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Proto:Doom (PC, 1993)/Press Release Pre-Beta

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This is a sub-page of Proto:Doom (PC, 1993).

Download.png Download Doom Press Release Pre-Beta
File: Doomprbt.zip (2.5 MB) (info)

Compiled on October 4th, 1993, the Press Release Pre-Beta was a teaser for the final product. It still has its differences, however. It should be noted that this refuses to run after October 31st, 1993. Fortunately, there is a utility that overcomes this time-bomb. Also, in order to run the demo, you need to include -pressrelease.

Hmmm...
To do:
Get up all the remaining unique graphics, all the differences we're missing, and generally polishing up the article.

General Differences

"This really fraggin' hurts!"
  • The only menu options available are for switching between the three demo maps and quitting. The graphics for the other menu options are present in the IWAD.
  • The game keeps score; it can be viewed in the automap and is displayed on the intermission screen.
  • There's a barely-visible extra life counter on the HUD, next to the player's portrait. However, it doesn't function correctly, as dying doesn't reduce the number of lives.
  • Messages are displayed on the right side of the status bar, replacing everything but the ammo for the current weapon and the health percentage for a couple of seconds or so. The messages use a small yellow font and three lines can be displayed at once.
  • Lifts are much slower than in the finished game.
  • The ouch face appears whenever the player walks on a damaging floor.
  • Enemies that drop some ammo in the final game don't do that when they die here.
  • You can take screenshots with F10.
  • Pause shoots instead of pausing the game.

Enemy Differences

Monsters cannot be crushed in this version, causing issues with lowering sectors. For example, closing doors will normally bounce off living players and monsters, but will crush corpses into a small puddle of blood and close normally. This doesn't happen in the pre-beta, so any door with a corpse under it will not be able to close and will continuously bounce off the crushed corpse instead. Crushers have a similar issue: They normally slow down when colliding with a living thing and deal damage until they die, then crush them into a blood puddle. Since this cannot happen, crushers instead slow down every time they collide with the corpse until they reach the floor.

Pre-Beta Final

Lost Souls still use their sprites from the alphas and have an entirely different attack: instead of charging you, they attack with an instant damage attack when you're in their line of sight, similar to that of the Arch-Vile in Doom II. This means they can attack from a distance. The attack is not a hitscan, so they cannot damage other monsters and trigger infighting. When killed, they shatter in a green explosion and leave behind a pile of floating bone shards, which explains the existence of the Lost Soul corpse thing in the final game.

Weapon and Item Differences

Rocket Launcher

Pre-Beta Final

The rocket launcher always recoils after each shot in the pre-beta, even when holding down the fire key. This gives it a significantly lower rate of fire. Rocket explosions will thrust the player if they're too close, but monsters are unaffected, they only take damage.

BFG 9000

Pre-Beta Final

The BFG9000 has the most unique weapon behavior in the final game, but it's much simpler in the pre-beta: It quickly fires 120 of the same red and green projectiles fired by the plasma gun, while spending 40 cells. These are emitted in a semi-random pattern and will bounce off of floors and ceilings. While this is visually spectacular, in practice the weapon is far less effective for clearing rooms than the final version.

The final BFG fires a single large green plasma ball, which can deal damage on its own, but also causes the player to emit a cone of 40 hitscans in whatever direction they initially fired the weapon after the ball impacts something. According to John Romero, the weapon's behavior was changed because it "looked like Christmas" and the number of sprites slowed down lower-end PCs of the day.

(Source: 5 Years of Doom)

Soul Sphere

Full health and an extra life!

The soul sphere gives "full health and an extra life" instead of the +100% health supercharge it gives in the final version. It is not possible to get more than 100% health in this version.

Armor

Armor and Megaarmor is implemented and works mostly as the final, but a mistake means you need to have less than 50 armor before you can pick up a fresh armor, and you need to have less than 100 before you can pick up a fresh megaarmor.

Radiation Shielding Suit

The radiation shielding suit is functional, but lasts forever and doesn't alter the palette when active.

Berserk

Berserk has no function yet, and does not alter the palette when collected.

Invulnerability

Invulnerability lasts only for 20 seconds and does not invert the screen or change the status bar face when collected. When it is about to wear off, however, the screen will blink between normal and inverted.

Light Amplification Visor

Pre-Beta Final
Doomguy's green and pissed. The powerup almost no level designer wants to give.

