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Demo versions of Build games

User is offline   MetHy 

#151

View PostMetHy, on 17 November 2020 - 03:11 AM, said:

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?



I'm kinda hoping that the following dead links from waybackmachine may be found somewhere on one of those discs:

Movie trailer for RR:RA:
https://web.archive....ides/movie.html

Redneck Deer Huntin' trailer video:
https://web.archive....ntin/index.html

redneck rampage windows theme and screensaver:
https://web.archive....k/download.html

This post has been edited by MetHy: 23 November 2020 - 02:31 AM

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User is offline   MrFlibble 

#152

The RR desktop theme floats around the 'Net so it's not rare. You can grab it from here, I believe this is the original zip:
https://www.dosgames...edneck-rampage/

As for the other stuff, Interplay moved their files around at their site but kept some stuff for a lot of time. I was able to dig into the Wayback Machine and get two Route 66 screenshots that were not preserved from 1997-1998. However, I just did a full listing of interplay.com contents and it seems no MOV files were crawled.
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User is offline   dwtietz 

#153

After reading through this entire discussion, I was surprised that neither of the Capstone Interactive Preview versions of Tekwar or Whitchaven were mentioned anywhere.

I have both of these discs and they appear as though they are likely different versions than anything mentioned to date. I believe that the "Preview" versions would be synonymous with the term "Demo". Some details on the main executable file for each is as follows:

Tekwar Interactive Preview
Filename: TEKWAR.EXE
File Size: 609,777 bytes
Modified: 1995-10-25 6:32:04 AM
CRC-32: 8C1376E9

Witchaven 3 Level Interactive Preview
Filename: WH.EXE
File Size: 695,457 bytes
Modified: 1995-09-25 8:26:56 AM
CRC-32: 9DC85CEB
3

User is offline   dwtietz 

#154

Also, it was about two years ago that someone here last asked about locating a copy of the file tekshots.zip, so I don't know if they've located it since that time, but I do have this file if anyone still needs it (and if it is OK to post that here). It contains fourteen 360x360 jpg images and a text file (TEKSHOTS.TXT) dated 1995-08-14 and 1995-08-15.

I doubt that this file is uncommon though, I seem to remember it being plastered all over the place back in the day.
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User is offline   Jimmy 

  • Let's go Brandon!

#155

Post it again anyway just in case. Better safe than sorry.
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User is offline   dwtietz 

#156

View PostMetHy, on 23 November 2020 - 02:31 AM, said:

Redneck Deer Huntin' trailer video:
https://web.archive....ntin/index.html


I have the Redneck Deer Huntin' trailer video in AVI format. I also have a trailer video for Extreme PaintBrawl in both MOV and AVI file formats. I might have others as well, but these are the ones that I've come across in my archives so far this evening.

This post has been edited by dwtietz: 24 November 2020 - 04:55 PM

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User is offline   Jimmy 

  • Let's go Brandon!

#157

Dude seriously, just go ahead and upload this stuff to MEGA or MediaFire or something.
1

User is offline   Perro Seco 

#158

View Postdwtietz, on 24 November 2020 - 03:50 PM, said:

Tekwar Interactive Preview
Filename: TEKWAR.EXE
File Size: 609,777 bytes
Modified: 1995-10-25 6:32:04 AM
CRC-32: 8C1376E9
It would be great if you post that stuff. I have two demos of the game, but that one seems to be different.

View Postdwtietz, on 24 November 2020 - 04:02 PM, said:

Also, it was about two years ago that someone here last asked about locating a copy of the file tekshots.zip, so I don't know if they've located it since that time, but I do have this file if anyone still needs it (and if it is OK to post that here). It contains fourteen 360x360 jpg images and a text file (TEKSHOTS.TXT) dated 1995-08-14 and 1995-08-15.

