[CryptKiller]

Three pages long "sneak peek" at Duke Nukem 3D, Computer Gaming World #132. Hopefully it wasn't posted here before.

p. 1 p. 2 p. 3

I won't post images here as I'm pretty sure they're too big. The screenshots aren't that exciting, to be honest, but there's artwork of original Enforcer with black/red armor and the text itself mentions some pretty interesting things like flashlight and laser sword.

[Stabs]

Not really duke related but still build based, rather interesting to note in the beta version of blood its assets that contain a monster that was the plasma packs boss and some other monster that never made the final cut like the demon plants, pretty sure it was time constraints as they had no coding at least they didn't purposely withhold it and charge $5 for it, oh how expansion packs have changed.

[TerminX]

I'm pretty sure that art was originally used for the player's "beast mode" powerup that was cut from the game... you'd activate the powerup and turn into that thing.

I always found it interesting that the art present in Blood was nearly finalized over a year before release, whereas Duke and Shadow Warrior were still in flux even a couple months before release... for example, the enemy sprites in the Duke 0.99 beta from a couple weeks before 1.0 shareware were unfinished, etc.

[Stabs]

yeah i remember seeing it way before blood was even known, its strange how art like that gets unused given the limited time, resources needed and limited team members they had back then, even a stack of maps that never made the final game, some nearly complete that could easily pass as secret levels.

[Fox]

CryptKiller, on 18 August 2013 - 08:39 AM, said:

I won't post images here as I'm pretty sure they're too big. The screenshots aren't that exciting, to be honest, but there's artwork of original Enforcer with black/red armor and the text itself mentions some pretty interesting things like flashlight and laser sword.

Though it is a laser chainsaw, not sword. But if they made such a confusion, I suppose it already existed in the game.

[CryptKiller]

That was my first thought, too, but the article specifically tells

Quote

Other cool weapons the designers are playing around with include the concept of a laser sword akin to the ones in the Star Wars movies, which didn't make it into Dark Forces

I guess they ditched the lightsaber-thingy and went with laser chainsaw for some time, until finally dropping melee weapons besides kick?

Another fun tidbit from the article:

Quote

I saw Duke in several incarnations over the course of it's development, from pre-alpha to near-beta, and the game was never quite done.

As for mid-1995, 3D Realms still didn't nail what exactly Duke3D was going to be?

[OpenMaw]

Not all that surprising for back then. Six months was a lot more time to change and work on things than it is today.

[Cage]

Those ShadowWarrior findings are really cool!

Fox, on 16 August 2013 - 12:58 PM, said:

What I find more interesting is that they updated the enemy sprites in the picture on the left:

My theory is that some of those shots are mockups made in build - they've just did a new screenshot once they replaced the jumpsuit trooper art with the current one.

[Fox]

I prefer Duke D.C. mock-ups, there is an Overlord half the shots, and you can still see the Sector Effectors.

[OpenMaw]

Cage, on 18 August 2013 - 11:26 PM, said:

Those ShadowWarrior findings are really cool!



My theory is that some of those shots are mockups made in build - they've just did a new screenshot once they replaced the jumpsuit trooper art with the current one.

No need to theorise. Joe Siegler has said that's exactly what they did. He was personally responsible for some of the Duke3D mockups.

[t800]

CryptKiller, on 18 August 2013 - 08:39 AM, said:

Three pages long "sneak peek" at Duke Nukem 3D, Computer Gaming World #132. Hopefully it wasn't posted here before.

p. 1 p. 2 p. 3

This one thing intrigued me from 3rd scanned page:


Question for Build engine gurus: is it really at least hypothetically possible from technical stand-point of Build engine renderer to manage to render game in such a big screen resolution? Those scans are from 1995 btw, so it was written in time when Build engine was still greatly developing and yet had to reach its full potential, so is it just some made-up blabbering statement for advertising purposes only?

