DOOM 2, Prerelease EXEs and maps - A close look (Video)

[Doomkid]

I started uploading this last night and I woke up to it being finished!

 

This video shows off the partial Doom2 support in the early EXEs and the early versions of the Doom2 maps. Since the maps are dated July 29 1994, I’ve paired them with the unauthorised 1.6 version of the engine, since it came out Aug 3, just 5 days later (even though I said 3 days twice in the damn video).

 

Check the description for downloads and instructions on how to play these early Doom2 thingies. Hope you all

enjoy! Now I can finish that skill chart I’ve been working on..

 

EDIT: Copied the description here to make life easier.

"Here are the early versions of the Doom EXE:
https://www.doomworld.com/pageofdoom/shareware.html
https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/historic/doom14bl
The beta Doom2 maps:
https://www.doomworld.com/linguica/romerofiles/d2temp.zip

 

To run a beta version of Doom2, you must download one of the shareware EXEs from the links above. Extract it somewhere. Then, put a registered copy of doom.wad and doom2.wad in the folder you extracted the shareware EXE to. You then should download d2temp.zip, and extract d2temp-cleansed to that same folder where everything else is. To make life easy, rename the wad to just "d2temp.wad". Now, in dosbox, mount that directory and type "doom -file doom.wad doom2.wad d2temp.wad". This should allow you to play the Doom2 beta!

 

If you want to go the next step and include the old SSG sprites, they can be found inside this wad: http://static.angryscience.net/doom/1993res-v3.zip

Using a tool like SLADE, go into 1993res and find the old SSG sprites (the wad is very organized internally, so this will be easy). Then copy those sprites, and go to the doom2.wad that is located in your Doom2 Beta directory and replace the existing SSG sprites with those ones. Obviously, you should NOT edit your main Doom2 iwad, just the copy you made in the Doom2 Beta directory.

 

Have fun! A big thankyou to AXDOOMER who has an old beta Doom2 video that inspired this one."

Edited August 10, 2019 by Doomkid

[Hartwolf]

That early SSG sprite looks like a camel toe.

[Doomkid]

Lmao! It absolutely does..

[⇛Marnetmar⇛]

Awesome video! 

[Doomkid]

Thanks Marn!

[The Maverick013]

Man, that was cool. It's always great to learn something new about the history of videogames.

[Gaia74]

I really enjoyed the video!, nice to see how doom is in her early time!

 

Amazing Video :P

[betabox]

I dipped into this pre-release material years back and intended to soak up more, but never got around to it and eventually forgot. The things you talked about with early monster and weapon properties are great and I really enjoyed your showcasing the maps. Good job!

[mrthejoshmon]

Very interesting video Doomkid, I really enjoy these videos you do (like covering your bootlegs and stuff like that).

 

I was wondering if yall ever thought about doing more things like this?

Edited August 10, 2019 by mrthejoshmon

[Doomkid]

I can't speak for anyone else, but I definitely have some more in mind. A commenter on YouTube suggested a video about historic Doom mods and possibly doing an overview of the history of wads and mods. That would be a lot to chew, but I think it sounds like an excellent idea.

[Joshua Schäferhund]

The only thing that's missing is KDitD's Chinese mountains sky being used instead of the final Starport chapter sky.

[Doomkid]

Excellent catch, we can see that sky in all the beta Doom2 screenshots that are floating around. D'oh!

[Revenant100]

We do have visual confirmation that the Arachnotron's original death sequence was just the Spider Mastermind's resized. This screenshot shows a couple dead babies around the mother, their final corpse sprite merely being a scaled-down copy:

 

More tellingly, however, we also have this screenshot of an Arch-Vile in mid-resurrection of an Arachnotron, revealing the full Mastermind death sequence was in use:

 

And of note here is that the Arch-Vile's evil resurrecting magicks was green back then, likely part of the less-refined monster sprites at the time along with the Revenant and Arachnotron.

[Solmyr]

Great video, some parts of Underhalls, Entryway and The Gantlet looked better in those beta versions. I also like that pump action SSG, looks like something out of classic simpsons seasons.

[termrork]

if you want to see all beta maps of doom2, here is a complete walkthrough played with v1.5 instead of v1.6 as in the video:

 

 

[Reisal]

^^Be prepared that this is about 3 hours long.

Nice video Doomkid, interesting stuff found on the executables and the texturing. Also, I commented as Doom Video Vault.

[Joshua Schäferhund]

@Doomkid I hope you don't mind that I showed this to John on twitter. 

 

[xvertigox]

Awesome video, this is the Doom content that I crave. I love this niche/obscure stuff and you did a great job exploring it.

 

Edit: I agree, I dig the map01 blue room and outdoor areas.

[Murdoch]

Interesting, first I have seen of the Doom 2 early versions.

[Doomkid]

4 hours ago, Patch93 said:

@Doomkid I hope you don't mind that I showed this to John on twitter.

 

Not at all. Hopefully he sees it!

[Reisal]

MAP03 also looks really weird with that texturing, not very Earth-like at all..Also MAP06 has some completely different segments to it too.

[Dark Pulse]

I know what I'll be watching when eating dinner tonight.

[seed]

Interesting bit of info. It's nice to learn how the HK, Mancubus, and Chaingunners eventually became what they are in the final version. The Mancubus is so fun to hear with the Baron's alert sounds for some reason.

 

I really like the beta SSG as well, but it really should have used the final game's reload animation, it looks awkward since it's basically the same animation from the pump Shotgun but noticeably slowed down. I've streamed the beta Doom 2 maps on my channel a while ago and I was surprised to see how similar many of the maps were looking at this point in time, while others were obviously unfinished and very unpolished. Dead Simple in the beta looks more like a rough sketch/prototype for what it was going to become than an actual level, and of course otbers such as the Living End which are very incomplete. I did like some choices in the beta that sadly got changed in the final product, one such thing that stood out to me was the interior of a red building in the city maps that's filled with Imps. The hellish, organic design of the interior looked so much better here than what we ended up with.

[Joshua Schäferhund]

The pump-action SSG graphics were clearly just placeholders, especially given that it's nothing more than the normal shotgun sprites except edited to look like there's two barrels as opposed to just one. It seems like the proper break-action graphics were implemented very late in the game's development.