The light amplification visor in the pre-beta remaps all colors to appropriate shades of green, rather than displaying everything at full brightness. Because this is done using a COLORMAP entry, it suffers from the same code oversight that invulnerability (and partial invisibility in this version) does in the final version: skies use their normal colors, since they're always drawn with COLORMAP 0. When picked up, it will last for the entire duration of the level.

At first, this seems like an odd change: the final effect looks lazy in comparison. A possible explanation is that the green remap only helps to see in dark areas and actually makes it harder to pick monsters out from the background. This makes the pre-beta visor sort of a "powerdown" in areas that were already bright enough to see normally. The final full brightness remap does not suffer from this problem – monsters are never harder to see when everything is drawn in the normal colors.

Partial Invisibility

Pre-Beta Final
"I am invincible! ...oh wait, no I'm not". There's a shotgun in this screenshot, believe it or not.

Partial invisibility does not draw your weapon using the "fuzz" effect, instead it is indicated by the inverted black and white COLORMAP used by invulnerability in the final version. Partial invisibility has no effect on gameplay in this version.

Treasure

Demonic Dagger Skullchest Evil Sceptre Unholy Bible

Demonic dagger, skullchest, evil sceptre, and unholy bible bonus items can be found throughout the levels. There is even a counter that tracks the number of these items collected in on the status bar. Collecting 50 of these items will grant the player an extra life. These were replaced by the health and armor bonuses in the final version. A video of a later version of the game shows that the demonic dagger and skullchest directly became the health and armor bonus - they use the same graphics and names as the pre-beta, but have the final +1% health and armor effects. The skullchest would eventually be recycled for Quake's Second Mission Pack: Dissolution of Eternity with the chest's identity being replaced for a bookcase placed on a bookshelf.

(Source: A Visit to id Software)

Technical Differences

  • The game runs in VGA mode 13h, so there is no page flipping or lower detail levels. The final game and the previous alpha builds all use mode x with page flipping.
  • The palette files for 12 and 15-bit color modes are still present, although they are just leftovers from the previous builds.
  • There is still no sound, even though the support for it has been programmed. The sound support is very crude in this version, with a limit of a single sound playing, and all sounds playing without distance fading and panning.
  • Support for masked (transparent) textures is only partially finished.
(Source: Doom Wiki)

Cheat Differences

Pre-Beta Final Effect
TST IDDQD Toggles God Mode; called Degreeless Mode in the final version.
EEK IDDT Toggles between three modes in the automap - lines seen, all lines, all lines and things.
AMO IDKFA Gives all weapons, full ammo, and keys. Also gives 200 armor points, but this won't protect you unless you collected armor before.
NC IDSPISPOPD Toggles No Clipping.

There are only four cheats in the pre-beta. Unlike the final version, they do not need to be entered as a continuous sequence. For example, typing "TCRFST" will also toggle God Mode.

Scoring Mechanic

This version contains a scoring system which was later removed. It gives you points for every kill you make. If an enemy kills another enemy, you won't score points for that.

  • Zombieman gives you 200 points.
  • Shotgun guy gives you 600 points. (Can only be fought by modifying the maps with a level editor.)
  • Imp gives you 600 points.
  • Demon gives you 1500 points.
  • Cacodemon gives you 4000 points.
  • Lost soul gives you 1000 points.
  • Baron of Hell gives you 10000 points.
  • Collectables that raise the ITEM stat won't give you any points in this version.

Scoring 20000 points will grant the player an extra life. Each time this occurs, the amount needed for an extra life doubles.

Message System?

By pressing Enter, the message window appears on the screen and allows you to type messages. First you choose which player(s) you want to send a message with keys 1, 2, 3 and 4, or Spacebar to send to all players, and press Spacebar. At this point you can type your message and press Enter to send it. Once the message is sent, however, the message window won't go away automatically. To get rid of it, press Enter twice.

Map Differences

As most of the maps are absent, completing any of the demo maps will crash the pre-beta.