[TerminX]

Yeah, it's possible. I've run Blood in DOSBox at a higher resolution than that.

[Hendricks266]

Psh, 1280x768.

# define MAXXDIM 7680
# define MAXYDIM 3200

[NNC]

High Treason, on 01 August 2013 - 06:09 AM, said:

As I said a long time ago;


I found my VHS. Volume is a little low, if that really is a problem I can go back and press normalize.

About 14-15 seconds in.

Yeah, I remember that movie, it was scary, early Spielberg style. And remember that exact sound as well, although I think it have been used in other movies with "monster" trucks, like the episode in Knight Rider against Goliath etc.

Just like the Sentry Drone sound, which have been used frequently, the Imp sound is rather similar from Doom, but it's mostly used as a Dragon attack sound. Like this (at 0:20 for example):

[NNC]

MYHOUSE.MAP, on 16 August 2013 - 08:51 PM, said:

I'm sure that some people have noticed this before, but some of the dead and tortured NPC sprites seen in the final version of Shadow Warrior are based on beta designs for enemies.

Do you know something about the 4th girl from Master Leep's Temple? The one with a red hair... It didn't appear in the final release sadly.

[Jimmy]

She was likely just removed because of nudity/suicide.

[Marphy Black]

There's not a lot of unknown content here, but I came across some nice high quality GameFan Magazine scans of console Duke Nukem game previews.

Duke Nukem 64 Preview
Still featuring a lot of PC graphics, most conspicuously a green Expander.

Second Duke Nukem 64 Preview Pg. 1
Second Duke Nukem 64 Preview Pg. 2
Pretty close to the final, but the Duke Rally screen in Gun Crazy is using the goofy Duke wanted animation and the ID4 movie clip is tinted red rather than blue.

Lobotomy Software Exposed Pg. 1
Lobotomy Software Exposed Pg. 2
Lobotomy Software Exposed: Duke Nukem Saturn Preview Pg. 1
Lobotomy Software Exposed: Duke Nukem Saturn Preview Pg. 2
A really interesting read of the technical challenge behind porting Duke Nukem to the Sega Saturn. Unfortunately, I can't identify any particularly interesting beta differences in the screenshots. However, note the projected release date is May.

Second Duke Nukem Saturn Preview
Still can't see any differences in the screenshots, but the projected release date is now September.

Third Duke Nukem Saturn Preview
The release is now set for October. I didn't realize the Saturn port of Duke 3D had been delayed for so long.

And on a different note, a preview of Duke Nukem 64 from Game Play 64 magazine: Page 1, Page 2. The most interesting bit here would be the SMG concept art, I believe.

Also, a full page French advertisement for Duke It Out in D.C.

And finally, not game-related, but I think this magazine cover art is pretty neat.

[Fox]

Thanks for these, there is a lot going on the Duke Nukem 64 scans. There is a suspiciously small Cycloid Emperor on an unknow level, but it appears to be on a standing pose. An old explosion and old Pistol (even with Dum-dum rounds). And a weird texture (my guess is #382) in Piracy.

[MYHOUSE.MAP]

Nancsi, on 21 August 2013 - 01:07 PM, said:

Do you know something about the 4th girl from Master Leep's Temple? The one with a red hair... It didn't appear in the final release sadly.

Fun bit of trivia: The artwork for her does not appear in the leaked beta's files, but does in the final game. She was added in the small gap between the beta and the shareware version, but was removed. She was in the game long enough for the artist that made the image of Master Leep and his girls (the one that hides a secret in the third map) to put her in the texture.

[Jblade]

This reminds me of that art tile in Duke of the impaled Women that was never used in the game. I imagine it has a similar story to that artwork, it was made but someone decided it was too graphic/disturbing to use ingame and so it was removed, but not from the art tiles.

[Fox]

She is also coded.

[t800]

Nancsi, on 21 August 2013 - 01:07 PM, said:

Do you know something about the 4th girl from Master Leep's Temple? The one with a red hair... It didn't appear in the final release sadly.

