Serious Sam: The First Encounter

Serious Sam: The First Encounter is an FPS game designed by Croteam. It was designed to be a throwback to old-school FPS games when the market was starting to be flooded by “realistic” FPS games. It also has the distinction of being one of the few 2000s-era video games whose palette does not consist of brown!

It also has an a HD remake that plays the same as the original, but with better graphics (for the most part).

Unused Weapons
TFE contains a few unused weapons. The only traces of most of them are coding for them, which can be accessed via TFE's SDK.

GhostBuster
The GhostBuster is a beam weapon. The textures for it and its HUD icon can be found in the game's files, while the coding for it can be examined in the Serious Sam SDK.

Two pre-release screenshots show the GhostBuster in action.

Pipebomb
The Pipebomb is a grenade-like weapon. According to its coding, it would essentially be a thrown version of the grenades shot out of the Grenade Launcher (explodes after a few seconds or when it hits an enemy). It was probably removed because it was made obsolete by the Grenade Launcher, which does the same thing.

It's HUD icon can be found in the final game's files.

A screenshot featuring the Pipebomb was released before the game came out.

Flamer
A listing for a weapon called the Flamer exists in weaponsitem.es. It seems the Flamethrower was supposed to be in TFE at one time, but was scrapped and resurrected for TSE.

Nukeball
Alternate ammo for the Cannon (or a completely different weapon; the code isn't clear) existed at one time called the Nukeball. According to its code, it would essentially be a more powerful version of the regular cannonball fired by the Cannon. Since the regular cannonball is already ridiculously powerful when charged up, it was probably removed for redundancy.

Its texture is in the final game's files and is an alternate skin for the regular cannonball model.

Early Ugh-Zan
Model code for an early version of Ugh-Zan shows that his weapons were going to be a bit different at one time; instead of using the flamethrower/laser gun/rocket launcher combo he uses in the final, he was supposed to use a minigun, a shield, and a gigantic stick.

According to the date on the early Ugh-Zan model coding, most of the model coding were last modified between July and October 1999, while the earliest model code file is named “devil2” and was last modified on October 1st, 1998, making it the oldest model code file in the SDK.

Projectiles
The model code for an old Gnaar model in the SDK shows that the Gnaar was able to toss acid projectiles at the player at one time. This can be seen in action in the first Serious Sam Trailer, while the model can be found in Serious Sam Test 1.

Gibs
It was possible to dismember Gnaars. The coding remains in SDK, but the models do not appear in both final version and Public Test builds. This feature has been brought back in Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter.

Recoil
Console variables for recoil and commented out coding for recoil in the weapon code files suggests that weapons were supposed to have recoil. Un-commenting the code does not make the recoil work, suggesting there are other lines of code that are needed to make it work.

Unused Area in Hatsheput
There is an unused pit in Hatsheput. In order to get to it, the player must rocket jump from the secret pack of rockets on the left side of the temple, then run all the way back to where the temple meets the hills and fire 10 rockets at a part of the floor that is near a wall. The floor will then blow up, revealing a black pit that has nothing in it.

It's likely that it was supposed to be a part of a scrapped secret area, as it's out of the way and requires two other secrets in order to get to it.