Loom (DOS)

Loom

Developer: LucasArts
Publisher: LucasArts
Platform: DOS
Released in US: May 1990 (floppy), 1992 (CD-ROM)

This game has unused animations.
This game has unused graphics.
This game has unused sounds.
This game has unused text.
This game has debugging material.
This game has revisional differences.

This game has a prototype article

This game has a prerelease article

Oh dear, I do believe I have the vapors.
This page contains content that is not safe for work or other locations with the potential for personal embarrassment.
Such as: An exploding bishop.

This page is rather stubbly and could use some expansion.
Are you a bad enough dude to rescue this article?

To do:
Finish documenting the differences and cut content in the CD-ROM version.

Loom is a rather simple graphic adventure game in which you, Bobbin Threadbare of the Guild of Weavers, learn magical, musical powers and eventually flee from Chaos in an unsatisfying ending.

Sub-Pages

Prototype Info

Prerelease Info

Debug Mode

Floppy Version

Enter schwanensee and then press F7 to activate the debug menu.

Key(s)	Action
Shift + G	Goto room

DOS CD Version

Enter hardyharhar and press Control+Shift+D to activate the debug menu.

Key(s)	Action
Shift + S	Set variable
Shift + F	Fast mode
Shift + G	Goto room

Draft Variable Names

One release of the floppy version (version 1.1, #3937, dated 29 March 1990) contains the original SCUMM variable names for the drafts in the game text. It also includes a variable for whether or not the draft in question has been "tried" successfully.

open
gold
dye
light
twist
sleep
empty
hide
fear
sharpen
reflect
heal
silence
shape
unravel
transcend
c
d
e
f
g
a
b
C
tried

Revisional Differences

In floppy version 1.0 (#3937, dated 8 March 1990), at the stone staircase leading out of the mountain maze, there's a picture on the Object Window for the exit leading back into the maze. This is a relic of pre-release builds where room exits were all marked with pictures in the GUI. They were mostly removed before release, but this one slipped through. It was removed in later releases.

In the original EGA floppy version, when Mandible dies, the animation actually has a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment where the distaff is blown off screen, and another distaff spawns on the ground so Bobbin can pick it up afterward. This may be a relic of early versions, where the GUI had a grayed-out distaff during some cutscenes, so its appearance on screen could indicate Bobbin picking it up automatically off camera. The TurboGrafx-16 and FM Towns releases corrected the animation, so that Mandible drops the distaff as he dies, and it lands on the ground without any doubling. However, the talkie CD version reinstates this animation glitch from the original.

In the floppy version, Mandible drops the distaff...
...but as he does so, a second distaff spawns on the floor...
...while the force of him being torn apart blows the first distaff offscreen.

Unused Screens and Graphics

Floppy Version

The animation for untwisting the waterspout is recolored in-game compared to the version in the resource files. The files store the animation as red, but the version used in-game is green.

In-game colors	Original colors

The mainland beach and the graveyard in Crystalgard both have areas on their backgrounds marked out where the graphics could be variable. However, those scenes have static graphics without any changes in those areas in the published game.

Areas for variable graphics	Static infill applied

One-frame animations for a tree in the forest, and for a pillar in Fleece's hut. The tree is a static element which already appears in the room background art. Meanwhile, the pillar is drawn over an area on the background marked in black as if meant for variable graphics, though the pillar's design never changes.

This may be related to the fact that this particular tree is absent in the TurboGrafx-16 version, while the pillar in Fleece's hut is absent in the FM Towns version.

A superfluous one-frame tree animation
A puzzling one-frame pillar animation
The forest background with the tree already present
The background of Fleece's hut with the pillar area marked for variable graphics

The Shepherds' sprites have magenta tabards that suggest they were meant to have the possibility of multiple colors at one point.

There are fragmentary graphics associated with the Shepherds' pasture, including an image for the GUI showing a wakeful version of the dozing shepherd there, as well as part of a different lamb design with a black face, and what looks like a plume of smoke coming from a mountain (or volcano) in the background.

There's a sprite for turning the straw underneath the sickly lamb in Fleece's hut to gold.

On the upper landing partway through the mountain maze, the steps where Bobbin enters have an area marked for variable graphics, though they never change design. It's possible that the stairs were going to crumble behind Bobbin, like how the lower landing in the maze also prevents him from backtracking.

Areas for variable graphics	Static infill applied

The animation for untwisting the staircase leading out of the mountain maze had a palette swap as well. The version in the resource files has green, yellow, and red sparkles, which were changed in-game to a uniform blue.

In-game colors	Original colors

Rusty's closeup (aside from the solid color background) is stored as a sprite, rather than background art. This means it would've been possible to flip the closeup during some dialogue, as occurs with the closeups of the transfigured Hetchel and Cygna, which are stored similarly.

Rusty's closeup art, flipped from the in-game orientation
The sprite frames for Rusty's closeup

DOS CD Version

A number of character images and scenes were converted to VGA for the PC CD-ROM version, but ultimately went unused.

Another LucasArts logo.
Atropos
"Loom sucks!" An unused character shot of Atropos with a hidden message. Many of these full-screen character images exist unused in the game.
Cob.
Cygna in her swan form.
The dragon that's in the volcano.
Bobbin and Fleece.
Fleece.
Master Goodmold.
Hetchel as a human.
Hetchel as a bird.
Bishop Mandible.
Rusty being attacked by the dragon.
Stoke from the Forge.
An unused animation with Bobbin and Mandible. Bobbin's eyes move.
The Forge's furnace with a different colour palette.

(Source: ATMachine)

The animation for untwisting the stone stair also has alternate colors in the resource files in the DOS CD version (as well as the FM Towns release). Here, the in-game version is still blue, but the version in the game files is purple. (The animation for untwisting the waterspout earlier is purple as well, but that color scheme appears in-game as well as in the files.)

In-game colors	Original colors

The DOS CD version uses a new background and new animation for the scene of Bobbin healing the dead and dying Shepherds. However, the original version of the scene still exists, and can be warped to with debug mode (though it has some minor glitches, like the wounded Shepherds being invisible before Bobbin heals them, and their sprites being in EGA afterward). Fleece also has some different dialogue in the subtitles: her voiced line "Come, and extend your help, if you can..." to Bobbin is absent, and after Bobbin heals the Shepherds, she has an extra unvoiced line saying "His power is greater than ever since last we met."

A couple of unused sprites from the DOS CD version. One of them is associated with the exterior view of Crystalgard. It shows tiny walking sprites of at least one Shepherd - including Fleece, as the golden tip on the crozier shows - as well as a completely unknown character in teal and brown.

Another is a small sprite of a Glassmaker associated with the chalice room in Crystalgard, probably meant to be seen on the stair landing in the background.

Both of them are in EGA, suggesting they might have been salvaged from unused content for the original version of the game.

Tiny sprites of Fleece and an unknown character outside Crystalgard
Small sprite of a Glassmaker in the Chalice Room

Another unused animation, this one showing a Glassmaker walking diagonally.

Unused Audio

Many lines of dialogue were shortened from their originals for the CD version, but some longer versions were recorded anyway and not used.

Bobbin: That's beautiful! I've never seen anything sparkle like that, not even the long tapestry! What kind of glass is it?
Goodmold: Oh, it's not glass at all, young weaver; it was carved from a single crystal of diamond.