Doom 64 prototype leak?

[7Mahonin]

Apparently a Doom 64 prototype leaked today, but I am not sure if I am allowed to share the files here. Instead, you can find the files somewhere on (mod note: removed) page.
 

Admins/mods can remove the link if they wish (though it won’t really stop anyone from finding it), but from what I understand this is a beta version of Doom 64 with map and some sprite/texture differences. 

[OpenRift]

Yeah I saw it, I'm trying to get it running in an emulator to no avail.

[betabox]

Turns out it works on the emulator 1964. Seems to be the only one so far that can run it.

[7Mahonin]

It seems this prototype finally reveals the hidden Easter Egg that was talked about over the years. Read Kaiser’s video’s description.

Edited December 26, 2022 by 7Mahonin

[Rudolph]

Another leak?!? What is this, the Ho-leak-days? :P

 

Does it feature anything related to the fabled Aztec-themed map seen on that old screenshot?

[7Mahonin]

9 minutes ago, Rudolph said:

Another leak?!? What is this, the Ho-leak-days? :P

 

Does it feature anything related to the fabled Aztec-themed map seen on that old screenshot?

Not exactly. It’s more or less a late beta of Doom 64. It does have some sprite and texture differences, but not to a major level (some of the weapon pick up sprites are different, for example). It also has some differences in each map, mostly it seems they beefed up the difficulty on every level after this prototype, but there are some other minor differences in the level design as well such as the shape and location of certain areas being different, but all the maps appear to be there for a full game.

 

This beta does seem to indicate the “laser weapon” that was seen in some screenshots was what eventually became the “Unmaker”, as the beta pick up sprite looks like that unused weapon. 
 

Plus, as mentioned earlier, this beta has the “love letter” Easter egg in Map 20 that had became somewhat of a Doom lore legend. The area remains in the final game, but the message had been removed in the final version. 

Edited December 26, 2022 by 7Mahonin

[whatup876]

I saw sprites in the /vr/ thread and the weapon that the Unmaker might be replacing is a flamethrower.

Also, here's an Egyption looking map in this video.

 

[7Mahonin]

That specific video is different from the beta that leaked unfortunately. That is a promotional demo-reel from early in development.
 

This is the weapon in question. Only the pick up sprite is leftover in the beta and it is used for the Unmaker, so at least we know this weapon was just reworked both visually and functionally but not necessarily removed. 
A flamethrower makes a bit more sense too given how the weapon looks, but the community has dubbed this as a laser rifle for a while now.

Edited December 26, 2022 by 7Mahonin

[TasAcri]

I like the look of that beta weapon. The final Unmaker is just too much.

[whatup876]

I think the Unmaker was a unique addition for it being a demonic weapon (specially because the Doom bible stuff wasn't added, even if the Unmaker's existence has nothing to do with said bible) with an upgrade system, even if most players might have overlooked those artifacts and couldn't shut those gates in the final boss.

Though i wonder how the flamethrower would function, it it'd be familar to other games like ROTT or Strife. (specially since it'd definitely be different from Eternal's flame belch)

 

I also saw early sprites for the power ups.

[Duskztar]

The biggest thing for me was the fabled Breakdown secret, I've always wondered what exactly it was before it was removed and finally being able to see it in action is cool

[Kinsie]

6 hours ago, 7Mahonin said:

That specific video is different from the beta that leaked unfortunately. That is a promotional demo-reel from early in development.
 

This is the weapon in question. Only the pick up sprite is leftover in the beta and it is used for the Unmaker, so at least we know this weapon was just reworked both visually and functionally but not necessarily removed. 
A flamethrower makes a bit more sense too given how the weapon looks, but the community has dubbed this as a laser rifle for a while now.

I believe a developer mentioned a while back that it was an early iteration of the Rocket Launcher before Id told them to wind it back a bit.

[Faceman2000]

On 12/26/2022 at 6:43 PM, Kinsie said:

I believe a developer mentioned a while back that it was an early iteration of the Rocket Launcher before Id told them to wind it back a bit.

That’s what Tim H theorized, but he wasn’t certain.

Quote

I _want_ to say it was the first iteration, visually, of the rocket launcher. I don't think it was a new weapon type. If it was, my guess would be on a flamethrower type weapon (given the canister on the side and the vented front) but I have this very iffy memory of the rocket launcher not looking like a rocket launcher and it was redone (might have been ID feedback, or internal). That may be it.