I doubt that this file is uncommon though, I seem to remember it being plastered all over the place back in the day.
I still didn't located it. I would be very grateful if you share it. :)
1

User is offline   dwtietz 

#159

View PostPerro Seco, on 24 November 2020 - 05:34 PM, said:

I still didn't located it. I would be very grateful if you share it. :)


I'll see if I might be able to upload something tomorrow. I'm at home right now and have very, very slow Internet speeds here, especially upstream. :(
2

User is offline   dwtietz 

#160

In the meantime, here's the tekshots.zip file

Attached File(s)


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User is offline   dwtietz 

#161

Holy Crap! I'm going to have to check out a few of my discs in closer detail here. I have three different "Capstone Interactive Preview" CD's, one with Tekwar, one with Witchaven, and a third one with Tekwar, Witchaven, and Chronomaster, and I just realized right now that the versions of Tekwar on each disc is different.

One is clearly a "Preview" as it has the same executable as the 95-08-25 TEKD1.EXE demo and only has 1 map file, but the other disc has a TEKWAR.EXE file dated 95-10-25 and has all 30 .map files in it. The disc label and jewel case cover clearly indicate that this is the "Interactive Preview" version, and the jewel case booklet has a line in it that states "WELCOME to the Tek War Demo". So now I'm wondering... Did they just remove access to the full game maps by making a modification to the executable or some other support file while forgetting to remove the actual map files, or did they really screw up and end up putting the full version on the Preview disc?

Both Witchaven Preview versions only have 3 map files, but one executable is dated 95-07-31 while the other is dated 95-09-25.
2

User is offline   dwtietz 

#162

Redneck Deer Huntin' and Extreme PaintBrawl trailer videos can be found here (for now anyway).
3

User is offline   MetHy 

#163

Very cool! Sounds like you may have other "lost" files on some of your discs, too. I hope you can take the time to investigate one of these days (no rush though)
1

User is offline   dwtietz 

#164

I had to compare contents of the ``Tekwar Interactive Preview`` CD against that of the commercial full-version CD as the files on it have much more in common with this release than they do with any of the prior demo versions.

I haven't actually played through any of it yet, but based on what I see in the file structures I do now believe that no mistakes had been made in it's production. The file and folder structure is nearly identical to the full-version CD, but in the SMK sub-folder, most of the files for the target "bad guys" have been removed with the exception of one. Unlike the previous demos which only included one map file, this version has all of the maps, and the executable is a bit smaller, so I suspect that it has been setup so that all of the maps can be played, but you can only try to hunt for the one bad guy (Dollar).

A couple of the maps have a tiny change within them, but they're still the exact same size as the original maps, so I don't really know what's different there. Of the .smk files that are present, one file (SMKMM.SMK) appears to have been altered and is slightly larger than the original.

This post has been edited by dwtietz: 28 November 2020 - 08:55 AM

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User is offline   dwtietz 

#165

Also provided in the comparison is the contents of another full-version release that I have here dated 95-10-20, but I suspect that this one likely is not a legitimate release now as I've seen a few things that don't seem to add up in this one. The game executable is exactly the same size as the one on the commercial disc, only 4 bytes within the file have been altered, readme.bat and sview.exe have been added for reading the file MANUAL.TXT, the SMK and VESA folders are missing entirely, and the larger than usual INSTALL.EXE file contains a text string that says something like "Thanks for using Hybrid".

Attached here is a spreadsheet highlighting what is the same and what is different between the retail version(s) and this preview disc.

Attached File(s)


1

User is offline   dwtietz 

#166

The other demo CD that I have, titled ``Capstone Preview Editions -or- Capstone Preview Collection`` appears to be essentially identical to the 95-08-25 demo version; the only difference seems to be that the web demo has two more .bat files (INSTTEK.BAT and RUNTEK.BAT) that don't exist on this CD.

Maybe in a week or so I'll perform a similar side by side comparison of the Witchaven versions on these preview discs to see just how different they are as well.
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User is offline   MrFlibble 

#167

View Postdwtietz, on 28 November 2020 - 08:49 AM, said:

Unlike the previous demos which only included one map file, this version has all of the maps, and the executable is a bit smaller, so I suspect that it has been setup so that all of the maps can be played, but you can only try to hunt for the one bad guy (Dollar).