Demo Map 1 (E1M2)

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E1M2MapPRB.png Doom-E1M2Map.png

Nuclear Plant probably has the most significant geometry changes out of the three maps.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E1M2SecretDoorPRB.png Doom-E1M2SecretDoor.png

The secret door leading to the switch to open the courtyard uses the same texture as the surrounding walls in the pre-beta, but it is still misaligned. The final version changes the texture to make the secret even more obvious.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E1M2ArmorPRB.png Doom-E1M2Armor.png

The green armor near the start of the map sits in front of the computer console in the pre-beta, instead of on the console.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E1M2KeyElevatorPRB.png Doom-E1M2KeyElevator.png
Doom-E1M2KeyStairsPRB.png Doom-E1M2KeyStairs.png

There are large elevators instead of the bottom half of the staircases leading to the red key. The corridors with these elevators are straighter than final, and the stairs at the top are shorter as a result. The elevator with the secret entrance to the courtyard can be broken, made to raise only part way up, which may explain why they were scrapped.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E1M2CourtyardPRB.png Doom-E1M2Courtyard.png

The secret courtyard outside of the red key area was made larger in the final version and the walls surrounding it were made higher. The chaingun is not available outside in the pre-beta. The wall textures under the base's windows are not properly unpegged.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E1M2BackpackSecretPRB.png Doom-E1M2BackpackSecret.png

The secret area with the backpack in the computer maze is not present in the pre-beta.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E1M2BonusSecretPRB.png Doom-E1M2BonusSecret.png

The secret compartment with armor bonuses are also missing.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E1M2NukageStairsPRB.png Doom-E1M2NukageStairs.png

There is another elevator instead of stairs before the room with the nukage.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E1M2SawWindowLiftPRB.png Doom-E1M2SawWindowLift.png

The alcove with the elevator that lowers into the room with the window looking into the chainsaw secret has a more triangular shape in the pre-beta. The light texture was changed for the final version, possibly to hint at the floor being an elevator since the panels at the bottom of the new texture are cut off when it's raised.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E1M2NukageWalkPRB.png Doom-E1M2NukageWalk.png

The room that has a walkway over some nukage in the final is a winding, nukage filled path in the pre-beta, with a slight maze element to it. This does a good job of explaining why there are three medikits after this section in the final version, despite having no real threat that justifies providing that much health.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E1M2DoorLightsPRB.png Doom-E1M2DoorLights.png

Some lights were added to the doors opened by the switch near the exit for the final version, likely to make them easier to see in the dark room.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E1M2ExitLiftPRB.png Doom-E1M2ExitLift.png

The ceiling above the exit switch was raised for the final version; in the pre-beta, it is flush with the elevator platform. The walls surrounding the courtyard outside the exit room were also simplified.

Demo Map 2 (E3M5)

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E3M5MapPRB.png Doom-E3M5Map.png

Unholy Cathedral is in the E2M5 slot internally, because the game likely still followed the "techbase - hell - corrupted base" laid out in the Doom Bible. While its general layout is nearly complete, several important areas cannot be accessed due to line type errors, making it impossible to complete the map by normal means.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E3M5TorchesPRB.png Doom-E3M5Torches.png

Most of the decorative things, such as the torches at the start of the map, are missing. The shots here are both taken from the start point, showing it was moved back a bit for the final version.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E3M5ShellsPRB.png Doom-E3M5Shells.png

There's a box of shells in this little corner behind the secret door leading to the light amplification visor in the pre-beta. It was removed in the final version.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E3M5SoulSpherePRB.png Doom-E3M5SoulSphere.png

The sectors making up the side room with the plasma gun and soul sphere are unclosed in the pre-beta, so their flats bleed into each other.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E3M5CourtyardPRB.png Doom-E3M5Courtyard.png

The central courtyard isn't a courtyard at all, since it has yet to be opened to the sky in the pre-beta.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E3M5SecretDoorPRB.png Doom-E3M5SecretDoor.png
Doom-E3M5BlueKeyDoorPRB.png Doom-E3M5BlueKeyDoor.png

Both walkover triggers are set to raise ceilings in this version, rather than lowering the floors. This makes both the secret area with the blood floor and the room with the blue key inaccessible without using the no clipping cheat.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E3M5BlueKeyAreaPRB.png Doom-E3M5BlueKeyArea.png

The area with the blue key is only partially finished in the pre-beta. The entrance door is doubled and there are no crushers near the switches, the six switch-opened alcoves are not present, there is no rocket launcher, the teleporter is missing, and there are switches to reopen the entrance doors. The trap alcove outside of this area with the demon or Baron of Hell is not present in this version.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E3M5BlueKeyPRB.png Doom-E3M5BlueKey.png

The blue key is a card in this version, not a skull.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E3M5BlueDoorPRB.png Doom-E3M5BlueDoor.png

