Doom alpha/beta source ports?

[Cire]

I wonder if there are any source ports that support the alpha/beta versions of Doom? I don't think so, but I'm asking just in case.

[Marnetmar]

Nope, DOSbox is your best bet.

[Mithran Denizen]

MBF can emulate some aspects of the beta, but (as far as I know) it's not complete, it doesn't actually use the original files, and it doesn't support any of the earlier alpha versions. Eternity might retain or expand on this, but I don't think so.

So yeah, DOSBox is probably the easiest way to check them out.

[Gez]

The beta emulation stuff is mostly gone from both PrBoom+ and Eternity. There are a few stuff that remains (e.g., you have the "classic" BFG behavior available), but the ability to play the beta IWAD is gone.

No port ever bothered with the alpha IWADs.

[Quasar]

MBF never could load the beta IWAD. It included a wad file alongside the executable which was only loaded when you passed the -beta command line parameter with all the resources converted into the normal formats. The emulation was extremely shallow and my reverse engineering effort on the beta EXE shows vast differences that were entirely unaccounted for.