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Muusi

A weird bug in Doom95 i remember from my childhood (Now recreated!)

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I love that story :D

Creepy pasta Memory went to Discovery of ancient Software

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22 hours ago, Muusi said:

Yeah it's very buggy. I'd LOVE to do a full playthrough of Doom on this version just to see what kind of buggy weirdness happens later on as i've ever only experienced the shareware episode using this version and i was very young back then. 

Was the DOOM95.EXE executable file dated June 6th 1996 or November 1996?

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There is clearly a logical explanation here.

 

This version of the executable is cursed and haunted. We should take proper measures lest the trapped demonic souls are accidentally loosed on the world.

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2 hours ago, Wadmodder Shalton said:

Was the DOOM95.EXE executable file dated June 6th 1996 or November 1996?

It's dated 15th of November 1995.

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On 5/12/2021 at 2:09 AM, Doomkid said:

I'd love to learn why it does this. Maybe this version could also be added to the Doom95 page on Doomwiki!

It goes without saying, but besides the file dates, the MD5 is not listed on the page as any known version. I’m on my phone and using some random checksum-from-file website so my work should be double checked, but I get 50dffb0cd7d3ce9d1cb67dae5a7a2998 as the MD5 for the exe. The WAD, however, is just normal v1.9 shareware (double checked in case it was also some unknown version, but it’s not).

 

Nothing really new here, clearly the EXE is different from just seeing the demo, but it’s also a seemingly truly new find as googling the hash returns nothing (whereas googling well known hashes like shareware hash links you to various Doom sites that collect such things).

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On 4/7/2021 at 8:09 PM, Muusi said:

DOOM95 from Games Sampler disc.zip

 

Okay Doom community let's get to the bottom of this mystery!

 

Can someone who manages to run this on a more modern system confirm that the bug still happens? And maybe do a video where the colors are correct and a Model M isn't hammering your ear drums🤣 Or is this something specific with Windows 95🤔

 

Also check out the menu system that you could use to check out the demos if browsing the disc seemed too boring:

 

 

You explore the Manhattan Space Station in 1st person and it even had Doom style secrets hidden behind secret walls etc. Oh man this really is my childhood condenced in one video <3

The fact that this is some beta-Doom95 release is interesting enough, but the fact it was used to have this interactive level is even more interesting. If that's on the Doom95 executable, then Rule 666 applies; ''If it exists, there must be a WAD of it''.

 

Ill give this a whirl.

On 5/12/2021 at 8:09 AM, Doomkid said:

I'd love to learn why it does this. Maybe this version could also be added to the Doom95 page on Doomwiki!

You know what, i will. Along with the Boom Beta details that support Extended Help Screens; story panels that can be used to display graphics and texts.

 

5 hours ago, Muusi said:

It's dated 15th of November 1995.

Thanks for these details. Ill download the sampler and make sure both the executable details aswell as the bug get a section in the Doom95 article.

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@Muusi Could you also upload the Manhattan Space Station menu? I'd love to check if this is an actual WAD that gets called from this Doom95 build or not.

 

Did some preliminary testing on my own Windows7 PC:

  • The Doom1.wad file carries a stamp of February 1, 1995
  • Upon starting, Doom95 claims it needs dplay.dll. If you go into C:/Windows/SysWOW64, you will find dplayx.dll. Copy it over to your Doom95 directory and rename it to dplay.dll.

Start up:

  • It takes some time to start, but eventually it does. A demo is played, but the menu does not show up.
  • Spectres look utterly bizarre; Half of them is transparent as they should, the other half is a solid black. As if the effect is mismanaged.
  • DoomGuy's face is broken; His right ear appears stretched out, whilst his left ear looks okay.

Screenshot:

  • I took a screenshot (Printscreen) to highlight the visual differences, but the result is all warbled up. Clearly this build is utilizing a video mode that Windows7 dislikes on capturing.

Interesting stuff indeed.

