Beta + Cancelled PC / MAC Video Games - Page 119 of 139

Duke Nukem 3D is a FPS developed by 3D Realms and published by Apogee Software. It was released on January 29, 1996. LameDuke is an early beta version of Duke Nukem 3D, which was released by 3D Realms as a “bonus” one year after the release of the official version. It has been released as is, with no support, and is currently available to download from Fileplanet. LameDuke features four episodes: Mrr Caliber, Mission Cockroach, Suck Hole and Hard Landing. Some weapons and levels were removed and/or altered in the final game. [Infos from Wikipedia]

As we can read from the official 3D Realms website:

What most of the public does not know is that the game was several years in the making, and the development started almost immediately (to the day) after the release of Duke Nukem II (December 10, 1993).
On January 29, 1997, 3D Realms has decided that for the one year anniversary of Duke Nukem 3D, we’d release a sneak peek into the development of the game. Released now is LAMEDUKE. What’s LameDuke? LameDuke is a beta version of Duke Nukem 3D from December 1994.

In the galleries below you can see many images from different Duke Nukem beta builds. The “Older Gallery” contains images that appear to be from a build somewhere between Lameduke and what became the final Duke Nukem 3D, the “Newer Gallery” seems to be a build that can’t be too much earlier than the v0.99 beta that was leaked.

Treasons made a list of the main differences in these screens (check below):

Older Gallery:

These have a different hud, there is a Kill counter in the main hud and it is in what appears to be single player, this is not present in any build I have seen, there is also an orange shape either side of the hud which appears to light up, this may work like the skulls on the hud in Blood where the eyes light up sometimes. the weapons in the hud are 1 to 9 instead of 2 to 10, in some shots the hud has no “Keys” section.
The Silver-gray robotic enemy did not appear in the final game, his art occupies the same tiles as the Assault Trooper in the final game.
Duke1.png has an older version of the scuba gear.
When there is no Hud in the shot it appears duke has an old-fashioned army torch at the lower left, not seen in the final.
In some shots there is a colored dot in the ammo count.
Enforcer enemies have a strange red design that is not present in the final game.
Recon Patrol Vehicles appear different and also seem to be flown by enforcers rather than pig cops.
The overall palette seems marginally different.
The chaingun graphics in later builds are based upon the plasma gun in Duke2.png

Newer Gallery:

In the newer folder, the shots are not too far different to the v0.99 beta
More old scube gear graphics.
the space suit is on in one screen shot (24.png), code exists for it in v0.99 but no build I ever saw had the hud graphics for it that appear here.
The HUD is still a little different but closer to the final, the levels also closely resemble the final build, being marginally different from V0.99.

It is also worth mentioning that a code exists in v0.99 for a flamethrower weapon, dropped from the final game.

There are also some more beta shots on the box of the game, which are different from the actual game, you can find them with more info on Treason‘s website: www.freewebs.com/hctreason/duke3dstuff1.htm

More infos on LameDuke can be found at Planet Duke and GameFAQs! Thanks to SquarePulse for some of the videos and to Treason and JudgeDeadd for the contributions!

More Lameduke Images:

Videos:

Others, PC / MAC

Serious Sam [PC – Beta]

U64 Staff & Contributors

05-06-2009

1 Comment

Serious Sam is a FPS created by the Croatian development team Croteam. originally released for the PC in 2001. My friend Optik found an interesting video from the SS beta in Shadow1665’s Youtube channel, in which we can notice various differences from the final game:

Sounds are different from the final
High score option in the main menu
The Kleers are gold instead of Silver
A more Bright looking Coach Gun Model
Different jump sound for Sam
Rocket Launcher Model
Sams Model

Video:

Others, PC / MAC

BIONICLE: Legend of Mata Nui [PC – Unreleased]

OndrikB

02-06-2009

7 Comments

Bionicle: Legend of Mata Nui is a cancelled PC game based on the Lego Bionicle franchise, that was in development at the Lego Software division. The project was officially cancelled in 2001, because of some quality issues and too many delays. It seems that a playable beta demo does exist somewhere out there.

Thanks to Lord Deathsaur for the contribution! You can find some more infos on the game at the Mask of Destiy website.

Images:

Others, PC / MAC

P.I.D. [PC/Amiga – Unreleased]

U64 Staff & Contributors

13-05-2009

1 Comment

P.I.D. (Private Investigator Dollarally) was a top-down driving/adventure game created by Finnish developers Terramarque (now known as Housemarque), set for release on the PC in December 1994. It may also have been intended for release on the Amiga, considering the developer’s history of developing for the system. For unknown reasons, the game was cancelled.

The single screenshot of the game in its preview in Games World Issue 6 shows that the game used a similar visual style to the early Grand Theft Auto games, and the description suggests that the open-ended structure was similar too; players assumed the role of a private investigator trying to survive and make money while avoiding the police in the fictional land of Muhmulandia.

Images:

[Gallery=1264]

Others, PC / MAC

Daikatana [PC – Prototype]

monokoma

12-05-2009

2 Comments

Daikatana is a First-Person Shooter developed by Ion Storm, led by John Romero and published by Eidos Interactive in 2000. In Daikatana, the player assumes the role of Hiro Miyamoto, a Japanese swordmaster in 2455 A.D. He had to travel through various time periods using the eponymous Daikatana, a powerful sword tied to the fate of the world.

Romero’s initial game design, completed in March 1997, called for a huge amount of content – 24 levels split into 4 distinct time periods, 26 weapons, and 64 monsters, as reported by the issue #30 of Next Generation, from June 1997:

NG: How will these four different time periods differ?
J.R.: They all have completely different graphics. There are none shared between the time periods except for some of the artifacts you pick up that are universal. There are 26 weapons — every time period has it’s entire complete set of weapons. Then there are completely new monsters for each episode and 16 monsters in each episode.

Despite this, Romero believed that development of the game could be completed in six months, just in time for Christmas 1997. The game was to license the id Tech 2, Quake‘s game engine. However, as we can read on PC Gamer, in early 1997, the Quake II engine was showcased for the first time, and Romero admitted that their own game wasn’t up to date graphically:

(…) Despite the ambitious scope, Romero estimated that by licensing the Quake engine, his team could have the project turned around in six months. But in early 1997, Romero and Hall saw Quake II in action. They were blown away by its engine, which included among its features coloured lighting and support for hardware acceleration. Their games were already behind schedule, but they figured it was worth the time investment to incorporate the Quake II source code in order to keep their games visually up to date.

At E3 of the same year, a first trailer was showed and wasn’t well received due to low framerate and being outdated.

Daikatana 1997 E3 trailer. Still using the id Tech 2.

Throughout the 1998 year, the project evolved only visually since the source code of the Quake II engine was not definitively implemented until March 1999, almost a year and a half of programming before reaching the final rendering.

The Daikatana team was left to fathom how to incorporate the code by itself. At this time, 3D graphics rendering technology was improving at an exponential rate, and the complexity was compounding with it. As a result, the code base for the Quake II engine was radically different. Ion Storm received the Quake II source code in November 1997, but it would take until March 1999 to fully implement it into Daikatana.

Differences between the 1998 version and the final one are the HUD, the sounds and the design of some weapons, items and the main menu.

Daikatana 1998 trailer

In the gallery below you can see a series of screenshots and videos from the early build on the original Quake 1 engine (with removed and changed levels), alongside the slightly different 1998 version. In 2004 Romero released this playable pre-alpha version of Daikatana, and you should be able to download it from here.

Images:

1998 version images:

Videos:

1997 version very early build