[Fox]

They are mixing screenshots from different versions.

[NNC]

That snakehead is really awesome and it's shame they removed it. It also explain the sound used with Drone explosion.

The lost area of E1L2 is awesome, and should have been left in the game. I remember seeing that in the Beta, and the Coop sprites had been changed to Doomed sprites there.

The toilets of the beta E1L1 was interesting. It seems they separated the "men" and "women" locations. The one in the final version was intended to be the women's part, although it has pissoirs now.

[Cage]

Lunick, on 18 June 2013 - 06:09 AM, said:

Some sort of bar area. Probably Red Light District.

It's simillar (but definitely not exact) to the bar area from Lameduke. The martini glass neon is there too, also the grey stools:

Darkus, on 18 June 2013 - 01:22 PM, said:

E1L2, entrance of the shop. Notice that the security camera is white instead of black.

LameDuke strikes again! I'm sure it's the camera from LameDuke, but the sprite could be cleaned up, no idea, can't see.

Darkus, on 18 June 2013 - 01:22 PM, said:

Inside of the projection room. Thats me, or the font of the pickup messages is the same in Doom?

I'm pretty sure it's the same font as in here:

Fox, on 18 June 2013 - 07:09 PM, said:

Early Battlelord, unknown level:
http://download.aban...0Page%20076.jpg

This might be an early version of E2L5 (Occupied Territory), but it's just a guess - seems a bit similar to me

Fox, on 18 June 2013 - 07:09 PM, said:

Early Expander:
http://download.aban...0Page%20079.jpg

I'm sure it's just Shrinker in a red paletted (pal 2) room.

As far as the different health pickups: The big health kit (I think it's not portable medikit due to the _ZOO screenshot featuring both of those) looks kinda similar to SW's portable medkit, as for the small medkit, it can be seen in some beta shots and I've managed to rip it out for the Beta TC (I guess it's the last sprite from it I've forgot to post )



Some others I've noticed recently:

Different scuba sprite in the inventory in one of the beta-presspack shots (name: D3d30.pcx)


The quality sucks, but take a close look at the floor - i think it's the reflective floor effect from LameDuke in action


Realized this when I saw the flame/freezethrower with a blue light - all the weapons in some of the shots have some kind of a blue element, plus the ammo counter features a blue dot - both of those are red (IIRC) in some of the shots - since the blue range has most remaps to different color in the palette lookup, and Duke's pants are blue for recoloring for other players - I think it's an indicator of the player's color. It doesn't make any sense in singleplayer I guess, but we've already seen the kill counter in singleplayer in the beta screens, so...

[Lunick]

Oh awesome, this version might be closer to Lameduke than I first thought unless they are also showing different versions in the video too.

The colour changing on the Flamer (it's called a Flamer in the magazine above) could be like the sticky bomb in Shadow Warrior changing colour depending on your multiplayer colour.

I've decided so far that there are at least 4-5 main Beta versions in the order of Lameduke, x, x, x, 0.99 and there are probably some small ones too.

[Fantinaikos]

The "NOT L.A.R.D." RPV with the beta enforcer was another great (and challenging) discarded enemy idea. The written below the pigcop one does not give you the idea that has been "pasted" on at the last moment?

[High Treason]

One thing I am still trying to figure out it the nuke icon that pops up in the bottom right every so often. I kinda wonder if it is like the floppy icon in the Blood alpha which indicated things were loading.

[MrFlibble]

High Treason, on 19 June 2013 - 02:05 AM, said:

One thing I am still trying to figure out it the nuke icon that pops up in the bottom right every so often. I kinda wonder if it is like the floppy icon in the Blood alpha which indicated things were loading.

Hmm, maybe. IIRC this is a feature originally found in Doom, right? (the floppy icon I mean)

[Hendricks266]

Lunick, on 18 June 2013 - 06:09 AM, said:

The entrance at the start of level looks different. There is also a weird item in the Inventory. Some sort of light or Holoduke?

I think it's the HoloDuke, but it could be related to this from 0.99:

// Inventory stuff
define GET_STEROIDS     0
define GET_SHIELD       1
define GET_SCUBA        2
define GET_HOLODUKE     3
define GET_JETPACK      4
define GET_BSUIT        5
define GET_ACCESS       6
define GET_HEATS        7
// define GET_ALCHOCOL     8
define GET_FIRSTAID     9
define GET_BOOTS       10

Lunick, on 18 June 2013 - 06:09 AM, said:

I don't know if it is the bad quality of the video but in some pictures above, the bottom right of the HUD looks like a nuke symbol.