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49 minutes ago, Redneckerz said:

@Muusi Could you also upload the Manhattan Space Station menu? I'd love to check if this is an actual WAD that gets called from this Doom95 build or not.

The Space Station part is a different engine probably made just for these Games Sampler discs. It's just a fancy front-end for choosing which game demo you'd like to try. I'll link the .iso here if you want.

 

Still, i'd LOVE to see Manhattan Space Station made into a Doom map! Maybe i could try making it as my first ever map!

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5 minutes ago, Muusi said:

The Space Station part is a different engine probably made just for these Games Sampler discs. It's just a fancy front-end for choosing which game demo you'd like to try. I'll link the .iso here if you want.

 

Still, i'd LOVE to see Manhattan Space Station made into a Doom map! Maybe i could try making it as my first ever map!

Id love to see it, yes. Either as a ISO or as a folder of folders :) The movement and the effects on display (Flashing lights) make me think its run through either Doom or a fully custom engine because i don't think one of the main Doom clone engines at the time (Acknex 3D) was already this fully featured.

 

And if it is Doom powered, than the menu executable will be very interesting to dissect!

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8 hours ago, Muusi said:

https://archive.org/details/cdrom-win95-game-sampler

 

If possible i recommend going through the full installation process and fully taking in the magic that is the Manhattan Space Station. Can't wait to see what you find!

Before i do that, i noticed that theres a second sampler that also has a exploration interactive based menu. Prior version is here.

 

Edit: these things are from Monolith. Their first was the Monolith Megamedia CD.

 

Perhaps it's a unique engine. What do i do know is that Monolith's founder Mike Dussault did work on a Doom-like engine using Doom's WAD, called WolfDoom.

 

Perhaps this is a extension to it?

Edited by Redneckerz

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12 hours ago, Redneckerz said:

Start up:

  • It takes some time to start, but eventually it does. A demo is played, but the menu does not show up.
  • Spectres look utterly bizarre; Half of them is transparent as they should, the other half is a solid black. As if the effect is mismanaged.
  • DoomGuy's face is broken; His right ear appears stretched out, whilst his left ear looks okay.

 

Like I said. Haunted and cursed.

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@Muusi did the research and i think this will warrant a seperate thread and download. In short:

  • Manhattan Space Station is a custom engine called Rage.
  • Rage uses DirectX but can also use the WinG api.
  • It supports scrolling textures, dynamic lighting, and flatshaded polygonal models.
  • Doom95 is called through a panel in the map.
  • Games Sampler 2 has a seperate map/menu, called Station X. It is a lityle difficult to install, but it has great textures, Hexen/Doom like.
  • Then there is the Monolith CD. A audiovisual experiment, it includes DOSRAGE.EXE and WINRAGE.EXE, which is a 3D virtual world, along with other programs and the first version of the engine.
  • I should make an upload containing both Manhattan, StationX and the DOSRAGE/WINRAGE executables.
1 hour ago, chungy said:

I recorded mostly just the space station. It's a strange thing :)

 

 

Its unique, yes. Like a demoscene production, but interactive.

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5 hours ago, chungy said:

I recorded mostly just the space station. It's a strange thing :)

 

 

You missed the secret areas! One of them has a MechWarrior style mech rotating around! There's also a key to make the screen bigger.

3 hours ago, Redneckerz said:

@Muusi did the research and i think this will warrant a seperate thread and download. In short:

  • Manhattan Space Station is a custom engine called Rage.
  • Rage uses DirectX but can also use the WinG api.
  • It supports scrolling textures, dynamic lighting, and flatshaded polygonal models.
  • Doom95 is called through a panel in the map.
  • Games Sampler 2 has a seperate map/menu, called Station X. It is a lityle difficult to install, but it has great textures, Hexen/Doom like.
  • Then there is the Monolith CD. A audiovisual experiment, it includes DOSRAGE.EXE and WINRAGE.EXE, which is a 3D virtual world, along with other programs and the first version of the engine.
  • I should make an upload containing both Manhattan, StationX and the DOSRAGE/WINRAGE executables.

