[MrFlibble]

Hey guys, thanks for the heads up on the NW and D!Zone demos! I wasn't aware of their existence, I only know the Duke It Out in D.C. demo.

RunningDuke, on 22 August 2018 - 03:21 AM, said:

On topic: The first post should also include earlier alpha/beta versions such as LameDuke, Duke3D 0.99 beta, SW 0.90 beta, Blood alpha and Blood 0.91 shareware.

There's a time limit in which you can edit posts here, so I cannot make any updates to the OP with my current permissions.

Also there's no way Duke3D and SW betas & Blood alpha may be on the list, these are all unauthorised leaks! Blood v0.91 shareware is a murky thing because the loading screen says DO NOT DISTRIBUTE even though this may be a mistake on the part of developers. Anyhow, AFAIK it wasn't even made available as an online download and indeed might have been intended as a coverdisk-exclusive release.

Sanek, on 21 August 2018 - 02:16 PM, said:

Both Early Years and Possum Bayou was sold in stores, after the original game was released. Funny thing is that Early Years, unlike any other versions of the game, was distributed by Softkey Multimedia (not Interplay), while Possum Bayou comes from Interplay.

The jewel case of The Early Years actually says "OEM Version" on the back (MobyGames scan) — this means that it was packaged with some piece of hardware. This was a separate practice different from break-up into episodes of Apogee model shareware games. Usually an OEM version would be larger than the regular demo (sometimes amounting to one half of the full game), as a bonus for hardware buyers. Such releases include Tyrian (one and a half episode instead of one in the regular shareware version), Warcraft 1 (six levels per side = half the game), Descent (15 levels = again, half the full game) and Half-Life: Day One.

On the other hand, "retail shareware" releases were shareware and sometimes demo versions sold on CDs in stores, usually at a very low price no higher than covering the CD printing expenses. This was actually a handy thing for people who couldn't afford downloading stuff back then. Some of these, especially demos, had a coupon for rebate on buying the full game (e.g. the Command & Conquer CD Demo). Blood and Warcraft 1 had "official" CD shareware releases (yes, technically Warcraft is not a shareware game; the shareware CD was by FormGen BTW), but actually many shareware license agreements have a clause that instructs potential CD vendors to contact the authors for permission to publish the shareware version on a CD, either stand-alone or in a compilation. Doing so without permission was forbidden. There's a video interview with John Romero where he shows some such CD shareware releases of either Doom or Quake from his collection, published without any direct involvement from id Software.

Sanek, on 21 August 2018 - 02:16 PM, said:

Chopping games in seperate parts was (thankfully) a short-lived practice by a number of retail shareware distributors in the mid-to-late 90s. You buy only one part of the game for a lower price than full version. Epic MegaGames and B&N Company was especially notorious in that regard - for example, they released all episodes of Xargon and Jill of the Jungle seperately, in addition to the full versions!

Welcome to the world of the Apogee shareware model, created by none other than Scott Miller Did you know you could also order the episodes of Duke Nukem separately as well?

[Sanek]

MrFlibble, on 23 August 2018 - 03:55 AM, said:

Welcome to the world of the Apogee shareware model, created by none other than Scott Miller Did you know you could also order the episodes of Duke Nukem separately as well?

Geez, I forgot about these.
I was so used to the idea that shareware is just Episode 1 and then you get the full version that I forgot about separate order of the episodes.
But again, it's not common among retail vendors, that's why it seemed strange to me that there's separate episodes was sold in stores.

Quote

but actually many shareware license agreements have a clause that instructs potential CD vendors to contact the authors for permission to publish the shareware version on a CD, either stand-alone or in a compilation. Doing so without permission was forbidden.

I beelive that Apogee, Epic and other famous shareware publishers had a persistent list of shareware vendors that shoved all these games on every compilation they possible. However, other vendors can't do that. Actually, the approved vendors is listed in the "order info" page of the game's menu.

