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DNF #1
Duke 3D #1
Duke Nukem: Time To Kill June 12th 1998 Prototype
Spoiler
General differences:
- Audio-less intro.
- No 3D Realms logo.
- Hidden inside the game files is the original intro with the ORIGINAL track, mostly an E3 video teaser.
- Different intro splash art, added a Playstation section to it.
- The retail background is gray with several 'nukem' symbols plastered all over it. The proto version's background is just plain blue or black in some instances.
- The 'nukem loading 3D model' is golden in this version, and silver/iron-colored in the retail version.
- The demos are completely different.
- The main menu is vastly different, with many options swapping places.
- 2P screen has placeholder names for its maps (with some being obvious jokes while others being probable final names). Also, worth noting is that "default duke" is called "modern duke" here.
- The font used in the game is different, too.
- Different Nukem icons for the sound and speed sliders. No option for Duke talk since there are VERY few lines recorded, with some of them playing just because the game is scripted to (such as level 0's "Looks like it's time to kill").
- There is a level select unlocked from the get go.
- There is a built-in debug mode that can be accessed from the second controller by pressing start. Warning: some options may crash the game.
- The pause menu is completely different. Cheats cannot be inputed from the retail version.
- The physics are slightly different, with the most noticeable change being that jumping feels very off.
- Holding down the CIRCLE button does not allow the player to instantly change weapons. Instead, it simply holsters the current weapon. Changing weapons can only be done in the inventory screen, which does not pause the game in this version (and also has a different font, too).
- The Mighty Boot only has one animation.
- Was the Throwing Knife that strong?
- No decap for axe.
- Crossbow is super weak, only one shot (instead of 3) and very long reloading time.
- Apparently a different texture for the "Energy Zapper".
- Slightly tweaked texture for FThrower? Please check.
- Freezer has glitched projectiles. It also does not trigger an insta "Mighty Boot" when you approach a frozen enemy. Different texture, too.
- Scuba tabs: unused item no longer present in the final version. In this version, it serves as a 'medkit' alternative for when you are underwater, it instantly replenishes your oxygen bar.
- Steroids can be turned off in this version. It acts like a power up in the final.
- Jetpack has a different sound effect and is somewhat glitchy.
Level 00 - Tunnel Vision (retail name "Time to Kill")
- The woman in the apartment is standing away from the light switch in this version. In the retail, you have to interact with her to access the light switch AND open a secret. Duke also says an unused phrase in this version "Show me yours and I'll show you mine" before the woman interacts.
- The switch for the secret room in the Bootylicious club is different.
- Duke uses his Duke3D rendition of "Shake it Baby".
- Different "Lara Croft" outfit in the wardrobe.
- Different KeyCard texture, different KeyCard reader.
- No security cameras.
- You do not auto-aim on the turrets.
- When destroying a stack of boxes in the warehouse, destroying the boxes closest to the floor will leave the ones on top floating in mid-air, their models intact but losing all collision.
- Only one red light when approaching the water pumps for the blue crystal.
- Several scattered tires in the bottom of the water pits, these tires do not appear in the final version.
- The devices holding the crystals (and the ones near the time warper) have a different symbol on them.
- Different warping sound.
Secret level 1 (named "Challenge 1" in retail)
- Secret track still goes unused in this version.
- You spawn in a different area completely surrounded by enemies.
- You are not prompted to find the warp portal once all enemies are killed.
- No warning sound if you are running out of time. If you lose, you don't get a second or third try.
- By activating the debug menu, one can obtain all weapons in the game. However, whereas the HiTemp Flamethrower, the Laser Gun and the Incendiary RPG have their respective extra slots, the Super Eagle (unlockable via this secret level) and the Super Shotgun don't.
Level 01 - Blazin Saddles (retail name "Duke Hill")
- No skybox.
- The floor leading to the secret in the stables is much more noticeable, and purple.
- Chickens can't be roasted.
- Women in the cabaret are doing a different dance (or glitched one), and can't be interacted with.
- The desk in one of the rooms of the cabaret is in a different position.
- The secret dark room leading to one of the cells is lit up in this version.
- The aforementioned cell is also much, MUCH bigger (and does not contain a safe number).
- The secret with the woman in the bath has its secret walls painted purple as well, making them stand out. The mirror in that same room is no longer a mirror but a static, broken texture. The rifle is not above the bed but on the wall to the right of it. That same woman appears to be mostly static, her head turned all the way around (facing the wall) and can't be interacted with.
- The Octabrains appear to be unfinished, sporting an extremely creepy and bizarre, barebones expression and an attack with no animation whatsoever other than a puff of smoke (underwater they display a broken projectile).
- The key in the bank is found inside a 'hole in the wall', with a similar hole found right next to it but containing nothing. In the final version it can be found on a steel-like texture where most keys in the game are picked up from.
- No WANTED posters.
- In the retail version, as soon as you enter the final building named "SHERIFF", there is an open cell with a destructible wall inside. That same cell is closed in this version, with the wall having changed places and no longer being destructible.
- There is a purple wall just below the staircase leading to the level's final area. This purple wall has a small room in it, but there is no way to access it.
- The room above the house with the Double Damage power-up is missing, meaning there's one less secret.
- No Octabrains in cells, impossible to enter locked cells since the switch to open them is missing.
- TONS of missing Duke lines.
Level 02 - Blazin Saddles (known as Western 1B in this version, and "Miner 69er" in the retail one)
- One fourth of the map was removed, since you start with the drill directly in front of you.
- You start in a crossroad of sorts, eliminating the previous crossroads with the suicide bombers, the poisonous gas, and the rest. This crossroad is much, much shorter too.
- The monkey bars leading to one of the switches are no longer there, meaning you have to jump to the rocky platform.
- Some of the crystals on the floor were poorly placed, leading them to clip.
- Unlike the final version, you do not need to get under the drill to continue. This time around, the drill serves as a death pit, were jumping into it will kill you. The drill looks different, too.
- The aforementioned poisonous area was moved to the right of the drill, with a glitched sign pointing towards it. This area is MUCH different than the retail one.
- The drill from the end of the level has been moved and is a bit harder to avoid.
- Octabrains in this map do have projectiles, albeit much different from their retail ones. They seem to glitch at will though, because they go back to emitting puffs of smoke whenever they want.
- The second crossroads area (the one before the drill in the final version, which also has suicide bombers) has a jump-scare with a giant drill. There's also a canary in a cage which explodes when shot. There's another jump-scare with a drill where a suicide bombers should have been.
- The atomic health behind some wooden bars has been replaced with a 'surprise'. Its texture is corrupted though.
- There is a skeleton key 'stuck' on a group of bones, making it very hard to see.
- The ropes which could be climbed at the end of the staircase have been removed.
- The dark room lit only by a few select lamps has been changed into a fully-lit room, removing the suicide bombers as well.
- The drill that was once located after the aforementioned room is here as well, making it the second of two drills. This one must be avoided and walked under to progress, though.
- For some unknown reason, in the lower part of the huge cavern with the climbable ledges, there's a bunch of items all stacked on top of one another. Amongst these items are 2 unique to these version: gunpowder and canonball. Trying to use these two will prompt Duke to take out a glitched item, akin to a key. They cannot be used and Duke puts them back in his bag as soon as he takes them out.
- This cavern seems to be very unfinished, lacking any enemies whatsoever and no items, save for a medkit found in the swimmable cavern with the 'miner corpse', which is just a regular pile bones here.
- Found below the hall with the breakable floor is the railroad as usual, but instead of a broken track that connects to another is a SUNKEN PIRATE SHIP. And surprise surprise, there's collectable cannonballs spread around its sunken ruins, alongside a cannon that cannot be interacted with.
- The path above that led to the atomic health in the retail version is still the same, but there's no pig statues to the sides, no western pigs that spawn when you grab it and no bats either.
- The suicide bombers from the bridge have been replaced with yet another drill. However, this time YOU have to operate the drill, killing enemies in front of you and destroying a wall.
- If you didn't grab the really hidden skeleton key above, you are softlocked at the end.
- No secrets in this map.
Secret Level 2 (named "Challenge 2" in retail)
- Once more, you start in the middle of some heavy gunfire, with turrets mounted on the middle platform. Turrets can also be found on the rooms to the sides.
- Getting the Super Shotgun replaces the Combat Shotgun in the menu, just like the retail version, but does not give you an extra item.
Level 03 - Miner 49er (named "Gold And Guns" in retail)
- Both the freezing cannon and the panel indicating its status are completely different. The gun itself has its cannon texture glitching.
- The fire-breathing bats in the secret path have a very primitive AI, as well as unfinished projectiles.
- There is a glitched cave right beneath this aforementioned secret path with the bridge that seems passable, except you cannot go in it. You must blow its invisible wall to access it.
- Worth noting is that while the guns/turrets/cannons look very rudimentary compared to their final version counterparts, so are their projectiles, shooting bullets rather than freezing bolts.
- There is a unique reference to Star Wars in this version in the form of Han Solo in a carbonite slab. One would believe they would have swapped the Back to the Future reference with this one, but both are present in the beta.
- The underwater passage is present in this version, but the water has been removed. There is a second passage with water whose liquids were left intact though, and this particular passage has a glitched section where you can breathe underwater.
- The area with the stone pillars leads nowhere in this version. However, there is a sign on the wall that reads as if a turret was there.
- The inescapable lava pit that separates a series of crossroads has been replaced with a REALLY DEEP pit.
- The area with the 'air trolleys' that carry you from one side to the other lack the stone platform to the left.
- The aforementioned underwater area (the one without water) has a very dangerous deep pit with a secret at the bottom. Unless you have a jetpack, you cannot get out. However, a jetpack is not available to the player up to this point. On the other side of this pit is a unique room with a bucket (unseen in the final version), a pile of bones and a pump that restores the water, also absent from retail.
- Unique to this version is a very dangerous 'staircase' of sorts that leads to a turret surrounded by lava. In the final version, this turret is located in another area (past the aforementioned area with the stone pillars), but both areas bear a strong resemblance.
- Deactivating all four turrets opens up the exit, there's no secret room this time.
Level 04? - True Grit (not present in final release)
- Heavily unfinished map set somewhere underground, in an Egyptian-like cavern. This map bears a heavy resemblance towards E1L5: The Abyss from Duke3D and Total Meltdown's "Plug and Pray" E4L1: Nightmare Zone. There's countless stuff that does not appear in the final version, ranging from Egypt-like textures, statues, ancient relics, a bonfire with rocks, a bloody handprint, among others.
- This map features just ONE enemy, and it's a single lizard guardian a bridge. Since this map is unfinished, it cannot be completed.
- Worth noting is that this map seems to have been built on a very early/old version of the game, using old SFX for the pause menu and navigating through options. These SFX will remain in effect until you load another map.
Boss 1 (retail name being "The Reaper")
- Map cannot be accessed by legal means since Miner 49er lead straight to True Grit, a map that cannot be completed.
- The Reaper has a special move in this version where he boosts himself off the ground using a fire boost. Pretty neat. He also shoots in small bursts instead of subjecting you to continuous gunfire.
- He has no lifebar and dies in about 5 or 6 hits to the head, deflating instead of doing his death animation.
- The area in which you fight him looks nothing alike the final version's arena, this one being a closed cavern with an outer ring the player can use to get the high ground on the fight.
- Upon beating the boss, the level does not end, softlocking the player.
Level 05/Modern 2 - Crate Carnage (retail name "Obey or Die", prototype name extracted from the SLUS executable)
- You start in the same area as in the retail, only facing another position and surrounded by Pig Cops.
- None of those 'shooting robots' from the retail, not present here.
- Textures glitch constantly around you: lamp-posts, traffic lights, etc.
- The woman in the apartment is present, but the apartment is a mess: things have been moved around, the window is glitching through the floor, the woman's textures are glitching as well, and the mirror is just as static texture. No posters, no rack of weapons, no warehouse key.
- Although invisible, there is a secret entrance to the warehouse. Instead of a breakable vent, it's a non-solid wall.
- There's a pig-cop trapped behind an iron gate that you can't shoot through.
- There's a glitched, bottomless pit in the first room of the warehouse. Stepping in it softlocks the game.
- Aside from those first pig cops, the map itself is devoid of any enemies or items, clearly in its very first stages of development. Regardless, the vast majority of its architecture is done, with only one or two areas varying from its final release (including an area where you can find a 'surprise' in this version on a platform atop a really deep pit that softlocks the player).
- The vats with water are much shorter than their retail version.
- There are no crystals to be obtained, hence the map cannot be completed (despite the presence of a 'surprise').
Level 06/Medieval 1 - Fortress of Blood (retail name "Family Jewels", prototype name extracted from the SLUS executable)
- The music in this version is NOTHING alike to the final version. Also, it seems that it does not play again once it ends. This tune is not found at all in the final version, with the Medieval era using the one assigned to Roman maps in this beta (and the Roman levels getting a new track altogether).
- The level already starts with the main gate lowered. In the final version, the player has to activate a series of switches by navigating the left and right areas surrounding the castle itself. The gate also looks like it was designed and textured alongside the rest of the map instead of being an actual gate.
- Misplaced items here and there, including flamethrower fuel, crossbows and medkits in midair.
- No "Double Damage" power-up at the beginning.
- The top of the castle is accessible from the 'lower areas', something that does not happen in the final release.
- The infamous chessboard-like room is accessible in this version, a room that haunted fans of this game for many, many years.
- The lever that lowers the main gate has been replaced with a sword stuck in stone, unique to this version. This stone cannot be interacted with.
- None of the hidden side-passages are present here.
- Pig Cops seem to lack their shotgun blast sound for some odd reason.
- The broken underwater iron gates are missing.
- The hidden Minigun under the bridge is missing, too.
- There is no huge "Nukem" logo when you enter the castle's courtyard.
- The sheep are static, with no animations whatsoever (not even the ones procreating). There's also a unique animal to this version, a static and un-killable cow that is not present in the final version.
- No key to enter the main castle, there are no jewels either.
- There is an inaccessible room with walls textured like some futuristic devices that cannot be interacted with.
- There is a unique spring-like device in the room with the wooden platforms that's not present in the final version, alongside a room in that same area that looks like a barn inside the castle. Very odd.
- Overall, several rooms and things are missing, and the map cannot be completed. There is a weird room behind the throne in the chessboard-like room that seems like it was designed to be the original exit.
Level 07/Medieval 2 - Gothic Nightmare (retail name "Resistance is Feudal", prototype name extracted from the SLUS executable)
- You start in a COMPLETELY different area, a crossroads of sorts with several doors and enemies already blasting at you.
- The level is largely unrecognizable from its final version. Many, many things have been changed. There is a locked room at the beginning with no way to access it that resembles the very entrance of the level in its retail incarnation (or the very last room, too), as well as a green pit-like area full of cells with enemies inside them.
- There is no 'surprise' in this map.
- The reddish and beefier counterparts to the regular lizards are the enemies populating this level (for the most part), but instead of shooting their miniguns repeatedly they simply shoot a single shot.
- Several of the level's retail landmarks are present, but almost unrecognizable.
- While the retail version features a guillotine (that is present here albeit much smaller in size), this version features something much more gruesome and graphic that was removed from the final release: bloody chunks of flesh and corpses hanging from meathooks.