Its unique, yes. Like a demoscene production, but interactive.

This is excellent work! Too bad finding any info on the Rage engine is hard has Rockstar has an indentically named engine :( I wonder if there's anything else made with this engine? I'll have to try the other disc too as i've never seen the other map.

 

Finding any new info about this thing which was such a huge part of my early childhood is absolutely exciting. Thank you!

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22 hours ago, Muusi said:

This is excellent work! Too bad finding any info on the Rage engine is hard has Rockstar has an indentically named engine :( I wonder if there's anything else made with this engine? I'll have to try the other disc too as i've never seen the other map.

Station X was a bit difficult to install despite the files already being extracted. Its also a lot smaller than Manhattan.

WINRAGE/DOSRAGE show a virtual world called Compound 3D. Apparently this was a game in development, i guess.

 

Another thing i noticed is that this engine seems to follow up with the WolfDoom engine from January 1995 by one of the founders of Monolith, Mike Dussault. RAGE appeared one month later (February 1995) and was then used for Manhattan and StationX from September 1996 (Called ODYSSEY2.EXE) before the first Lithtech engine titles (Blood II/Shogo) appeared.

 

I should present this to the Blood Wiki, seems like they may enjoy this despite referencing many of the things said here, but not the Rage technology.

22 hours ago, Muusi said:

 

Finding any new info about this thing which was such a huge part of my early childhood is absolutely exciting. Thank you!

Funny enough it still runs pretty well on Windows 7 at 640x400. Unlike DOSRAGE/WINRAGE. They run, but they are speed dependent so they run crazy fast. They also support resolutions up to 1280x1024 or something like that. Rage itself was a early DirectX based engine that could also utilize WinG.

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This is quite fascinating, I have a weakness for these types of 1st-person "museum" exploration games from this era (e.g. Namco Museum series on PS1). Unfortunately though I can't seem to get the space station to work correctly in either my Windows 98 or ME Virtualbox VM. The demos and menus of the software all work, but I can't seem to use the arrow keys to navigate around the space station after entering it which is a major bummer. If anyone here has any guidance about how to fix this it would be majorly appreciated.

 

About the bug, I get no tutti-frutti effects in playing the demo on my VM, all the textures load in just fine for me. All the cheat codes are fully functional after the "resurrection" in Demo 3, even the two Doom95 exclusives "FHHALL" and "FHSHH". Exiting the level brings you to E1M8 still with 0% health, no weapons, and no monsters becoming active totally in-line with Voodoo Doll zombie behavior. Clipping up to the end room of E1M8 ends the game instantly and brings you to episode ending intermission screen.

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41 minutes ago, Mattfrie1 said:

Windows 98 or ME Virtualbox VM.

That's effectively running Windows 98 and Me on your modern hardware. It works for some applications, but DirectX games and whatnot tend to be pretty dependent on era-specific hardware.

 

The video I recorded was through PCem, a hardware emulator that goes all the way down to emulating every component. The CPU, the BIOS, the graphics cards, the sound cards....

 

For my Windows 95 video, I had a Shuttle HOT-557 computer with a Pentium 133MHz, 128MB of RAM (ok, that's a bit excessive for the era :P), ATI Mach64GX GPU, Sound Blaster AWE32. All of which are just old enough that Windows 95 has the drivers built in, don't have to install anything extra. 98 and Me should be pretty much the same way (though Windows Me requires a beefier CPU to run).

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47 minutes ago, Mattfrie1 said:

Unfortunately though I can't seem to get the space station to work correctly in either my Windows 98 or ME Virtualbox VM.

Try using DOSBox-X. A Windows 98 installation works nice and there's no problems with the display adapter unlike a real virtual machine.

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Thanks for the heads-up @chungy and @Muusi. I'll look into both PCem and DosBox-X and report back how I turn out.

 

I've found by lowering the processor execution cap in my Windows ME VM to at most 90% allows me to navigate around the space station, but it's still extremely choppy and rather unplayable at all screen sizes. I'll definitely be looking into an alternative.