Jimmy, on 21 August 2013 - 01:52 PM, said:

She was likely just removed because of nudity/suicide.

NSFW!!!
http://www.spriters-...ar/sheet/24878/

I think they removed her because it clashed too much with overall mood of game (+ being the only girl with fully visible half-nudity in game). I mean seeing innocent girl commiting seppuku right after she notices you...

[High Treason]

I never figured out why the sprite was animated, doesnt look right looping over and over - you'd think the animation should be handled by code or something (to play once and stop when the player can see the sprite) which makes me think that she wasn't around for long at all, makes me ponder if she was ever even placed into a level. Or else they removed it because the looping animation looked silly.

[Jimmy]

I would imagine she would have been placed near Master Leep with the crying girl. In fact, I'm surprised that one made it into the game, I know it's an anime character, but she looks really young.

[Fox]

Japan

Spoiler

[MYHOUSE.MAP]

The Shadow Warrior beta has sprites for an unused green guy in ninja gear that appeared in some 1995-era screenshots. I think I might've found what he was meant to be.

A peek at the source code shows code for an unused enemy, called the Skeleton Priest. The code for him can be found in SKEL.C. Here's a list of his states:

Quote

SKEL_RUN
SKEL_SLASH
SKEL_SPELL
SKEL_PAIN
SKEL_TELEPORT

Now, let's take a look at the green guy.

Hmm, doesn't this look like teleportation?






Wait a minute, one of the Skeleton Priest's states is "SKEL_TELEPORT"! Looks like I'm onto something!

I'm not done yet tho. Look at this image.



There is a blade on his left arm.

However, if you look at this sprite:



You'll see that he's swinging with his left arm! One of the Skeleton Priest's states is "SKEL_SLASH". Looks like the green guy is slashing to me!


Seems to me that the green guy is actually an older, pre-Chuck Jones version of the unused Skeleton Priest enemy. The green guy's animations match up with the states listed in the Skeleton Priest's code. The art showing the green guy blocking is probably the "SKEL_SPELL" animation, since it's the only unique-looking animation that doesn't directly match the Skeleton Priest's unique states.

[Fox]

RinyRed, on 22 August 2013 - 12:43 AM, said:

And on a different note, a preview of Duke Nukem 64 from Game Play 64 magazine: Page 1, Page 2. The most interesting bit here would be the SMG concept art, I believe.

About these two scans, I have seen all these screenshots at IGN website (except for the watermark). That gun model is a MP5A3, not a MP5K (slightly modified to avoid copyright issues) like in Duke Nukem 64. Also that green tone and blood seems atypical, so I am guessing it's just a stock image they threw on the article.

Edit: Now I realized something quite important about these screenshots. It's very obvious they used the images from IGN website but removed the watermarks by pasting another area of the HUD over it.

Compare the first screenshot:

[CryptKiller]

Some interesting tidbits, nothing too shocking.

Apparently, the Devastator was called at one point Pulverizer: http://i.imgur.com/Ps1pHfD.jpg also the boss sprite seems a little different?
A shot of early version of strip club: http://i.imgur.com/AiINUO2.jpg

Early ad for ROTT: http://i.imgur.com/jaknb86.jpg
An early preview of Shadow Warrior in Polish magazine, 3 screenshots: http://i.imgur.com/Yz2mwb2.jpg interestingly, the release is stated here for February 97.
A mention of SW in CGW with 2 screenshots,: http://i.imgur.com/vrR9eqB.jpg
And finally, a four-page SW ad.

[1] [2] [3] [4]

[TerminX]

Nice find! That's the second frame of that version of the Overlord that I've ever seen (the first one being the common one shown on the back of the 1.3D box).

[Player Lin]

Some Pointless Miscellaneous Knowledge about RS:Lot7P... I wonder who still care this illegal shit game...