Sounds similar to the Witchaven II demo from the PC Gamer UK coverdisk (available as a separate download here), which also appears to include all maps from the full release. I haven't checked how many levels are actually playable in the demo.
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User is offline   dwtietz 

#168

View PostMrFlibble, on 28 November 2020 - 10:39 AM, said:

Sounds similar to the Witchaven II demo from the PC Gamer UK coverdisk (available as a separate download here), which also appears to include all maps from the full release. I haven't checked how many levels are actually playable in the demo.

Yeah... it does sound very similar as to how that Witchaven II demo was made. I haven't checked that one out yet, but I did take a quick peek at the file structure setup for it (no comparisons performed yet though). I've actually been looking for that WH2 demo for about 20 years now and I finally found it while reading this conversation board a few days ago. :) I'd like to have an actual original disc though as I do collect them.

As far as Tekwar demos go, it appears that this one can be confirmed as a unique entry:

demo (TEKWAR.EXE 1995-10-25): Published by Capstone/Intracorp

About the only aspect that might be a bit uncertain really is whether this were truly a preview version that you were permitted to distribute freely, or if they were marketed more along the lines of how Redneck Rampage "The Early Years" and "Possum Bayou" were. The manual does refer to it as a demo, and there is a $5 rebate coupon included, but there doesn't really appear to be anything that talks about EULA's.

This post has been edited by dwtietz: 28 November 2020 - 11:16 AM

1

User is offline   dwtietz 

#169

Here are two more Demo Versions of Add-Ons that should be added to the list as well:

D!Zone2 (97-07-23): d!z2demo.zip
Nuclear Winter (97-12-15): nwdemo.zip
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User is offline   dwtietz 

#170

Not sure if there would be a better topic area to drop this, but a quick search didn't really have anything that stood out so I guess that this might be as good a place as any.

I want to share these files with the world before I risk losing any of them again...

Back in 2000, I had created a con file for Lameduke that enabled the unused Mandroid enemy in the game. At some point in time I had lost the mandroid con file (but not the others?) so earlier this year I made another one (20 years later). It's sort of the same as the one that I had originally made but I feel that it isn't currently 100% finished, but it is in a usable state none the less.

So, if you've ever wanted to play Lameduke with the Mandroid being more than just a statue, here's your chance to do so. I'm also including a game launcher (lameduke.bat) that you can use to select several options prior to loading the game.

Just drop the con files into your Lameduke folder* and then run lameduke.bat. You can jump straight to a map that has the mandroids by loading up v2l4.

*Backup the original/existing con files in the Lameduke folder if you have any concerns and want to revert back to the original versions later.

Attached File(s)


2

User is offline   MrFlibble 

#171

dwtietz, thanks for sharing all the stuff!

View Postdwtietz, on 24 November 2020 - 06:08 PM, said:

In the meantime, here's the tekshots.zip file

Not really Build engine related, but perhaps you also have Abuse screenshots? They were also available from GamesDomain, like Tek War shots.
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User is offline   dwtietz 

#172

View PostMrFlibble, on 01 December 2020 - 10:40 AM, said:

Not really Build engine related, but perhaps you also have Abuse screenshots? They were also available from GamesDomain, like Tek War shots.

No, sorry... I don't. I have troves of Build engine game stuff, but that's all.
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User is offline   MetHy 

#173

The disc from PC Zone# 41, downloaded from moddb
Has the beta version demo of Powerslave, which seems to be identical to the one we know.