- The level's ending is present and is pretty much identical to the final release (the shade of green used is a bit brighter here), but stepping into it does nothing.
- Map is not only devoid of items for the most part, but also cannot be completed.
Level 08/Medieval 3 - Blessings of the Damned (retail name "Holy Terror", prototype name extracted from the SLUS executable)
- You start in the same area as the final version, but unless you use the debug mode and disable collision, this is as far as you go since the main doors cannot be interacted with.
- This map is VERY unfinished: blood has no texture, resulting in graphical glitches, the lizards lack any textures as well and glitch on sight.
- The library appears to be present, but atop a ladder inside a warehouse it seems. Inside said warehouse are rooms with beds, too. There is another library inside an inaccessible secre too.
- The map appears to have no lightning of any kind, making it look very dull.
- Killing Octabrains in this map crashes the game with an 'animation missing' error.
- Nothing can be interacted with in this map, not the doors nor the little sanctuaries where you kneel in front of in the final version.
- The giant colored blue windows can be destroyed, but they have nothing behind them.
- There is a unique spiral-like staircase not present in the final game. This staircase leads towards a chain connected to a giant bell and two empty rooms. In the final version, the room with the bells led into the final area.
- No secrets WHATSOEVER.
- There is no exit behind the huge colored window, only a glitched lizard. Cannot be completed.
Boss 2 (retail name "Wing'ed Death")
- The boss is completely different and unique in this version: a humongous armored green lizard equipped with a chaingun and a saw. However, he has default health and dies in 3 hits.
- The boss moves, has sounds but no death animation as he reuses the stock one.
- The music is the same as the one from the 'modern' levels. Duke seems to be trying to load a new outfit but instead glitches out and has half his body invisible.
- The map bears a striking resemblance to its final version's counterpart, most specifically the bottom section of the latter.
- Once the boss is killed, the level does not end, hence softlocking the player.
Level 09/Modern 3 - Slither's Sewage (final name "Pig Factory", prototype name extracted from the SLUS executable)
- Extremely barebones, boss draks are completely untextured. The map is only features the most basic and elementary architecture, a most primitive layout of what it came to be in the final. One thing to be noted, Bootylicious is still called that and not DANGLERS, like in this iteration of present day. The secret room is also located behind the mirror (which in turn is missing from the wall).
- Curiously, while the regular tiny robots with the miniguns are not present in Moder 2, the ones with the RPGs do here, though they kill themselves more often than not and they feature a rather low-res look.
- This map, just like Modern 4, has a huge Nukem logo in the area with the totaled car and the fence. This is not found anywhere in the final game, and the logo's style resembles that of this beta's Nukem icon in the Sound option menu.
- Cannot be completed due to its heavily unfinished state.
Level 10/Roman 1 - Blood Bath (final name "Hog Heaven", prototype name extracted from the SLUS executable)
- Uses the Medieval era soundtrack.
- Mostly complete, 99% complete I'd say.
- You start off in a different area, blasted by enemies from all directions. The interiors in which you spawn are not present in this version, even though there is a perfectly available starting area.
- No skybox just like plenty of other levels.
- Doors can't be interacted with, meaning that you will need to debug yourself through them.
- Almost no pickups.
- The final section of the map lacks any water to it, instead presenting the player with a jumping puzzle.
- The exit does not work, but leads straight into the next map, just like the final version.
- While Roman pig cops are present, the rest of the enemies in this map use the Roman pig cop model, resulting in hilarious glitches.
- There is no lighting in the stage whatsoever, making some areas look weird.
- The area with the pool was expanded with two other pools added in the back. The front pools both have underwater sections, and there's also slides unique to this version.
- Curiously, the names of the maps were swapped somewhere down development, with the last Roman stage being named "Blood Baths" instead, and this one being renamed "Hog Heaven".
Level 11/Roman 2 - Circus Maximus (final name "Let The Games Begin", prototype name extracted from the SLUS executable)
- Like Blood Bath, Circus Maximus is mostly complete, featuring the vast majority of areas and landmarks present in the final version (as well as many of the secrets, too).
- There is no skybox, again, and there's barely any pickups either.
- You spawn in the exact same place as the final version.
- The giant alien statue is missing.
- There is a very odd and unique phone booth with a spider on top. This does not appear ANYWHERE in the final version, and it references the booth from Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.
- Most of the enemies are present here, with their own models as well. HOWEVER, there is also a unique 'alien beast-like' enemy unique to this version, present in the Roman arena and near the end of the level. It seems to attack and react with a melee attack, and even has its own animations, but its textures are corrupted.
- No lava near the end of the map, despite most of the architecture resembling its retail counterpart.
- The little marble labyrinth is much shorter compared to its retail version.
- Once more, no lighting and that makes the map look very dull.
- Level ends with a bottomless, glitched pit. As such, map cannot be ended/completed.
Level 12/Roman 2 - Veni, Vedi, Veci (final name "Blood Baths", prototype name extracted from the SLUS executable)
- Heavily unfinished, extremely glitchy and crashes very often. Octabrains are the only enemies populating this map, and encountering one instantly crashes the game. As such, it can only be explored using debug freecam.
- Most of the areas in the final version seem to be present, alongside some unique/extra ones that didn't make the cut. However, the map is one huge linear mess with a crossroads a few rooms after you start, that same room being the one in which you spawn in the final version. In this version, all rooms are joined by paths.
- All the roads lead to dead ends, and that makes this map impossible to complete.
- There's a room covered in some weird moss, a texture that's not used anywhere in the game nor the final version.
- There's no trail of those 'flamable alien dirt patches' from the final version here.
- The tiny brain enemies are also absent altogether.
Level 13/Modern 4 (present in the final versio but unused, only accessible via gameshark)
- Heavily unfinished.
- This is a fourth loop around the modern times, this time with the area behind the fence (where the atomic health was) opening up, revealing an alien facility. This facility bears a HEAVY RESEMBLANCE to Moloch's boss stage, but he is not present here.
- Pig cops and boss draks populate this map, with the latter being really glitchy.
- There's several textures not seen anywhere else in the game, as well as two female strippers in the Bootylicious club unique to this unused map.
- Most curiously, Duke uses his Commando outfit, a costume infamous for appearing in '2 Player Mode' in the final version yet not seen anywhere in the game.
- There's a missile ready to be launched in one of the rooms, yet another thing that's not seen at all in the final version.
Boss 3/Level 29 (not found in the final version)
- This map crashes when trying to be loaded, but evidence suggests that this boss is either A) a very early version of "Wing'ed Death" or
the cut Roman boss that's nowhere to be seen in the final version. The latter would make more sense.
Boss 4/Level 30 (Moloch the Gatekeeper in the final version)
- You spawn in an arena that resembles Moloch's, albeit much smaller and unfinished.
- Duke features heavily glitched textures, but still using his regular outfit.
- Moloch is nowhere to be seen, instead a metallic alien hound replaces him, complete with attack animations and the like. One wonders at what stage of development was Moloch added.
- Worth noting is that both this level and the previous one (Boss 3) can only be accessed via gameshark by selecting either 800C5DB4 0000001D for Boss 3 (crashes the game) and 800C5DB4 0000001E for this boss level.
Multiplayer maps
- Without listing all of them individually, all maps appear to be 100% finished in terms of architecture. Some do display glitches like bugged water texture or a secret alcove in 'Armpit of Death' not being accessible due to solid walls (yet you can fly to the alcove with a jetpack).
- Most MP maps feature different item placement or no items at all.
- Factory (Anal Depository in this version) seems to be the only map that was edited/retouched for the final version. This iteration of the map lacks any portals at all, and thus several new openings were made alongside bridges to connect said openings.
Bonus Levels (Challenges in the final version)
- While the first two Bonus Levels work almost exactly as the final version, the rest that come after can only be accessed from the level select given that their respective maps cannot be completed.
- Bonus Level 3 takes place in the same map, albeit you start in middle of a group of enemies, taking damage from the get go. The only enemies in this map are Necrobrains and the fire-spitting bats. Completing the challenge is impossible since the teleport cannot be interacted with. Failing the challenge takes you to Fortress of Blood (Family Jewels in the final).
- Same as before, Bonus Level 4 seems to be closer to being finished than the previous bonus. Same enemies as the final version, albeit no medkits whatsoever. Cannot be completed. Failing places you in Blessings of the Damned (Holy Terror in the final).
- Bonus level 5 seems like a strange case. You are given the HiTemp FlameThrower, just like the final, but instead of roasting chickens you need to kill those roaming robots from the final version. There is a catch, the flamethrower is either bugged and does no damage or the enemies are invincible. Hence, the challenge cannot be completed. Failing takes you to Blood Bath (Hog Heaven in the final version). Unique to this bonus level are both the previously mentioned robot AND a unique suicide bomber robot that explodes the moment it sees you. The latter is not seen anywhere else in the game, while the former is not seen anywhere else in the prototype other than a testing map.
- Bonus level 6 has you spawn in the same place, but the boss draks have been replaced with the unused alien beasts from Circus Maximus (Let the Games Begin in the final version). Cannot be completed, and failing the bonus takes you to Veni Vedi Veci (Blood Baths in the final).
Animation/Sound Test maps
- There are two testing maps that can be selected via the level select option: Animation Test and Sound Test. Both of them can be found in the final game, albeit only accessible via gameshark.
- Animation test map seems to be a level designed entirely around testing each and every animation Duke has.
- Sound Test map seems to be a map akin to 'The Zoo' from Duke3D, featuring enemies from the game in 'cages' where you can see them react to you and their sounds. Many enemies are missing, leaving tons of cages empty.
- Worth noting is that these 2 maps use the default texture for when a texture is missing, that being a giant green arrow over a black background.
Boss 3 (level index 29/internal index 1D)
- An extremely unfinished map with tons of broken and missing textures. The only thing giving away what it could possibly be are some very minimal Roman-like textures, hinting that this was originally intended for the deleted/removed Roman boss.
- Not much to say about this one other than it causes the game to crash when trying to load it. It can only be loaded in two-player mode.
Boss 4 (level index 30/internal index 1E)
- A VERY early rendition of Moloch's final boss stage. It seems extremely basic and small, with just a platform in the middle. Worth noting is that the offical strategy guide uses this particular map (alongside a beta version of Moloch himself) as the final boss' shot.
- The highlight of this level though is that there's no Moloch or robo Alien, instead there's a particular metallic alien hound that is not present in any other map and does not seem to be in the final release AT ALL. This hound appears to throw a projectile at the player, and that's about it. It is very incomplete but fully textured.
- This level, just like the previous one, are inaccessible through the level select menu and must be force-loaded using a Gameshark code.
- Audio-less intro.
- No 3D Realms logo.
- Hidden inside the game files is the original intro with the ORIGINAL track, mostly an E3 video teaser.
- Different intro splash art, added a Playstation section to it.
- The retail background is gray with several 'nukem' symbols plastered all over it. The proto version's background is just plain blue or black in some instances.
- The 'nukem loading 3D model' is golden in this version, and silver/iron-colored in the retail version.
- The demos are completely different.
- The main menu is vastly different, with many options swapping places.
- 2P screen has placeholder names for its maps (with some being obvious jokes while others being probable final names). Also, worth noting is that "default duke" is called "modern duke" here.
- The font used in the game is different, too.
- Different Nukem icons for the sound and speed sliders. No option for Duke talk since there are VERY few lines recorded, with some of them playing just because the game is scripted to (such as level 0's "Looks like it's time to kill").
- There is a level select unlocked from the get go.
- There is a built-in debug mode that can be accessed from the second controller by pressing start. Warning: some options may crash the game.
- The pause menu is completely different. Cheats cannot be inputed from the retail version.
- The physics are slightly different, with the most noticeable change being that jumping feels very off.
- Holding down the CIRCLE button does not allow the player to instantly change weapons. Instead, it simply holsters the current weapon. Changing weapons can only be done in the inventory screen, which does not pause the game in this version (and also has a different font, too).
- The Mighty Boot only has one animation.
- Was the Throwing Knife that strong?
- No decap for axe.
- Crossbow is super weak, only one shot (instead of 3) and very long reloading time.
- Apparently a different texture for the "Energy Zapper".
- Slightly tweaked texture for FThrower? Please check.
- Freezer has glitched projectiles. It also does not trigger an insta "Mighty Boot" when you approach a frozen enemy. Different texture, too.
- Scuba tabs: unused item no longer present in the final version. In this version, it serves as a 'medkit' alternative for when you are underwater, it instantly replenishes your oxygen bar.
- Steroids can be turned off in this version. It acts like a power up in the final.
- Jetpack has a different sound effect and is somewhat glitchy.
Level 00 - Tunnel Vision (retail name "Time to Kill")
- The woman in the apartment is standing away from the light switch in this version. In the retail, you have to interact with her to access the light switch AND open a secret. Duke also says an unused phrase in this version "Show me yours and I'll show you mine" before the woman interacts.
- The switch for the secret room in the Bootylicious club is different.
- Duke uses his Duke3D rendition of "Shake it Baby".
- Different "Lara Croft" outfit in the wardrobe.
- Different KeyCard texture, different KeyCard reader.
- No security cameras.
- You do not auto-aim on the turrets.
- When destroying a stack of boxes in the warehouse, destroying the boxes closest to the floor will leave the ones on top floating in mid-air, their models intact but losing all collision.
- Only one red light when approaching the water pumps for the blue crystal.
- Several scattered tires in the bottom of the water pits, these tires do not appear in the final version.
- The devices holding the crystals (and the ones near the time warper) have a different symbol on them.
- Different warping sound.
Secret level 1 (named "Challenge 1" in retail)
- Secret track still goes unused in this version.
- You spawn in a different area completely surrounded by enemies.
- You are not prompted to find the warp portal once all enemies are killed.
- No warning sound if you are running out of time. If you lose, you don't get a second or third try.
- By activating the debug menu, one can obtain all weapons in the game. However, whereas the HiTemp Flamethrower, the Laser Gun and the Incendiary RPG have their respective extra slots, the Super Eagle (unlockable via this secret level) and the Super Shotgun don't.
Level 01 - Blazin Saddles (retail name "Duke Hill")
- No skybox.
- The floor leading to the secret in the stables is much more noticeable, and purple.
- Chickens can't be roasted.
- Women in the cabaret are doing a different dance (or glitched one), and can't be interacted with.
- The desk in one of the rooms of the cabaret is in a different position.
- The secret dark room leading to one of the cells is lit up in this version.
- The aforementioned cell is also much, MUCH bigger (and does not contain a safe number).
- The secret with the woman in the bath has its secret walls painted purple as well, making them stand out. The mirror in that same room is no longer a mirror but a static, broken texture. The rifle is not above the bed but on the wall to the right of it. That same woman appears to be mostly static, her head turned all the way around (facing the wall) and can't be interacted with.
- The Octabrains appear to be unfinished, sporting an extremely creepy and bizarre, barebones expression and an attack with no animation whatsoever other than a puff of smoke (underwater they display a broken projectile).
- The key in the bank is found inside a 'hole in the wall', with a similar hole found right next to it but containing nothing. In the final version it can be found on a steel-like texture where most keys in the game are picked up from.
- No WANTED posters.
- In the retail version, as soon as you enter the final building named "SHERIFF", there is an open cell with a destructible wall inside. That same cell is closed in this version, with the wall having changed places and no longer being destructible.