Despite having blue trim, the door leading to the exit area opens with the yellow key. The textures for the door and trim were updated for the final version, and a step was added.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E3M5SecretTeleportPRB.png Doom-E3M5SecretTeleport.png

The teleporter in the secret area is much less pronounced in the pre-beta. A flaming blue structure was added around it and it was moved close to the wall in the final version.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E3M5ChainsawPRB.png Doom-E3M5Chainsaw.png

The hidden alcove the yellow skull opens only contains a chainsaw in the pre-beta. A soul sphere was added to it in the final version. Also note that the yellow skull's icon does not appear on the status bar.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E3M5MarbleFlatPRB.png Doom-E3M5MarbleFlat.png

The floor and ceiling in front of the door leading to the area with teleporting monsters uses a different, brighter green marble tile flat not present in the final version. It is used throughout the area. A step was also added before the door.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E3M5TeleporterTrapPRB.png Doom-E3M5TeleporterTrap.png

The area within got several changes for the final version: It was retextured, the floor was raised and the steps descending to it removed and the demon "teleporter" was changed to a skull-filled hole. Additionally, sometimes entering this area will crash the game outright. The door out of this area cannot be opened once it closes, meaning you're trapped without using the no clipping cheat again.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E3M5BFGDoorPRB.png Doom-E3M5BFGDoor.png

The texture on the door leading to the BFG9000 in the final version was corrected - it uses AASTINKY in the pre-beta. Instead of the BFG, a rocket launcher is found in this area, meaning the only way to get a BFG in the pre-beta is to cheat.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E3M5ExitAreaPRB.png Doom-E3M5ExitArea.png

Instead of the teleporter you'd expect, there's a large metal box in the exit room. It works just like an exit switch.

Demo Map 3 (E2M2)

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E2M2MapPRB.png Doom-E2M2Map.png

Like Unholy Cathedral above, Containment Area is actually in the E3M2 slot internally. The level is functionally complete, with only some minor changes made, but interestingly a large portion of it was retextured.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E2M2ChaingunDoor1PRB.png Doom-E2M2ChaingunDoor1.png
Doom-E2M2ChaingunDoor2PRB.png Doom-E2M2ChaingunDoor2.png

Right from the get-go, there are changes. The door leading to the circular area with the chaingun is on the left wall at the start in the pre-beta. It was moved around the corner, onto what was a bare wall, in the final version.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E2M2BerserkPRB.png Doom-E2M2Berserk.png

The berserk pack is not present in the pre-beta.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E2M2DoorFloorPRB.png Doom-E2M2DoorFloor.png
Doom-E2M2MetalStepPRB.png Doom-E2M2MetalStep.png

Several floors were raised to create better transitions between flats.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E2M2BarrelsPRB.png Doom-E2M2Barrels.png

There are no barrels in the pre-beta. Also note that the lighting in some areas of the warehouse was made darker in the final version.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E2M2MegaArmorPRB.png Doom-E2M2MegaArmor.png

The armor sitting on top of some crates before the yellow door leading to the rocket launcher was a second MegaArmor in the pre-beta.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E2M2HellTex1PRB.png Doom-E2M2HellTex1.png
Doom-E2M2HellTex2PRB.png Doom-E2M2HellTex2.png
Doom-E2M2HellTex3PRB.png Doom-E2M2HellTex3.png

Most interestingly, almost the entire section after the rising stairs uses hellish wood and skin textures in the pre-beta. The final version uses cement and brown textures like the starting area, although there are still some remnants of this earlier scheme if you look for them.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E2M2BloodFloorPRB.png Doom-E2M2BloodFloor.png

The rising floor tiles do not inherit the properties of the highest neighboring sector in this version, so they stay bloody and painful in the pre-beta. The lights in the ceiling are not inset, either.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E2M2YellowHOMPRB.png Doom-E2M2YellowHOM.png

The frame of the yellow door in the western half of the map is an unclosed sector and as a result one part of its door trim will show a hall-of-mirrors effect.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E2M2AlcoveWallPRB.png Doom-E2M2AlcoveWall.png

Entering any of the alcoves in the area where the rocket launcher is obtained will raise the floor of the room leading to the three switch consoles in the pre-beta. In the final version, it just lowers the consoles back into the ground, which actually doesn't prevent you from using them.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E2M2BlueLightsPRB.png Doom-E2M2BlueLights.png