__________________________


However it also has a demo version of Witchaven II, I'm not sure if it's known but it isn't listed in this thread's OP.
I haven't tried to run it yet but the 20 map files seem to be there.
The exe is dated 26/03/1996, vs 13/05/1996 for the full version that I have installed on my computer.
The map files are all dated 21/03/1996, which makes most of them dated AFTER the ones from the full version, weird. Not sure those dates can be trusted but someone should look into that; I'm not THAT familiar with Witchaven 2 myself, only played it twice.
There are also official screenshots, most of which could be saved from Intracorp's website and are on mobygames, but the following ones aren't on there:

(converted from PCX to PNG)
GORE.pcx
Attached File  GORE.png (95.82K)
Number of downloads: 6

FLAMEBOW.pcx
Attached File  FLAMEBOW.png (126.85K)
Number of downloads: 3

ENDING.pcx
Attached File  ENDING.png (226.64K)
Number of downloads: 3

__________________________

There is also a DN3D screensaver and some usermaps, most of which seem to be known.

__________________________

There is also a demo of Quake, playable and a video. I haven't tested it either. No idea if the video is well know but here it is, seems to have been made by ID Software as the title implies though I'm not too sure about that, and the weapons are clearly beta; so are the protagonist's grunts, probably a temp done by devs before they got Reznor's HUHs


__________________________

PC Games December 1996


Has the Powerslave demo which seems to be the 4 level one with the exe dated 22/08/1996, a patch for Quake, and a demo of Killing Time

This post has been edited by MetHy: 03 December 2020 - 08:46 AM

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User is offline   dwtietz 

#174

View PostMetHy, on 03 December 2020 - 07:49 AM, said:

The disc from PC Zone# 41... also has a demo version of Witchaven II, I'm not sure if it's known but it isn't listed in this thread's OP.
I haven't tried to run it yet but the 20 map files seem to be there.
The exe is dated 26/03/1996, vs 13/05/1996 for the full version that I have installed on my computer.
The map files are all dated 21/03/1996, which makes most of them dated AFTER the ones from the full version, weird. Not sure those dates can be trusted but someone should look into that.

I'm going to look at this tonight after work, but I think that this is the same as the one from pcgamer-uk-coverdisk-cd33. I haven't really checked that one out yet either, but the date that you've mentioned from the executable matches the date of the executable from the PC Gamer UK disc. The inclusion of so many maps makes it very similar to the Tekwar demo that I found on one of my Capstone discs here at home in that it is a preview/demo version that contains all of the maps.
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User is offline   MetHy 

#175

Right my bad, I didn't even realize it was probably the same demo just mentionned a few posts above.
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User is offline   dwtietz 

#176

View PostMetHy, on 03 December 2020 - 08:49 AM, said:

Right my bad, I didn't even realize it was probably the same demo just mentionned a few posts above.

It's definitely the same version as the PC Gamer UK CD. Despite having the exact same date/time stamps on both discs, here are the only file differences between the two:

Folders: PCX [IDENTICAL]
SMK [IDENTICAL]
VESA [IDENTICAL]
WHAVEN2 [File Differences listed below.
==============================================
File: TILES010.ART

Offset (h) 00 01 02 03
PC GAMER UK CD33 00177BF0 FF FF FF FF
PC Zone# 41 CD 00177BF0 04 04 03 04

==============================================
File: JOESND

Offset (h) 00 01 02 03
PC GAMER UK CD33 002067F0 83 83 83 83
PC Zone# 41 CD 002067F0 8B 8B 8C 8B
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User is offline   FistMarine 

#177

dwtietz, could you kindly upload somewhere the two demo versions of Redneck Rampage: The Early Years and Possum Bayou, preferably in iso (or bin/cue) format, if you have them?
As far as I know they are unavailable on the internet. Trust me, I searched a lot for them and found nothing, closest thing I found was the early years pre-installed on ProAsm's website, I think requiring main REDNECK.GRP to be pasted in folder to play. Additionally, I even found somewhere an unofficial patch that converts Early Years into the full game but I'm not sure if I should share it. I find it funny how you can easily find the full game and the sequel Rides Again (and even the entire Family Reunion compilation) all for free on various sites but you can't find the demo versions at all? Why?

