Proto:Rise of the Triad (1994)/July 1994 Prototype

This is a sub-page of Proto:Rise of the Triad (1994).

In July of 1994 -- six months before the first version released -- the Developers of Incredible Power released a beta version of Rise of the Triad to select few people for their approval. Even this close to release, the game is in a very rough state as a lot of the niceties had yet to be implemented or even thought of.

To do: Oh, geez. Where to begin? More screenshots? Graphical, sound, and map differences sub-pages. Further analysis of the engine -- especially compared to Shareware 1.0.

Sub-Page

Audio Differences A lot of rough voice lines and different dialogue! Also, some Blake Stone II music.

Differences

There's a bounty of differences from the final and even the 1.0 Shareware release!

Game Menus

• When running the game, the menu flipping sound plays before the Apogee logo appears.

July 1994 Beta	v1.0 Onward

• On the Apogee screen, the Apogee logo zooms in, then zooms out, rather than spinning into place and staying like the final.

• The logo screen also lasts a tiny bit too long, causing the Apogee fanfare to start to play a second time.
• The planet is also a small sphere instead of a large backdrop, as was the style of Apogee games of the time.

July 1994 Beta	v1.0 Onward

• The title logo has yet to be implemented, using stylized text which appears from behind the monastery, zooms in, then zooms out into the corner of the screen.
• There is no RSAC warning on the title screen, yet.

July 1994 Beta	v1.1

• The credits is a static image as opposed to the scrolling credits seen in later versions.

July 1994 Beta	v1.1 Onward

• Menus are headed with graphics using a unique font, each of which indicate which menu you are on (e.g., "Main Menu").

• Some of these graphics are still in the final game files, but go unused.

• Menus also use the same scrolling cloud background from the title and credit screens.
• The title screen and menu music is a snippet of "A Night Storm on a Texas Road", converted from a Multitracker Module. In later versions, it's "Rise", a completely unique theme.

• If in the middle of a game, the current level music will play on the menus.

• Comm-Bat Mode is completely disabled for this build. However, the levels can still be accessed with debugging cheats.

July 1994 Beta	v1.0 Onward

• The Battle Menu menu for Comm-Bat Mode is much different than the final.

July 1994 Beta	v1.0 Onward

• The order of the HUNT team is different than the final.

July 1994 Beta
v1.0 Onward

• The HUNT members have different portraits between versions:

• Thi and Lorelei look much more cartoony in this version. Taradino simply looks older.
• Doug's T-shirt changed from black to dark gray as of v1.0. Ian's portrait is completely unchanged.

July 1994 Beta	v1.1 Onward

• The difficulty selection label reads, "I Am About to Fight and..." rather than "Choose Difficulty", as it later would

July 1994 Beta	v1.1 Onward

• The "quit confirmation" prompt uses the warm-brown polished-wood theme of the November 1993 prototype's menus instead of the greenish-gray metal of this prototype (and the final game).
• Whatever music is playing will continue to play over the quit confirmation sound effects when quitting.

July 1994 Beta
v1.1 Onward

• The ANSI end screen when quitting the game is very basic and passively threatens potential legal action against piracy. Strangely, no mention is made of this version being a prototype.

Setup and File Structure

• Rather than being contained one WAD file, all of the game's content is stored in several smaller WADs.

• There are no RTL or RTC files, either, with levels being stored in an older format in MAPHEAD/MAPTEMP/MAPTHEAD.ROT.

• The various WAD files, or maybe just its contents, are stored in an older format that modern tools are unable to autodetect the contents of. See the core proto discussion page for info on manual detection.

July 1994 Beta	v1.1 Onward

• There is no SNDSETUP.EXE file. Instead, the settings for both sound and music can be changed in-game, much like with Wolfenstein 3-D.
• The only fully functional source for Digital Sounds is the Gravis UltraSound.

• Sound Blaster also works, but the audio is extremely quiet and selecting Stereo audio causes the sounds to become heavily garbled.
• Selecting AdLib or PC Speaker plays the "Item Collected" sound from Wolfenstein 3-D followed by a lot of garbage data that plays until the next sound effect fires.

• There is a 0.3 second delay between movements of the menu cursor. Meanwhile, there is no delay when adjusting sliders.
• The Customize Keyboard menu is split into two menus: Normal Keys and Special Keys.