The weird damaging blue lights do not do damage in this version and aren't inset into the floors and ceilings.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E2M2TunnelDrop1PRB.png Doom-E2M2TunnelDrop1.png
Doom-E2M2TunnelDrop2PRB.png Doom-E2M2TunnelDrop2.png

The tunnel past the blue lights drops earlier in the pre-beta, and exits level with the floor in the marble column room.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E2M2PlasmaSwitchPRB.png Doom-E2M2PlasmaSwitch.png

There is no switch to lower the plasma gun in the pre-beta, instead there's a walkover trigger just to the right of where the switch is in the final version.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E2M2CrusherPRB.png Doom-E2M2Crusher.png

The middle crushers aren't as wide in the pre-beta, but they also don't raise as high, which makes them much more dangerous. Their sides are textured with AASTINKY. The medkit that can be seen seems to be positioned slightly differently between the two versions as well. The pre-beta has the medkit positioned underneath one of the crushers, making it much more dangerous to get whereas the final version has it positioned after the crusher. Also more hellish wood and skin textures can be seen here in this hallway.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E2M2SoulTrapPRB.png Doom-E2M2SoulTrap.png

Instead of the chainsaw found in the final version, the item that's supposed to entice you into opening the lost soul trap in the pre-beta is a common box of shotgun shells.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E2M2SoulSpherePRB.png Doom-E2M2SoulSphere.png

While the lighting effect is present on the floor, the secret elevator with the soul sphere cannot be lowered.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-E2M2ExitAreaPRB.png Doom-E2M2ExitArea.png

The exit room was redesigned for the final version. The pre-beta features a second exit door on the other side as detail, and places the switch on the right wall, making the room look like an airlock.

Intermission Screen

Pre-Beta Final
DOOM-press-stats.png DOOM-retail-stats.png

The intermission screen can only be seen when DEMO MAP 1 is exited. It doesn't tell you the name of the map, has different arrangement of stats, time is always 00:00, par time in E1M2 is 00:05 and there's a bonus point and a total point display.

Graphic Differences

Sprites

Pre-Beta Final
Spiky ball Puff Bally ball Splat
Doom FATBA3A7.png

The fireball thrown by imps is very different in the pre-beta. The ball itself is smaller, but orange rays are drawn from its center, making the sprite about the same size as the final version. Its impact animation is much smaller and smokey, instead of fiery. The first puff frame would eventually be recycled for the Revenant's projectile.

Spikéball: Blue Version Now in Green
The original ball appears to have been used as the basis for both the final blue plasma gun projectile and the Arachnotron's plasma attack in Doom II. Both variants have been touched up slightly and recolored, and neither uses the old impact animation.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-BAL5 anim unused.gif Doom-BAL4a anim unused.gif This looks familiar... Puff Doom-PLSSAB.gif Doom-PLSEABCDE.gif

Instead of the blue projectiles it fires in the final version, the plasma gun fires alternating green and red balls. The first shot fired is always green, so the red projectiles, which are identical to those thrown by the imp, are only seen if the key is held down.

Pre-Beta Final
Projectile sprite used in-game. Doom-BAL4a anim unused.gif Doom presbeta BAL72.gif Doom presbeta BAL73.gif Doom presbeta BAL74.gif Doom BAL72.gif Doom BAL73.gif Doom BAL74.gif

Though the baron in this version throws a yellow energy ball, sprites for the slime ball used in the final game are present, but the rotations are too small. This was corrected for the final game.

Pre-Beta Final
Ooh...it's glowing. YYYYEEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHH!!!

The invulnerability powerup is a large blue potion which appears to show a ghostly face within in this version. The final version is a green sphere using the Lost Soul graphics present in this version of the game.

Pre-Beta Final
Very organized indeed. If only there was a box somewhere...

Rather than lying out in the open, the four shotgun shells pickup are tucked into a small box. The developers probably thought that newcomers would get this confused with the bigger box, and they were right, since it can be hard to tell the two apart at a distance in-game.

Pre-Beta Final
What is this? Convenient labels are helpful.

The shading on the (large) box of shells was touched up, the box itself was made wider to accommodate the word 'SHELLS', the internal box was made shorter, and the red ammo inside was updated with a touch of gold to clearly be a shotgun shell.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom presbeta CELLA0.png Doom CELLA0.png

The cell in the pre-beta is the same shape as the cell pack, but without the terminals on top and with the bars lower. The final game uses the part of the alpha 0.4 shield generator sprite.

