On May 5, 1992, the first-person shooter was born.

No, Id Software's Wolfenstein 3-D, which turns 19 years old Thursday, was not the first game in which you stared down the barrel of a gun from the point of view of the protagonist. Heck, it wasn't even Id's first shot at the genre: The company had released Catacomb 3-D the year prior.

But there's no denying that Wolfenstein caused the shooter genre to explode in popularity. Without it we would have no Doom, no Halo and no Call of Duty.

Ironically, the game itself — about an implausibly skilled U.S. soldier named William "B.J." Blazkowicz who single-handedly takes down a robot-suited Hitler to end World War II — didn't turn out to have any of the enduring popularity of the genre. While publishers have made attempts to revive the legendary Wolfenstein brand throughout the years, something about undead Nazis in mechanical suits doesn't seem to register as edgy anymore. Who can say why.

For Wolfenstein's anniversary, Wired.com took a stroll down memory lane to look at various incarnations of the influential game.

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Id's game was inspired by a pair of computer games developed by Muse Software in 1984. Castle Wolfenstein and its sequel, Beyond Castle Wolfenstein, were thematically similar: You played as a lone captured American trying to escape a Nazi base. But this 2-D game wasn't a run-and-gun killing spree: Although you could shoot your captors, ammunition was scarce.

The only tactic that would get you through the castle was staying out of sight and evading enemies. You'd even have to hide dead bodies to avoid being spotted. In this sense, Castle Wolfenstein can be seen as a predecessor to stealth games like Metal Gear Solid, although there is no evidence that there was any direct inspiration there.

Screengrab: Wired.com