This is a sub-page of Proto:Doom 3 (PC, Xbox).
The Doom 3 2002 Alpha was created to showcase the game at E3 and it differs from the final product considerably.
| To do:
- Extract and add similarities of different sound effects between Retail/Alpha weapons and monsters.
- Get better weapon comparison pictures, like model renders instead of cropped screenshots.
|
General Differences
- The title screen is completely different in this build.
- The HUD is considerably different from how it looks in the final version.
- Almost all weapons and monsters use completely different sound effects than the retail build.
- The executable file icon is completely different from the final version.
Images
| Alpha |
Retail |
|---|
 |
 |
| Alpha |
Retail |
|---|
 |
 |
Maps
The alpha consists of only 3 levels, they all contain scripted events and some form of cutscene. The way the scripted events work makes it fairly clear that the demo was meant to be played in a predefined way for show as, for example, near the end of e3_1 a Hell Knight comes out of a dark corner, in the E3 Demo Video, the player hides from it in the shadow to avoid being noticed, in reality it cannot be interacted with in any way.
- e3_1 - Possibly an early version of Recycling.
- e3_2
- e3_2 - Contains some early versions of locations that eventually ended up being used in the retail's Alpha Labs levels.
Images
| Alpha |
Retail |
|---|
 |
 |
| Alpha |
Retail |
|---|
 |
 |
| Alpha |
Retail |
|---|
 |
 |
| Alpha |
Retail |
|---|
 |
 |
| Alpha |
Retail |
|---|
 |
 |
| Alpha |
Retail |
|---|
 |
 |
| Alpha |
Retail |
|---|
 |
 |
Weapons
Only a few weapons, Pistol, Shotgun and Machinegun are fully functional and they use different sound effects compared to their retail counterparts. Some other weapons, while it's possible to add them to the game via console commands, use placeholder models and/or don't work.
Pistol
The Pistol has a noticeably different texture and uses completely different sound effects.
| Alpha - Different texture |
Retail |
|---|
 |
 |
Shotgun
The Shotgun is both visually and audibly different from the retail release, using a different model and sound effect. When reloading, it only loads in one shell at a time, whereas in the retail release two shells are loaded.
| Alpha - Different model |
Retail |
|---|
 |
 |
Machinegun
The Machinegun looks very similar to its retail counterpart, except it has different sound effects and the ammo counter display is different.
| Alpha - Notice ammo counter display |
Retail |
|---|
 |
 |
Chainsaw
Instead of the Chainsaw in the retail release, the Gauntlet from Quake III Arena is used as a placeholder.
| Alpha - Quake 3 Placeholder Model |
Retail |
|---|
 |
 |
Plasma Gun
The Plasma Gun has no audio, and uses its Quake III Arena model counterpart as a placeholder.
| Alpha - Quake 3 Placeholder Model |
Retail |
|---|
 |
 |
Rocket Launcher
The Rocket Launcher lacks sound effects and uses the Quake III Arena model as a placeholder.
| Alpha - Quake 3 Placeholder Model |
Retail |
|---|
 |
 |
BFG 9000
The BFG 9000 lacks sound effects, and uses the BFG 10K model from Quake III Arena.
| Alpha - Quake 3 Placeholder Model |
Retail |
|---|
 |
 |
Hand Grenades
Hand grenades can be spawned but they have no first person model.
Chaingun
While it exists in the game's files, it has no model and spawning it crashes the game.
Railgun
Interestingly, the game's files reference a weapon named the Railgun. This weapon is completely absent from the retail release. Attempting to spawn the Railgun crashes the game.
Miscellaneous
Miscellaneous differences between the E3 Alpha and retail.
- When "killed", zombies will rise after a while and continue attacking the player.
- While ragdoll physics are implemented, monsters use death animations and don't become ragdolls.
- The effect of monsters teleporting in is noticeably different and a lot less flashy.
- Specular Maps are not being used on any texture.