Pre-Beta Final
Am I the only one who thinks this is eerily similar to that eyeball enemy in Super Mario 64? Agh! I'm shrinking.

A red sphere was added around the blur artifact and the 'eye' was redrawn to look like it is shrinking instead of disintegrating. This, unfortunately, makes it hard to tell it was ever intended to be an eye in the first place.

Pre-Beta Final
How long do I have to sit like this for? Where did my fist go?

The weapon sprites are larger, and were cropped out in the final version. During gameplay, they look the same as they do in the final version.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom presbeta SAWG.gif Doom SAWG.gif

The chainsaw's idle animation has more frames than the final game, but only the first frame is used in-game.

Pre-Beta Final
Do we really need all of this sprite? Much better!

Same difference as the Fist.

Pre-Beta Final
It doesn't look any different in first person. No different from the pre-beta shotgun.

Again same difference as the fist.

Pre-Beta Final
Doomchaingunprbt.gif Doomchaingunfinal.gif

The chaingun has barely visible barrels in the final version, but these are absent in the pre-beta, which is more perspective-correct but looks dumb.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom presbeta CHGF.gif Doom CHGF.gif

The flash sprite was also considerably revised. The last 2 frames in this animation go unused in the pre-beta.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom presbeta MISL.gif Doom misl.gif

The rocket launcher's rocket explosion is modified in the final game to have more detail and variety.

Pre-Beta Final
One of the lamest guns ever. It just can't get any better than this.

The plasma rifle has a really poor looking sprite in this build.

Pre-Beta Final
A lame flash for one of the lamest guns ever. A cool, detailed flash for a cool gun.

Though not used in the game, a static flash graphic is present in the data files. This is changed to be more detailed in the final game.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom presbeta BEXP.gif Doom BEXP.gif

Barrels aren't present in any of the levels, but are functional and can be added in with a level editor. The included screenshots also show barrels detonating on E1M8. Like the rocket explosion, the barrel explosion graphics were touched up for the final game.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom presbeta POSSF1.png Doom POSSF1.png

Zombiemen have a shooting frame now, but the flash would be made more detailed and self-illumination would be added in the final game.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom presbeta SPOSF1.png Doom SPOSF1.png

Shotgun guys would undergo the same change. Shotgun guys don't appear in any of the levels, but are functional and can be added with a level editor.

Oh really? I didn't know that!

In the final version, this is overwritten with another "you are here" graphic with a rightward facing arrow.

Demonic Dagger Skullchest Evil Scepter Unholy Bible

These are the treasure items that were cut out very late in development, since all they did was add points.

PLAYH0 PLAYI0 PLAYJ0 PLAYK0 PLAYL0 PLAYM0 PLAYN0 PLAYO0 PLAYP0 PLAYQ0 PLAYR0 PLAYS0

Interestingly enough, while there is no gibbing in this build, there's a gruesome death animation that is exclusive to this version of the game that involves the player character being ripped in half from the waist. This seems to be a remnant of what was planned for Buddy Dacote in the Doom Bible (being killed at the end of the first episode by the twin Barons of Hell), however it was most likely removed because this probably would have never have had a proper use anywhere in the finished game.

Doom presbeta SPAR.gif
An unused spark animation. The animation is present in the game's state table, but no object uses these states.

Textures

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-AASTINKYPRB.png Doom-AASTINKY.png

The patches composing the AASTINKY workaround texture were changed for the final version. Interestingly, AASTINKY is not treated as "no texture" in this build, and actually displays as a proper texture when used.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-BIGDOOR2PRB.png Doom-BIGDOOR2.png

BIGDOOR2 is riddled with bullet holes in the pre-beta. The patch used for the final texture is also in the IWAD.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-BIGDOOR6PRB.png Doom-BIGDOOR6.png

BIGDOOR6 was centered better for the final version by adding a third DOOR11_1 patch on the left and moving the other two right by four pixels.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-COMPUTE2PRB.png Doom-COMPUTE2.png

COMPUTE2 is 512 pixels wide in the pre-beta, instead of 256 in the final version.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-STEP4PRB.png Doom-STEP4.png

STEP4 was made 16 pixels tall in the final version by adding a second copy of the STEP06 patch under the first one.