[MrFlibble]

I have found what appears to be the original zip of the Duke!Zone II demo, no repacks or external additions: d!z2demo.zip

[Sanek]

I remember the original Duke!Zone (500 levels) also had a somewhat condensed version, with like 75 maps in it. Can it be considered a demo? Or it's fully standalone product?

[TerminX]

Sanek, on 04 September 2018 - 05:57 AM, said:

I remember the original Duke!Zone (500 levels) also had a somewhat condensed version, with like 75 maps in it. Can it be considered a demo? Or it's fully standalone product?

I think it was 150 maps, and it was sold in a box.

[Sanek]

TerminX, on 04 September 2018 - 09:00 AM, said:

I think it was 150 maps, and it was sold in a box.

Oh. I guess I was mistaking it with a similar condensed version of D!Zone for Doom.

[Perro Seco]

MrFlibble, on 01 May 2016 - 09:03 AM, said:

For TekWar, there's an apparently CD-exclusive demo which comes with the entire intro sequence. The date stamp on TEKD1.EXE is from 1995-08-07 (making it the earliest known demo version), and its size is 701,065 bytes, compared to 491,153-491,677 bytes for the later two versions. The CITY.MAP level is also different from the other versions. This demo was published in a CD called Electronic Entertainment (US) 12/95 (folder contents). I think its image can be downloaded off archive.org.

Hello MrFlibble, I'm interested in that demo, but the link you posted seems to be unavailable. I'm searching it in archive.org as you said but I can't find it. Could be possible to upload the demo somewhere so we can download it? I've got another demo, but the map CITY.MAP is almost the same as in the final version of the game.

MrFlibble, on 26 December 2016 - 01:47 PM, said:

It appears that TekWar had a pre-release downloadable screenshot pack called TEKSHOTS.ZIP. Anyone have it?

I also would like to get that file, but I couldn't find anything about it. At least we've got this video, which shows some very cool screenshots about the early development of the game:


Here you can find some of them in higher resolution:
https://twitter.com/...268303816462339

And I also found this small image with an unknown weapon:

[MetHy]

MrFlibble, on 30 April 2012 - 05:06 AM, said:

Fate

• demo (FATE.EXE 1996-10-11): fate.zip

In this video at 6m10s, there seems to be a map transition, but which doesn't work with the demo in this zip, any idea what's going on?



Also, the zip has 2 more map files power.map and power2.map not shown in this video, I suppose they're not playable as there are no enemies in them, is that correct?
Edit: actually screw that, enemies just don't seem to show at all in mapster

edit: nevermind, everything works, though the level transitions need to fiddled with to work, although it only seemed to start working when playing in 640*480

This could have been a good game. Level design isn't great especially for a post DN3D demo, but it has some nice ideas.
The game sure knows how to look great when it wents to as well and it has some cool ideas like the inventory, the hub system, or sprites you can push which then can be used to solve puzzles or access higher areas.

Everything, player weapons and enemies, is projectile based so that doesn't always feel good, especially when projectile speed is so slow. Not to mention all enemies behave more or less the same.
The grenades which are thrown by pressing a single key without having to switch weapons do feel great though.

Some screenshots because why not

Spoiler

[icecoldduke]

Sanek, on 21 August 2018 - 06:40 AM, said:

I'm sorry to say that, but as much as I respect Sillysoft for trying, I'll never buy the full version on account of this demo!

Did Sillysoft get the source code for Duke3D? If not this was the best they could do.

[Phredreeke]

What were they thinking using a hacked Red Light District for the demo? (I'd argue an expansion pack doesn't need a demo in the first place) What impression did they think players would get?

[Sanek]

Phredreeke, on 07 September 2018 - 08:28 AM, said:

What were they thinking using a hacked Red Light District for the demo? (I'd argue an expansion pack doesn't need a demo in the first place) What impression did they think players would get?

Actually, quite a number of expansion packs have a demos for it. There's "teaser levels" (as Sunstorm called it) for DC and Cryptic Passage, and I guess that Sillysoft just followed the rule. Maybe the publisher wanted to have a demo, I don't know.

