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Demo versions of Build games

User is offline   MetHy 

#61

Was this difficulty glitch fixed in the last version of Blood?

This post has been edited by MetHy: 11 November 2014 - 08:20 AM

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User is offline   MrFlibble 

#62

 MrFlibble, on 05 November 2014 - 10:50 AM, said:

On a slightly related note, not sure if this could be interesting, but Litude mentioned a possibly leaked v0.91 beta demo which includes three levels.

This early demo was mentioned on the official Blood website (Wayback Machine copy), which confirms that this was, in fact, a legitimate magazine-only release:

Quote

The magazine version that you have is only available from magazine CDs. The magazine version is a very early build of Blood, and it only has 3 levels. The full shareware has 8 levels, and the full registered Blood has 42 levels and 4 episodes! Also, the problems that are in the Magazine demo have been fully addressed in the latest shareware version of Blood ( version 1.02 ). Download a copy of the shareware from HERE, or buy the CD copy in the stores for $9.95 that includes cinematic Softimage® rendered cutscenes, a music video from Type O Negative, and a coupon for $10 off the full registered version of Blood! [source]

BTW, what about the v0.99b Internet Shareware? The installer says Retail Shareware v1.0, and SHARE.SHR has the same size as the one found on the Retail Shareware CD.

Was this version really distributed online? It's about twice as large as any other shareware version, and contains Smacker animated logos alongside a copy of TEN client, which were otherwise not included in the Internet Shareware releases. Was it really distributed like that?

 MetHy, on 11 November 2014 - 08:20 AM, said:

Was this difficulty glitch fixed in the last version of Blood?

Apparently not, as a user here mentions that v1.21 still displays buggy behaviour.
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User is offline   MrFlibble 

#63

BTW, here's Blood Internet Shareware v1.10 (with installer):
https://mega.co.nz/#...Ve3R-KNCKUhkG2E

[Edit] A demo version of Powerslave which seems to have been an exclusive magazine coverdisk release can be found on the PC Gamer #2.13 (CD image @archive.org) and also on the NEXT Generation Nov 1996 CD (CD image @archive.org). Here's the list of files in this version that are different from the Dec 1996 Internet demo:

DEMO     VCR            404,067 30-07-1996  9:50
INSTALL  EXE            252,725 22-07-1996 14:31
PS       EXE            804,358 22-08-1996 16:48
STUFF    DAT         23,646,613 22-08-1996 16:44

The demo has the first four missions and the tutorial. Unlike the later Internet demo, the multiplayer map (LEV30.MAP) is not included. All map files have identical sizes to those found in inte Dec 1996 version, except LEV3.MAP.

STUFF.DAT contains a lot of assets from the full version. There seem to be two different versions of some sounds, like the player's taunts. One noticeable difference in this version is that the alien door sound is used for moving platforms. Mummies seem to not use the red skull attack.

This post has been edited by MrFlibble: 12 August 2015 - 03:35 PM

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User is offline   MrFlibble 

#64

 MrFlibble, on 07 August 2015 - 12:13 PM, said:

BTW, what about the v0.99b Internet Shareware? The installer says Retail Shareware v1.0, and SHARE.SHR has the same size as the one found on the Retail Shareware CD.

Was this version really distributed online? It's about twice as large as any other shareware version, and contains Smacker animated logos alongside a copy of TEN client, which were otherwise not included in the Internet Shareware releases. Was it really distributed like that?
The updates at 3D Gamers' Archive seem to suggest that both v0.99b and v0.99c were available is stand-alone downloads and not just patches:

Quote

970326 : added Blood v0.99c shareware and upgrade patch (superseded v0.99b)
<...>
970314 : added Blood v0.99b shareware and upgrade patch (superseded v0.99) [source]

A download of v0.99c is also mentioned here.

However, it still does not resolve the question of Retail Shareware v0.99b packed into a PKZIP SFX file allegedly for Internet distribution. I'm assuming that this might have been a mistake by Monolith or repack by a third party.

