must have bounced around

if you ever played the alpha's or read about what doom was originaly going to be you may remember the planet "tei tenga" (if you ask me a better name should have been choosen)

anyways this was mostlikely one of a few ideas that was tossed around up until release. The idea of Phobos and Tei tenga as well as the rifle and even suicidal barons/cacodemons are 3 i know of.

Tei Tenga must have been an earth like planet due to the green mountian sky. this was mostlikly gonna be choosen up until release, but for some reason phobos won out. early phobos references was the original dark mountian texture in an alpha. though this was a bit dry it fit. Also a few textures do say "Tei Tenga" on them. example is in E1M2, and many other levels i am sure, near the start. if u just walk forward, near shotgun left and look at the computer displays and the words. though these are difficult to read, due to low res. one appears to say "TEI TENGA" however if u had never heard that before you may not even understand it, i was always drawn to what that said, so now i know why. also the sky texture and prehaps a few other deals, fill me in here. i think in the end the green mountian sky was choosen due to the fact that it looked cool and interesting over the dark black and brown. a
anyone got a wad with original sky so i can use it?

the rifle. i think this went cause it looked too old, like a WW II garand or something. i would hope in what ever year doom takes place that a standard military rifle is not a simi-automatic rifle/club. parts left in? former humans carry a rifle, i would presume the same the doomguy would have had originaly. i like the pistol alot better, but always thought it was a bit goofy, but seen none better for doom.

suicidal monsters? well play 1.1 or 1.2. i never believed what i saw the first time I fought with a baron. i lead it to the barrles and blew them up, the bastard seemed to stand there stuned for 10 seconds and then died, it also did some odd animation before dying. i never got it to do it until i recently tried a downgraded version. why removed? maybe bugs but it may have just made things 2 easy. i just used 1 shotgun blast

You're being almost as cryptic as Username.

Shut up, you're both ball shit snakes!

Well he's right about the computer displays - one of them has words that always looked like TCI TENOR to me. (which is fairly close)

The Ultimate DooMer said:

Well he's right about the computer displays - one of them has words that always looked like TCI TENOR to me. (which is fairly close)

If you'd ever tried drawing really small text for textures, you'd know right off the bat that was intended to be "TEI TENGA."

He makes plenty of sense to me, although his sentences are sometimes a bit off as usual.

Basically he is ranting about all the phenomenons observed in the alpha and beta versions of Doom, trying to give some explanations on why they were changed in the final versions.


Personally I had great fun looking around in the alphas, although I admit having more use of Deathz0rs repackaged alpha resource wads. It is striking how much of the level architecture that was clearly recognisable in the alphas.

It also gave me some explanations on something that I were always pondering:

Q1: Doesn't E3M3 look awfully "techy" for an E3 level?

A1: The original version of this level was almost more tech than E2M4.


Q2: Doesn't map10 of Doom2 look awfully "Doom1'ish"?.

A2: Map10 was one of the few good maps that didn't cut it for Doom1. They probably thought it was too big.


There was also some maps that simply had to be altered because their original layout was sucky gameplay-wise.

The original versions of E1M6 was for example dominated by a great wheel-like structure in the middle with various structures located around the edge. In the final version a small bit of the "wheel" was preserved at the entrance area while all the "rim" areas was being connected to each other for a far greater "flow".

An old version of E1M4 is also funny because it tells us what Doom would look like if Tom Hall had more say over the game design. Apparantly meant to be a type of habitation complex the start area featured two large shower stalls filled with showering demons (I never thought they cared about personal hygiene).

Ultraviolet said:

If you'd ever tried drawing really small text for textures, you'd know right off the bat that was intended to be "TEI TENGA."

Yes. Three pixel high lettering is almost impossible to do/read. Yes, it is Tei Tenga, gut ideally four pixels is probably the smallest legible letting you can make, and even then it's a pain. Five is the best small font size.

Four isn't too hard if you use anti-aliasing.

Ok only one letter is impossible to do at 4 pixels high. a capital B.

Little Faith said:

An old version of E1M4 is also funny because it tells us what Doom would look like if Tom Hall had more say over the game design. Apparantly meant to be a type of habitation complex the start area featured two large shower stalls filled with showering demons (I never thought they cared about personal hygiene).