- There is a purple wall just below the staircase leading to the level's final area. This purple wall has a small room in it, but there is no way to access it.
- The room above the house with the Double Damage power-up is missing, meaning there's one less secret.
- No Octabrains in cells, impossible to enter locked cells since the switch to open them is missing.
- TONS of missing Duke lines.
Level 02 - Blazin Saddles (known as Western 1B in this version, and "Miner 69er" in the retail one)
- One fourth of the map was removed, since you start with the drill directly in front of you.
- You start in a crossroad of sorts, eliminating the previous crossroads with the suicide bombers, the poisonous gas, and the rest. This crossroad is much, much shorter too.
- The monkey bars leading to one of the switches are no longer there, meaning you have to jump to the rocky platform.
- Some of the crystals on the floor were poorly placed, leading them to clip.
- Unlike the final version, you do not need to get under the drill to continue. This time around, the drill serves as a death pit, were jumping into it will kill you. The drill looks different, too.
- The aforementioned poisonous area was moved to the right of the drill, with a glitched sign pointing towards it. This area is MUCH different than the retail one.
- The drill from the end of the level has been moved and is a bit harder to avoid.
- Octabrains in this map do have projectiles, albeit much different from their retail ones. They seem to glitch at will though, because they go back to emitting puffs of smoke whenever they want.
- The second crossroads area (the one before the drill in the final version, which also has suicide bombers) has a jump-scare with a giant drill. There's also a canary in a cage which explodes when shot. There's another jump-scare with a drill where a suicide bombers should have been.
- The atomic health behind some wooden bars has been replaced with a 'surprise'. Its texture is corrupted though.
- There is a skeleton key 'stuck' on a group of bones, making it very hard to see.
- The ropes which could be climbed at the end of the staircase have been removed.
- The dark room lit only by a few select lamps has been changed into a fully-lit room, removing the suicide bombers as well.
- The drill that was once located after the aforementioned room is here as well, making it the second of two drills. This one must be avoided and walked under to progress, though.
- For some unknown reason, in the lower part of the huge cavern with the climbable ledges, there's a bunch of items all stacked on top of one another. Amongst these items are 2 unique to these version: gunpowder and canonball. Trying to use these two will prompt Duke to take out a glitched item, akin to a key. They cannot be used and Duke puts them back in his bag as soon as he takes them out.
- This cavern seems to be very unfinished, lacking any enemies whatsoever and no items, save for a medkit found in the swimmable cavern with the 'miner corpse', which is just a regular pile bones here.
- Found below the hall with the breakable floor is the railroad as usual, but instead of a broken track that connects to another is a SUNKEN PIRATE SHIP. And surprise surprise, there's collectable cannonballs spread around its sunken ruins, alongside a cannon that cannot be interacted with.
- The path above that led to the atomic health in the retail version is still the same, but there's no pig statues to the sides, no western pigs that spawn when you grab it and no bats either.
- The suicide bombers from the bridge have been replaced with yet another drill. However, this time YOU have to operate the drill, killing enemies in front of you and destroying a wall.
- If you didn't grab the really hidden skeleton key above, you are softlocked at the end.
- No secrets in this map.
Secret Level 2 (named "Challenge 2" in retail)
- Once more, you start in the middle of some heavy gunfire, with turrets mounted on the middle platform. Turrets can also be found on the rooms to the sides.
- Getting the Super Shotgun replaces the Combat Shotgun in the menu, just like the retail version, but does not give you an extra item.
Level 03 - Miner 49er (named "Gold And Guns" in retail)
- Both the freezing cannon and the panel indicating its status are completely different. The gun itself has its cannon texture glitching.
- The fire-breathing bats in the secret path have a very primitive AI, as well as unfinished projectiles.
- There is a glitched cave right beneath this aforementioned secret path with the bridge that seems passable, except you cannot go in it. You must blow its invisible wall to access it.
- Worth noting is that while the guns/turrets/cannons look very rudimentary compared to their final version counterparts, so are their projectiles, shooting bullets rather than freezing bolts.
- There is a unique reference to Star Wars in this version in the form of Han Solo in a carbonite slab. One would believe they would have swapped the Back to the Future reference with this one, but both are present in the beta.
- The underwater passage is present in this version, but the water has been removed. There is a second passage with water whose liquids were left intact though, and this particular passage has a glitched section where you can breathe underwater.
- The area with the stone pillars leads nowhere in this version. However, there is a sign on the wall that reads as if a turret was there.
- The inescapable lava pit that separates a series of crossroads has been replaced with a REALLY DEEP pit.
- The area with the 'air trolleys' that carry you from one side to the other lack the stone platform to the left.
- The aforementioned underwater area (the one without water) has a very dangerous deep pit with a secret at the bottom. Unless you have a jetpack, you cannot get out. However, a jetpack is not available to the player up to this point. On the other side of this pit is a unique room with a bucket (unseen in the final version), a pile of bones and a pump that restores the water, also absent from retail.
- Unique to this version is a very dangerous 'staircase' of sorts that leads to a turret surrounded by lava. In the final version, this turret is located in another area (past the aforementioned area with the stone pillars), but both areas bear a strong resemblance.
- Deactivating all four turrets opens up the exit, there's no secret room this time.
Level 04? - True Grit (not present in final release)
- Heavily unfinished map set somewhere underground, in an Egyptian-like cavern. This map bears a heavy resemblance towards E1L5: The Abyss from Duke3D and Total Meltdown's "Plug and Pray" E4L1: Nightmare Zone. There's countless stuff that does not appear in the final version, ranging from Egypt-like textures, statues, ancient relics, a bonfire with rocks, a bloody handprint, among others.
- This map features just ONE enemy, and it's a single lizard guardian a bridge. Since this map is unfinished, it cannot be completed.
- Worth noting is that this map seems to have been built on a very early/old version of the game, using old SFX for the pause menu and navigating through options. These SFX will remain in effect until you load another map.
Boss 1 (retail name being "The Reaper")
- Map cannot be accessed by legal means since Miner 49er lead straight to True Grit, a map that cannot be completed.
- The Reaper has a special move in this version where he boosts himself off the ground using a fire boost. Pretty neat. He also shoots in small bursts instead of subjecting you to continuous gunfire.
- He has no lifebar and dies in about 5 or 6 hits to the head, deflating instead of doing his death animation.
- The area in which you fight him looks nothing alike the final version's arena, this one being a closed cavern with an outer ring the player can use to get the high ground on the fight.
- Upon beating the boss, the level does not end, softlocking the player.
Level 05/Modern 2 - Crate Carnage (retail name "Obey or Die", prototype name extracted from the SLUS executable)
- You start in the same area as in the retail, only facing another position and surrounded by Pig Cops.
- None of those 'shooting robots' from the retail, not present here.
- Textures glitch constantly around you: lamp-posts, traffic lights, etc.
- The woman in the apartment is present, but the apartment is a mess: things have been moved around, the window is glitching through the floor, the woman's textures are glitching as well, and the mirror is just as static texture. No posters, no rack of weapons, no warehouse key.
- Although invisible, there is a secret entrance to the warehouse. Instead of a breakable vent, it's a non-solid wall.
- There's a pig-cop trapped behind an iron gate that you can't shoot through.
- There's a glitched, bottomless pit in the first room of the warehouse. Stepping in it softlocks the game.
- Aside from those first pig cops, the map itself is devoid of any enemies or items, clearly in its very first stages of development. Regardless, the vast majority of its architecture is done, with only one or two areas varying from its final release (including an area where you can find a 'surprise' in this version on a platform atop a really deep pit that softlocks the player).
- The vats with water are much shorter than their retail version.
- There are no crystals to be obtained, hence the map cannot be completed (despite the presence of a 'surprise').
Level 06/Medieval 1 - Fortress of Blood (retail name "Family Jewels", prototype name extracted from the SLUS executable)
- The music in this version is NOTHING alike to the final version. Also, it seems that it does not play again once it ends. This tune is not found at all in the final version, with the Medieval era using the one assigned to Roman maps in this beta (and the Roman levels getting a new track altogether).
- The level already starts with the main gate lowered. In the final version, the player has to activate a series of switches by navigating the left and right areas surrounding the castle itself. The gate also looks like it was designed and textured alongside the rest of the map instead of being an actual gate.
- Misplaced items here and there, including flamethrower fuel, crossbows and medkits in midair.
- No "Double Damage" power-up at the beginning.
- The top of the castle is accessible from the 'lower areas', something that does not happen in the final release.
- The infamous chessboard-like room is accessible in this version, a room that haunted fans of this game for many, many years.
- The lever that lowers the main gate has been replaced with a sword stuck in stone, unique to this version. This stone cannot be interacted with.
- None of the hidden side-passages are present here.
- Pig Cops seem to lack their shotgun blast sound for some odd reason.
- The broken underwater iron gates are missing.
- The hidden Minigun under the bridge is missing, too.
- There is no huge "Nukem" logo when you enter the castle's courtyard.
- The sheep are static, with no animations whatsoever (not even the ones procreating). There's also a unique animal to this version, a static and un-killable cow that is not present in the final version.
- No key to enter the main castle, there are no jewels either.
- There is an inaccessible room with walls textured like some futuristic devices that cannot be interacted with.
- There is a unique spring-like device in the room with the wooden platforms that's not present in the final version, alongside a room in that same area that looks like a barn inside the castle. Very odd.
- Overall, several rooms and things are missing, and the map cannot be completed. There is a weird room behind the throne in the chessboard-like room that seems like it was designed to be the original exit.
Level 07/Medieval 2 - Gothic Nightmare (retail name "Resistance is Feudal", prototype name extracted from the SLUS executable)
- You start in a COMPLETELY different area, a crossroads of sorts with several doors and enemies already blasting at you.
- The level is largely unrecognizable from its final version. Many, many things have been changed. There is a locked room at the beginning with no way to access it that resembles the very entrance of the level in its retail incarnation (or the very last room, too), as well as a green pit-like area full of cells with enemies inside them.
- There is no 'surprise' in this map.
- The reddish and beefier counterparts to the regular lizards are the enemies populating this level (for the most part), but instead of shooting their miniguns repeatedly they simply shoot a single shot.
- Several of the level's retail landmarks are present, but almost unrecognizable.
- While the retail version features a guillotine (that is present here albeit much smaller in size), this version features something much more gruesome and graphic that was removed from the final release: bloody chunks of flesh and corpses hanging from meathooks.
- The level's ending is present and is pretty much identical to the final release (the shade of green used is a bit brighter here), but stepping into it does nothing.
- Map is not only devoid of items for the most part, but also cannot be completed.
Level 08/Medieval 3 - Blessings of the Damned (retail name "Holy Terror", prototype name extracted from the SLUS executable)
- You start in the same area as the final version, but unless you use the debug mode and disable collision, this is as far as you go since the main doors cannot be interacted with.
- This map is VERY unfinished: blood has no texture, resulting in graphical glitches, the lizards lack any textures as well and glitch on sight.
- The library appears to be present, but atop a ladder inside a warehouse it seems. Inside said warehouse are rooms with beds, too. There is another library inside an inaccessible secre too.
- The map appears to have no lightning of any kind, making it look very dull.
- Killing Octabrains in this map crashes the game with an 'animation missing' error.
- Nothing can be interacted with in this map, not the doors nor the little sanctuaries where you kneel in front of in the final version.
- The giant colored blue windows can be destroyed, but they have nothing behind them.
- There is a unique spiral-like staircase not present in the final game. This staircase leads towards a chain connected to a giant bell and two empty rooms. In the final version, the room with the bells led into the final area.
- No secrets WHATSOEVER.
- There is no exit behind the huge colored window, only a glitched lizard. Cannot be completed.
Boss 2 (retail name "Wing'ed Death")
- The boss is completely different and unique in this version: a humongous armored green lizard equipped with a chaingun and a saw. However, he has default health and dies in 3 hits.
- The boss moves, has sounds but no death animation as he reuses the stock one.
- The music is the same as the one from the 'modern' levels. Duke seems to be trying to load a new outfit but instead glitches out and has half his body invisible.
- The map bears a striking resemblance to its final version's counterpart, most specifically the bottom section of the latter.
- Once the boss is killed, the level does not end, hence softlocking the player.
Level 09/Modern 3 - Slither's Sewage (final name "Pig Factory", prototype name extracted from the SLUS executable)
- Extremely barebones, boss draks are completely untextured. The map is only features the most basic and elementary architecture, a most primitive layout of what it came to be in the final. One thing to be noted, Bootylicious is still called that and not DANGLERS, like in this iteration of present day. The secret room is also located behind the mirror (which in turn is missing from the wall).
- Curiously, while the regular tiny robots with the miniguns are not present in Moder 2, the ones with the RPGs do here, though they kill themselves more often than not and they feature a rather low-res look.
- This map, just like Modern 4, has a huge Nukem logo in the area with the totaled car and the fence. This is not found anywhere in the final game, and the logo's style resembles that of this beta's Nukem icon in the Sound option menu.
- Cannot be completed due to its heavily unfinished state.
Level 10/Roman 1 - Blood Bath (final name "Hog Heaven", prototype name extracted from the SLUS executable)
- Uses the Medieval era soundtrack.
- Mostly complete, 99% complete I'd say.
- You start off in a different area, blasted by enemies from all directions. The interiors in which you spawn are not present in this version, even though there is a perfectly available starting area.
- No skybox just like plenty of other levels.
- Doors can't be interacted with, meaning that you will need to debug yourself through them.
- Almost no pickups.
- The final section of the map lacks any water to it, instead presenting the player with a jumping puzzle.
- The exit does not work, but leads straight into the next map, just like the final version.
- While Roman pig cops are present, the rest of the enemies in this map use the Roman pig cop model, resulting in hilarious glitches.
- There is no lighting in the stage whatsoever, making some areas look weird.
- The area with the pool was expanded with two other pools added in the back. The front pools both have underwater sections, and there's also slides unique to this version.
- Curiously, the names of the maps were swapped somewhere down development, with the last Roman stage being named "Blood Baths" instead, and this one being renamed "Hog Heaven".
Level 11/Roman 2 - Circus Maximus (final name "Let The Games Begin", prototype name extracted from the SLUS executable)
- Like Blood Bath, Circus Maximus is mostly complete, featuring the vast majority of areas and landmarks present in the final version (as well as many of the secrets, too).
- There is no skybox, again, and there's barely any pickups either.
- You spawn in the exact same place as the final version.
- The giant alien statue is missing.
- There is a very odd and unique phone booth with a spider on top. This does not appear ANYWHERE in the final version, and it references the booth from Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.
- Most of the enemies are present here, with their own models as well. HOWEVER, there is also a unique 'alien beast-like' enemy unique to this version, present in the Roman arena and near the end of the level. It seems to attack and react with a melee attack, and even has its own animations, but its textures are corrupted.
- No lava near the end of the map, despite most of the architecture resembling its retail counterpart.
- The little marble labyrinth is much shorter compared to its retail version.
- Once more, no lighting and that makes the map look very dull.
- Level ends with a bottomless, glitched pit. As such, map cannot be ended/completed.
Level 12/Roman 2 - Veni, Vedi, Veci (final name "Blood Baths", prototype name extracted from the SLUS executable)
- Heavily unfinished, extremely glitchy and crashes very often. Octabrains are the only enemies populating this map, and encountering one instantly crashes the game. As such, it can only be explored using debug freecam.