They wanted to showcase the new art and enemies, and the player's like "Oh boy, it looks so cool that I can feel the Christmas spirit coming from the computer! Mom/Dad get your credit card NOW!"

[icecoldduke]

Phredreeke, on 07 September 2018 - 08:28 AM, said:

What were they thinking using a hacked Red Light District for the demo? (I'd argue an expansion pack doesn't need a demo in the first place) What impression did they think players would get?

Red Light District was a iconic map in Duke3D because of the strippers. From a marketing perspective, Red Light District being in the demo, totally makes sense. I personally thought it was one of the better maps in NW.

[Phredreeke]

Don't get me wrong I have a certain fondness for Deja Vu/Where it all began, I actually think returning to older levels to see how they've changed was a pretty cool concept. But it makes it look like NW is just a collection of rehashed DN3D levels (though maybe it would actually been better received that way?)

[MrFlibble]

Perro Seco, on 05 September 2018 - 01:17 PM, said:

Hello MrFlibble, I'm interested in that demo, but the link you posted seems to be unavailable. I'm searching it in archive.org as you said but I can't find it. Could be possible to upload the demo somewhere so we can download it? I've got another demo, but the map CITY.MAP is almost the same as in the final version of the game.

The CD image is available from archive.org here.

Perro Seco, on 05 September 2018 - 01:17 PM, said:

I also would like to get that file, but I couldn't find anything about it. At least we've got this video, which shows some very cool screenshots about the early development of the game:

The Interactive Entertainment CD is also available from archive.org, recently I contributed the images from there to the promo art section at MobyGames:
http://www.mobygames...rs-tekwar/promo

Some of the images have developer photos and/or captions imposed over them.

Perro Seco, on 05 September 2018 - 01:17 PM, said:

And I also found this small image with an unknown weapon:

A slightly larger version was available from LaserSoft's website but it appears to be a nearest-neighbour downscaled version of a 640x480 image. Unfortunately LaserSoft did that to official screenshots that were larger than 320x200.

[Daedolon]

I feel like I've seen that weapon in some D3D TC before.

[Perro Seco]

MrFlibble, on 08 September 2018 - 02:40 AM, said:

The Interactive Entertainment CD is also available from archive.org, recently I contributed the images from there to the promo art section at MobyGames:
http://www.mobygames...rs-tekwar/promo

Thanks a lot for your contributions! I like those screenshots a lot, they look very realistic for 1995. It's a shame they had to cut half of the map to make it playable, just like E1L6 from LameDuke.

MrFlibble, on 08 September 2018 - 02:40 AM, said:

The CD image is available from archive.org here.

Very interesting demo; the map is an earlier version of the other demos' map, and in day mode. I also like that stun baton, it works good as a melee weapon, they shouldn't have removed it.

However, I can't enter any of the buildings, do you have the same problem?

[MrFlibble]

Perro Seco, on 21 September 2018 - 04:14 PM, said:

However, I can't enter any of the buildings, do you have the same problem?

Actually I don't remember, researching TekWar was a while ago I'm not even sure if this demo we're talking about is the same thing as the beta demo from a CD in the cd.textfiles collection (actually it's from the PC Gamer Issue 12).

[MrFlibble]

Phredreeke, on 07 September 2018 - 10:28 AM, said:

Don't get me wrong I have a certain fondness for Deja Vu/Where it all began, I actually think returning to older levels to see how they've changed was a pretty cool concept. But it makes it look like NW is just a collection of rehashed DN3D levels (though maybe it would actually been better received that way?)

I played through the NW demo level recently and I must say I enjoyed it - probably not as much as I would a completely new level, but it was still fun. All the new areas and additions are cleverly done, I loved the new elevator access to the former blue keycard area (I have to confess I did not figure it out but had to use the jetpack to get there the first time). Also the construction site for the toy store in the place of the demolished building is a nice touch and done in a neat manner. The Christmas-themed decorations are mostly in good places and don't looks artificial or intrusive. The new enemy sprites are a bit crude but they do the job.