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-SWxDIRTPRB.gif Doom-SWxDIRT.gif

SW1DIRT and SW2DIRT are only 72 pixels tall in the pre-beta. They were made 128 tall in the final version, but the texture varies between the two, wrecking the illusion of just the switch being flipped when it animates.

Patches

Pre-Beta Final
Your eyes...a little lopsided There

The MWALL4_1 patch used by MARBWALL, featuring Doom II's final boss, was updated to make the size and position of the eye on the left more symmetrical.

Pre-Beta Final
Boring, realistic moonbase. Interesting, atmospheric moonbase.

SKY1 is so different that it barely qualifies as a change – it's an entirely different graphic. The old version features a range of brown mountains over a black sky, instead of the foggy gray mountains and white sky of the final texture. The old texture is likely familiar to level designers, however, as a part of it is used for the F_SKY1 flat used to open sectors to the sky.

Flats

Pre-Beta Final
Doom-FLAT22PRB.png Doom-FLAT22.png

The blue circle on FLAT22 is much less detailed in the pre-beta.

Text Differences

The Press Release time Password has, alas, worn out.

The message that appears if you run the demo after October 31st, 1993, or don't run program akin to FAKEDATE.

You pick up a demonic dagger.
You pick up a skullchest.
You pick up an evil sceptre.
You pick up an unholy bible.

Messages for picking up treasures. Most pickup items starting with "You pick up" were changed to start with "Picked up" in the final game.

Unused Graphics

Since the pre-beta only has three levels and a stripped down menu interface, a large number of its graphics are unused. It would be pointless to list all of these, so this section only covers graphics which are not present in the final game.

Textures

32

32

The first eight columns of the TEKWALL4 texture. The name would lead you to believe it was 32 pixels in at least one dimension, but it's not.

ARTONLY

ARTONLY

A 128×128 flesh texture that's essentially a combination of SKINBORD and half of SKINEDGE. The strange name implies it was some sort of placeholder.

DOOR2

DOOR2

A gray variant of DOOR1, similar to ICKDOOR1, but without the, well, ick.

EATME

EATME

A green stone brick wall with an "E" made out of the red light panel used by LITERED and six WARNA0 switch patches. Yeah...

GRAY3

GRAY3

A 64×72 gray texture, similar to parts of GRAY7.

LITE200

LITE200

A 128 pixel tall variant of the light panels used on several textures.

MIDWOOD1

DOOR11_2

MIDWOOD1

A wooden wall with metal supports and a barred window at the top. While the texture is 64×96, the full patch is actually 96×96 – it's shown to the right.

PIPE3

PIPE3

A wall covered in pipes with nukage at its base, similar to PIPE6 but with a hole in one section of the wall.

PLANET2

PLANET2

A gray wall with a monitor showing the Earth.

SKIN1, SKIN3

SKIN1 SKIN3

Large sheets of skin.

SKIN4, SKIN5

SKIN4 SKIN5

More large sheets of skin – these ones have metal at the top and bottom.

SKY2

SKY2

A range of blue mountains with the Earth in the background. If this texture were used it would look pretty silly, since the Earth would get repeated four times, unless it's paired with the next unused texture, where that would repeat 3 times.

Note that it's actually defined as 256×128, so the top eight rows of pixels get cut off. This applies to all of the sky textures in this section.

SKY3

SKY3

This features a range of blue mountains like the SKY2 texture, but without the Earth and with a minor variation to the center mountains.

SKY4, SKY4B, SKY4C

SKY4 SKY4B SKY4C

An expanse of sand with brown thunderheads in the sky. Episode 3 in the final game uses similar sand on its intermission screen, so maybe this is an early vision of hell? While these look pretty cool as graphics, in-game the perspective is off, making it look like you're surrounded by giant sand dunes.

B and C feature lightning bolts and the clouds on the right are a bit more symmetric looking. These skies were almost certainly intended to be a single animated texture, but are not defined as one, and the game doesn't support using animated textures for skies anyway.

Interestingly, an obscure use of this background was potentially recycled, in a trailer for DOOM (2016) when Doom Slayer opens the starting door. So perhaps this is Mars/Phobos? Who knows.

SKY5, SKY5B

SKY5 SKY5B

The same sand and clouds as in SKY4, but this time they're incredibly dark blue.

STEP7

STEP7

Identical to the STEP2 texture.

TEKWALL6

TEKWALL6

Identical to TEKWALL4.