• The Normal Keys are: Run, Open, Fire, Strafe, Left, Right, Forward, Backward.
• The Special Keys are: Look Up, Look Down, Toggle Weapon

• There are no keys for Drop (weapon), Auto Run, Volte-Face, Aim Up, or Aim Down, among other later additions.
• The Customize Mouse functionality is very limited, only allowing up to three buttons to be set to any of Forward, Open, Fire, or Strafe.
• The Customize Joystick menu is also limited, allowing up to four buttons to be set to any of Run, Open, Fire, of Strafe.
• All key bindings are stored in SCORES.ROT from address $1DC to $22B. They are as follows:

Keyboard	Mouse	Joystick
Hex Function 1DC Run 1E0 Open 1E4 Fire 1E8 Strafe 1EC Left 1F0 Right 1F4 Forward 1F8 Backward 1FC Look Up 200 Look Down 204 Toggle Weapon	Hex Function 208 Mouse 1 20C Mouse 2 210 Mouse 3 214 Nothing	Hex Function 21C Joystick 1 220 Joystick 2 224 Joystick 3 228 Joystick 4

• Even more confusing: the values for the Keyboard are for keys (10 is Q, 11 is E, etc.), but the Mouse and Joystick addresses denote what function each Mouse/Joystick button serves (1 is Button 1, 2 is Button 2, etc.).

• There is an option for "Double-Click Open" under the User Options.
• There is no Screen Size option yet, but the screen can be adjusted in-game with + and -.

Gameplay Differences

General Differences

July 1994 Beta	v1.1 Onward

• There are no episode cinematics. Instead, a placeholder screen with a text box appears.

• The placeholder screen seems to use the same style as the Wolfenstein 3-D II: Rise of the Triad build.

July 1994 Beta	v1.0 Onward

• The Loading Screen is very... "debug-y" with statistics and meters useful for play-testing.

• The levels don't have titles. Instead, they have random, humorous quips. This would carry over into the final game's "Dopefish Mode".

July 1994 Beta	v1.0 Onward

• There are map coordinates in the upper-right of the screen at all times.
• The screen cannot be enlarged to a point where the HUD disappears.
• Character names on the HUD are in all-caps as opposed to title case. ("LORELEI NI" instead of "Lorelei Ni", for example.)
• There are no informative HUD messages (such as "You filched a Firewall!" or "You got a second pistol!")
• There is no visual feedback that the player is taking damage.
• Similarly, there is no audible feedback that the player has low health (thankfully), although the sound that plays in the final game for this purpose already exists in the SOUND.WAD file.
• There are generic pain sounds (P_HURT1 and P_HURT2) in this version, where the final game has one unique pain sound per playable character instead.
• No unique sound plays upon death. Interestingly, a generic death sound (P_DIE) does exist in the aforementioned SOUND.WAD, but it is not used. In the final game, each playable character has their own death sound.
• The player can become "stun-locked" by gunfire and environmental hazards very easily.
• The player cannot switch between a single pistol, dual pistols, or the MP-40 manually. Whatever bullet weapon they last picked up is the only bullet weapon they have.

• If a player somehow grabs an MP-40 before grabbing a second pistol, then presses the Weapon Swap button, the MP-40 will be permanently removed.

• In the final, some members of HUNT are faster or slower, taller or shorter, more or less accurate with bullet weapons, and have more or less health. In this build, only the lattermost applies.

• The player's hand skin tone (pistols, Hand of God) doesn't yet change depending on the character and/or gender.

• Strafing, hitting a springboard, or using Elasto Mode all set the player's speed to maximum, just like holding the "Run" button.
• Most of the levels are present, although noticeably different. Some example include being much simpler and there being no Gravitational Anomaly Discs implemented yet.
  • Level progression/order is mostly the same. However, some maps are not yet in the game and in their place are ones that were cut: 5 (E1A5, Two-Key Return), 6 (E1A6, Spring Surprise), 10 (E2A2, Great Halls of Fire), 30 (E4A6, Circles of Fire). Level 32 crashes the game and shifts the placement of the last two levels from Dark War (Canyon Chase and In the Dark Nest) 1 slot higher. E4A8 (Switched Around) is also not yet in the game, although no map takes its place.
  • There are in fact more levels than the accompanying text file describes. These are in slots beyond 55 and include test maps and other remnants worth investigating. They may crash the game (like map 32), but can be viewed in the TED editor.

Item and Weapon Differences

• Life Items appear as mystical orbs instead of ankhs and comes in 1, 2, 5, and 10-count varieties (instead of 1, 5, 10, and 25).
• Life Items cannot yet be destroyed.
• The 1-up and 3-up items give zero and two extra lives, respectively.