To be honest, I enjoyed this more than the demo level of Duke it Out in D.C. that I played a while ago even though that is a replica of the entire White House. But maybe that's actually the reason why the level is not particularly memorable because it's all rooms and corridors and very little tricky architectural design.

[Sanek]

Redneck Rampage: The Early Years page on mobygames mentions that there's eight multiplayer deathmatch levels. Is it some kind of original levels made for this version, or what? I can't dowload this version anywhere, yet find out any info about the levels.

[Marphy Black]

The multiplayer levels in The Early Years are the same as the full game's Pissin' Contest episode. In fact, The Early Year's GRP file is identical to the full game's except for a few extra tiles in TILES006.ART used for the sell screen. There's no new or exclusive content included, rather actually just being the full game but with some restrictions preventing you from accessing all of the levels.

[Sanek]

I see. I was almost ready to purchase a copy on ebay in order to find out.

[MrFlibble]

I played the demo of Duke!Zone II and was interested enough to watch a playthrough of the four new episodes. It is my understanding that these are by the same developers as Nuclear Winter and the yet to be released Deadly Kiss (?).

Anyway, the demo level and the rest of the maps certainly appear playable and functional (with some interesting ideas here and there), but seemed rather bland and straightforward in design to me. By no means anything close to community made stuff like Secrets of the Acropolis. But I guess back in 1997 wen this was first released, it would have been more interesting, if only because custom content was less abundant back then.

It is my understanding that the first Duke!Zone was just random user maps downloaded from the Internet thrown together, is that so?

[Lunick]

I have a credit list of Duke!Zone maps https://pastebin.com/GPNmNu60 which was all downloaded from the internet

No idea who worked on the Duke!Zone2 maps though

[Hendricks266]

MrFlibble, on 02 April 2019 - 07:47 AM, said:

I played the demo of Duke!Zone II and was interested enough to watch a playthrough of the four new episodes. It is my understanding that these are by the same developers as Nuclear Winter and the yet to be released Deadly Kiss (?).

They were by the same organizers, Simply Silly Software, but the mappers on all of their projects were contractors who varied by title.

I can't find any D!Z2 credits information in the game data or on the disc. Does anyone have a copy of the manual? It might be our only hope.

[Jimmy]

Daedolon, on 08 September 2018 - 04:16 AM, said:

I feel like I've seen that weapon in some D3D TC before.

You certainly have. One of those shit 2000s mods use it, but it "originated" in 1997, posted by someone named Kathy. Just look for uziweapn.zip or uzi.zip. Kathy claims in the readme not remembering where the art comes from. Looks like a "leak" to me.

[Hendricks266]

I asked around and apparently Duke!ZONE II didn't come with a manual at all, only a single-sheet insert. :/

[MetHy]

I've had a look again at the demo for Duke It Out In DC and the level is identical to the released version, however the official screenshots that come with it show some minor level design differences with the final versions.

On another note, I have just noticed that games released by Interplay apparently came with demos (playable or videos) of other games, for instance Redneck Deer Huntin' has demos of Starflleet Academy, VR Pool 2, Vulcan Furry, Mindspring.

Does anyone here have any other Interplay games from 1996 to 1998 that they could check the content of the discs for potential Redneck Rampage related demos?

[MusicallyInspired]

MetHy, on 17 November 2020 - 03:11 AM, said:

On another note, I have just noticed that games released by Interplay apparently came with demos (playable or videos) of other games, for instance Redneck Deer Huntin' has demos of Starflleet Academy, VR Pool 2, Vulcan Furry, Mindspring.

*Vulcan Fury. Please don't denigrate Star Trek like that.

[OpenMaw]

MusicallyInspired, on 18 November 2020 - 06:01 AM, said:

*Vulcan Fury. Please don't denigrate Star Trek like that.

Maybe it's Caitian wearing Vulcan ears?

It's a damn shame about Vulcan Fury.

[MetHy]

I have zero excuse for making a typo on that word, please don't twist the knife in the wound!