Random Strife discoveries

So, I decided to try the registered v1.2 WAD on the shareware v1.1 EXE. It works but there are several catches:
* Anyone you talk to will just say "Ant" or something nonsensical.
* There is no music because the music lumps are named differently.
* Trying to start MAP02 will crash because it contains thing type #231, which is unknown to v1.1.
* People will often drop wrong things or drop nothing at all.
* If you cheat to get all keys, trying to view the second page will crush because of a missing lump.
* VOICES.WAD is not included by default and even then it would play wrong voices.
* Killing the Loremaster's Spectre will send you to the Training Facility.
* Finally, killing the Entity (or being killed in the final map) will not end the game. Also it spawns guts when it is killed. Also the Entity door does not work even if you have the complete Sigil.

musa said:

So, I decided to try the registered v1.2 WAD on the shareware v1.1 EXE. It works but there are several catches:
* Anyone you talk to will just say "Ant" or something nonsensical.
* There is no music because the music lumps are named differently.
* Trying to start MAP02 will crash because it contains thing type #231, which is unknown to v1.1.
* People will often drop wrong things or drop nothing at all.
* If you cheat to get all keys, trying to view the second page will crush because of a missing lump.
* VOICES.WAD is not included by default and even then it would play wrong voices.
* Killing the Loremaster's Spectre will send you to the Training Facility.
* Finally, killing the Entity (or being killed in the final map) will not end the game. Also it spawns guts when it is killed. Also the Entity door does not work even if you have the complete Sigil.

* Dialog format is different in the demo version, 1488 bytes instead of 1516 per record.
* Drop types are also determined by the dialog system, which is why they're wrong.
* A lot of code from the retail version of the game hasn't been implemented yet. For instance the Programmer's stuff is almost completely missing. Some stuff is totally different as you're finding with the Loremaster.
These extensive differences are why Chocolate Strife does not/cannot support the demo version of the game without violating the Chocolate principle of minimal code change. A non-modern source port that wanted to support both the demo and the retail game would need extensive branching throughout its code to handle the hundreds of modified code points between the two with full accuracy.

Worse still, there's two different (and incompatible) Strife demos, and neither of them works with the final game.

It would be interesting to see a prototype Strife IWAD to find out exactly why these things are different. Training Facility seems a bit out of place, its slot is much later in the game than in the same cluster as the castle assault maps, and doesn't tie into the castle assault story at all (at least the other maps were about finding false programmers).

I always did wonder if that map (or at least its slot) were for something entirely different and was repurposed/salvaged at the last minute, and now I guess there's some evidence to go on rather than just a gut feeling.

Some more differences:
* Sigil C (three Sigil pieces) shots come from the ground (and no aiming won't help)
* When you fire the full Sigil, some of the shots come back to hit you!
* When you shoot somebody with the Mauler the person will disintegrate but the normal death sound will be played.

I've also found that v1.0 has different map names here are they:
AREA 1: sanctuary
AREA 2: town
AREA 3: movement base
AREA 4: power station
AREA 5: penitentiary
AREA 6: sewers
AREA 7: castle
AREA 8: Sub-Castle
AREA 9: Programmer's Chapel
AREA 10: New Rebel Base
AREA 11: borderlands
AREA 12: temple of the oracle
AREA 13: tunnels
AREA 14: mines
AREA 15: central administration
AREA 16: the citadel
AREA 17: military base: outer bailey
AREA 18: warehouse
AREA 19: security complex
AREA 20: outer factory
AREA 21: inner factory
AREA 22: upper factory
AREA 23: order village
AREA 24: Order Chapel
AREA 25: Lost temple
AREA 26: proving grounds
AREA 27: Tech Lab
AREA 28: Alien Ship / Containment Cell
AREA 29: FlashBack
AREA 30: Abondoned Movement Base
AREA 31: Alien Ship

This has been on my mind a lot lately. I wonder if the teaser demo was merely a cut-down version of the late beta, or if it was deliberately different and the late beta wasn't terribly different than 1.2 and later.

I realize this is kind of a useless bump, but I can't stop obsessing over it for some weird reason.

Is anyone else curious about this? Indulge me; speculate!

I just realized: the name "Tarnhill" never appears in the game itself, only in the manual.

Ingame, it's always referred to as "the town".

I also question the canonical status of the comic like illustrations, as some of the designs differ quite strongly from their in-game representations.

Sodaholic said:

I just realized: the name "Tarnhill" never appears in the game itself, only in the manual.

Ingame, it's always referred to as "the town".

I also question the canonical status of the comic like illustrations, as some of the designs differ quite strongly from their in-game representations.

Not true; the power station is named "Tarnhill Power Station."

One interesting element of the comic-style art panels that is *almost* entirely absent from the game itself are the red-and-black robed cultists who seem to have started the Order. Maybe those guys are all actually dead or turned into machines by the point the game starts. The only remnant of their design seems to be the Loremaster himself, who is similarly robed - though he is himself still mostly a machine, albeit perhaps less so than the Programmer or the Bishop.

Another divergence is the powerful looking green energy shooting out of the Front rebels' crossbows. I have to wonder if it was to originally actually do that in the game, and perhaps it was changed for looking too much like Heretic's crossbow, which came out during Strife's early development.

Quasar said:

Another divergence is the powerful looking green energy shooting out of the Front rebels' crossbows. I have to wonder if it was to originally actually do that in the game, and perhaps it was changed for looking too much like Heretic's crossbow, which came out during Strife's early development.

I recall assuming it was just a stylized way of illustrating poisoned bolts, being comic-ish and all.