Lost Doom 64 pre-release article from N64.com

Tripped over this just now:

https://web.archive.org/web/19961221021818/http://www.n64.com:80/previews/3.html

Pretty huge! Tons of beta screenshots that show significant and sometimes bizarre/mysterious differences, plus interesting historical statements such as confirmation of id's oversight of Midway in print form (already confirmed to me previously in email by John Romero), plus a statement that the game was slated to have four-player MP.

Cool stuff. Looks like mostly subtle changes from the final product which is good, some things I noticed in the screenshots:

• Unholy Temple with red fire sky

• The Terraformer with bigger outside area and higher tier monsters (probably the first design), and the red door is in a totally different place, further outwards in front of the machine instead of behind it near the steps (where the live Caco is)

• Breakdown with alternative textures on the middle columns

• Gargoyle actors were more crude and basic

• Different HUD lettering with white characters more akin to PSX Doom style

• Terraformer has Cacodemons on it

• Different pickup sprite for the Rocket Launcher

• Dead Zombieman looks a bit different and larger

Also the article itself says some weird stuff:

• "There will be brand new weapons" - The Unmaker is only one new weapon, unless they had more at one point or maybe referring to the original design of the Unmaker and at this point wanted to include both?
• They called the BFG the BFG 2000 instead of BFG 9000
• They didn't seem to know how many levels they had, saying "as many as 30" when it should be 32 playable levels, 29 if they didn't want to count the bonus fun levels from the cheat menu for beating Hectic

The HUD numbers are actually straight from PlayStation Doom, albeit recolored white rather than red.

I found a few higher-res versions of the shots elsewhere and some of the weapon sprites appear to be higher resolution than they were in the final game. I'll have to put these pics up somewhere as the host they're on sucks and won't let people see all the images without registering.

IGN also happens to have these (or at least some of them) in their archive, since they evidently bought out N64.com at some point.

http://www.ign.com/images/games/doom-n64-503

Very interesting! Thanks for sharing.

Nice find.