Patches

COMP****

COMP01_1 COMP01_2 COMP01_3 COMP01_4 COMP01_5 COMP01_6 COMP02_1 COMP02_2 COMP02_3 COMP02_4 COMP02_5 COMP02_6 COMP02_7

COMP03_5 COMP03_6 COMP03_7 COMP03_9 COMP04_1 COMP04_2 COMP04_3 COMP04_4

While not all of these are unused, each of the COMP patches actually has at least two frames of animation. None of the textures that use them are animated, however, and simply mix and match patches from each set. The unused frames were removed from the final version, but are still present in the pre-beta, and have been animated here to show how the game's computers may have originally been intended to look.

DOOR3_7, DOOR3_8, DOOR3_10, DOOR3_11, DOOR5_1, DOOR5_2, DOOR13_1

DOOR3_7 DOOR3_8 DOOR3_10 DOOR3_11 DOOR5_1 DOOR5_2 DOOR13_1

Various techy mechanical graphics intended to be used around a door, judging by their names.

DOOR10_1

DOOR10_1

A variant on the tan door patch used by the BIGDOOR4 texture, which is riddled with bullet holes, similar to the BIGDOOR2 texture in this version.

MWALL2_2, MWALL3_2

MWALL2_2 MWALL3_2

Two skull-adorned marble walls with blood at their base.

PS17A0, PS19A0

PS17A0 PS19A0

Voltage and explosive hazard signs. They're not shaded, unlike the radiation and poison signs that are actually used.

STEP01, STEP02, STEP15

STEP01 STEP02 STEP15

Unused step patches.

SUPPORT3

SUPPORT3

A strange looking gray support patch.

TP4_2

TP4_2

Similar to one of the patches used by the PIPE3 texture, but darker and with a slightly smaller hole.

W15_1, W15_2, W15_3

W15_1 W15_2 W15_3

Components of a red techy wall.

W67_4, W67_5, WALL71_7, WALL72_6

W67_4 W67_5 WALL71_7 WALL72_6

Patches similar to those used by the ICKWALL texture series.

W95_1, W95_2

W95_1 W95_2

Brown metal walls.

WALL03_2

WALL03_2

An interesting brown patch with transparent windows and lights at its top.

WALL06_1, WALL06_2, WALL06_3

WALL06_1 WALL06_2 WALL06_3

Alternate pipe wall patches which are only 96 pixels tall, as opposed to the 128 pixel tall patches that are used.

WALL53_2, WALL55_2

WALL53_2 WALL55_2

Alternate wall panels that aren't used by any of the CEMENT textures.

WALL70_8

WALL70_8

Another ICKWALL-style patch, but the base wall is a darker gray.

WALL75_1

WALL75_1

A brown wall with red...pixels overlaid. Pretty damn ugly, huh?

WALL77_1, WALL77_2

WALL77_1 WALL77_2

Two walls like the ones used by the REDWALL texture, with the obvious difference of being gray.

WALL78_2

WALL78_2

Speaking of REDWALL, this is a slightly lighter variation of the patch it uses.

Flats

CEIL4_4

CEIL4_4

A dark blue flat with the same pattern as the COMPBLUE texture.

ALLITE

ALLITE

A beige checkered flat.

CONS1_3

CONS1_3

A console facing the east, which is the only direction missing in the final version.

F_SKY2 - F_SKY5

F_SKY2 F_SKY3 F_SKY4 F_SKY5

In the final game, F_SKY1 is the flat used to open a sector to the sky, and which sky is used is determined by the episode. These additional flats hint that the sky used was originally intended to be set by the level designer. Notably, the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 versions would reintroduce this ability.

Misc.

WILVBX, WILV00 - WILV08

DoomWILVBXcompositeprbtest.png

DoomWILV0009combined.png WILVBX

Graphics for the episode 1 level names are in the WAD, but they're in a completely different style than that used for the final version. There is also another graphic which is a brown and black box that these names would have been drawn over. The box was likely intended to appear on the bottom right of the intermission screen, as shown in the mockup to the right, based on the fact that there is a drop shadow and outline that perfectly matches the height of the box on the background graphic. There is no graphic in the WAD for the right side of the box.

Also, note that Hangar is misspelled as "Hanger" and Phobos Lab and Phobos Anomaly are simply "Laboratory" and "Anomaly" in these graphics.

Hmmm...
To do:
The demo has the alpha start-up screen, but the screen is not visible without hacking the game.