In the John Romero video, the things on both sides flickered. IIRC our best guess was some kind of dev indication of disk usage.

Lunick, on 18 June 2013 - 06:09 AM, said:

In magazine shot 4 there is a clear picture of the Snakehead enemy!!!!

Mind = blown.

Reminds me of the Rhinocerocket chimera from MOTHER 3.

Cage, on 19 June 2013 - 12:07 AM, said:

Different scuba sprite in the inventory in one of the beta-presspack shots (name: D3d30.pcx)

Nice find! The red and blue colors are confusing me though. I would think anything extra would be green like the beta goggles.

[LAW]

Even though I have lost interest in retail Duke Nukem, I am very interested in these unreleased things. Can someone please kindly sum it up for me?

1) What versions before 1.3D are available for download and what are the major things in them?
2) Are these unreleased things playable (DosBox, Eduke)?
3) Some people (including Hendricks) tried to make a mods out of these unreleased things. How many of them were actually released? (I remember something like LameDuke Deluxe)

Very interesting stuff. I am mostly amazed by things which mix LameDuke and 1.3D.

[Plagman]

I read through the Joystick review and the only bit that seemed noteworthy was a mention that the Enforcer flamethrower made you catch fire. The one-page Beta preview also mentions the Expander and describes how it works.

[Jimmy]

Darkus, on 18 June 2013 - 05:54 AM, said:

Player One P095

It looks like there was originally supposed to be a more post-apocalyptic setting. If you look at the E1L2 screenshot in the bottom right, you skyline has the Hollywood sign, but it looks more like Hollywood is in some kind of desert now.

Darkus, on 18 June 2013 - 05:54 AM, said:

Player One P096

Looks like the game was meant to be gorier pretty far into development (finalized Pigcop sprite in the screenshot.) You can see there is an extra gib, I think from RotT. It's just like a generic organ or something.

Darkus, on 18 June 2013 - 01:22 PM, said:

Page 53(Showing weapons. Including the flamethrower. Notice also the shrinker explosion sprite is rotated horizontally)

The shotgun sprite is abhorrent. The screenshot with the flamethrower confirms my post-apocalyptic theory. That building in the background is heavily damaged.



High Treason, the boards won't let me send you a PM. Could you email me that video you cut together? (That way I can have it in the best quality possible, YouTube is balls. I'm gonna put it in my archive.)

blitznukem[AT]gmail[DOT]com

[Hendricks266]

LAW, on 19 June 2013 - 09:26 AM, said:

1) What versions before 1.3D are available for download and what are the major things in them?
2) Are these unreleased things playable (DosBox, Eduke)?

• LameDuke
  
• shareware v0.99 (leaked)
  
• shareware v1.0
  
• shareware v1.1
  
• shareware post-v1.1 Computer Gaming World one-level demo
  
• shareware v1.3D

EDuke32 and Mapster32 sort of support them but to get the full scope of the prototype beyond just the map files you'll need to run them in DOSBox.

LAW, on 19 June 2013 - 09:26 AM, said:

3) Some people (including Hendricks) tried to make a mods out of these unreleased things. How many of them were actually released? (I remember something like LameDuke Deluxe)

I generally abhor the idea of making "beta mods". All I did was preserve a mod 3DR shut down called "LameDuke Forever" by FunDuke, which was a pretty benign package in itself: he just converted all of LameDuke's art to the final Duke palette and filled it in the gaps of empty space in ART files, and also included all the LameDuke maps converted to the modern V6 or V7 format (whatever is usable with JFDuke3D). IIRC he also replaced the RPG sprite with the LameDuke one.

[MrFlibble]

Jimmy, on 19 June 2013 - 11:01 AM, said:

It looks like there was originally supposed to be a more post-apocalyptic setting. If you look at the E1L2 screenshot in the bottom right, you skyline has the Hollywood sign, but it looks more like Hollywood is in some kind of desert now.

Jimmy, on 19 June 2013 - 11:01 AM, said:

The screenshot with the flamethrower confirms my post-apocalyptic theory. That building in the background is heavily damaged.