0.The released version(1994/9/26) in TW market was dated 3 days after the demo version(1994/9/22). There was also an updated version named "Enhanced version" dated 1994/11/1 and an modified version for the KR market, but I still not found any of them.

EDIT : Changed the date about demo because I misread the data...


Lot7P was based on its Chinese name, same as the historical novel - The Seven Heroes and Five Gallants, for some reasons about common translating rules in Taiwan at that time, they used the word "Paladins" for 俠(Heroes)'s translation, it also applied or other games in that time or even something should be translate to Ranger or similar names. Like this one.


1.The Intro can be skipped by setting a option in the Setup.exe -- it's called "A.S.D.F. mode", you can select Low or High, if it's on Low, the Intro level will be skipped when you started a new game, it just send you to the character and difficulty selection area, it also use min. HUD which won't showed your current weapon's BIG sprite, only the small icon of weapon sprite showed on the upper-middle of screen for indication. OH, you can't use this option in Demo version, it never existed in demo's setup.exe.

2.The Intro level's building is the Taipei Railway Station, even its layout didn't same as the real one, it just a plain building, texturing with some walls, signs and objects from the Taipei Railway Station in pre-1994 era. It also has some billboards showing a meaningless fighting scene and some games that Accend Inc was published in that time, including some Apogee (Co. Ltd.) games, but its sequence will go back after showed the last frame and then just go back one by one until to the first frame and then play forward and then backward...again, looping forever...

According the background story in this game, the train you take is a mystery train that take you to the game world, but it's weird when if you're not leave the train after it arrived the entrance of game world, it will just move and send you back to the train station for no reason...and yeah, it just go forward and then go backward in between two "stations"...

3. In the demo version, the first one option "Accend Information" won't worked because lack of required files in that version. It works on the release version, showing 4 of upcoming games made by Accend Inc...

A. Devil from Hell 3D (?)

B. 末日(Doomsday) - Without End 3D
(Looks like Blood or something...)

C. 搖滾少林系列 - 廖添丁傳
Rock 'n' ShaoLin - Legend of Liao Tian-Ding 3D
(Looks like the sequel of the Lot7P...)

D. Never Break 午夜狂飆(Midnight Racing) 3D
(I heard it's a racing game but I never see it ever comes out at all...)

My DOSBox screen go nuts after go back the main menu...I guess the display got messed up when showing those screens...

I guess they'll all made with Build engine... but who knows, Accend Inc. just dead after short time...
(I'm not sure they even ever was published DN3D at all, maybe I'm wrong...but I'm sure ROTT classic was.)

4. In the character selection screen, you can selecting one of those "Seven Paladins" as your player character, but I can't finding any difference between characters except attacking power...also there is only one character got his name showed out with his attacking status after you selected him - 展昭/Zhan Zhao, others just "no name", only the attacking status.

I guess they showed other characters' name in the instruction manual but sadly I didn't had it...

5. If you use "spell" attacks, your character will roaring the name of current spell, of course, in Chinese.
Those spells was based some movements of martial art on various famous Wuxia novels in TW, HK and CN.
EDIT : Add something on last sentence.

6. Save/Load function looks like working good (unlike MARS, keep crashing after I tried to load my damn savegame...), but it seems didn't saving the count of enemies on that level and your enemy kill count, it may got reset to all 0/0 if you saved your game near the exit and then reload it and go exit.

7. I didn't completed the whole game because the 9/26 version is so hard and I sucked at it...even I were tried to use a memory scanning and hacking tool and cheating the game by locked my health value, but feel boring after completed some levels... I checked someone's Lot7P Extracter, it extracted 35 maps from LMART000.DAT... the level didn't had actual name, instead it named "Chapter X, Section Y, Round Z", like the first level is "Chapter 1, Section 1, Round 1" , and next one is "Chapter 1, Section 1, Round 2", I don't have enough time to check the whole game to finger it out what's the rules about the naming, maybe later...


Sure, I sucked at this game...