and more comprehensive site.

Q. What is the best part about being involved int he Wolfenstein 3d Community?
A. Playing all the new mods that come out. I like both the old school type mods and those that include a lot of new features. Even after all this time we are still getting some mods with features that haven't been done before.

Q. What has been your favorite Wolf 3d Mod/TC that you have been involved in?
A. Revival of memories. It took a great deal of effort but having the coding being done by MCS Amsterdam was a great help. I was also happy with the way Deadly Sleep turned out. The levels made by Arielus seemed to blend very well with my own levels.

Q. What is your favorite Wolf 3d mod that you've played?
A. The first mod that stood out for me was Luke Strauman's Operation Buzzbomb. It had a lot of good coding features for it's time and it all blended well together. Since then I feel there have been other mods with more extensive levels. There have been so many great mods but if I have to pick just one it would be the 21 level Beyond Mutantstein - Special Edition tribute to the late John Bucksnort. It has great levels by so many great mappers and all the levels fit well together.

Q. Why do you feel that Wolf 3d is still so popular despite being released so long ago?
A. I feel it's the unique atmosphere that the game creates. Also, the wide range of mods that are available.

Q. Where would you like to see the Wolf 3d Community go from here?
A. To get a lot more mods available in SDL so they can be easily played by those who have Vista and Windows 7 computers. This is already starting to be done to a certain extent.

Q. Everyone has an ultimate mod that they'd love to make if coding and graphics weren't limited, what would yours be about?
A. I would still like it to keep the feel of the original game. Just having everything done better but without losing the atmosphere that makes playing a Wolf 3d mod so compelling.

Q. Any words of wisdom you would like to leave us with?
A. Keep on modding!