I noticed that too. BTW, the flamethrower screenshot seems to have been taken in what looks like a version of a level that is present in LameDuke - the beginning of Episode 4 if I'm not mistaken - the one where these shots were taken:




BTW guys, is there any idea of how much on those shots is the real deal, and how much is just a mock-up for the show? I've got this feeling that the "flamethrower enforcer" is just the same sprite here and there.

[Darkus]

Plagman, on 19 June 2013 - 09:26 AM, said:

I read through the Joystick review and the only bit that seemed noteworthy was a mention that the Enforcer flamethrower made you catch fire.

Well, if you look closely what's written in the screenshot at bottom left, you can read:
YOUR BURNING! FIND WATER OR DIE (yes, it's misspelled)
http://download.aban...0Page%20075.jpg

Jimmy, on 19 June 2013 - 11:01 AM, said:

Player One P095
It looks like there was originally supposed to be a more post-apocalyptic setting. If you look at the E1L2 screenshot in the bottom right, you skyline has the Hollywood sign, but it looks more like Hollywood is in some kind of desert now.

Page 53
The screenshot with the flamethrower confirms my post-apocalyptic theory. That building in the background is heavily damaged.

These red skies remind me of those I saw in Duke Nukem II.

Jimmy, on 19 June 2013 - 11:01 AM, said:

The shotgun sprite is abhorrent.

I think it's because they used another model in the HUD for the shotgun.
http://download.aban...ril%201996).jpg


I found some scans, but I think you'll recognize some screenshots that have been posted before, I have not found another ones. So I think that will be the last for now.

Gen4 N84
Page 48(official artwork, extended. Now you can see who is under the Lizman!)
Page 49(Talking of Apogee)
Page 50(DN3D Beta screens and Pigcop Artwork)
Page 51(others beta screens. Also some beta screens from Blood)
Page 52(Now interesting beta screens from Shadow Warrior.)
Page 54(Xenophage and Stargunner)

And finally, an interview with George Broussard, with some pictures of the 3DRealms staff:
Page 56
Page 57

Two last scans:

Those two screens seems very old, nearly Lameduke. In the second screen, look like the robot trooper is shooting a very long firelaser.
http://download.aban...0Page%20020.jpg

And two others from Shadow Warrior, especially the first screen which is not seen from the scans above.
http://download.aban...0Page%20033.jpg

[LAW]

Hendricks266, on 19 June 2013 - 11:59 AM, said:

• LameDuke
  
• shareware v0.99 (leaked)
  
• shareware v1.0
  
• shareware v1.1
  
• shareware post-v1.1 Computer Gaming World one-level demo
  
• shareware v1.3D

EDuke32 and Mapster32 sort of support them but to get the full scope of the prototype beyond just the map files you'll need to run them in DOSBox.

Big thanks!

[High Treason]

Jimmy, on 19 June 2013 - 11:01 AM, said:

High Treason, the boards won't let me send you a PM. Could you email me that video you cut together? (That way I can have it in the best quality possible, YouTube is balls. I'm gonna put it in my archive.)

I'm on it.

Hendricks266, on 19 June 2013 - 11:59 AM, said:

...Links...

There's a one level demo hiding in this thread somewhere too, think it's from somewhere between 1.1 and 1.3... Here; http://www.knightsan...vate/duke3d.zip

Darkus, on 19 June 2013 - 02:30 PM, said:

These red skies remind me of those I saw in Duke Nukem II.

I was thinking the same thing.

Edit:
Anyone realised that if you crank the volume up on the John Romero video, different sounds can be heard. The pigcop shotgun sounds a lot like 0.99, the underwater sounds a bit like the sound in Shadow Warrior. Seems there's a short one of the city ambience sounds too when Duke jumps out of the window.

[Hendricks266]

High Treason, on 19 June 2013 - 02:48 PM, said:

There's a one level demo hiding in this thread somewhere too, think it's from somewhere between 1.1 and 1.3... Here; http://www.knightsan...vate/duke3d.zip

Thanks, forgot that one. Two edits later and it's fixed.

[Fox]

Jimmy, on 19 June 2013 - 11:01 AM, said:

It looks like there was originally supposed to be a more post-apocalyptic setting. If you look at the E1L2 screenshot in the bottom right, you skyline has the Hollywood sign, but it looks more like Hollywood is in some kind of desert now.