BTW, the Total Entertainment Network seems to have distributed its own versions of Blood shareware v1.0 and v1.1, which included the TEN enabler:

Quote

Blood Shareware 1.0
Got Blood? No?
Then download Blood Shareware Version 1.0 now!
File size: approx. 15 megabytes. This version already has the TEN enabler for Blood included.
The files were called blood10.exe and blood11.exe. The respective download pages:
http://web.archive.o...ood/getbld.html
http://web.archive.o...ood/getbld.html
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User is offline   Corvin 

  • King of the Lamers

#65

I removed that 30 meg bastard of SWv099B, I guess it was just BS.

I did pass over the TEN repacks a few years as that's all they are.

I still think the others are repacks as well, Monolith released patches and the other guy repacked the patched up versions.
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User is offline   MrFlibble 

#66

 Corvin, on 19 August 2015 - 02:22 PM, said:

I still think the others are repacks as well, Monolith released patches and the other guy repacked the patched up versions.

It could be, because the v0.99b and v0.99c updates were released in such a short time span. It was highly unlikely that both the end-users and third-party sites that hosted the shareware game would re-download/re-upload the stand-alone version instead of the much smaller patch.

On the other hand, major developers did have the resources to upload the updated full version. This would benefit new users who had not downloaded the initial release, and would otherwise have to download the full game and then apply the patch(es) to it.

Also, it is my understanding that the admins of 3D Action Gamers' Archives generally uploaded files they got from official sources without any modifications.

It is quite hard to track down these versions, if they exist. Hallfiry's magazine cover disk catalogue shows the typical trend of the first release being published, after which the magazine editors would not bother spending valuable CD space on updated full versions in future issues. Here are the entries found on the CDs for Internet Shareware (unpacked installer):
http://www.kultcds.c...dir=&dn=&descr=

The majority of entries is the initial v0.99 release (9 entries). There's one more each for v1.02, v1.10 and v1.11. The smallest file is an incomplete v1.11 release.

Hallfiry's catalogue does not cover every gaming magazine cover CD in existence, but the trend is obvious.

A v0.99 was available from ftp.funet.fi/pub/msdos/games/monolith/. The Wayback Machine has preserved its HTTP mirror. Apparently, the initial shareware release had not been updated since its upload there, as the WM snapshot dates back to the early 2000s. The same folder contains the v0.99b and v0.99c upgrade patches.
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User is offline   Corvin 

  • King of the Lamers

#67

Good research again!

Didn't Monolith post the shareware as a filename blood.exe? Maybe they just uploaded over the previous version with the same file name. Maybe why it's hard to track down the official releases since they where released so close apart like you mentioned.

It's not entire vital to have these as they are only going to be the patched up versions, and truly today that's redundant, not that it was back then tho. I belive the Mag CD's just patched whatever they had and 3D Action Gamers I'm sure just mirror whatever was released, again like you mentioned.

I did do a lot of this research before, that's why I have those words posted on RTCM "I believe they where just patches" because Monolith would have changed the download too quick to have it had been archive on the wayback. I just want to save others the hassle of perusing something like this, but I'm glad you did in away, it confirms some of what I found.
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User is offline   MrFlibble 

#68

 Corvin, on 23 August 2015 - 02:39 PM, said:

Didn't Monolith post the shareware as a filename blood.exe? Maybe they just uploaded over the previous version with the same file name. Maybe why it's hard to track down the official releases since they where released so close apart like you mentioned.

Yes, all shareware distributions are called blood.exe, and only differ by their size. Actually I suspect that Monolith might have had a full complement of files (single-file shareware, split files shareware, and patch where applicable) for every shareware revision, but obviously this is hard to verify now.

Magazine CD editors used different approaches. Some would actually put the files they downloaded on the CD in unmodified form, but this is somewhat rare. Many would repack the files to conserve space on the CD, with RAR being quite a popular format at least in Europe. Installers packaged into single files, as is the case with Blood, would be most probably unpacked and placed on the CD in this form.
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User is offline   Corvin 

  • King of the Lamers

#69

Just a note; I don't recall GT or Monolith ftp having any of these files saved. However I think the GT ftp is available on the wayback, but I don't have the few ftp addresses they used.
I do remember them having a small Duke3D set of files saved hidden away including the Aliens TC they nobody was suppose to have online.