 

EDIT: Got everything up and running smoothly using DosBox-X and installing Windows 95 in it. The space station menu still was having control issues until I told DosBox-X to emulate a Pentium 133MHz, so there are definitely some control issues if you don't limit the CPU speed. I'm also noticing no issues now with Doomguy's face in the HUD using this setup, which was exhibiting the issues @Redneckerz mentioned whilst using the Virtualbox VM.

Edited by Mattfrie1

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3 hours ago, Mattfrie1 said:

Thanks for the heads-up @chungy and @Muusi. I'll look into both PCem and DosBox-X and report back how I turn out.

 

I've found by lowering the processor execution cap in my Windows ME VM to at most 90% allows me to navigate around the space station, but it's still extremely choppy and rather unplayable at all screen sizes. I'll definitely be looking into an alternative.

 

EDIT: Got everything up and running smoothly using DosBox-X and installing Windows 95 in it. The space station menu still was having control issues until I told DosBox-X to emulate a Pentium 133MHz, so there are definitely some control issues if you don't limit the CPU speed. I'm also noticing no issues now with Doomguy's face in the HUD using this setup, which was exhibiting the issues @Redneckerz mentioned whilst using the Virtualbox VM.

Space Station runs fine on Windows 7, but you need to set compatibility to Windows 95 and additionally set 640*480 resolution.

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47 minutes ago, Redneckerz said:

Space Station runs fine on Windows 7, but you need to set compatibility to Windows 95 and additionally set 640*480 resolution.

Fuck if that's the case i hope it also runs on Win10 too. I actually didn't even try as i presumed there's no way. 7 can't be that different from 10.

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25 minutes ago, Muusi said:

Fuck if that's the case i hope it also runs on Win10 too. I actually didn't even try as i presumed there's no way. 7 can't be that different from 10.

I couldn't get it to run on 10, even with compatibility modes. It runs the Launcher menu but crashes before it can load up the program with an "Unable to Initialize" error dialog. The 2nd volume was able to run in Windows 10 but refused to play most of the demos with a "This demo isn't compatible with Windows NT" error.

 

EDIT: Here's another strange part of this anomaly. After enabling IDDQD following the resurrection all enemies wake back up, but are stuck in place in their walking animations and are unable to attack you. Is this normal zombie player behavior or is it exclusive to this demo version?

 

 

Edited by Mattfrie1

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1 hour ago, Mattfrie1 said:

EDIT: Here's another strange part of this anomaly. After enabling IDDQD following the resurrection all enemies wake back up, but are stuck in place in their walking animations and are unable to attack you. Is this normal zombie player behavior or is it exclusive to this demo version?

 

 

Goddamn it just keeps getting wierder and wierder! Awesome find :D

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I wonder if it's possible to extract the November 15th 1995 build of DOOM95 from the Windows 95 Game Sampler (AKA Space Station Odyssey) files from the CD or the program files directory, Time Will Tell.

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55 minutes ago, Wadmodder Shalton said:

I wonder if it's possible to extract the November 15th 1995 build of DOOM95 from the Windows 95 Game Sampler (AKA Space Station Odyssey) files from the CD or the program files directory, Time Will Tell.

I might've misunderstood this but i uploaded the 1995 build on the previous page.

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2 hours ago, Wadmodder Shalton said:

I wonder if it's possible to extract the November 15th 1995 build of DOOM95 from the Windows 95 Game Sampler (AKA Space Station Odyssey) files from the CD or the program files directory, Time Will Tell.

seems to just be in /demos/doom95 on the CD. Trivial to get out :P

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On 5/12/2021 at 8:09 AM, Doomkid said:

 The worst issue with this version is that for some reason it doesn't respond to any inputs from me at all. I can't bring up the menu, I can't interact with the game in any way whatsoever. Conversely the other versions of Doom95 work more or less perfectly on this PC. 

 

Exactly what I experienced with wine '98.
Is everybody else able to actively control doomguy after his death?

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