*Insert demonse reference here*

Some of the stuff in the alphas are totally crazy, compared to the final product. Half of E1M2 is changed into something really different, E1M6 is based on a circular area, E3M3 is very Tech-like, E1M8 is a lot more spooky than the final draft, and E2M7 is one of the first levels to be completed, amongst other oddities. I also have a strong belief that E1M10 in 0.4 Alpha resembles that part of E1M5, with that slime pit and that switch that lowers the two sectors. The fake sky effect in the first level of 0.5 Alpha is interesting as well, to say the least.

What fake sky effect was that?

Ultraviolet said:

What fake sky effect was that?

Check it out for yourself.

deathz0r said:

*Insert demonse reference here*

Some of the stuff in the alphas are totally crazy, compared to the final product. Half of E1M2 is changed into something really different, E1M6 is based on a circular area, E3M3 is very Tech-like, E1M8 is a lot more spooky than the final draft, and E2M7 is one of the first levels to be completed, amongst other oddities. I also have a strong belief that E1M10 in 0.4 Alpha resembles that part of E1M5, with that slime pit and that switch that lowers the two sectors. The fake sky effect in the first level of 0.5 Alpha is interesting as well, to say the least.

You must agree, that while the central area looks cool E1M6 would have sucked had they left it the way it were.


And yes, I also found something strangely enticing about all those big muscular manly buttocks under the showers.

I've already got that file, just tell me, I don't feel like actually LOOKING. What exactly do you take me for????

One of the levels in Terminal Velocity was on Tei Tenga. Forgot which one.

Ultraviolet said:

I've already got that file, just tell me, I don't feel like actually LOOKING.

Go through the first door, move forward until you can turn left. Turn left, then keep moving forward.

I'd imagine the suicidal monsters were just a bug, arising from monsters retaliating against whatever monster had caused them damage in whatever way. OK, it's funny, but a bit too embarrassing a glitch for id to be expected to leave in. Gokuma has some nice demos illustrating this bug/feature, and Lee Killough made some too.

Hey, are there any ports that can run all the doom alphas?

No, go get the alpha resource wads from Deathz0r's homepage.

Scuba Steve said:

http://www.doomworld.com/gbd2/misc/tinyletters.gif

I hate you. :P

whats the url for Death0rz homepage?

That's cool. But Doomguy does have a rifle, in 3rd peron.

insertwackynamehere said:

But Doomguy does have a rifle, in 3rd peron.

Mmm-hmm, this rifle has it all:
melee attack sawblade, single shot mode, shotgun mode (single and dual), full-automatic fire, rocket launching mode, plasma mode (rapid fire, low-energy or high-energy single blast).

In addition, the marine can smack his enemies with the butt like with all other rifles for a weakass melee attack.

I think Tei tenga was supposed to be a desolate rocky planet like phobos, only bigger (well, i think the total surface area of phobos in real life is like a football pitch XD), and thats why the rocky sky is in the alpha's, though i dunno how the 'earth-like' (i think its in india) sky ever got into the final version of doom XD, the rocky sky looked better

Hm, also it seems like the "Second part" of the alpha doom was meant to be set on some moon, because there's a 'double' sky with blue mountains and space, and then one 'panel' of it has a distant planet, ah well XD

Also the rifle from the original is 'ressurected' in immoral conduct, its pretty powerful in that XD (as in you can blow away revenants and cacodemons with it in just a few shots)

I thought the E1 sky was from somewhere in South America.

BTW, Tei Tenga was supposed to be located in BEOS (Butt End of Space).

what is with all the "XD" ?

anyways, like i said these ideas must have been tossed around for some time. i dout they really had a story line set through out the project and it just came out as it is today.

like i said i am glad the stuck with the pistol and such. i mean the rifle looked too much like a M1 garand, i hope they arent useing them in 21XX, if they are they deserve to lose to a bunch of imps

XD is one of those emoticons. deathbringer got his custom title because he uses a few of them in every post.

Heh, I remember Mac's title, the one that scooted all his posts off past the right edge of the screen.

Sephiroth said:

like i said i am glad the stuck with the pistol and such. i mean the rifle looked too much like a M1 garand, i hope they arent useing them in 21XX, if they are they deserve to lose to a bunch of imps

How so? A garand still has some stopping power, and I bet a bunch of troops with them could put up a serious fight even if they had just garands. I think you underestimate the rifle.

SirTimberWolf said:

whats the url for Death0rz homepage?

http://mancubus.net/~deathz0r/alpha.html

I think the Page of Doom has some weird demos of suicidal/infighting monsters too, but I can't seem to find them now.