It's not far from the real thing.



Of course the sky is burning, so it is a post-apocalyptic setting like in Lameduke.

MrFlibble, on 19 June 2013 - 02:16 PM, said:

I noticed that too. BTW, the flamethrower screenshot seems to have been taken in what looks like a version of a level that is present in LameDuke - the beginning of Episode 4 if I'm not mistaken - the one where these shots were taken:

Not at all. It's just the Zoo map close to the paralaxed ceiling.

Darkus, on 19 June 2013 - 02:30 PM, said:

Well, if you look closely what's written in the screenshot at bottom left, you can read:
YOUR BURNING! FIND WATER OR DIE (yes, it's misspelled)
http://download.aban...0Page%20075.jpg

From v0.99:

definequote 108       YOU'RE BURNING!  FIND WATER OR DIE

===//===//===

Edit:

[MrFlibble]

 High Treason, on 19 June 2013 - 02:48 PM, said:

There's a one level demo hiding in this thread somewhere too, think it's from somewhere between 1.1 and 1.3... Here; http://www.knightsan...vate/duke3d.zip

Heh, the fun thing is that this is the exclusive demo for the Computer Gaming World magazine - which was known to put exclusive demo content on their cover CDs. Apparently, they contacted Apogee and requested an exclusive one-level demo, but due to some kind of misunderstanding what they got was the shareware v1.1 that just quits after the first level (albeit the only self-running demo in this version shows playthrough of E1L02, which is indeed in the GRP file but not accessible). Which is kind of a shame come to think of it, an exclusive extra Duke3D level from the original developers would've been nice

 Fox, on 19 June 2013 - 06:32 PM, said:

Not at all. It's just the Zoo map close to the paralaxed ceiling.

Oh, thanks for pointing that out! The red sky and the dilapidated building reminded of that LameDuke level somehow, since you can also destroy part of a building with RPG shots in that level.

 Fox, on 19 June 2013 - 06:32 PM, said:

 Darkus, on 19 June 2013 - 02:30 PM, said:

Well, if you look closely what's written in the screenshot at bottom left, you can read:
YOUR BURNING! FIND WATER OR DIE (yes, it's misspelled)
http://download.aban...0Page%20075.jpg

From v0.99:

definequote 108       YOU'RE BURNING!  FIND WATER OR DIE

Hmm, I think the same line (albeit shortened to the first sentence) is preserved in the later releases as well, and I think it's also present in NAM as well.

Speaking of that, I wonder if the flamethrower weapon in NAM works anything like the original flamethrower?

Also guys, with those shots of the flamethrower, would it be possible to accurately reconstruct the sprite (I don't remember any shots with the flamethrower's firing animation in the official screenshot packs)?

And one more thing on the same topic, do I understand correctly that the development of this concept was from the "laser chainsaw" to the flamethrower to the freezethrower? Or did the laser chainsaw and flamethrower coexist at some point as two separately available weapons?

 Cage, on 19 June 2013 - 12:07 AM, said:

Some others I've noticed recently:

Different scuba sprite in the inventory in one of the beta-presspack shots (name: D3d30.pcx)

Hmm, I just noticed that the shot on the right has what seems like the scuba mask that is near the bottom of the air tank. I assume that this is the older version, from the time when the mask was shown on the HUD when underwater:

[NNC]

A find in the v0.99 beta.

[Fox]

 MrFlibble, on 20 June 2013 - 06:26 AM, said:

And one more thing on the same topic, do I understand correctly that the development of this concept was from the "laser chainsaw" to the flamethrower to the freezethrower? Or did the laser chainsaw and flamethrower coexist at some point as two separately available weapons?

The original sketch of the weapon is that of the "Laser Chainsaw", but I have never seen an image of the game with the weapon in it. Instead all early screenshots have the Flamethrower.

[Come On And Slam]

 High Treason, on 18 June 2013 - 02:10 PM, said:

Bump, consider it done;

(that super cool video)

Huh, I wonder why they left out that head-bobbing effect for when you use the Mighty Boot at 1:08. It looks pretty cool.

[TerminX]

Anyone have any questions for an unnamed insider who was heavily involved in the production of the game?

