Doom II had a preused texture?/Doom2 beta discussion.

Job said:

I see similarities between this:

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/O2sOKV0s.jpg[/IM]

and

[img]http://i.imgur.com/2QDKx9T.png[img]

Holy-shit! Is that a double barrel pump shotgun?

Not as such, no. The Shotgun sprites were used as a placeholder while the SSG reloading sprites were being worked on.

Actually, the placeholder ArchVile fire sprites were... BFG impact sprites! CacodemonTube uploaded a video of the Doom II beta, which shows this off.

Also, I noticed in that preview that monsters resurrected by ArchViles were originally going to be Lost souls.
Interesting, and it makes sense. I guess they changed it because either they already had a monster that creates Lost souls, it would get too crowded or they just figured it would be more interesting if they returned as what they had been. :/


____________________________

Documentary on Doom II Beta
____________________________

It makes me wonder, why would they take a screenshot from one scene, crop it and doctor it in that Arch-Vile shot?

Hey, I kinda like that Revanent... Seems a little more intimidating than the final sprite. Can't quite put my finger on why.

Man, I wish we could get our hands on a beta/alpha Doom 2 IWAD. It would be so cool to get those old sprites. At least we've got executables with the older behavior.

Imagine if there was a version of Doom 2 with all the early version stuff + the Doom 1 press release stuff in place of the content that Doom 2 shares with Doom 1. That would be an awfully different feeling game.

The unfinished revenant is unspeakably ugly. Although an artist for some lesser game of that era would probably call it a day at that point.

Glaice said:

It makes me wonder, why would they take a screenshot from one scene, crop it and doctor it in that Arch-Vile shot?

It might have been the only screenshot without an onscreen status bar, and was doctored for the sake of consistency.

What was wrong with using a new screenshot? They did overlook with the bullet counter showing up when the cell reserve is empty AND the BFG selected?

Probably working with what was at hand to meet a deadline, and didn't expect fanboys to be over-analyzing the shots twenty tears later. ;)

Nice historical stuff.

GreyGhost said:

Probably working with what was at hand to meet a deadline, and didn't expect fanboys to be over-analyzing the shots twenty tears later. ;)

Oh yeah, totally! Who thought that a game like this will last for 2 decades?
Even super mario bros classics aren't played these days.

BaronOfStuff said:

I think they just pasted the BFG sprite onto a general screenshot just to show it off, and possibly make that mysterious new monster look more dangerous.

So dangerous in god mode!

Woah, Doom II beta looks impressive and old.

Nomad said:

So dangerous in god mode!

Sexactly!
The hud makes all those shots to look easy and lazy at once.

Joe667 said:

CacodemonTube uploaded a video of the Doom II beta, which shows this off.

That video was a great find.. How is it even possible to acquire a Doom 2 beta, though? Im sure since it contains all these maps that are supposed to be paid for, it wouldn't be easy?

Doomkid said:

That video was a great find.. How is it even possible to acquire a Doom 2 beta, though? Im sure since it contains all these maps that are supposed to be paid for, it wouldn't be easy?

It's not. He's playing the 1.9 IWAD using the 1.6 "beta" executable, which dates to a few months before DOOM II's release IIRC.

Though, also IIRC, Doom 2 code begins to appear - in very early form - in executables as early as v1.4. However, it requires significant hacking of the data to get it to load up, along with use of the hidden undocumented -comdev parameter. Somebody should figure out how to do that and then post the results.

I feel like doom was going with wolfenstein with all those treasures and the life system.

This an awesome thread guys. This old DOOM II pre-release stuff never lost its luster for me. That first version Revenant looks scary as fuck!

drifter20k said:

This an awesome thread guys. This old DOOM II pre-release stuff never lost its luster for me. That first version Revenant looks scary as fuck!

And I opened it, why did they rush with those shots? Coudn't they do it when it was fully released?

Quasar said:

It's not. He's playing the 1.9 IWAD using the 1.6 "beta" executable, which dates to a few months before DOOM II's release IIRC.

Though, also IIRC, Doom 2 code begins to appear - in very early form - in executables as early as v1.4. However, it requires significant hacking of the data to get it to load up, along with use of the hidden undocumented -comdev parameter. Somebody should figure out how to do that and then post the results.

I used two methods. Patch/Bypass errors and steam ahead. Use a wad file containing doom2 sprites/sounds.
The second methods was obviously much smoother.

Results:

==64 Arch-Vile==
Shotgun guy
Switches to Chaingunner when firing
Mixed shotgun/chaingunner death frames

==65 Chaingunner==
No difference?

==66 Revenant==
See Arch-Vile

==67 Mancubus==
Standard zombie wakeup call
Fires Baron fireballs
Baron scream on fire
Standard zombie death sound
Incomplete death sequence

EDIT: forgot arachnotron
==68 Arachnotron==
No wake sound
Spider Mastermind sounds
Constant chaingun attack
Crash on death (invalid sprite frame)

==69 Hell Knight==
Baron of Hell clone

==71 Pain Elemental==
Cacodemon sounds
Fires Cacodemon fireballs
No melee?
EDIT: Silent melee

==70 Burning Barrel==
Invalid sprite frame

==82 Super Shotgun==
Invalid thing

==83 Megasphere==
Invalid thing

comdev allows idclip?

There was an old page with some preview shots taken from a private review demo that had an ever so slightly different manc and a pain elemental firing a caco fireball.

If there were some beta material I'd love to see dumped it would be Doom 2. Providing they didn't overwrite it, of course.

Made some quick videos.

Doom 1.4 Beta - Early Doom 2 Code

Doom 1.6 Beta - Early Doom 2 Code

EDIT:
Anyone have a filesize or hashsum of non-shareware 1.6 beta?

Really cool videos, interesting stuff!

Awesome :)

Randy87 said:

==68 Arachnotron==
Crash on death (invalid sprite frame)

This might be obvious, but I don't think the explanation for this crash has ever been specifically pointed out before. The reason the Arachnotron's demise causes a crash in the Doom executables is because its death was originally just based on a rescaled version of the Spider Mastermind's death animation. The Spider Mastermind's death has 10 frames while the final Arachnatron's death only has 7 frames.

In this beta screenshot, you can see the Arachnotrons still using the original rescaled death sprites:

Revenant100 said:

This might be obvious, but I don't think the explanation for this crash has ever been specifically pointed out before. The reason the Arachnotron's demise causes a crash in the Doom executables is because its death was originally just based on a rescaled version of the Spider Mastermind's death animation. The Spider Mastermind's death has 10 frames while the final Arachnatron's death only has 7 frames.

Just tested, 3 additional frames do prevent the crash.

I haven't done any reversing of the beta executables, I've just been following recent footsteps. There might yet be more to dig up.

Also, where are all these weird beta pics I've never seen before?
I'd love to add them all to my archive.

Hmm! I always thought the Arachnotron caused the game to crash upon death because it still had the "Game ends" code from the Spider Mastermind.


Of course, now I realise it was the 666 tag.

Cool stuff, people. Keep up the pace, those were very interesting.

Wait, so Doom 2 monster attributes are found in early versions of Doom?