DOOM - Press pre-release beta - screenshots by Id themselves.

[JustHeziel]

Brief explanation, taken from doomwiki :
 

Quote

The Doom press release beta, the final pre-release build of the game to be distributed externally, was released on October 4, 1993. It was intended for use by journalists to allow them to trial the game before its release.

 

Inside, you will find a txt:

Quote

[...] 

You will note that the game gives you the ability to take your own screenshots.  We
have also provided a set of screenshots from some of the levels not included in this
demo.  The screenshots are PCX format graphics located on Disk 2 in an archive
named scnshots.zip.

[...]

 

>"levels not included"

In this demo build, there is only three maps to test:
Demo Map 1: E1M2.
Demo Map 2: E3M5.
Demo Map 3: E2M2.

> We have also provided a set of screenshots (PCX format) named scnshots.zip

This is my part, I used GIMP to scale them x4 (320x200 --> 1280x800) and convert them to PNG files.

 

Also, there was this txt along the screenshots:

Quote

New DOOM screen shots!

Here are 15 of the most delectable 
DOOM screen shots we could get!  They're
in .PCX format, so you'll have to use
your own viewer for them.

DOOM -- coming December 10th!

John Romero
id Software, inc.

 

I have nothing else to say, Happy 30th Anniversary :)
Here are the screenshots:

Edited December 29, 2023 by JustHeziel
Wrong first screenshot. corrected :)

[Faceman2000]

Which map is the last screenshot from?

Edited December 29, 2023 by Faceman2000

[JustHeziel]

46 minutes ago, Faceman2000 said:

Which map is the first/last screenshot from?

 

I literally have no idea. I'm assuming it didn't get to the final release. There were a lot changes from there to the final build.

 

Also, thanks for making me realize the first and last ones are the same. First screenshot corrected/reuploaded :) . 

[Rudolph]

EDIT: Misread Faceman2000's question. My bad.

Edited December 29, 2023 by Rudolph

[Faceman2000]

I’ll have to boot up the old version of the Spirit World and see if it’s that map. I’ve also heard E2M2 had more hell textures at some point - I’ll check if it’s from there if it’s not the old version of Spirit World.

[JustHeziel]

So, this is the closest I could get:

E3M4:

 

E3M6:

[Andrew T.]

The last screenshot was taken near the southwest corner of E2M2...which *was* one of the levels included in the press release.

[Individualised]

I was gonna make a post about this a while back since it seems most people missed it. Most of these screenshots actually are from the levels that were included in the build, mainly E1M2 and E2M2 (or E3M2 as it was then). There's some of E1M8 and a few other levels though. That last screenshot is E2M2, that part just used different textures back then. I don't recognise where screenshot 3 is from though?

 

Seeing things like this makes me sad that we don't have the "full" version of that build.

[DNSKILL5]

7 minutes ago, Individualised said:

I don't recognise where screenshot 3 is from though?

E2M6 near the start of the level. 

[Chainie]

Pictures from
1) E1M2
2)E1M8
3)E2M6
4)E2M4
5)E3M3
6)E3M3 again
7)E2M2
8)E2M2 again
9)E2M5 
10)E3M5 
11)E2M2
12)E2M2
13)E2M2
14)E2M2
15)E2M2