Edited August 23, 2023 by Faceman2000

[Wavy]

Found the ROM (won't link it, hehe) and I've made a couple interesting notes:

• MAP01: A Cacodemon is present after the blue key door.

• MAP01: A seemingly placeholder sprite is next to the switch which opens the door to the Pinky monster closet. It has no collision.

• MAP02: The chaingun room lacks the barrels in the center.

 

Might update with more notes later.

Edited December 27, 2022 by Wavy

[Individualised]

This is really cool even if it's a late beta.

 

I remember hearing that a very early build of Doom 64 is also in circulation, but it is not playable as only the executable code is present and no game data (similar to the Doom 2 protos with no equivalent WAD available, though at least for one of the Doom 2 builds, John Romero released maps and some other data for a build close enough to it that a full prototype can be reconstructed, that's not the case here).

[Immorpher]

If you would like to see how this plays on N64 hardware, I started a playthrough and I will be adding the levels as I go to this list: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB0oWkFBPhdoXaW9XpF_Ll5nHWuDsyVzs

About every level has something different to it, even though none of the levels are truly brand new.

If you want to play it on PC, I recommend EX+ as it has been adding specific support for the alpha including its different decorations and animations! Just requires the doom64.wad from the official release. https://www.mediafire.com/file/9qqxhpkiqx2rx0j/doom64ex-plus-3.6.5.3-win64-with-alpha.rar/file

[Nathan Silver]

To clarify to literally everybody regarding the alpha leak, the statement of being originally leaked on 4chan is objectively false.

 

Yes, it is. The reason why is because it was leaked before someone got the ROM and its assets and put there, which was originally sent on a different place on the internet. I will not tell where and who brought the alpha to said place to prevent any kind of trouble. There is, however, evidence, but then again I won't bring it up at all, as the person who I had contact with wishes to keep anonymous.

[7Mahonin]

The 4chan page linked to Discord downloads, which is where the person on 4chan found them. I’m sure whoever is responsible for the files getting out either doesn’t care to be pointed out (maybe even intentionally leaked them) and/or is a bit upset they allowed someone they couldn’t trust to get ahold of the files and leak them. They’ll get over it if that’s the case because nothing can be reversed at this point. Either way, it’s out there for people who want to see it. I’d say that’s better than it being hoarded by private groups, but different strokes and all that jazz I suppose. 

Edited December 28, 2022 by 7Mahonin

[Nathan Silver]

Those weren't from the same Discord server where it was posted however, from what I've been told. And this could or not lead into legal trouble with Bethesda, but as it already went outta the way, there's nothing we can do about it. It may be cool to see unused content from the game itself, yet there's always gonna be something to upset some people unfortunately.

[7Mahonin]

I’m no legal expert but as far as I can tell, it is usually rare for people to get in trouble for leaking prototypes of games that have long since been released. I can’t think of any recent leak that has lead to legal trouble when it comes to old prototypes. Worst case is someone will get a nasty email to stop providing a download for it. Now as for prototypes of games that are still in development, that’s a different story. I can think of a few cases where legal action was taken over something like that. 

Edited December 28, 2022 by 7Mahonin

[Nathan Silver]

That's true, as nothing actually happened when the 2020 Nintendo Gigaleak hit the scene and people were crazy about it.

[Wavy]

More notes:

• Both the SSG and chaingun lack muzzle flash sprites.
• Bullet puffs are white and grey rather than yellow.
• Imp's and Caco's fireballs use the Imp's fireball sprite from PC Doom.
• The BFG ball upon impact doesn't have an animation, and lingers on one of the ball sprites.
• Speaking of the BFG, the green placeholder sprite shown above is used on the BFG fizzle sprites when a monster is hit by one of its rays.
• The HUD is white as opposed to red, and only shows values for health, ammo, and armour from left to right. This means that keys aren't shown on the HUD at all.
• The chainsaws animation isn't finished, so the blades don't move when idle or firing (holding a chainsaw forward without actually using it isn't gonna get you far, Doomguy).
• New idle hand sprite! It's open and not closed:
• That early Unmaker shown in the above magazine has a sprite called LSRGA0, which is the same name as the Unmaker's sprite in the final version:

Here's a rip of that green placeholder sprite, conveniently named TESTA0:

 

Also, with how much unused and early sprites/content there is I'm not sure if I'll be able to cover them all, so I'll leave it at here for now. I'll add screenshots for these notes eventually though.