Seriously, they really had a nerve to release two demos of the game in stores (and milk the franchise even more for what's worth) and charge people for the supposedly free demos. Yes, I realize that the shareware versions of Wolf3D, Doom, Heretic, Quake, etc were also sold in stores but they gave you the entire first episode, while in RR case the only thing they released for free is the common early alpha demo 0.7 which doesn't even contain the first full level, instead it contains a cut down first level of the game (greedy bastards!) and it's not even the final version (there are quite a couple of differences between it and final game, giving you a look at how was game during development), which sadly worked on their favor and personally I don't really think RR deserved to sell that well but that's just my shitty opinion that some people will disagree with.

By comparison, the demo versions of Hexen and Strife were rather unique with the former giving you 4 playable levels (with an important level missing, preventing you from finishing the first hub), the latter giving you an unique campaign/mission exclusive to the demo. Yes, I realize the shareware model has started falling in favor of demos and eventually not even demos are being released anymore (with exception of rare cases) but still in case of RR, they could have at least released the first few levels or even the entire first level as demo for free.

Back to RR, although I am not a fan of the game and have ranted a few times about it in past due to how poorly I think it was designed in general (had too many issues that dragged the game down along with the few qualities it had and I speak with no exaggeration how many half-assed things are in this game), I will admit that I had some fun with it (in a So Bad It's Good kind of way) when I played it for first time back in 2017 and I especially found Rides Again somewhat fun, which was a definitive improvement over the base game. Just in past 2 months I played through the RR Alpha Demo 0.7 in DOSBox again (on fourth difficulty) to be reminded and if I should replay the original game and the addon & sequel, I suppose I will in following month/year, because I want to check out the few user maps/mods made for the game (the only user content I played so far was the awful conversion of Duke3D to RR levels, called Nukem's Redneck Invasion, that I played last year).

I never played the Redneck Deer Hunting game but I think it's pretty crappy anyway. This makes me wonder if it isn't kinda sad how RR got so many official expansions/spinoffs (by same developer) when compared to the other BUILD games, which is another thing I dislike about RR as I said above, the rather undeserved success that this rather mediocre game has achieved.
I personally think Duke Nukem 3D should have been the one who gets more official stuff from 3DRealms and even a sequel on the BUILD engine (rather than how the whole DNF fiasco turned out, though I won't talk about that here) but sadly that wasn't meant to be. But hey, if you enjoy Redneck Rampage, I'm not stopping you, I think it can be fun sometimes as long as you are making progress through the levels and survive against the mostly overpowered enemies (vixens, sheriffs and hulks), thanks to alcohol & food meters in green zone. It's a lot more fun than the other half of BUILD engine games (though it is debatable if it's better or worse than Powerslave) and some levels are actually kinda fun and even better designed (at least from a design perspective) than some of Shadow Warrior levels that are quite boring imo. I always get bored to death in many SW levels, while in RR I get bored after getting stuck for minutes wandering around or dying over and over thanks to the enemies mentioned earlier.

Anyway, I will share what I found a while ago on Archive.org
https://archive.org/...redump-id-67269
It's just the alpha 0.7 labelled as Interactive Preview. I was hopeful I found an actual demo version with more levels but was disappointed instead that it's the alpha demo again.

If anyone wonders why I want to get the demo versions of RR is because they might have some interesting differences compared to the final game that could be documented on TCRF or something. Maybe Possum Bayou at least, considering it was released a year after the main game and maybe they made some changes/updates to the main game. As far as I know, there have been no patches for the RR games (shows how much they cared about their product, unlike most games released in 90s that had patches released online for free).
So if anyone has the RR demos, please share them. Thanks.

Speaking of Powerslave, Methy, do you want me to search again on that CD and see if my Powerslave Beta Demo is actually different from the released versions? I have previously posted in this topic:
https://forums.duke4...on-differences/
But I'm still not sure if my version is actually different or the minor date differences are the result of those guys who put the CD kinda screwed the file dates. It could be yet another Powerslave Beta Demo version, who knows?

