Sheppy wasn't singling out the new guy, though - every beta tester got their turn. It was there, at my first KansasFest, in front of all my friends and heroes, that I was stunned to receive a certificate of acknowledgement for my significant contribution to the development of Wolfenstein 3D. We were celebrating the successful release of Wolf3D for the IIGS earlier that year, with Sheppy hosting a post-mortem of the game's development, giving all KansasFest attendees a peek behind the scenes. It was my first time meeting Sheppy and my fellow beta-testers, such as Ryan Suenaga and Dave Miller. Just a few months later, in the summer of 1998, I attended my first KansasFest. In my haste to submit my first bug, I had completely ignored the release notes that had accompanied this version of Wolf3D, indicating that it was incompatible with Bernie ][ the Rescue. Without checking to see if that was true, I reported back to the testing group: 'Hey, it crashes Bernie!' I was certain I had acted so swiftly that no one else could've yet encountered this blocker of a bug. I was disappointed to not get my hands on the game, but also excited to contribute to the beta-testing process. The Apple IIGS emulator of choice for Mac OS in the mid- to late 1990s was Bernie ][ the Rescue, so I booted up Bernie on my Wall Street and promptly launched Wolf3D.ĬRASH! The game failed almost immediately. Gaming was my Apple II niche - I got my start with Juiced.GS writing a review of Silvern Castle - so I was eager to finally dive into the heralded game. It was Sheppy who developed and project-managed the final release of this first-person shooter that had been so popular on my friends' MS-DOS machines.īut I've never owned a desktop computer that wasn't an Apple II, so Wolf3D had been something I'd only been able to envy without playing.

The port had been a long time in development, with many parties involved: id Software, Logicware, Burger Becky, and Ninjaforce, to name a few. His website of eponymous SheppyWare lists many programs I got to try before they were ready for prime time, such as gsAIM, Lemonade Stand, Shifty List, and WebWorks GS.īut the beta I most enjoyed was that for Wolfenstein 3D. One developer I especially enjoyed working for was Eric 'Sheppy' Shepherd. In the heyday of the GEnie online service, I somehow fell into a group beta testers of new programs for companies such as InTrec and Seven Hills. Years after the last Apple II rolled off the production line, there was still a lot of commercial and shareware software being developed for the IIGS.

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