- Most of the areas in the final version seem to be present, alongside some unique/extra ones that didn't make the cut. However, the map is one huge linear mess with a crossroads a few rooms after you start, that same room being the one in which you spawn in the final version. In this version, all rooms are joined by paths.
- All the roads lead to dead ends, and that makes this map impossible to complete.
- There's a room covered in some weird moss, a texture that's not used anywhere in the game nor the final version.
- There's no trail of those 'flamable alien dirt patches' from the final version here.
- The tiny brain enemies are also absent altogether.
Level 13/Modern 4 (present in the final versio but unused, only accessible via gameshark)
- Heavily unfinished.
- This is a fourth loop around the modern times, this time with the area behind the fence (where the atomic health was) opening up, revealing an alien facility. This facility bears a HEAVY RESEMBLANCE to Moloch's boss stage, but he is not present here.
- Pig cops and boss draks populate this map, with the latter being really glitchy.
- There's several textures not seen anywhere else in the game, as well as two female strippers in the Bootylicious club unique to this unused map.
- Most curiously, Duke uses his Commando outfit, a costume infamous for appearing in '2 Player Mode' in the final version yet not seen anywhere in the game.
- There's a missile ready to be launched in one of the rooms, yet another thing that's not seen at all in the final version.
Boss 3/Level 29 (not found in the final version)
- This map crashes when trying to be loaded, but evidence suggests that this boss is either A) a very early version of "Wing'ed Death" or
the cut Roman boss that's nowhere to be seen in the final version. The latter would make more sense.Boss 4/Level 30 (Moloch the Gatekeeper in the final version)
- You spawn in an arena that resembles Moloch's, albeit much smaller and unfinished.
- Duke features heavily glitched textures, but still using his regular outfit.
- Moloch is nowhere to be seen, instead a metallic alien hound replaces him, complete with attack animations and the like. One wonders at what stage of development was Moloch added.
- Worth noting is that both this level and the previous one (Boss 3) can only be accessed via gameshark by selecting either 800C5DB4 0000001D for Boss 3 (crashes the game) and 800C5DB4 0000001E for this boss level.
Multiplayer maps
- Without listing all of them individually, all maps appear to be 100% finished in terms of architecture. Some do display glitches like bugged water texture or a secret alcove in 'Armpit of Death' not being accessible due to solid walls (yet you can fly to the alcove with a jetpack).
- Most MP maps feature different item placement or no items at all.
- Factory (Anal Depository in this version) seems to be the only map that was edited/retouched for the final version. This iteration of the map lacks any portals at all, and thus several new openings were made alongside bridges to connect said openings.
Bonus Levels (Challenges in the final version)
- While the first two Bonus Levels work almost exactly as the final version, the rest that come after can only be accessed from the level select given that their respective maps cannot be completed.
- Bonus Level 3 takes place in the same map, albeit you start in middle of a group of enemies, taking damage from the get go. The only enemies in this map are Necrobrains and the fire-spitting bats. Completing the challenge is impossible since the teleport cannot be interacted with. Failing the challenge takes you to Fortress of Blood (Family Jewels in the final).
- Same as before, Bonus Level 4 seems to be closer to being finished than the previous bonus. Same enemies as the final version, albeit no medkits whatsoever. Cannot be completed. Failing places you in Blessings of the Damned (Holy Terror in the final).
- Bonus level 5 seems like a strange case. You are given the HiTemp FlameThrower, just like the final, but instead of roasting chickens you need to kill those roaming robots from the final version. There is a catch, the flamethrower is either bugged and does no damage or the enemies are invincible. Hence, the challenge cannot be completed. Failing takes you to Blood Bath (Hog Heaven in the final version). Unique to this bonus level are both the previously mentioned robot AND a unique suicide bomber robot that explodes the moment it sees you. The latter is not seen anywhere else in the game, while the former is not seen anywhere else in the prototype other than a testing map.
- Bonus level 6 has you spawn in the same place, but the boss draks have been replaced with the unused alien beasts from Circus Maximus (Let the Games Begin in the final version). Cannot be completed, and failing the bonus takes you to Veni Vedi Veci (Blood Baths in the final).
Animation/Sound Test maps
- There are two testing maps that can be selected via the level select option: Animation Test and Sound Test. Both of them can be found in the final game, albeit only accessible via gameshark.
- Animation test map seems to be a level designed entirely around testing each and every animation Duke has.
- Sound Test map seems to be a map akin to 'The Zoo' from Duke3D, featuring enemies from the game in 'cages' where you can see them react to you and their sounds. Many enemies are missing, leaving tons of cages empty.
- Worth noting is that these 2 maps use the default texture for when a texture is missing, that being a giant green arrow over a black background.
Boss 3 (level index 29/internal index 1D)
- An extremely unfinished map with tons of broken and missing textures. The only thing giving away what it could possibly be are some very minimal Roman-like textures, hinting that this was originally intended for the deleted/removed Roman boss.
- Not much to say about this one other than it causes the game to crash when trying to load it. It can only be loaded in two-player mode.
Boss 4 (level index 30/internal index 1E)
- A VERY early rendition of Moloch's final boss stage. It seems extremely basic and small, with just a platform in the middle. Worth noting is that the offical strategy guide uses this particular map (alongside a beta version of Moloch himself) as the final boss' shot.
- The highlight of this level though is that there's no Moloch or robo Alien, instead there's a particular metallic alien hound that is not present in any other map and does not seem to be in the final release AT ALL. This hound appears to throw a projectile at the player, and that's about it. It is very incomplete but fully textured.
- This level, just like the previous one, are inaccessible through the level select menu and must be force-loaded using a Gameshark code.
Duke Nukem: Time To Kill July 7th 1998 Prototype
Spoiler
General Differences:
- Intro present, still completely silent. Remains the same as June 12th's, with no censorship.
- Legal text same as j12.
- No demos.
- Bosses 3 and 4 still missing from level rotation.
- Same menu as j12, added a "Dukism Volume" option in the sound menu. Renamed "Speech" in final.
- Menus is extremely slow and sluggish despite the lack of demos.
- Selecting cinematics from the debug menu still crash. Added a "Analog" option to it, too.
- Flamethrower uses updated model. Same with Energy weapon.
- Much more Duke voicelines.
Modern 1 - Tunnel Vision (Time to Kill in retail)
- Crate physics now work appropriately.
- All Draks hideouts (which open after passing specific triggers) are opened up for some reason.
- Doors to the teleporting area open in a glitched way.
Secret Level 1 (Challenge 1 in retail)
- You spawn in a different area than the J12 beta, still not where you spawn in the final version.
Western 1A - Blazin Saddles (Duke Hill in retail)
- Music seems slightly updated.
- Chickens can now be roasted.
- Secret floor in livery looks like final, Necro added in secret area just like retail. In fact, both secret areas lost their purple walls.
- Duke says an unused line when interacting with the (still bugged) woman in the bathtub (Rubba-dub-dub, get out of the tub!). The secret room in general looks just like the final version's.
- Secret attic added, no power-up in it though. Doesn't count as a secret either.
- Desk in the salon moved right next to the wall, just like in retail.
- Skybox is there, but only 1/4th of it, the rest of the sky is just black.
- Necros now have working projectiles... sometimes.
- Secret under the Sheriff's is now dark, needing the Night Vision Goggles to see what's inside.
- All pieces of the puzzle have their respective retail names.
- Skeleton key now found on the metallic box just like retail.
- Sheriff's look just like the final version's, except that the door leading to the cell with the secret wall does not close behind you.
Western 1B - Blazin Saddles (Miner 69er in retail)
- Level looks completely different from J12 beta, much closer to final. You start in the same place as the final version. The map is still unfinished compared to its final counterpart, with several parts untextured and presenting architecture that's nowhere to be seen in its retail version.
- Poisonous gas looks really different from final.
- Jump scare drills are still in the map, with suicide bomber pigs not present yet.
- Surprise pick-up removed from its spot behind the wooden beams. Instead, an atomic health replaces it, just like the final version.
- Climbable net added on this version with night-vision goggles at the top, just like final.
- Bag of gunpowder can be picked up in the secret watery cave with the skeleton. Gunpowder is nowhere to be found in the final version.
- The drill coming at the player from the long room with the pitfalls has been replaced with 2 rolling stones rolling back and forth from side to side. Needless to say, this was not in the final version at all.
- The room at the end of the aforementioned hall now has the two pig statues, but there's a 'green crystal' present in the altar (an atomic health in the final version) that can be picked up just like ammo. Seems like a trap though, as enemies spawn when you grab it (just like final version).
- There's some weird pig-like stone faces on each side of the wall in the aforementioned altar room, almost as if they are supposed to shoot spears or arrows out of them.
- It is not clear what Duke uses, but you can now interact with the back of the drill you can push to activate it and have it move on its own, mowing down enemies and tearing walls down.
- Apparently, no 'surprise' pick-up in this level. The place where it's supposed to be (in the final version) only holds an atomic health.
Western 2 - Miner 49er (Gold And Guns in retail)
- Turrets/Guns/Cannons look just like their final version counterparts. So do the icons on the wall signaling their statuses.
- Fire bats now charge at you and attempt to knock you down, just like final version.
- The secret cave in the water (located by accessing the secret area behind the blocked mine area) now has a visible wall that can be broken, but for some reason it does not react to bullets or explosives, rendering the secret impossible to access.
- Turrets still only fire bullets, unlike their freezing bolts from the final version.
- The Han Solo easter egg was removed.
- The device used to carry the player across the huge ledge seems to be broken. Thankfully, there's a jetpack to carry you instead. Also, in this same area, the platform to the left appears for the first time, still looking quite different from the final version.
- Map seems to be 99% complete, almost a 1:1 from its final version counterpart. Compared to its J12 version, almost 1/4th of the map was excised, removing all of the underwater puzzle, many halls and one easter egg, as well as moving one turret's location.
- Worth noting is that the DeLorean is located in the lower left corner in its secret room, and the boxes in the upper right corner. This was reversed in the final version.
Western 3 - True Grit (not present in final version, known as XXX)
- You spawn in a different location. Map is slightly changed, not as heavily unfinished as before but there's some clear work done to it.
- Sometimes, interacting with the bloody hand on the wall seems to crash the game.
- Teleporters were added to the unlit bonfires.
- Keys can now be picked up, with one key reading STONE KEY. These are founds on stone altars.
- This seems to be the last edit done to this map, as the unused one located in the final version is exactly the same.
- Pausing and interacting with the menu (even after leaving straight to the main menu) causes SFX to play that does not match that of other levels or the final version at all. This indicates that True Grit was built on a very old build of the game. Accessing any other maps instantly restores the standard SFX.
- This map cannot be finished.
Boss 1 (Reaper in Retail)
- Essentially the same as J12, only difference being that he seems a bit faster. Killing him still won't complete the map.
Modern 2 - Crate Carnage (Obey or Die in retail)
- You start in a different area, right in front of the warehouse that's opened up for this iteration of the present day. This area does not match neither J12's or retail's.
- The BOOTYLICIOUS club sign can be found outside the club but against the wall, on the floor, as if it was damaged and knocked off. This is not present in J12 or retail.
- The club itself is TRASHED, unlike the final version where it only shows some mild damage to it. No babes either.
- The apartment room with the resistance items in the final version is completely empty. It seems that it's just copy-pasted from its Modern 1 iteration since the windows are intact.
- In the retail version of this level, the secret from Modern 1 (Time To Kill) in the sewers is there, but with the lid off and flooded. This time around, the sewers are completely empty (save for some night goggles) and the entrance to the subway contains no water either.
- There's still no signs, and the entrance to the warehouse is opened by default.
- The secret exit to the warehouse now looks like its final version's. However, it's just the shootable gate, because it's still covered by a fake wall (unlike the final version).
- There does not seem to be any enemies, and the lighting is slightly off.
- There's three crystal devices in one of the offices, two of the crystals missing their textures and only the green one being colored. All altars have different symbols on them, too.
- Just like in the previous prototype, there's a secret vent above the stalls, which is missing from the final version.
- Also, the hall leading to various rooms is much, much smaller. The aforementioned vent was also moved the stalls into the main hall in the final version.
- Duke seems to used a sampled "Damn" from DN3D when interacting with a switch. This is not used in the final version.
- Overall, the map is still heavily unfinished (lacking all monsters and the vast majority of pick-ups, not to mention gates that won't open). However, many areas bear a striking similarity to this map's final version, with some areas needing just an edit or two to look like their retail counterparts. Some areas were also cut.
- Ironically, this map seems to be much more finished in its J12 version than here, seeing as how those who designed this map clearly had other ideas for it. Regardless, this version, while unfinished, is much closer to its final iteration.
- This map cannot be finished.
Medieval 1 - Fortress of Blood (Family Jewels in retail)
- Bridge is no longer a static texture, now you have to lower it yourself (just like in retail).
- Gatling Gun secret added.
- Music now loops.
- Much more items were added.
- While several metallic gates are missing in the water passage, an extra cave was added that's not present neither in the J12 beta nor the final version.
- None of the jewels can be found, and the lower caves no longer connect with the castle (unlike the J12 beta, but just like retail).
- Instead of a lever that lowers the bridge, there's two skeleton keys one next to the other as well as a keyhole right next to them which opens the bridge. The other key can be used in the castle's courtyard to open the gate to it.
- The sheep are no longer static.
- The huts still keep their beta layout.
- A nukem logo was added on top of the castle gate, but there's still no ledges around it where pig cops would stand in the final version.
- There's no secret passages inside the castle's courtyard, though there is one outside said castle on the right side that leads straight inside the castle (the one on the left leads to a secret room but it's a dead end).
- Instead of two angels/valkyries (one of which has a pushable bosom) there are two textures of nude ancient women to open the fireplace, which leads to the 'dead end' described above.
- There's two knights right next to each side of the entrance leading into the castle's main hall which are not there neither on the J12 version nor retail.
- The non-functional spring has been replaced by a book which, when interacted with, causes wooden platforms to 'magically' go up and down.
- The room that would eventally turn into Sir Duke's glorious room is still nothing but an indoors "barn" of sorts that makes no sense.
- The room with the hole to drop onto the wooden beams now leads into the infamous chess room. The previously mentioned room also contains a skeleton key, unlike the final version. Not picking up the skeleton key softlocks you into the chess room since that key is used to unlock the main door that leads to it.
- There's some kind of exit behind the throne, a room that would later be repurposed in the final version and edited a bit to become the exit that leads to Resistance is Feudal.
- The level seems mostly complete right now, lacking a bit of polishing. It is interesting just how much different their approach to it was in the final version with the 'jewels', and it is still unknown why the chess room was removed. Curiously, one of the shots in the final version of the game's credits showcases this deleted room, albeit the shot is clearly from the J12 beta.
- The level is impossible to complete.
Medieval 2 - Gothic Horror (Resistance is Feudal in retail)
- The spawn of this map resembles both J12 and retail. You spawn in what seems like a crossroads at first (akin to J12's spawn point), but those crossroads are just solid walls with knights. Walking down the curving path leads to a room that looks just like the spawn point from the retail version of this map.
- Just like the J12 beta, this level is a mess, though much more organized than its earlier counterpart. It seems that the person who was in designed cut many of the superfluous 'filler' areas and connected many of the loose rooms. This means, however, that the 'forking paths'/'crossroads' theme of the original map was more or less diminished in favor of a more straightforward/linear map.