Anyhow, wish I had the wayback machine available to me be back then, if i run into an old address I'll post it.
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User is offline   MrFlibble 

#70

AFAIK the Wayback Machine either does not crawl FTP sites at all or does very limited archiving of them. The files that are preserved (or at least those that I could find) are from HTTP mirrors. In some cases, these mirrors had an address like http://ftp.somesite.com/, and thus they got preserved. However even if the WM indexed such a page it doesn't mean that the files are there. In the 90s, often only files below 10 MiB are reliably preserved, and sometimes not even that. robots.txt are also a problem with many official sites (e.g. http://ftp.gtinteractive.com/).

There's a separate Internet Archive project for FTP archival, found here. It's very fragmentary though, and in some cases only relatively recent snapshots are stored.
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User is offline   MrFlibble 

#71

Here's the demo of Legend of Seven Paladins 3D w/ De-ICE installer in a single ZIP archive: 7PALADIN.ZIP.

Found the file here:
http://www.kultcds.c...ax=3539301&o=da

The file name is a guess, also no idea if it's original or the authors of the CD combined the already known three-part split version. If the file is original its name could be 75demo.zip instead.
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User is offline   Daedolon 

  • Ancient Blood God

#72

I have the full Monolith FTP saved in case anyone needs anything.
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User is offline   Corvin 

  • King of the Lamers

#73

Thanks MrFlibble. It appears to be just the 3 parts put together. But I'll post it.
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User is offline   MrFlibble 

#74

 Corvin, on 02 April 2016 - 02:37 PM, said:

Thanks MrFlibble. It appears to be just the 3 parts put together. But I'll post it.
There's probably no way to tell if it's original or not, unless there was a single-file download mentioned somewhere in newsgroups or something. Most of the stuff on that CD are repacks, sadly. Then again, back in the day repacks were common, and if no extra files were added they're perfectly legit. Of course, it's always better to have the original thing if possible, but the split-file versions don't seem to have the Apogee authenticity verification routine, even though the installer uses their custom of marking downloadable shareware as "Online/BBS Editions".
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User is offline   Corvin 

  • King of the Lamers

#75

yup I made notes on the page about where it came from. The one you sent has the authentication thingy. But its mostly just the 3 split files package together....

As for the split version, I can't remember exactly if it has the authentication (or are u saying it doesn't?), but I think two people sent me identical files over a years period back then. they sent pictures of the CDs and file contents etc...
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User is offline   MrFlibble 

#76

 Corvin, on 04 April 2016 - 02:32 PM, said:

yup I made notes on the page about where it came from. The one you sent has the authentication thingy. But its mostly just the 3 split files package together....

As for the split version, I can't remember exactly if it has the authentication (or are u saying it doesn't?), but I think two people sent me identical files over a years period back then. they sent pictures of the CDs and file contents etc...
I'm sorry if what I said was confusing, I meant the verification of the ZIP file. The installer itself, as usual for the time period, unpacks a self-extracting archive which does have authenticity verification, however it's different from the one used by Apogee/3DR.

What Apogee used was PKZIP authenticity verification (available to registered users only, that's why it's relatively rare I guess). This was included with all ZIP files and with self-extracting ZIPs that the early installers contained. However then they switched to the current installer that directly unpacks the files from a SHR archive (which is apparently still ZIP in most cases), leaving the standard PKZIP verification to ZIP archives only.

I'm using FreeCommander, which makes it easy to identify most ZIPs with authenticity verification thingy, as some of the files inside are usually highlighted in green:
Posted Image

I haven't found any info on what it's supposed to mean actually, but it's a reliable indicator in most cases. Opening such an archive with 7-Zip will show a lot of weird attributes for individual files:
Posted Image
Again, no idea what these are, but they are somehow related to the authenticity verification routine.
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User is offline   MetHy 

#77

Hey guys, remember that magazine full of demos I mentionned page 1 ITT?

Well I'm still investigating to look for the Exhumed, Duke It Out In DC, Redneck Rampage and Witchaven demos, which i'm sure the magazine had, but here is the Tekwar demo.

I'm no Tekwar expert so it's up to you to see if it's any different than the other demos.

Attached File(s)



This post has been edited by MetHy: 30 April 2016 - 02:45 AM

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User is offline   MetHy 

#78

Witchaven demo.

Both of these are from PC Collector Hors Série issue n° 01 - from March 1996.

If you guys are interested in other non Build FPS demos like Operation Body Count, Strife, Terminator: Future Shock, this magazine has it all in one issue or the other. Probably more too.

