Proto:Rise of the Triad (1994)/September 1993 Prototype

This is a sub-page of Proto:Rise of the Triad (1994).

In March of 2023, a very early prototype build of Wolfenstein 3-D, Part II: Rise of the Triad was leaked to the general public. It was confirmed by Scott Miller, founder of Apogee, that the build is more than likely legitimate.

To do: Checking under the hood for non-obvious differences, et cetera. Maybe look into 3D Realms' original specs page for more info? There may be map differences on the pre-existing maps beyond the graphics.

Sub-Page

Prototype Graphics Greyshirts! Spooky wizards! And lots and lots of stone walls.

Test Maps New maps for testing things! But what, exactly...? Only "William" knows!

General Information

• Almost all of the files are dated from 1993, ranging from February 4th to September 24. The MAPHEAD.WL6 (map chunk list) and TEDINFO.WL6 (Tile Editor v5.0 temporary file) files have a date of July 9th, 2017, though it's unknown who modified them, why, and in what ways.

• There exists an alternate release where only four files are dated from 1993. In all likelihood, it was probably modified in some way by a third party.

• The engine is a very tiny modification of the GT Interactive Wolfenstein 3-D v1.4 release. This means the following:

• There is no "this is registered software" screen before the game rating screen.
• The "Read This!" menu option is missing.
• The ANSI end screen had been truncated to simply say "Thank you for playing!"

• The engine now allows for ceiling and floor graphics. (It uses the wall textures by default.)
• None of the pre-existing maps appear to have any obvious differences, nor does the sound or music. However, a handful of graphics have been updated or changed.

• On some maps, the sound blocking seems altered, leading to guards from closed-off to be alerted by gunfire when they shouldn't be.

• New test maps have created for Floors 2, 3, and 4 of Episode 1. The original Episode 1, Floor 2-4 maps have been moved to the end of the file. (Map slots 63, 64, and 65.)

• Additionally, there's a completely blank map at Map 61 and two more test maps at Map 62 and 66, inaccessible by normal means.

• Debugging keys are available at any time, even without using the "-goobers" parameter and pressing Left Shift - Left Alt - Backspace in game.

• The "Debugging keys are now available!" message still displays if the player bothers with meeting the aforementioned conditions.
• The M+L+I cheat conflicts with the debug keys listed below, meaning the player will be ambushed by dogs and guards when inputting them.

• All in-game storytelling, such as the post-episode cutscenes, seem to be replaced by blank, white screens.

New Debugging Keys

This build of the engine includes a couple of odd features not seen in previous Wolfenstein 3-D builds. Unlike the normal debugging keys, these are always available.

Key	Effect	Notes
7	Enables textured floors and ceilings.	These are not toggles. They specifically enable or disable the floor/ceiling.
8	Enables textured floors, disables textured ceilings.
9	Disables textured floors, enables textured ceilings.
0	Disables textured floors and ceilings.
A	Change the direction of nearby enemies.
F	Cycles floor textures.	Cycles through any of the wall textures in memory pages 0 to 105.
J	Cycles the sprite of any nearby corpse.	Cycles through any of the sprites in memory pages 106 to 361. Also cycles the sprites of nearby corpses of the same type.
K	Set the hit points of nearby enemies to 0.	Kill enemies in one hit.
L	Summon a Killer Dog to the block southeast of the player.	Holding the key spawns multiple units. If a wall is in the way, it becomes a "ghost" wall. Doing this may also crash the game.
C	Cycles ceiling textures.	Cycles through any of the ceiling textures in memory pages 0 to 105.
M	Summon a Guard to the block southeast of the player.	Holding the key spawns multiple units. If a wall is in the way, it becomes a "ghost" wall. Doing this may also crash the game.