- While a great number of the rooms from its previous iteration are still presents, they've all been altered somewhat to make them look close to their final iteration.
- Some rooms which have been improved upon greatly were ultimate removed in the final version (the large and humongous 'prison' like area with all the cells in a circular fashion, as well as the rooms with dead bodies and chunks of flesh hanging from meat-hooks).
- It seems that the theme of the map was originally for it to be a torture chamber of sorts mixed with a prison. None of the 'toxic' or 'gas' elements of the final version are present.
- The guillotine from J12 is now larger and resembles its final version.
- The level's ending is almost identical throughout J12, this version and the final one. However, the map cannot be completed.
Medieval 3 - Blessings of the Damned (Holy Terror in retail)
- Unlike the J12 beta (and the final version), you don't start behind the huge, green mossy doors. You start in front of them, already past them.
- The empty and barebones warehouse from before has 'evolved', possessing much more furniture, boxes and details this time around, with the humongous empty warehouse area from the J12 beta with the stair that lead to the library having now been turned into a library of sorts, with a path that leads straight to the sewers (this path being a secret in its retail counterpart). In the final version, the room on top was removed and this become a full-fledged library.
- Given the Nukem altars lighting, it is made apparently clear that the shots of Duke kneeling before them in the final version's credits come from this build.
- The bowls holding holy water in them are much larger and are standing instead of hanging from the walls like in the final version.
- In the giant hall with the door that leads to the church there's many chains hanging from the ceiling, all these attached to bells. This is not present in the J12 beta nor the final version.
- Overall, the map looks REALLY similar to the J12 beta, but some of the work done to it approaches it to its final release. There are no secrets whatsoever, and the map cannot be completed.
Boss 2 (Wing'ed Death in retail)
- Exactly the same as in J12 beta.
Modern 3 - Slither's Sewage (Pig Factory in retail)
- Bootylicious looks just like J12 with one interesting detail: the secret room contains a picture that resembles that of the woman in the final version's ending.
- The map appears to be exactly the same as found in the J12 beta.
Roman 1 - Blood Bath (Hog Heaven in retail)
- Unlike J12, this time around there is a skybox.
- Exactly like its J12 version.
Roman 2 - Circus Maximus (Let the Games Begin in retail)
- No changes.
Roman 3 - Veni Vedi Veci (Blood Baths in retail)
- No changes.
Colisseum
- This level serves both as a challenge and a multiplayer map. In this particular version of it, several solid blocks were added in the middle of the arena for no apparent reason. These are not present in the J12 beta, and they were ultimately removed on release.
Boss 3 (level index 29/internal index 1D)
- Present in the previous proto as well, this map seems to have gotten a slight degree of work done to it before being dropped altogether.
- There's more Roman textures added, like an entrance, and some kind of 'circular' area akin to a colosseum. Enabling the collision boxes on in the debug menu makes it painfully clear that it was originally planned to be a Roman colosseum for the removed boss.
- There is one enemy, but sadly it is invisible and you can only see (albeit BARELY) the projectiles it throws at you.
- You can now start this map on one player, but the debug free camera mode is needed to explore whatever is left of it.
- Intro present, still completely silent. Remains the same as June 12th's, with no censorship.
- Legal text same as j12.
- No demos.
- Bosses 3 and 4 still missing from level rotation.
- Same menu as j12, added a "Dukism Volume" option in the sound menu. Renamed "Speech" in final.
- Menus is extremely slow and sluggish despite the lack of demos.
- Selecting cinematics from the debug menu still crash. Added a "Analog" option to it, too.
- Flamethrower uses updated model. Same with Energy weapon.
- Much more Duke voicelines.
Modern 1 - Tunnel Vision (Time to Kill in retail)
- Crate physics now work appropriately.
- All Draks hideouts (which open after passing specific triggers) are opened up for some reason.
- Doors to the teleporting area open in a glitched way.
Secret Level 1 (Challenge 1 in retail)
- You spawn in a different area than the J12 beta, still not where you spawn in the final version.
Western 1A - Blazin Saddles (Duke Hill in retail)
- Music seems slightly updated.
- Chickens can now be roasted.
- Secret floor in livery looks like final, Necro added in secret area just like retail. In fact, both secret areas lost their purple walls.
- Duke says an unused line when interacting with the (still bugged) woman in the bathtub (Rubba-dub-dub, get out of the tub!). The secret room in general looks just like the final version's.
- Secret attic added, no power-up in it though. Doesn't count as a secret either.
- Desk in the salon moved right next to the wall, just like in retail.
- Skybox is there, but only 1/4th of it, the rest of the sky is just black.
- Necros now have working projectiles... sometimes.
- Secret under the Sheriff's is now dark, needing the Night Vision Goggles to see what's inside.
- All pieces of the puzzle have their respective retail names.
- Skeleton key now found on the metallic box just like retail.
- Sheriff's look just like the final version's, except that the door leading to the cell with the secret wall does not close behind you.
Western 1B - Blazin Saddles (Miner 69er in retail)
- Level looks completely different from J12 beta, much closer to final. You start in the same place as the final version. The map is still unfinished compared to its final counterpart, with several parts untextured and presenting architecture that's nowhere to be seen in its retail version.
- Poisonous gas looks really different from final.
- Jump scare drills are still in the map, with suicide bomber pigs not present yet.
- Surprise pick-up removed from its spot behind the wooden beams. Instead, an atomic health replaces it, just like the final version.
- Climbable net added on this version with night-vision goggles at the top, just like final.
- Bag of gunpowder can be picked up in the secret watery cave with the skeleton. Gunpowder is nowhere to be found in the final version.
- The drill coming at the player from the long room with the pitfalls has been replaced with 2 rolling stones rolling back and forth from side to side. Needless to say, this was not in the final version at all.
- The room at the end of the aforementioned hall now has the two pig statues, but there's a 'green crystal' present in the altar (an atomic health in the final version) that can be picked up just like ammo. Seems like a trap though, as enemies spawn when you grab it (just like final version).
- There's some weird pig-like stone faces on each side of the wall in the aforementioned altar room, almost as if they are supposed to shoot spears or arrows out of them.
- It is not clear what Duke uses, but you can now interact with the back of the drill you can push to activate it and have it move on its own, mowing down enemies and tearing walls down.
- Apparently, no 'surprise' pick-up in this level. The place where it's supposed to be (in the final version) only holds an atomic health.
Western 2 - Miner 49er (Gold And Guns in retail)
- Turrets/Guns/Cannons look just like their final version counterparts. So do the icons on the wall signaling their statuses.
- Fire bats now charge at you and attempt to knock you down, just like final version.
- The secret cave in the water (located by accessing the secret area behind the blocked mine area) now has a visible wall that can be broken, but for some reason it does not react to bullets or explosives, rendering the secret impossible to access.
- Turrets still only fire bullets, unlike their freezing bolts from the final version.
- The Han Solo easter egg was removed.
- The device used to carry the player across the huge ledge seems to be broken. Thankfully, there's a jetpack to carry you instead. Also, in this same area, the platform to the left appears for the first time, still looking quite different from the final version.
- Map seems to be 99% complete, almost a 1:1 from its final version counterpart. Compared to its J12 version, almost 1/4th of the map was excised, removing all of the underwater puzzle, many halls and one easter egg, as well as moving one turret's location.
- Worth noting is that the DeLorean is located in the lower left corner in its secret room, and the boxes in the upper right corner. This was reversed in the final version.
Western 3 - True Grit (not present in final version, known as XXX)
- You spawn in a different location. Map is slightly changed, not as heavily unfinished as before but there's some clear work done to it.
- Sometimes, interacting with the bloody hand on the wall seems to crash the game.
- Teleporters were added to the unlit bonfires.
- Keys can now be picked up, with one key reading STONE KEY. These are founds on stone altars.
- This seems to be the last edit done to this map, as the unused one located in the final version is exactly the same.
- Pausing and interacting with the menu (even after leaving straight to the main menu) causes SFX to play that does not match that of other levels or the final version at all. This indicates that True Grit was built on a very old build of the game. Accessing any other maps instantly restores the standard SFX.
- This map cannot be finished.
Boss 1 (Reaper in Retail)
- Essentially the same as J12, only difference being that he seems a bit faster. Killing him still won't complete the map.
Modern 2 - Crate Carnage (Obey or Die in retail)
- You start in a different area, right in front of the warehouse that's opened up for this iteration of the present day. This area does not match neither J12's or retail's.
- The BOOTYLICIOUS club sign can be found outside the club but against the wall, on the floor, as if it was damaged and knocked off. This is not present in J12 or retail.
- The club itself is TRASHED, unlike the final version where it only shows some mild damage to it. No babes either.
- The apartment room with the resistance items in the final version is completely empty. It seems that it's just copy-pasted from its Modern 1 iteration since the windows are intact.
- In the retail version of this level, the secret from Modern 1 (Time To Kill) in the sewers is there, but with the lid off and flooded. This time around, the sewers are completely empty (save for some night goggles) and the entrance to the subway contains no water either.
- There's still no signs, and the entrance to the warehouse is opened by default.
- The secret exit to the warehouse now looks like its final version's. However, it's just the shootable gate, because it's still covered by a fake wall (unlike the final version).
- There does not seem to be any enemies, and the lighting is slightly off.
- There's three crystal devices in one of the offices, two of the crystals missing their textures and only the green one being colored. All altars have different symbols on them, too.
- Just like in the previous prototype, there's a secret vent above the stalls, which is missing from the final version.
- Also, the hall leading to various rooms is much, much smaller. The aforementioned vent was also moved the stalls into the main hall in the final version.
- Duke seems to used a sampled "Damn" from DN3D when interacting with a switch. This is not used in the final version.
- Overall, the map is still heavily unfinished (lacking all monsters and the vast majority of pick-ups, not to mention gates that won't open). However, many areas bear a striking similarity to this map's final version, with some areas needing just an edit or two to look like their retail counterparts. Some areas were also cut.
- Ironically, this map seems to be much more finished in its J12 version than here, seeing as how those who designed this map clearly had other ideas for it. Regardless, this version, while unfinished, is much closer to its final iteration.
- This map cannot be finished.
Medieval 1 - Fortress of Blood (Family Jewels in retail)
- Bridge is no longer a static texture, now you have to lower it yourself (just like in retail).
- Gatling Gun secret added.
- Music now loops.
- Much more items were added.
- While several metallic gates are missing in the water passage, an extra cave was added that's not present neither in the J12 beta nor the final version.
- None of the jewels can be found, and the lower caves no longer connect with the castle (unlike the J12 beta, but just like retail).
- Instead of a lever that lowers the bridge, there's two skeleton keys one next to the other as well as a keyhole right next to them which opens the bridge. The other key can be used in the castle's courtyard to open the gate to it.
- The sheep are no longer static.
- The huts still keep their beta layout.
- A nukem logo was added on top of the castle gate, but there's still no ledges around it where pig cops would stand in the final version.
- There's no secret passages inside the castle's courtyard, though there is one outside said castle on the right side that leads straight inside the castle (the one on the left leads to a secret room but it's a dead end).
- Instead of two angels/valkyries (one of which has a pushable bosom) there are two textures of nude ancient women to open the fireplace, which leads to the 'dead end' described above.
- There's two knights right next to each side of the entrance leading into the castle's main hall which are not there neither on the J12 version nor retail.
- The non-functional spring has been replaced by a book which, when interacted with, causes wooden platforms to 'magically' go up and down.
- The room that would eventally turn into Sir Duke's glorious room is still nothing but an indoors "barn" of sorts that makes no sense.
- The room with the hole to drop onto the wooden beams now leads into the infamous chess room. The previously mentioned room also contains a skeleton key, unlike the final version. Not picking up the skeleton key softlocks you into the chess room since that key is used to unlock the main door that leads to it.
- There's some kind of exit behind the throne, a room that would later be repurposed in the final version and edited a bit to become the exit that leads to Resistance is Feudal.
- The level seems mostly complete right now, lacking a bit of polishing. It is interesting just how much different their approach to it was in the final version with the 'jewels', and it is still unknown why the chess room was removed. Curiously, one of the shots in the final version of the game's credits showcases this deleted room, albeit the shot is clearly from the J12 beta.
- The level is impossible to complete.
Medieval 2 - Gothic Horror (Resistance is Feudal in retail)
- The spawn of this map resembles both J12 and retail. You spawn in what seems like a crossroads at first (akin to J12's spawn point), but those crossroads are just solid walls with knights. Walking down the curving path leads to a room that looks just like the spawn point from the retail version of this map.
- Just like the J12 beta, this level is a mess, though much more organized than its earlier counterpart. It seems that the person who was in designed cut many of the superfluous 'filler' areas and connected many of the loose rooms. This means, however, that the 'forking paths'/'crossroads' theme of the original map was more or less diminished in favor of a more straightforward/linear map.
- While a great number of the rooms from its previous iteration are still presents, they've all been altered somewhat to make them look close to their final iteration.
- Some rooms which have been improved upon greatly were ultimate removed in the final version (the large and humongous 'prison' like area with all the cells in a circular fashion, as well as the rooms with dead bodies and chunks of flesh hanging from meat-hooks).
- It seems that the theme of the map was originally for it to be a torture chamber of sorts mixed with a prison. None of the 'toxic' or 'gas' elements of the final version are present.
- The guillotine from J12 is now larger and resembles its final version.
- The level's ending is almost identical throughout J12, this version and the final one. However, the map cannot be completed.
Medieval 3 - Blessings of the Damned (Holy Terror in retail)
- Unlike the J12 beta (and the final version), you don't start behind the huge, green mossy doors. You start in front of them, already past them.
- The empty and barebones warehouse from before has 'evolved', possessing much more furniture, boxes and details this time around, with the humongous empty warehouse area from the J12 beta with the stair that lead to the library having now been turned into a library of sorts, with a path that leads straight to the sewers (this path being a secret in its retail counterpart). In the final version, the room on top was removed and this become a full-fledged library.
- Given the Nukem altars lighting, it is made apparently clear that the shots of Duke kneeling before them in the final version's credits come from this build.
- The bowls holding holy water in them are much larger and are standing instead of hanging from the walls like in the final version.
- In the giant hall with the door that leads to the church there's many chains hanging from the ceiling, all these attached to bells. This is not present in the J12 beta nor the final version.
- Overall, the map looks REALLY similar to the J12 beta, but some of the work done to it approaches it to its final release. There are no secrets whatsoever, and the map cannot be completed.
Boss 2 (Wing'ed Death in retail)
- Exactly the same as in J12 beta.
Modern 3 - Slither's Sewage (Pig Factory in retail)
- Bootylicious looks just like J12 with one interesting detail: the secret room contains a picture that resembles that of the woman in the final version's ending.
- The map appears to be exactly the same as found in the J12 beta.
Roman 1 - Blood Bath (Hog Heaven in retail)
- Unlike J12, this time around there is a skybox.
- Exactly like its J12 version.
Roman 2 - Circus Maximus (Let the Games Begin in retail)
- No changes.
Roman 3 - Veni Vedi Veci (Blood Baths in retail)
- No changes.