[Darkus]

 Nancsi, on 20 June 2013 - 10:22 AM, said:

A find in the v0.99 beta.

alicia-allen.jpg

redrum.
REDRUM!

It seems that the programmers intended to include more little secrets and movie references here and here in the beta... Here's the second one:

If you are standing exactly at this place and press space...


...you can see this:

Spoiler

[Cage]

 TerminX, on 20 June 2013 - 01:04 PM, said:

Anyone have any questions for an unnamed insider who was heavily involved in the production of the game?

Yup. The most puzzling one of all:

What was that supposed to be:

[High Treason]

 TerminX, on 20 June 2013 - 01:04 PM, said:

Anyone have any questions for an unnamed insider who was heavily involved in the production of the game?

Why was the palette changed (after lameduke, before the final)?

Any chance of potential leakage of a beta?

Out of what content was made, what percentage was cut?

That's all I can think of.

[Fox]

You could ask about the Chuck Jones models.

[TerminX]

 High Treason, on 20 June 2013 - 02:44 PM, said:

Why was the palette changed (after lameduke, before the final)?

Any chance of potential leakage of a beta?

Out of what content was made, what percentage was cut?

That's all I can think of.

Let's keep the questions to those which are non-obvious and about specific things. I can answer the first two myself: 1) because they wanted to change the appearance of the game to appear less cartoonish, and 2) no. The third question really depends on your definition of "cut"... does it only include content that was removed after being more or less finalized, or does it include content that was lacking in quality and turned into something else/outright replaced entirely? Do ideas that were experimented with and found not to work out very well early on count as cut, or just stuff that looked like it could have been part of a shipping product? It's a pretty broad scope.

[High Treason]

Aye, I should have been more specific. In short, things that were implemented in the game to some degree but then removed completely, for some reason I was thinking mostly of levels and pieces of levels that were removed. The palette I ain't so sure of though, I would argue that the old one (post lameduke) looked better, but that's a matter of preference and the brighter colors could indeed be seen as cartoonish, I supposed coming from the EGA days they probably went out of their way to make the game as VGA-looking as possible with more gritty colors.

On the obvious side of things; @Cage; Sure that's an anglehead flashlight, they were commonly used by the military.



I found a few more chunks of stuff in 0.99;

E1L2 from above, a few differences. Still retains some things we saw in the stuff Darkus found though is clearly a much later revision. The shot witht he "All work and no play" from earlier has a red "A" tagged like a camera (0,300) in it, this may mean nothing, otherwise the sprite may have changed tile since that part was made (Where was it in Lameduke?)


Another unused area in E1L2, seems like it may have connected to near where the Duke Burger is in the N64 version, presumably a blastable wall would allow access. Contails loads of Liztroops and some ammo. Speaking of the N64, the fire station reminds me of the grocery store in the N64 version of E1L1.


Pieces of E1L5, the round piece was likely for copy/pasting in the battlelord arena, the othe piece at the edge of the screen contains an octabrain and a door with shotgun ammo behind it.




This may be in the final... Can't remember nor do I have access right now. Made me chuckle though as the only thing I know SUYT to stand for is "Show us your t*ts" - levelord must have been feeling a little frustrated that day.

[Jimmy]

 TerminX, on 20 June 2013 - 01:04 PM, said:

Anyone have any questions for an unnamed insider who was heavily involved in the production of the game?

Whatever happened to the planned patch after Atomic Edition?
Is there any way we could convince 3DR to release those tidbits? Dirk Jones finished voxels for quite a few sprites in the game.

I know you said betas couldn't be released, but are there any assets that could be released, similarly to how the discarded Pig Cop animation was released a while ago? Something like the early 'royal' Enforcer would be nice.

Is there any more concept art which could be released?

Why were the Snakehead, Scorpion Tank, and Organic Turret cut from the game? Is there anything about these cut enemies that we don't know?

Did the Laser Chainsaw ever exist in the game as a weapon?

What was the Sonic Resonator? How did it work? Did it ever exist in the game as a weapon? There was a pick up sprite for it in LameDuke.

Were there any weapons, enemies, or significant features that got cut from the game that we don't know about?

A lot of screenshots show levels that didn't make it to the final game, were these merely mockups or were they fleshed out levels ala the four mostly finished and released levels by Levelord. (Sewer, Sweeney, Chuckles, and Cigam) Any chance we could see those levels some day?