Attached File(s)



This post has been edited by MetHy: 30 April 2016 - 02:53 AM

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User is offline   MetHy 

#79

Found Powerslave! Same issue from that magazine but I almost missed it, it's not advertised in the "demo" department of the disc and it's located among sharewares.

I don't know if it's the same demo you guys have, but all I know is that it's not a level from the final game. All the files are all messy in the folder and it says "POWERSLAVE BETA FREEWARE DEMO from Playmatestoys."

Attached File(s)



This post has been edited by MetHy: 30 April 2016 - 02:59 AM

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User is offline   MetHy 

#80

Check this shit out!
So this magazine not only came with game demos, but also with mods and maps for games. There is a bunch of old 1996 DN3D mods in there in anyone is interested I can update, but it's probably nothing you haven't seen before... They're mostly simple .con mods.

But anyway among stuff there is a folder with some screenshots, including beta screenshots... and this Dukematch picture supposedly taken by Randy Pitchford ?

Posted Image

Attached File(s)



This post has been edited by MetHy: 30 April 2016 - 03:33 AM

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User is offline   MetHy 

#81

More screenshots! Maybe this is nothing new to you guys but I don't recall ever seeing some of those.

Those should be commercial screenshots given to the press?

Sorry if this isn't the right thread but this did come alongside the DN3D demo I linked to ITT.

Posted Image

Posted Image

Posted Image

More in the rar file.

Attached File(s)


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User is offline   MetHy 

#82

All of this is from PC Collector issue # 02 from may 1996.

Here is EditCon v1.1 by.... Charlie Wiederhold !

This should be the last non-demo post I swear :angry: Unless you guys want to move all this non demo stuff to another thread and I'll upload all there is.

Attached File(s)


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User is offline   MrFlibble 

#83

 MetHy, on 30 April 2016 - 02:51 AM, said:

Both of these are from PC Collector Hors Série issue n° 01 - from March 1996.

These French mags are actually well documented in Hallfiry's Magazine Coverdisk Catalogue, and downloadable ISOs are available from the Abandonware Magazines site. Here's TEKWAR.ZIP and WHAVEN.ZIP. Unfortunately, both these (as well as many other ZIPs from PC Collector CDs) are repacks, not original archives.

The TekWar demo you found appears to be identical to the version available from RTCM as the Capstone/US Gold Beta Demo. The Witchaven demo seems to be not documented at RTCM yet, as the archive with different executables ("Witchaven Different Demo Files") only contains SETUP.EXE dated July 31, 1995, while your version also has WH.EXE from the same date. A brief check suggests that the regular Internet demo of Witchaven (WH.EXE dated July 21, 1995) has an internal version number of 0.1, while executables from July 29 and July 31 have 1.0 as the internal version number.

The Powerslave beta demo is a widely known (presumably the earliest) release of the game. Here's a clean, original ZIP archive: pwrslave.zip.

 MetHy, on 30 April 2016 - 03:32 AM, said:

Check this shit out!
So this magazine not only came with game demos, but also with mods and maps for games. There is a bunch of old 1996 DN3D mods in there in anyone is interested I can update, but it's probably nothing you haven't seen before... They're mostly simple .con mods.

You're welcome to post those findings in the unofficial demo add-ons thread. After all, 3D Realms officially sanctioned CON mods.

As for screenshots, they mostly come from downloadable packs. In IMAGES.rar, DUKE3D1.PCX through DUKE3D5.PCX are from DUKE3D.ZIP which was included with Terminal Velocity shareware v1.1. Other PCX files in the same folder seem to be screenshots of Levelord's secret messages in E1 maps - no idea if official or made by some player. The contents of Screenshots.rar are identical to those of dukeshow.zip sans the DOS PCX viewer utility.
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User is offline   MetHy 

#84

So nothing new except maybe Witchaven?

Here is a 2nd demo version of Powerslave! This time from issue #06, january 1997. The other one earlier was from issue#01.

It seems to be slightly different than the other one?

Still looking for the Redneck Rampage and Duke It Out In DC demos. Then I'll probably stop digging.

Not every issue is on abandonware-magazine.org and I may have a couple of non-uploaded ones at my parents. I'll check next time I visit, but might not be too soon.

