Rise of the Triad Reboot Specs; Original Shadow Warrior Free

The reboot of Apogee Software's popular 90s shooter Rise of the Triad 2013 is coming to Steam, Green Man Gaming and GOG.com this summer for $14.99 USD. It will also be DRM-free, meaning the PC game won't be packed with crap that could potentially slow down a PC and/or cause other software conflicts. Even more, the system requirements aren't demanding, requiring a 2.4 GHz dual core CPU or better, 2 GB of RAM and an ATI Radeon HD 3870 or Nvidia 8800 GT GPU or better.

"No matter where you buy the game, you'll be able to dive into the game's pulse-pounding multiplayer modes with everyone else, engage in cross-platform chat and more. That's the beauty of DRM-free PC gaming and just one of many great reasons to get ready for Rise of the Triad 2013, along with the return of Dog Mode, crazy weaponry like the Excalibat, Shrooms Mode and more."

Rise of the Triad: Dark War was originally developed and published as shareware under Apogee Software's 3D Realms brand name back in 1994. Designed by Tom Hall, it used id Software's Wolfenstein 3D engine and ran in the now-ancient MS-DOS. The shooter allows gamers to pick one of five characters available, each of which has their own attributes such as endurance, height and speed. The game was originally intended to be the sequel to Wolfenstein 3D, AKA Wolfenstein 3D II: Rise of the Triad.

The reboot is currently in the hands of Interceptor Entertainment who revealed the game during QuakeCon 2012. Now we finally have a launch date and a list of minimum and recommended specs which are listed below.

Meanwhile, another 3D Realms classic, Shadow Warrior, is currently receiving the reboot treatment as well. To celebrate, publisher Devolver Digital and developer Flying Wild Hog had originally planned to give the 1997 "Classic" version away for free to 50,000 Steam gamers in exchange for those dreaded Facebook "likes". But clever individuals sidestepped the security, downloaded all 50,000 Steam keys and began selling them online.

"So what to do? The idea was to let fans of the original game and folks that had not tried it before have a chance to download it for free and get involved in the community for the reimagined Shadow Warrior," the publisher states. "Now we just had a lot of disappointed fans that wanted to get the game but the promotional app was, for lack of a better term, empty and there were no more keys at the ready to reload it."

"Originally, the team thought we'd just make it for a limited time (as the Facebook feed clearly illustrates) but then we realized why not just let it be free forever," the publisher adds. "There were never plans to charge for this base version of the original game so why not let everyone have a go at it."

Shadow Warrior Classic can be played for free now on Steam here. Meanwhile, here are the specs for the Rise of the Triad reboot:

Minimum:
OS: Windows XP 32-bit
Processor: 2.4 GHz Dual Core Processor or Better
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 3870 / Nvidia 8800 GT
DirectX: 9.0
Hard Drive: 5 GB HD space
Sound: DirectX Compatible

Recommended:
OS: Windows 7 64-bit
Processor: 2.4 GHz Quad Core Processor or Better
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 6950 / Nvidia GeForce GTX 560
DirectX: 9.0
Hard Drive: 5 GB HD space
Sound: DirectX Compatible