Edited December 29, 2022 by Wavy

[7Mahonin]

I like the unused idle hand, it’s more like the PC version. 

[Eurisko]

This is a crazy find

 

[Rykzeon]

23 hours ago, Wavy said:

• New idle hand sprite! It's open and not closed:

It should have more curved in thumb, so it look more like the PC version.

[ChopBlock223]

On 12/29/2022 at 12:03 AM, Nathan Silver said:

That's true, as nothing actually happened when the 2020 Nintendo Gigaleak hit the scene and people were crazy about it.

Reasonably sure that the guy who went and got all that stuff and put it out actually got a prison sentence or something for it.

[Quasar]

If you look at the beta rocket launcher sprite it's easy to see how Tim Heydelaar got it mixed up with the beta laser rifle; it had a similar aperture on it which the final version does not have. Presumably some yet older build of the game that's lost had matching HUD sprites for the rocket launcher pickup as well.

[Individualised]

On 12/28/2022 at 11:01 PM, 7Mahonin said:

I’m no legal expert but as far as I can tell, it is usually rare for people to get in trouble for leaking prototypes of games that have long since been released. I can’t think of any recent leak that has lead to legal trouble when it comes to old prototypes. Worst case is someone will get a nasty email to stop providing a download for it. Now as for prototypes of games that are still in development, that’s a different story. I can think of a few cases where legal action was taken over something like that. 

It depends on how this prototype was obtained in the first place. Everyone's referring to this as a "leak" (I suppose after all getting new prototypes is a rather uncommon occurrence in the Doom community as opposed to something like Sonic) but if it was just found on and dumped from some dev board/cartridge/floppy disk that was sold on Ebay, like most of the stuff released by groups such as Hidden Palace or Forest of Illusion then that's not a leak and it doesn't need to be talked about under that much secrecy - companies generally don't care when this happens. But if this was obtained via a server breach like the Nintendo leaks ("Gigaleak" refers to a specific set from those leaks, not the entire thing) then yes, it's a leak, and yes, companies usually do pursue legal action in the case of such an event.

Edited January 6, 2023 by Individualised

[Immorpher]

3 minutes ago, Individualised said:

It depends on how this prototype was obtained in the first place. Everyone's referring to this as a "leak" (I suppose after all getting new prototypes is a rather uncommon occurrence in the Doom community as opposed to something like Sonic) but if it was just found on and dumped from some dev board/cartridge/floppy disk that was sold on Ebay, like most of the stuff released by groups such as Hidden Palace or Forest of Illusion then that's not a leak and it doesn't need to be talked about under that much secrecy - companies generally don't care when this happens. But if this was obtained via a server breach like the Nintendo leaks ("Gigaleak" refers to a specific set from those leaks, not the entire thing) then yes, it's a leak, and yes, companies usually do pursue legal action in the case of such an event.

Ya people got used to calling it a leak based on all the stuff with Nintendo and Duke Nukem recently. But it's almost certainly a ROM ripped from a found cart. It's right at 8 mb from a cart size of the time. And it says "evaluation version" which means it likely was distributed around. Given that, I have been saying "Doom 64 Alpha was found", since it doesn't seem like a leak to me at all but a finding.

[Individualised]

14 minutes ago, Immorpher said:

Ya people got used to calling it a leak based on all the stuff with Nintendo and Duke Nukem recently. But it's almost certainly a ROM ripped from a found cart. It's right at 8 mb from a cart size of the time. And it says "evaluation version" which means it likely was distributed around. Given that, I have been saying "Doom 64 Alpha was found", since it doesn't seem like a leak to me at all but a finding.

This is really starting to smell like a standard dumped prototype possibly meant to be released by a group such as the ones I mentioned but got released a bit too early by someone involved in the preservation process. I know for a fact this has happened before with other prototypes. I think until we have evidence to the contrary we should stop referring to this as a leak.

 

It probably doesn't help that another build of Doom 64 actually did leak a while back, but no one really talks about it because only the executable game code is present (similar to some of the leaked Super Mario Kart/Doom 2 prototypes) and therefore it is unplayable as it stands.

Edited January 6, 2023 by Individualised