Colisseum
- This level serves both as a challenge and a multiplayer map. In this particular version of it, several solid blocks were added in the middle of the arena for no apparent reason. These are not present in the J12 beta, and they were ultimately removed on release.
Boss 3 (level index 29/internal index 1D)
- Present in the previous proto as well, this map seems to have gotten a slight degree of work done to it before being dropped altogether.
- There's more Roman textures added, like an entrance, and some kind of 'circular' area akin to a colosseum. Enabling the collision boxes on in the debug menu makes it painfully clear that it was originally planned to be a Roman colosseum for the removed boss.
- There is one enemy, but sadly it is invisible and you can only see (albeit BARELY) the projectiles it throws at you.
- You can now start this map on one player, but the debug free camera mode is needed to explore whatever is left of it.
Duke Nukem: Time to Kill August 21st 1998 Prototype
Spoiler
General differences
- Intro is present and has sound, that being Stabbing Westward's "The Thing I Hate". Women are still not blurred, but their nipples are now covered with white dots instead of black ones. There's also no logo at the end stating who the band is, the name of the song or copyright stuff.
- Copyright and legal stuff screen has the same font and color as the final version, but the text still has the Playstation section which was ultimately removed.
- Memory Card screen is now black instead of blue.
- Demos are different from final version and J12.
- Menu layout is the same as final version.
- Multiplayer maps have their final names instead of joke ones.
- Nukem icon in Sound option menu are still different from final, these being golden and flat.
- Dukism is now Speech, just like final.
- Duke Speed renamed to Game Speed.
- Seems to be based off a PAL version of the game.
- Pause menu looks exactly like final version.
- Cheats work.
- Activating all weapons no longer gives enhanced versions of the RPG, Energy Weapon or Flamethrower. Instead, when you activate a cheat or the enhance option in the debug menu, they get automatically replaced with their souped up versions.
- Inventory now pauses game.
- HiTemp FlameThrower has a glitch in its animation where turning with it causes its blue flame to turn red.
- No music whatsoever.
- Freezer's projectiles look different, and uglier.
- Duke can perform a quick kick if the weapon is holstered. Not present at all in final version.
- Jetpack sound matches final version's.
- Re-Entry points were added, complete with sound effects.
- Jumping animation is close to final.
- All maps and bosses match their final names.
- Continues have been added and now you can retry Challenges.
- There are still NO power-ups.
- For some reason, after you get an enhanced weapon it keeps disappearing from your inventory.
Modern 1 - Time to Kill
- Music inside Bootylicious is completely different.
- Secret button behind bar matches final version's.
- Lara Croft's outfit in the wardrobe matches the final version's.
- The woman in the apartment has been moved to the light switch, requiring the player to interact with her to open up the secret area.
- Subway ID Key is the same as final version's.
- 2 lights once more can be found in the bridge leading to the water pumps. There's also two of them in the final version and Jun12 proto, but only one in the Jul7th one.
- Auto-aim enabled for turrets.
- Teleporting sound same as final.
Challenge Stage 1
- You start in the same area as in the final version.
- Much less enemies.
- You now get a message for killing all enemies.
Western 1 - Duke Hill
- Necros look like their final version's counterparts, complete with working projectiles.
- The woman in the bathtub has a different idle animation, even though her head was fixed.
- The attic now counts as a secret area, even though there is no power-up.
- The women dancing in the cabaret have a slightly different animation compared to their final release.
- You can shoot the doors of the stall with the pigcop inside (who will die from the blast), but this time the doors will open. There's no use to it though, as you can't even enter the stall.
- When you enter the cell with the atomic health inside and the broken wall, the door will close behind you, just like retail.
- Map is essentially same as final.
Western 2 - Miner 69er
- Poisonous gas still looks much different than final, but less glitchy.
- Bats introduced.
- Pile of debug weapons removed. Gunpowder bag removed. Cannonballs removed.
- Surprise replaces atomic health (like final). Model corrupted though.
- Several differences compared to final version (still no suicide bombers (instead replaced by drills), rolling stones/boulders, miniature stone pig heads on the walls, a green crystal to control a drill, sunk pirate ship complete with a cannon and a pile of cannonballs (that cannot be picked up)).
Challenge Stage 2
- Turrets removed from the center of the arena.
Western 3 - Gold And Guns
- Fire bats much faster than before.
- Secret area fixed (see broken secret area in Jul 7 proto).
- Turrets finally fire their freezing bolts.
- DeLorean and boxes had their places switched.
- Misaligned and broken textures aside, the map is the same as the final version.
Western 4 - True Grit
- Removed from map rotation and beating Gold And Guns no longer takes you to it.
- Remains unchanged from the previous proto. Seems like they gave up on this idea and discarded the map altogether.
Boss 1 - The Reaper
- Still takes place in his old/beta arena (the very final area of True Grit).
- Lost plenty of speed. Also lost his special "turbo jump".
- Defeating a boss locks instantly locks Duke in his current animation and position.
Modern 2 - Obey Or Die
- Different posters in the apartment. The billboards are finally here.
- Robots were introduced, but they are slightly glitchy.
- Piggified chicks are not found pole-dancing, instead they are inside the room with the wardrobe. They keep facing Duke all the time.
- Switch that requires the green key now works properly.
- There are now 3 water tanks.
- Map is essentially 99% complete, just needing some final polishing and touches that would make it look like its final iteration.
Challenge 3
- Essentially the same, enemies are missing textures though.
Medieval 1 - Family Jewels
- There seems to be a niche or platform atop the rocky slide behind the player's starting point. A power-up can be found there in the final version, though this marks the first appearance of this platform.
- This map appears to be highly corrupted, with tons of damaged textures and projectiles. There's some items floating in mid-air though (like a pile of debug items).
- The secret with the pushable Nukem block in the underground area will become permanently locked if you push the block towards the stairs. Luckily, you can access it from above with a jetpack, albeit it contains nothing.
- The Jewels are present, but they are simply laying on the floor, with no 'support' of sorts that holds them. Also, they seem to have JUST been introduced, as picking them up does not give a HUD message.
- The little underwater niche present in the Jul7 beta has been removed.
- The two keys and the keyhole next to them have been replaced with a lever, just like the final version. The lever lacks quite a few textures though, and interacting with it does not seem to move it.
- The castle's courtyard/grounds appear to be almost identical to the final release, with the non-functional/static cow-like animal being removed for good (and the 'mating sheep' being moved around for the 3rd time).
- The secret passages have been reworked a third time, this time being just like their final version's counterparts. There's also passages that connect the castle's courtyard to its insides.
- The huts' layout is the same as the final version.
- The keyhole to open the main door to access the castle's interior is missing. CURIOUSLY, it is present from the inside.
- The knights to the left and right sides of the main entrance have been removed.
- The static textures of ancient nude women have been replaced with two armless valkyries/angels. Duke now rubs their breasts to access the secret behind the fireplace, even though his hands are greatly misplaced.
- Some of the blocks seem a bit buggy, only being able to push them back a certain distance before you cannot interact with them anymore (leaving the passage inaccessible).
- The book that activated the magical wooden platforms has been removed. In its place, the large room with the platforming section is identical to release.
- The indoors barn room has been replaced with Sir Duke's bedroom. There are no babes in it though, just 3 non-functional/static enemies and no jewel.
- The final jewel can be found atop one of the wooden platforms in the aforementioned section.
- The room with the hole to fall onto the wooden beams no longer has that extra skeleton key.
- At long last, the cheesboard room has been completely removed and replaced with the 'spinning Duke wheel' where you place the jewels. It is really low-res though, and there's no huge stone block behind it.
- Curiously, the level reads 4/4 secrets, whereas in the final version one secret cannot be obtained at all.
- The map seems to be almost 1:1 from its final version, with some bugged/glitchy elements here and there, as well as floating items that were clear to be properly placed at a later date.
Medieval 2 - Family Jewels
- The first room with the crates, barrels and the guillotine seems to be missing 90% of its destructibles.
- The toxic gas seems to turn Duke green when submerged in it, something that does not happen in the final version.
- Boss draks have different shooting SFX.
- There appears to be some background noise to this level, like a reactor's buzzing sound.
- First appearance of Larval Necros, though in the final version they don't make an appearance until Blood Baths (last Roman map). They also have the same sounds as the fire bats.
- The area with the two switches to lower the bridge in the middle features two keyholes with no keys to be found at all. Interacting with them prove them to be just regular switches.
- The pigcop at the top of the toxic tanks gives you modern key despite the keyhole needing an ancient one. Regardless, it works. It is called Key 1, and the key the other pigcop gives you inside the room with poisonous gas is exactly the same and is called Key 2.
- The map is almost 100% complete, with its layout and architecture being really close to release. A vast majority of the extra architecture/layout found in the Jun12th and July8th betas has been completely removed and excised, moving areas around and taking out tons of loose rooms (taking out such landmarks like the humongous and circular jail area, and 3 of the 'butcher' rooms). It is clear that somewhere between Jul7 and Aug21st they went from an underground jail/torture chamber to a toxic refinery. There's still some details that were removed from the final version (such as the bloody chunks of human flesh hanging from meathooks).
- The exit to Holy Terror is the same, but the shade of green used is brighter here.
Medieval 3 - Holy Terror
- You start behind the green gates (unlike Jul7) but these are already open (unlike J12 and release).
- At last, proper lighting has been added to the map.
- The storage warehouse (that slowly evolved throughout the two previous betas) has been completely reworked into its final version: turned into a full-on library with a tiny room full of boxes and a side-room with stools and books. There's also a secret passage to the sewers. The library room from upstairs has been completely removed too.
- There is no lever in the sewers to open up the secret library room at the end of one of the halls. The other lever to open the main gate to the sewers is a keyhole that acts like a switch.
- The aforementioned secret room now has furniture all over it.
- The holy water bowls look like their final versions.
- Several secret areas were added.
- The colored glass in the hall to the right was added, but the glasses to the right are invisible, only the ones to the left have textures.
- The hidden room with the babe behind a gigantic colored glass has been added. However, the babe is a mutilated, mangled mess on the bed.
- The giant Nukem crosses can now be interacted with by kneeling in front of their insignias.
- The spiraling staircase that lead to the room above the chapel has been removed, leaving nothing but a hole near the ceiling which you can fly to or jump from, just like the final version. However, in retail there's a ledge you can jump to to find a jetpack and ammo, all of which is missing here (alongside that ledge and the niche).
- The ledge with all the enemies behind the huge colored glass in the chapel is missing, with just the teleporter behind it.
- Map is 99% complete.
Boss 2 - Wing'ed Death
- The map that was once populated by the robo Alien (apparently a beta texture for Moloch) has now a very early and buggy version of Wing'ed Death, the flying alien dragon. However, the map is essentially almost the same as the one in the two previous builds, making it clear that the official strategy guide took the shot of this boss on this particular version.
- While the map has a skybox, it is very barebones, with the dragon not attacking the player and clipping through the architecture, as well as dying in a few hits. It has no dying animation and simply explodes into pieces.
- Duke wears his regular 'modern' outfit instead of the medieval one.
Modern 3 - Pig Factory
- At last, this iteration of Bootylicious is called Danglers, just like the final version.
- The giant Nukem sign near the fence with the atomic health has been removed.
- The apartment is still unfinished.
- The Danglers club is really unfinished, lacking the 'babes' (them being males this time around in the final version) and the switch to open the secret dressing room not working at all. Worth noting is that there is a looping 'moaning' sound in the club despite no babes.
- While still highly unfinished (bugged gates that won't break, missing textures, broken/buggy decorations, dead ends, no pick-ups (for the most part) and a challenge level that cannot be accessed due to the surprise pick-up not being present) the vast majority of the layout is already there, almost 95% complete. Some unnecessary areas were removed for its final release, but the main focus of the map is complete, going from a factory/sewers-focused map into one that revolves entirely around cloning and raising mutant pigs.
Challenge Stage 5
- The challenge itself is akin to the final version: roast chicken with your HiTemp Flamethrower. However, this seems to be using old/unfinished assets, as it displays several anomalies: Duke has a completely different voice when climbing crates and ledges, chickens won't emit any sounds when roasted (and sometimes don't even leave their cooked remains behind), and the level itself looks like an early rendition of what it would once become (lacking many tunnels that would turn it into a looping arena).
Roman 1 - Hog Heaven
- You start in a different location (that being the room to which you descend upon walking out of the small cave-like spawn point in the final version). However, there is no bed with babes here.
- The map now has proper lighting.
- The flamethrowers in the hall leading to the key are now functional. They lack any SFX though.
- the frontal entrance to the second room with the swimming pools has been removed, and instead you can access to it via 2 side halls leading to it. In the final version, neither the halls nor the extra 2 pools are there.
- You can now find babes near the pools, but they are non-functional/static objects and shooting them does nothing.
- The slides have been removed from all pools but one. One wonders why.
- The vast majority of the layout remains the same from Jul7th, which in turn is almost the same as the final release. The last area is flooded in the retail version of this level, though it lacks any water here and is instead a platforming section.
- There are barely any pick-ups, no functional secrets, and there's a missing pseudo-secret in the lava room with the key.
Roman 2 - Let The Games Begin
- The alien bat statue has been added.
- The Bill & Ted booth reference made it up until now, which leaves one to wonder why they removed it in the first place.
- The alien hounds/beasts have been removed from this map (but not the game).
- The hall leading to the final area is much simpler in this version.
- The map has been given some proper lighting.
- The 'square' area at the end (with the exit located in the building in the middle of said area) has now been filled with lava. However, it acts as water from the waist-down as Duke's lower body is painted blue when submerged in it.
- Tons of missing sounds and models.
- There's a challenge level after this, despite a surprise not being present in this map (yet).
- The final room does not have those weird brown, dirt-like alien 'stuff' from the final version attached to the walls.
Challenge Stage 6
- Instead of boss draks, you still get to face those green alien hounds/beasts with your Super Zapper. They have been given proper death animations, but their textures are still a garbled mess and they have a glitched projectile.
- The arena itself is quite finished, being given proper lighting now.
- The pile of stone blocks in the middle has been edited, now being one large pillar instead of 4 square blocks all scattered around.
- The secret ledges are still bugged though.
Roman 3 - Blood Baths
- The map has been thoroughly rearranged, with you starting in the same spot as in the final version.
- Instead of one huge map with several crossroads and non-linear areas, you get the same 4 teleports are in the final version.
- The room which you teleport to in mid-air is VERY different, lacking many extra areas added to it in the final version. The teleporter to exit it can be found almost right off the bat. The spikes at the bottom have been replaced with water-like lava.
- The room with the giant water tank is very barebones, featuring only 2 Necros and several Larval Necros. There's no secrets and there's an infamous room with its walls presenting several bloodstains. The only evidence of this room was in one particular magazine scan.
- The room which you spawn underwater with several mossy walls and pillars has a different lighting to it. The glass panels which you break to access the main area are very low-res when you shoot them. The area looks almost nothing alike to its final iteration, looking before barebones and unfinished.
- The room that looks like a downwards spiralling staircase with glass panels in the middle is completely absent here, instead replaces with a mossy-looking jail of sorts that's absolutely missing in the final version. This particular room contains a unique texture of huge, green and thick vines coming down the walls, which is not present in the final version. The very final room of this area (with the teleporter being hidden in a platform you have to jetpack down to) was repurposed in the final version.