• ... unless the player has taken damage, in which case they work as intended, giving one and three lives, respectively.

• The DIP Balls have yet to be implemented properly, but three placeholder items exist with a placeholder graphic. Collecting any of them plays an ominous sound.
• Scott (Miller)'s Mystical Head does not yet give the player 2,762,411 points.

• In God Mode (the power-up), the player becomes much taller than in the final and their camera becomes locked at a downward angle.

• The God Fire projectiles do not home in on enemies. Instead, they act as very powerful rockets, exploding on contact.

• Dog Mode is not invincible in this build, rendering it more of a "power-down".

• The "Bark Blast" has yet to be implemented.
• Additionally, players can still pick up weapons in Dog Mode. Grabbing a missile weapon will completely remove the bite weapon for the duration of Dog Mode.
• Grabbing another mode-changing power-up (God Mode, for example) after Dog Mode will give the player a permanent Dog Mode weapon at the cost of their old missile weapon.

• Players can switch between bullet and missile weapons while in God or Dog Mode. (The Hand of God and Dog Muzzle are considered a "missile weapon" in game logic, temporarily replacing the current missile.)
• Mercury Mode exists, but there doesn't seem to be any way to fly due to a lack of functioning buttons.
• Shrooms Mode does not yet make actors and springboards flash a rainbow of colors, nor does it add an echo to sounds.
• Elasto Mode works mostly the same as it does in later builds, but the player is more likely to be snagged on objects or terrain and stopped cold.

July 1994 Beta	v1.1 Onward

• The pistol fires considerably faster than in later versions.
• All missile weapons have a maximum capacity of 5 shots, except for the Excalibat, which has 10.
• The Split Missile doesn't seem to have its "dumb-seek" ability.
• The Drunk Missile's trajectory is somehow both more linear and less linear than in the final.
• The Kinetic Energy Staff's animations are very jittery, jumping between frames in all states.
• The Excalibat's "Excaliblast" attack has not yet been implemented.

Enemy Differences

• Enemies' walk animation is significantly choppier than in later versions.

July 1994 Beta	v1.1 Onward

• There is a chance that alternate versions of some enemies will spawn instead of the normal ones -- a feature which was cut by v1.0, but restored in Ludicrous Edition, almost three decades later.
• Enemies with bullet weapons are very aggressive and/or do more damage to the player than in later builds, depending on the selected difficulty.
• All human, non-boss enemies have a 100% "pain" chance in which they flinch after taking damage.

• All human, non-boss enemies linger in their "pain" state for far longer than in the final.

• Low Guards rarely announce female players as females. ("There she is!", "Shoot 'er!"!)
• High Guards have a higher rate of fire than in the final.
• The Overpatrol only seems to dodge gunfire after being shot.
• Lightning Guards don't seem to appear in most maps, unlike the final.

• Lightning Guards don't seem able to beg for their lives yet, but the animation for it is in the ACTORS.WAD file.
• Lightning Guards can disarm the player, but don't seem capable of using any missile weapons they might steal.

• All human actors have an animation for "using" things. (Doors, switches, etc.) In the final, only the Lightning Guards and "General" Darian have "use" animations, the former of which is only used when a Lightning Guard steals from the player.
• Robot Guards seem to shoot much faster than in later versions, and only fire a small electrical projectile.

• Robot Guards turn into skeletons when burned with a Firewall.

• Ballistikraft also fire much faster and shoot both missiles and the previously mentioned electrical projectile.
• The tall gun turrets bleed when shot and continue to react this way even after being destroyed.
• Story-wise, El Oscuro doesn't yet have a name. He's simply referred to as "The Dark Monk" in the Readme.

Other Changes

• The sound effects for "Dopefish Mode" are located in the WAD, but there doesn't seem to be a way to activate it.

Debugging Keys

Much like Wolfenstein 3-D, there are some debugging key combos available for use. Unlike the final, they are always available and don't require activation.

Commands

• ← Backspace + W - Warp to Level 1-54. 34 to 54 are Comm-Bat game levels, 55 to 99 crash the game.
• ← Backspace + G - God Mode and Infinite Ammo. 1 is supposed to cycle through weapons, but doesn't seem to do anything.
• ← Backspace + C - Capture screenshot in DeluxePaint LBM format.
• ← Backspace + Q - Quit the game "with extreme prejudice." Provides an "Insta-Menu Quit!" fake error.