Attached File(s)



This post has been edited by MetHy: 30 April 2016 - 04:54 AM

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User is offline   Corvin 

  • King of the Lamers

#85

Thanks MetHy
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User is offline   MetHy 

#86

Found the Redneck Rampage demo!

Spoiler


From issue #09, July '97.

Won't let me upload it on the forum for some reasons so here it is :
http://www72.zippysh...TyuO8/file.html

This post has been edited by MetHy: 30 April 2016 - 05:31 AM

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User is offline   MetHy 

#87

And here is the Duke It Out in DC 1 level demo from the same issue :angry:

http://www98.zippysh...zvqqi/file.html

That's all I wanted to find. I played the shit out of that demo as a kid. It comes with only one level but IIRC it has all the art files from the add-on so I'd have fun using that in our shitty maps as a kid.

readme file coming with the demo

Spoiler


and the commercial mock-up screenshots :

Spoiler


This post has been edited by MetHy: 30 April 2016 - 05:47 AM

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User is offline   MetHy 

#88

Both Powerslave demos are actually different. This is some very interesting stuff.

The first demo, you can't change controls or resolution. The level is like an alpha version of various level parts of the full game mashed together IIRC, but some parts seem to be totally unique.
A LOT of sprites are different from the final game (most notably those crab things are brown and not red like they are in the final game). Also, the Piranahs enemies seem more aggressive, it seems that the torch doesn't last as long, also the snake-shots can backfire against you which I believe doesn't happen in the final game. Also when you lose a life, you restart the level with everything from scratch VS in the final game respawning at the start of the level but with everything you've done in the previous life saved ; and there is no checkpoint.
Pretty sure some sounds are different too; and the music is new to me but it sucks.

I haven't even beaten the first demo, it's rather long for a single level, I was in front of the 2nd key when I died but I assume the level end wasn't too far.

I'm starting the 2nd demo now, seems like it's just the first level of the game though, not as different as the first demo. However the first thing I noticed is that you can set resolution up to 1600*1200 in setup.exe even though in the final release you can only go up to 640*480 ! Not sure if it actually works though; apparently it doesn't.

Edit : For the 2nd demo now, this is a lot closer to the final game. I don't know if I couldn't get the music to work or if there is none. Some different enemy placement. The door after the open sarcophagus was locked and AFAIK there is no key so it's not possible to keep playing? Which makes this demo a lot shorter than the first demo.

Also in the first demo you had access to the flamethrower and the snake-throwing-thing which are absent in this demo; as well as the mask to breathe underwater.
Pretty sure the flame sprites of the flamethrower were different than in the final release too but I could be remembering wrong.

That 2nd demo is forgettable but the first demo is totally worth a look, full of beta stuff which is absent from the final game.

This post has been edited by MetHy: 30 April 2016 - 06:35 AM

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User is offline   MrFlibble 

#89

 MetHy, on 30 April 2016 - 04:51 AM, said:

So nothing new except maybe Witchaven?

That's actually a pretty good result! Once some of the releases are identified you get to shuffle through lots of false leads and already known stuff before you find something new (or at least, hints that something yet unknown existed).

What I would really like to know is if the various TekWar and Witchaven demo versions (except those that we know for sure existed in downloadable form) were downloadable or CD-exclusive.

The second Powerslave demo you found is this one (PS.EXE dated Jan 5, 1996). Corvin has already added it to the site (BTW, Corvin, perhaps you'd replace pwrslavebeta.zip with this file, as the former has an external BBS comment?) There are two levels, pretty close to the final game. I had the impression that this one is the easiest to play in terms of difficulty.

To recap all known Powerslave demo versions:

AFAIK there's only one demo of Redneck Rampage. JonoF's site seems to have the original ZIP as it was available from Interplay's FTP.

As for Duke It Out In D.C., here's the demo in its original form from Sunstorm Interactive's website (Wayback Machine copy): dcteaser.zip. Also, official walkthrough: dcwalk.zip.
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User is offline   Corvin 

  • King of the Lamers

#90

@MrFlibble, the other shareware of PS has the bbs files in it, I think I put them there, they maybe a comment and batch files, I forget. So the beta file on my site and the one your linking for me are identical. Thanks tho.

I'll have to check out the other PS demos tho, not sure I have those.
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