- In the final room, you no longer spawn in the platform with the 4 spiked heads. You spawn in front of the bridge with those same spiked heads (as well as an underwater tunnel that leads to the previously mentioned platform).
- The aforementioned final room has an extra one with no purpose whatsoever that's simple a small set of stairs leading into a small, Roman-looking room.
- The very final room before the exit features a non-functional/static pigcop standing in the center platform, a clear indication that another enemy was supposed to take its place at some point before being scrapped. This would go hand-in-hand with some magazine scans depicting a metallic, alien tank in that same platform.
- The level itself is highly unfinished, even though the layout for its final release is pretty much complete. The vast majority of the superfluous empty areas from the Jun12th/Jul7th protos are gone, the rooms were mostly cut in half and reorganized. There's no items (for the most part), gates are already open when you reach them, and the SFX appears to be glitchy at times.
- Only one room survived the editing process from its Jun12th/Jul7th iteration, and that's the moss-covered room with the big green pit. The room cannot be accessed as all its entrances were removed and its 'detached' from the map's main layout, only visible using the debug free camera mode. This room would end up completely excised from the final release, but it's worth noting that it's the only one that was not edited, retouched or adapted for this version of Blood Baths.
Boss 3 - Moloch The Gatekeeper
- Extremely unfinished, lacking any and all SFX (with the only one available being that of a 'water drop' (?)).
- Moloch is present and sporting his final look. However, he's pretty much non-functional/static, with only two animations (standing still and turning around to face Duke when he shoots). He dies in two hits.
- The map is pretty much the same as the final version, even sporting those weird explosive alien eggs.
- The teleporters don't work.
- The level's title in the pause menu has some degree of corruption in it (the '-' in Moloch - The Gate Keeper appears as garbled mess).
- Clearly an early W.I.P.
- Ending has no sound. Neither do the credits. However, they do have sound in the game files, seems like the audio is glitched after Moloch's buggy stage.
- Credits feature a different image order, alongside the text being choppy and really slow. The text also has a different font and style, looking much more primitive here. The second shot in the credits is nowhere to be found. The credits also lack the section with GT Interactive's credits.
Boss 4 (level index 30/internal index 1E)
- Apparently, the level order was shifted a bit here and Moloch was moved to level index 29/internal index 1D.
- It is currently unknown what's supposed to be in here. Force-loading the map causes an error message to display on the the screen (PAUSE MESSAGE - CAMERA - START ROOM BAD (PRESS START TO CONTINUE)). On some emulators, pressing start does nothing and the game crashes.
- The level itself is pitch-black with Duke being trapped on the spot he spawns in. Toggling the collision boxes on allows you to see that the only ones available are the ones holding Duke in place.
- This level is just as incomplete as Moloch, lacking ALL SFX.
- One wonders if these are the remains of the deleted Roman boss map, now simply disassembled and deleted after the idea was dropped.
- Intro is present and has sound, that being Stabbing Westward's "The Thing I Hate". Women are still not blurred, but their nipples are now covered with white dots instead of black ones. There's also no logo at the end stating who the band is, the name of the song or copyright stuff.
- Copyright and legal stuff screen has the same font and color as the final version, but the text still has the Playstation section which was ultimately removed.
- Memory Card screen is now black instead of blue.
- Demos are different from final version and J12.
- Menu layout is the same as final version.
- Multiplayer maps have their final names instead of joke ones.
- Nukem icon in Sound option menu are still different from final, these being golden and flat.
- Dukism is now Speech, just like final.
- Duke Speed renamed to Game Speed.
- Seems to be based off a PAL version of the game.
- Pause menu looks exactly like final version.
- Cheats work.
- Activating all weapons no longer gives enhanced versions of the RPG, Energy Weapon or Flamethrower. Instead, when you activate a cheat or the enhance option in the debug menu, they get automatically replaced with their souped up versions.
- Inventory now pauses game.
- HiTemp FlameThrower has a glitch in its animation where turning with it causes its blue flame to turn red.
- No music whatsoever.
- Freezer's projectiles look different, and uglier.
- Duke can perform a quick kick if the weapon is holstered. Not present at all in final version.
- Jetpack sound matches final version's.
- Re-Entry points were added, complete with sound effects.
- Jumping animation is close to final.
- All maps and bosses match their final names.
- Continues have been added and now you can retry Challenges.
- There are still NO power-ups.
- For some reason, after you get an enhanced weapon it keeps disappearing from your inventory.
Modern 1 - Time to Kill
- Music inside Bootylicious is completely different.
- Secret button behind bar matches final version's.
- Lara Croft's outfit in the wardrobe matches the final version's.
- The woman in the apartment has been moved to the light switch, requiring the player to interact with her to open up the secret area.
- Subway ID Key is the same as final version's.
- 2 lights once more can be found in the bridge leading to the water pumps. There's also two of them in the final version and Jun12 proto, but only one in the Jul7th one.
- Auto-aim enabled for turrets.
- Teleporting sound same as final.
Challenge Stage 1
- You start in the same area as in the final version.
- Much less enemies.
- You now get a message for killing all enemies.
Western 1 - Duke Hill
- Necros look like their final version's counterparts, complete with working projectiles.
- The woman in the bathtub has a different idle animation, even though her head was fixed.
- The attic now counts as a secret area, even though there is no power-up.
- The women dancing in the cabaret have a slightly different animation compared to their final release.
- You can shoot the doors of the stall with the pigcop inside (who will die from the blast), but this time the doors will open. There's no use to it though, as you can't even enter the stall.
- When you enter the cell with the atomic health inside and the broken wall, the door will close behind you, just like retail.
- Map is essentially same as final.
Western 2 - Miner 69er
- Poisonous gas still looks much different than final, but less glitchy.
- Bats introduced.
- Pile of debug weapons removed. Gunpowder bag removed. Cannonballs removed.
- Surprise replaces atomic health (like final). Model corrupted though.
- Several differences compared to final version (still no suicide bombers (instead replaced by drills), rolling stones/boulders, miniature stone pig heads on the walls, a green crystal to control a drill, sunk pirate ship complete with a cannon and a pile of cannonballs (that cannot be picked up)).
Challenge Stage 2
- Turrets removed from the center of the arena.
Western 3 - Gold And Guns
- Fire bats much faster than before.
- Secret area fixed (see broken secret area in Jul 7 proto).
- Turrets finally fire their freezing bolts.
- DeLorean and boxes had their places switched.
- Misaligned and broken textures aside, the map is the same as the final version.
Western 4 - True Grit
- Removed from map rotation and beating Gold And Guns no longer takes you to it.
- Remains unchanged from the previous proto. Seems like they gave up on this idea and discarded the map altogether.
Boss 1 - The Reaper
- Still takes place in his old/beta arena (the very final area of True Grit).
- Lost plenty of speed. Also lost his special "turbo jump".
- Defeating a boss locks instantly locks Duke in his current animation and position.
Modern 2 - Obey Or Die
- Different posters in the apartment. The billboards are finally here.
- Robots were introduced, but they are slightly glitchy.
- Piggified chicks are not found pole-dancing, instead they are inside the room with the wardrobe. They keep facing Duke all the time.
- Switch that requires the green key now works properly.
- There are now 3 water tanks.
- Map is essentially 99% complete, just needing some final polishing and touches that would make it look like its final iteration.
Challenge 3
- Essentially the same, enemies are missing textures though.
Medieval 1 - Family Jewels
- There seems to be a niche or platform atop the rocky slide behind the player's starting point. A power-up can be found there in the final version, though this marks the first appearance of this platform.
- This map appears to be highly corrupted, with tons of damaged textures and projectiles. There's some items floating in mid-air though (like a pile of debug items).
- The secret with the pushable Nukem block in the underground area will become permanently locked if you push the block towards the stairs. Luckily, you can access it from above with a jetpack, albeit it contains nothing.
- The Jewels are present, but they are simply laying on the floor, with no 'support' of sorts that holds them. Also, they seem to have JUST been introduced, as picking them up does not give a HUD message.
- The little underwater niche present in the Jul7 beta has been removed.
- The two keys and the keyhole next to them have been replaced with a lever, just like the final version. The lever lacks quite a few textures though, and interacting with it does not seem to move it.
- The castle's courtyard/grounds appear to be almost identical to the final release, with the non-functional/static cow-like animal being removed for good (and the 'mating sheep' being moved around for the 3rd time).
- The secret passages have been reworked a third time, this time being just like their final version's counterparts. There's also passages that connect the castle's courtyard to its insides.
- The huts' layout is the same as the final version.
- The keyhole to open the main door to access the castle's interior is missing. CURIOUSLY, it is present from the inside.
- The knights to the left and right sides of the main entrance have been removed.
- The static textures of ancient nude women have been replaced with two armless valkyries/angels. Duke now rubs their breasts to access the secret behind the fireplace, even though his hands are greatly misplaced.
- Some of the blocks seem a bit buggy, only being able to push them back a certain distance before you cannot interact with them anymore (leaving the passage inaccessible).
- The book that activated the magical wooden platforms has been removed. In its place, the large room with the platforming section is identical to release.
- The indoors barn room has been replaced with Sir Duke's bedroom. There are no babes in it though, just 3 non-functional/static enemies and no jewel.
- The final jewel can be found atop one of the wooden platforms in the aforementioned section.
- The room with the hole to fall onto the wooden beams no longer has that extra skeleton key.
- At long last, the cheesboard room has been completely removed and replaced with the 'spinning Duke wheel' where you place the jewels. It is really low-res though, and there's no huge stone block behind it.
- Curiously, the level reads 4/4 secrets, whereas in the final version one secret cannot be obtained at all.
- The map seems to be almost 1:1 from its final version, with some bugged/glitchy elements here and there, as well as floating items that were clear to be properly placed at a later date.
Medieval 2 - Family Jewels
- The first room with the crates, barrels and the guillotine seems to be missing 90% of its destructibles.
- The toxic gas seems to turn Duke green when submerged in it, something that does not happen in the final version.
- Boss draks have different shooting SFX.
- There appears to be some background noise to this level, like a reactor's buzzing sound.
- First appearance of Larval Necros, though in the final version they don't make an appearance until Blood Baths (last Roman map). They also have the same sounds as the fire bats.
- The area with the two switches to lower the bridge in the middle features two keyholes with no keys to be found at all. Interacting with them prove them to be just regular switches.
- The pigcop at the top of the toxic tanks gives you modern key despite the keyhole needing an ancient one. Regardless, it works. It is called Key 1, and the key the other pigcop gives you inside the room with poisonous gas is exactly the same and is called Key 2.
- The map is almost 100% complete, with its layout and architecture being really close to release. A vast majority of the extra architecture/layout found in the Jun12th and July8th betas has been completely removed and excised, moving areas around and taking out tons of loose rooms (taking out such landmarks like the humongous and circular jail area, and 3 of the 'butcher' rooms). It is clear that somewhere between Jul7 and Aug21st they went from an underground jail/torture chamber to a toxic refinery. There's still some details that were removed from the final version (such as the bloody chunks of human flesh hanging from meathooks).
- The exit to Holy Terror is the same, but the shade of green used is brighter here.
Medieval 3 - Holy Terror
- You start behind the green gates (unlike Jul7) but these are already open (unlike J12 and release).
- At last, proper lighting has been added to the map.
- The storage warehouse (that slowly evolved throughout the two previous betas) has been completely reworked into its final version: turned into a full-on library with a tiny room full of boxes and a side-room with stools and books. There's also a secret passage to the sewers. The library room from upstairs has been completely removed too.
- There is no lever in the sewers to open up the secret library room at the end of one of the halls. The other lever to open the main gate to the sewers is a keyhole that acts like a switch.
- The aforementioned secret room now has furniture all over it.
- The holy water bowls look like their final versions.
- Several secret areas were added.
- The colored glass in the hall to the right was added, but the glasses to the right are invisible, only the ones to the left have textures.
- The hidden room with the babe behind a gigantic colored glass has been added. However, the babe is a mutilated, mangled mess on the bed.
- The giant Nukem crosses can now be interacted with by kneeling in front of their insignias.
- The spiraling staircase that lead to the room above the chapel has been removed, leaving nothing but a hole near the ceiling which you can fly to or jump from, just like the final version. However, in retail there's a ledge you can jump to to find a jetpack and ammo, all of which is missing here (alongside that ledge and the niche).
- The ledge with all the enemies behind the huge colored glass in the chapel is missing, with just the teleporter behind it.
- Map is 99% complete.
Boss 2 - Wing'ed Death
- The map that was once populated by the robo Alien (apparently a beta texture for Moloch) has now a very early and buggy version of Wing'ed Death, the flying alien dragon. However, the map is essentially almost the same as the one in the two previous builds, making it clear that the official strategy guide took the shot of this boss on this particular version.
- While the map has a skybox, it is very barebones, with the dragon not attacking the player and clipping through the architecture, as well as dying in a few hits. It has no dying animation and simply explodes into pieces.
- Duke wears his regular 'modern' outfit instead of the medieval one.
Modern 3 - Pig Factory
- At last, this iteration of Bootylicious is called Danglers, just like the final version.
- The giant Nukem sign near the fence with the atomic health has been removed.
- The apartment is still unfinished.
- The Danglers club is really unfinished, lacking the 'babes' (them being males this time around in the final version) and the switch to open the secret dressing room not working at all. Worth noting is that there is a looping 'moaning' sound in the club despite no babes.
- While still highly unfinished (bugged gates that won't break, missing textures, broken/buggy decorations, dead ends, no pick-ups (for the most part) and a challenge level that cannot be accessed due to the surprise pick-up not being present) the vast majority of the layout is already there, almost 95% complete. Some unnecessary areas were removed for its final release, but the main focus of the map is complete, going from a factory/sewers-focused map into one that revolves entirely around cloning and raising mutant pigs.
Challenge Stage 5
- The challenge itself is akin to the final version: roast chicken with your HiTemp Flamethrower. However, this seems to be using old/unfinished assets, as it displays several anomalies: Duke has a completely different voice when climbing crates and ledges, chickens won't emit any sounds when roasted (and sometimes don't even leave their cooked remains behind), and the level itself looks like an early rendition of what it would once become (lacking many tunnels that would turn it into a looping arena).
Roman 1 - Hog Heaven
- You start in a different location (that being the room to which you descend upon walking out of the small cave-like spawn point in the final version). However, there is no bed with babes here.
- The map now has proper lighting.
- The flamethrowers in the hall leading to the key are now functional. They lack any SFX though.
- the frontal entrance to the second room with the swimming pools has been removed, and instead you can access to it via 2 side halls leading to it. In the final version, neither the halls nor the extra 2 pools are there.
- You can now find babes near the pools, but they are non-functional/static objects and shooting them does nothing.
- The slides have been removed from all pools but one. One wonders why.
- The vast majority of the layout remains the same from Jul7th, which in turn is almost the same as the final release. The last area is flooded in the retail version of this level, though it lacks any water here and is instead a platforming section.
- There are barely any pick-ups, no functional secrets, and there's a missing pseudo-secret in the lava room with the key.
Roman 2 - Let The Games Begin
- The alien bat statue has been added.
- The Bill & Ted booth reference made it up until now, which leaves one to wonder why they removed it in the first place.
- The alien hounds/beasts have been removed from this map (but not the game).
- The hall leading to the final area is much simpler in this version.
- The map has been given some proper lighting.