Also I'm interested in that Quake Demo version as well. From the alpha/beta versions of Quake, I know there is QTest (the earliest public alpha of the game), Beta3 (aka 0.8, which was leaked and I don't think I can link to it since it is mostly the full game with minor differences and a very different final level) and Shareware version 0.91, the latter which I actually have on one of CDs with shareware games, however this one is freely available on internet as well and if I'm not mistaken it was the first (shareware) version of Quake that was publicly released. Then the initial 1.01 version came out.

There are recent talks about some Quake alpha/beta versions that are floating around but I figured I shouldn't derail the topic with this, so I may ask somewhere else. All I want for now is to find if my Powerslave beta demo is different than what's found so far and if the RR demos can be freely distributed (if anyone has them). I know Early Years is cut down full game (the rest levels are still inside GRP file, inaccessible in game) from what I read before and the fact that Possum Bayou was supposed to be freely available on Steam back in 2017 but since then nothing was done about that.
But I still think these RR demos should be freely available, the full RR games are still available for sale on GOG.com, so I don't see any issues with that and still wonder why no one has uploaded them before.

This post has been edited by RunningDuke: 06 December 2020 - 09:06 AM

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User is offline   dwtietz 

#178

View PostRunningDuke, on 06 December 2020 - 08:59 AM, said:

dwtietz, could you kindly upload somewhere the two demo versions of Redneck Rampage: The Early Years and Possum Bayou, preferably in iso (or bin/cue) format, if you have them?

I do have both of these discs, but unfortunately I am unable to share them as these discs are not demos. They were not marketed as demos and they were only sold commercially.

I agree with pretty much your entire summary of the RR franchise. I don't care for this branch of the Build engine games so much... There were a few maps that were OK, but most were not that great and I never cared for the whole hillbilly theme so much. I admire and appreciate some of the advancements that they had made within the engine and some of the artwork as well, but overall I consider it a mediocre game at best.
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User is offline   dwtietz 

#179

View PostRunningDuke, on 06 December 2020 - 08:59 AM, said:

Speaking of Powerslave, Methy, do you want me to search again on that CD and see if my Powerslave Beta Demo is actually different from the released versions? I have previously posted in this topic:
https://forums.duke4...on-differences/
But I'm still not sure if my version is actually different or the minor date differences are the result of those guys who put the CD kinda screwed the file dates. It could be yet another Powerslave Beta Demo version, who knows?

I suspect that what you have there is the same as the 96-01-05 version. Here are a couple of details pertaining to this version from my archives:


Filename: PS.EXE
Date/Time: 96-01-05 ‏‎2:00:46 PM
Size: 839,528 bytes
CRC-32: 97FDB8F3
Source: German CD SharePlay 02/97:/Fair2/Top60/Pslave

It would probably be good to perform some additional checks at your end to be sure. What is the size of the file in bytes? If you have HxD installed you could perform a file comparison between the two PS.EXE files to look for any differences, or if you have 7zip installed you can right click on the file and select CRC SHA to get a CRC-32 checksum on the file to see if it's the same as what I've posted here.
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User is offline   MrFlibble 

#180

View PostMetHy, on 03 December 2020 - 07:49 AM, said:

There are also official screenshots, most of which could be saved from Intracorp's website and are on mobygames, but the following ones aren't on there:

(converted from PCX to PNG)
GORE.pcx
Attachment GORE.png

FLAMEBOW.pcx
Attachment FLAMEBOW.png

ENDING.pcx
Attachment ENDING.png

The Intracorp website versions of the screenshots are JPEGs while this set is original lossless images. I have previously found them in Daedolon's collection but did not upload at MobyGames as I thought that he'd do it himself. I haven't seen Daedolon around for a while here BTW (I guess it's Discord's fault). I think he got the screenshots from the CD of the full version of Witchaven II.
0

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