Proto:Unreal/December 1995 Level Tech Demo/Help File

Help File
The help file contains several interesting bits of information about Unreal's development, which are shown below.

EA: Original publisher?
This is a little game we are creating for a Fall ‘96 debut. Unreal will be published in shareware

by Epic MegaGames and distributed in retail stores worldwide by Electronic Arts.

It seems that EA was going to be the original publisher of the game and that it would've been distributed via shareware.

Unreal: a “large scale network game”
Unreal will be a large-scale network action game, and the server will be ported to the MIPS and

DEC Alpha Windows NT platforms to enable large (20- to 100-player) games to be set up on Internet

and online services.

Looks like Epic wanted Unreal to be played as something of an MMO at one time.

Setting
You awake in a small, enclosed room with metal walls. The floor and walls are notably titled at

an odd angle. The room is illuminated by a dim light flowing through a crack in the ceiling. A

minimal fold-out bed is attached to a wall. Though you have no recollection of where you are, it might

appear to be a prison cell. An angled metal door is ahead. With effort, you push it open, and it emits a

dull creaking sound.

You’re in a small, metal-enclosed hallway. Lights on one of the walls are blinking, and you hear the

dull sound of machinery. Exploring the tight metal corridors, you find a closet amply stocked with

weapons. Instinctively, though rather stereotypically, given the setting, you grab a shotgun. Nothing

here to shoot... You continue exploring.

You come to a large metal door. It’s partially open, revealing light behind it. Pressing a switch on a

nearby wall, it slowly and noisily opens.

You see a bright green landscape and lake beyond. You walk out into the middle of a small peninsula

within a lake surrounded by mountains.

This is not at all what you expected. The “prison” you just exited seems to be a small, badly-damaged

spacecraft. You see a trail of debris along the crash site; the craft itself is wedged halfway into the

ground around it, forming a crater.

Though you have no recollection of where you are or what your purpose here is, you walk along a trai

in the landscape, shotgun in hand, searching for the answers.

You have thus found yourself in the entryway into the world of Unreal. From here, you will discover

the intricately detailed, elegant architecture of an unknown alien race that once lived here.

This description is almost identical to how the final game starts out.

Monsters
The present inhabitants of this world which you’ll first encounter are an interesting mix of fantasy

creatures with an insectoid look to them--including an alien dragon, a deformed alien minotaur, and

many others of the same style.

However, this is just the beginning of the Unreal story. As you journey deeper into the world of

Unreal, you’ll discover something far more shocking. You won’t see what it is for a very long time,

perhaps not even in the initial release -- though you’ll see its effects, in the pre-existing slaughtered

monsters and humans you’ll encounter, in the shocking screams you’ll hear as you explore the world,

and in the mysterious shadows you see from time to time.

Early monster descriptions, which don't match most of the final's. There doesn't seem to be any hint of what the “shocking” thing is; maybe a very early prototype of the Skaarj?

Networking
In addition to supporting small (2- to 10-player) games on a local area network, Unreal enables large-

scale modem and network games. An Unreal server can be set up on a fast Pentium, P6, MIPS, or

multiprocessor DEC Alpha machine running Windows NT, and can serve 20 to 50 players. Multiple

servers can be networked, with each server handling several game levels,

More ridiculously-ambitious plans for networking. Ironic, since it was still in beta stage when the game was released, and it had only a few of the features mentioned in this writeup.

And yes, the writeup does suddenly cut off like that in the .HLP files.

”What's done” list
In this beta:

Shadows Dynamic lighting Pretty optimized engine The woman, dragon, and gargoyle DirectDraw 640x400 and 640x480, 256-color support DispDib full-screen 320x200 and 320x240 support Player controls Music

Not in this beta:

Enemy AI and play mechanics Good lighting... Ignore the huge pixels for now. 32,000-color and 16M-color modes User interface Decent textures Sound effects Joystick support

Most of this list is true, except for the Woman, Dragon and Gargoyle working.