- The 'square' area at the end (with the exit located in the building in the middle of said area) has now been filled with lava. However, it acts as water from the waist-down as Duke's lower body is painted blue when submerged in it.
- Tons of missing sounds and models.
- There's a challenge level after this, despite a surprise not being present in this map (yet).
- The final room does not have those weird brown, dirt-like alien 'stuff' from the final version attached to the walls.
Challenge Stage 6
- Instead of boss draks, you still get to face those green alien hounds/beasts with your Super Zapper. They have been given proper death animations, but their textures are still a garbled mess and they have a glitched projectile.
- The arena itself is quite finished, being given proper lighting now.
- The pile of stone blocks in the middle has been edited, now being one large pillar instead of 4 square blocks all scattered around.
- The secret ledges are still bugged though.
Roman 3 - Blood Baths
- The map has been thoroughly rearranged, with you starting in the same spot as in the final version.
- Instead of one huge map with several crossroads and non-linear areas, you get the same 4 teleports are in the final version.
- The room which you teleport to in mid-air is VERY different, lacking many extra areas added to it in the final version. The teleporter to exit it can be found almost right off the bat. The spikes at the bottom have been replaced with water-like lava.
- The room with the giant water tank is very barebones, featuring only 2 Necros and several Larval Necros. There's no secrets and there's an infamous room with its walls presenting several bloodstains. The only evidence of this room was in one particular magazine scan.
- The room which you spawn underwater with several mossy walls and pillars has a different lighting to it. The glass panels which you break to access the main area are very low-res when you shoot them. The area looks almost nothing alike to its final iteration, looking before barebones and unfinished.
- The room that looks like a downwards spiralling staircase with glass panels in the middle is completely absent here, instead replaces with a mossy-looking jail of sorts that's absolutely missing in the final version. This particular room contains a unique texture of huge, green and thick vines coming down the walls, which is not present in the final version. The very final room of this area (with the teleporter being hidden in a platform you have to jetpack down to) was repurposed in the final version.
- In the final room, you no longer spawn in the platform with the 4 spiked heads. You spawn in front of the bridge with those same spiked heads (as well as an underwater tunnel that leads to the previously mentioned platform).
- The aforementioned final room has an extra one with no purpose whatsoever that's simple a small set of stairs leading into a small, Roman-looking room.
- The very final room before the exit features a non-functional/static pigcop standing in the center platform, a clear indication that another enemy was supposed to take its place at some point before being scrapped. This would go hand-in-hand with some magazine scans depicting a metallic, alien tank in that same platform.
- The level itself is highly unfinished, even though the layout for its final release is pretty much complete. The vast majority of the superfluous empty areas from the Jun12th/Jul7th protos are gone, the rooms were mostly cut in half and reorganized. There's no items (for the most part), gates are already open when you reach them, and the SFX appears to be glitchy at times.
- Only one room survived the editing process from its Jun12th/Jul7th iteration, and that's the moss-covered room with the big green pit. The room cannot be accessed as all its entrances were removed and its 'detached' from the map's main layout, only visible using the debug free camera mode. This room would end up completely excised from the final release, but it's worth noting that it's the only one that was not edited, retouched or adapted for this version of Blood Baths.
Boss 3 - Moloch The Gatekeeper
- Extremely unfinished, lacking any and all SFX (with the only one available being that of a 'water drop' (?)).
- Moloch is present and sporting his final look. However, he's pretty much non-functional/static, with only two animations (standing still and turning around to face Duke when he shoots). He dies in two hits.
- The map is pretty much the same as the final version, even sporting those weird explosive alien eggs.
- The teleporters don't work.
- The level's title in the pause menu has some degree of corruption in it (the '-' in Moloch - The Gate Keeper appears as garbled mess).
- Clearly an early W.I.P.
- Ending has no sound. Neither do the credits. However, they do have sound in the game files, seems like the audio is glitched after Moloch's buggy stage.
- Credits feature a different image order, alongside the text being choppy and really slow. The text also has a different font and style, looking much more primitive here. The second shot in the credits is nowhere to be found. The credits also lack the section with GT Interactive's credits.
Boss 4 (level index 30/internal index 1E)
- Apparently, the level order was shifted a bit here and Moloch was moved to level index 29/internal index 1D.
- It is currently unknown what's supposed to be in here. Force-loading the map causes an error message to display on the the screen (PAUSE MESSAGE - CAMERA - START ROOM BAD (PRESS START TO CONTINUE)). On some emulators, pressing start does nothing and the game crashes.
- The level itself is pitch-black with Duke being trapped on the spot he spawns in. Toggling the collision boxes on allows you to see that the only ones available are the ones holding Duke in place.
- This level is just as incomplete as Moloch, lacking ALL SFX.
- One wonders if these are the remains of the deleted Roman boss map, now simply disassembled and deleted after the idea was dropped.
Duke Nukem: Time to Kill September 8th 1998 Prototype:
Spoiler
General differences
- Opening cinematic now has the proper credits card at the end.
- The background static image is now broken, displaying several horizontal lines.
- The loading Nukem logo is the same as the final version's.
- The demos are nothing alike to the final version.
- Debug menu has been removed.
- Music has been restored.
- Scuba Gear has been removed from the game.
- Steroids have been removed from the inventory, they are now power-ups.
- Crossbow is now as powerful as its final version.
- Freezer has its final version's projectiles.
- Flamethrower's fire effect is much cleaner and resembles its final incarnation.
- Duke is much, much more talkative than previous builds.
- Power-ups were finally introduced, but they are not colored Nukem logos. Instead, they seem to be some kind of 'proof-of-concept' icons, such as a D2 for 'Double Damage' and a crystal eye for invisibility.
- Many of the keys now have models that show up when Duke needs to use them. Some don't, and that carries over to release.
- There's a plethora of unused voicelines that go unused in the final version, yet they seem to play here.
- Necrobrains present a slight difficulty moving here and there.
Modern 1 - Time to Kill
- Duke no longer says the line "Show me yours and I'll show you mine" line to the woman in the apartment.
- The tire in the room with the water pump is no longer present.
- All crystal devices share the same logo on them.
- Level is essentially the same as retail.
Western 1 - Duke Hill
- The power-up was finally added to the secret area.
- Yellow wanted posters have been added outside the buildings.
- Same as final.
Western 2 - Miner 69er
- Poison is the same as final.
- Suicide bomber pigs were finally introduced, but their behavior is erractic and unlike final. Instead of standing in place in a fixed spot, they tend to walk around aimlessly like enemies, then they come at you flailing their arms and stop inches away from you. If you step closer to them, they explode. They appear in different places (unlike retail), with one instance having 3 of them together in a group.
- Map is still the same as Aug21, exactly the same but with two big difference: suicide bombers were introduced and the pirate ship was completely removed, making that area look just like the final version.
Western 3 - Gold And Guns
- Door to the secret bridge is bugged/invisible.
- Secret below the aforementioned bridge no longer has a wall covering it.
- Secret stash with the DeLorean has no suicidal bombers despite them being introduced. Duke will also say an unused line when spotting the DeLorean ("HELLO!? MCFLY!?")
- Same as final.
Boss 1 - The Reaper
- The boss arena is the same as the final version.
- Reaper now has a proper death animation.
- Curiously, inputting cheats in this level results in them popping up with no sound effect.
- Same as final.
Modern 2 - Obey or Die
- Save for some minor texture corruptions, map is the same as final. However, the sound effect when you take the exit portal seems muffled/different.
Medieval 1 - Family Jewels
- Map is essentially the same as its final rendition. Some secret areas are lacking items (with two being completely empty), and the women in Sir Duke's bedroom are static but react to being interacted with (their models won't react nor disappear to being killed).
- One bizarre curiosity is that the '5th secret anomaly' started with this build or sometime before it (between the Aug21 and Sept8 proto gap), rendering the 5th secret unobtainable just like the final version.
Medieval 2 - Resistance is Feudal
- The map has made its full transition to being an underground refinery, completely removing all references to it once being a jail/torture chamber; not taking into account the fact that the card reader is still a keyhole (despite the Gantry Key being a keycard), the map is essentially the same as final.
Medieval 3 - Holy Terror
- Map is essentially 100% complete.
Boss 2 - Wing'ed Death
- Exactly the same as final version.
Modern 3 - Pig Factory
- Despite having a few missing pick-ups here and there (as well as some collision remnants from a previous build), the map is 100% complete.
Roman 1 - Hog Heaven
- Almost 1:1 compared to retail if it was not for a few details: secret areas were introduced but feature no items whatsoever, you spawn in the same spot as in the previous build (where the babes are), not where you do in the final version (worth noting is that the tunnel from the final version where you spawn in is completely absent), and there's still some collision issues here and there.
Roman 2 - Let the Games Begin
- The map is a 1:1 with only one room being slightly different: that which contains the babe pole-dancing and the key. This room is almost the same as the previous builds, lacking the secret path that leads to the following rooms (thus ignoring the locked gate). Curiously, they also removed the Bill & Ted easter egg here for unknown reasons. Its absence is still present in the final version. Some pick-ups are missing, too.
Roman 3 - Blood Baths
- This map reaches its final incarnation with this version. It is almost the exact same version as the final one, with this one possessing only a few minor issues like some corrupted textures and incomplete pick-ups placement. Other than that, same as final.
Boss 3 - Moloch - The Gatekeeper
- While the map itself and Moloch are complete, he lacks the 'stomp' attack from the final version.
- The boss name in the pause screen still displays that corrupted font in the '-'.
Challenges
- While challenges 1-4 were complete in the previous build, 5 and 6 were quite incomplete and featured some slight changes in their architecture. This time around, they are fully complete and functional.
Boss 4 (internal index 1E)
- This seems to be the end of the line for this particular level, now only featuring a mere empty boss bar at the bottom and that's about it. It is essentially the same as its Aug21 version, and it was ultimately taken out of the game.
- Opening cinematic now has the proper credits card at the end.
- The background static image is now broken, displaying several horizontal lines.
- The loading Nukem logo is the same as the final version's.
- The demos are nothing alike to the final version.
- Debug menu has been removed.
- Music has been restored.
- Scuba Gear has been removed from the game.
- Steroids have been removed from the inventory, they are now power-ups.
- Crossbow is now as powerful as its final version.
- Freezer has its final version's projectiles.
- Flamethrower's fire effect is much cleaner and resembles its final incarnation.
- Duke is much, much more talkative than previous builds.
- Power-ups were finally introduced, but they are not colored Nukem logos. Instead, they seem to be some kind of 'proof-of-concept' icons, such as a D2 for 'Double Damage' and a crystal eye for invisibility.
- Many of the keys now have models that show up when Duke needs to use them. Some don't, and that carries over to release.
- There's a plethora of unused voicelines that go unused in the final version, yet they seem to play here.
- Necrobrains present a slight difficulty moving here and there.
Modern 1 - Time to Kill
- Duke no longer says the line "Show me yours and I'll show you mine" line to the woman in the apartment.
- The tire in the room with the water pump is no longer present.
- All crystal devices share the same logo on them.
- Level is essentially the same as retail.
Western 1 - Duke Hill
- The power-up was finally added to the secret area.
- Yellow wanted posters have been added outside the buildings.
- Same as final.
Western 2 - Miner 69er
- Poison is the same as final.
- Suicide bomber pigs were finally introduced, but their behavior is erractic and unlike final. Instead of standing in place in a fixed spot, they tend to walk around aimlessly like enemies, then they come at you flailing their arms and stop inches away from you. If you step closer to them, they explode. They appear in different places (unlike retail), with one instance having 3 of them together in a group.
- Map is still the same as Aug21, exactly the same but with two big difference: suicide bombers were introduced and the pirate ship was completely removed, making that area look just like the final version.
Western 3 - Gold And Guns
- Door to the secret bridge is bugged/invisible.
- Secret below the aforementioned bridge no longer has a wall covering it.
- Secret stash with the DeLorean has no suicidal bombers despite them being introduced. Duke will also say an unused line when spotting the DeLorean ("HELLO!? MCFLY!?")
- Same as final.
Boss 1 - The Reaper
- The boss arena is the same as the final version.
- Reaper now has a proper death animation.
- Curiously, inputting cheats in this level results in them popping up with no sound effect.
- Same as final.
Modern 2 - Obey or Die
- Save for some minor texture corruptions, map is the same as final. However, the sound effect when you take the exit portal seems muffled/different.
Medieval 1 - Family Jewels
- Map is essentially the same as its final rendition. Some secret areas are lacking items (with two being completely empty), and the women in Sir Duke's bedroom are static but react to being interacted with (their models won't react nor disappear to being killed).
- One bizarre curiosity is that the '5th secret anomaly' started with this build or sometime before it (between the Aug21 and Sept8 proto gap), rendering the 5th secret unobtainable just like the final version.
Medieval 2 - Resistance is Feudal
- The map has made its full transition to being an underground refinery, completely removing all references to it once being a jail/torture chamber; not taking into account the fact that the card reader is still a keyhole (despite the Gantry Key being a keycard), the map is essentially the same as final.
Medieval 3 - Holy Terror
- Map is essentially 100% complete.
Boss 2 - Wing'ed Death
- Exactly the same as final version.
Modern 3 - Pig Factory
- Despite having a few missing pick-ups here and there (as well as some collision remnants from a previous build), the map is 100% complete.
Roman 1 - Hog Heaven
- Almost 1:1 compared to retail if it was not for a few details: secret areas were introduced but feature no items whatsoever, you spawn in the same spot as in the previous build (where the babes are), not where you do in the final version (worth noting is that the tunnel from the final version where you spawn in is completely absent), and there's still some collision issues here and there.
Roman 2 - Let the Games Begin
- The map is a 1:1 with only one room being slightly different: that which contains the babe pole-dancing and the key. This room is almost the same as the previous builds, lacking the secret path that leads to the following rooms (thus ignoring the locked gate). Curiously, they also removed the Bill & Ted easter egg here for unknown reasons. Its absence is still present in the final version. Some pick-ups are missing, too.
Roman 3 - Blood Baths
- This map reaches its final incarnation with this version. It is almost the exact same version as the final one, with this one possessing only a few minor issues like some corrupted textures and incomplete pick-ups placement. Other than that, same as final.
Boss 3 - Moloch - The Gatekeeper
- While the map itself and Moloch are complete, he lacks the 'stomp' attack from the final version.
- The boss name in the pause screen still displays that corrupted font in the '-'.
Challenges
- While challenges 1-4 were complete in the previous build, 5 and 6 were quite incomplete and featured some slight changes in their architecture. This time around, they are fully complete and functional.
Boss 4 (internal index 1E)
- This seems to be the end of the line for this particular level, now only featuring a mere empty boss bar at the bottom and that's about it. It is essentially the same as its Aug21 version, and it was ultimately taken out of the game.
June 12th level select code:
800C5DB4 000000XX
July 8th level select code:
800B8A50 000000XX
August 21st level select code:
800B649E 000000XX
September 8th level select code:
800B8C46 00XX
(codes by FutureTime23)
Many thanks to the folks at HiddenPalace for making this possible, and Iniche for breaking the news about these new protos.
Link to the protos:
https://hiddenpalace...1998_prototype)
https://hiddenpalace...1998_prototype)
https://hiddenpalace...1998_prototype)
https://hiddenpalace...1998_prototype)
