Proto:Shadow Man (Windows)

This page details one or more prototype versions of Shadow Man (Windows).

Milestone 2 E3 Demo

A very early version of Shadow Man was released online sometime in 2013. The setup banner identifies it as "Milestone 2 E3 Demo" and the latest file modified date being June 17th, 1997, predating the final game by over two years.

In the comments of a video of the demo by Unseen64, Trevor Storey (credited as World Builder in-game), wrote:

"This was a test version we did to see if we could actually do it and to get a style down with the textures/lighting and mood. It was the first 3rd person game we had done and we started it in late 1996 i believe and created a very basic demo to show to the bosses - once they approved it we got the go ahead."

Composer Tim Haywood also commented:

"Hello! nice video - but its not the BETA Demo, I think it was first playable demo :)"

(Source: Unseen64 & archive.org)

Contents

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: More info on the rendering options

The demo no sound at all and a few static menu screens, all but two of which aren't interactive. There are seven areas to explore:

• Mike (Swamp Day)
• Shadowman (Swamp Night)
• Nettie's House
• Soul Flume
• Deadside
• Swamp2
• Wild At Heart

After selecting a level, the game lets you choose the renderer. As it is an early demo, very little of the game resembles the final product. The first two levels somewhat resemble the final Louisiana Swamp area (e.g. the broken bridge).

Readme

SHADOWMAN MILESTONE 2 (E-3) DEMO
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

MOVEMENT CONTROLS :

Forwards			UP ARROW
Backwards			DOWN ARROW
Turn Left			LEFT ARROW
Turn Right			RIGHT ARROW
Walk				LEFT SHIFT
Jump				SPACE BAR

RESET CONTROLS :

Reset to Title Page		ESC
Reset Level			R

CAMERA CONTROLS :

Follow Camera (default)		F5
Free Camera			F6

MOUSE CONTROLS :

In Follow Camera Mode :
+++++++++++++++++++++

Left Mouse Button + Mouse Direction
 - rotate camera around Mike/Shadowman

In Free Camera Mode :
+++++++++++++++++++

Mouse Direction
 - move camera around environment

Left Mouse Button + Mouse Direction
 - rotate camera in environmnet

Gallery

• 

  TITLE.BMP, shown when pressing ESC on the level select screen

• 

  OPTIONS.BMP, appears on startup, but cannot be interacted with

• 

  LANG.BMP, appears after waiting on the load/save menu

• 

  LOADSAVE.BMP, appears after waiting on the options menu

• 

  SELECT01.BMP

• 

  SELECT02.BMP

Unused Content

Eight Level

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: Does it work?

While the demo contains seven playable areas, there is an eight level folder as well.

Text

The executable contains some development text.

SCREEN_A.RAW
Camera Coords     %d, %d, %d 
Unable to create DirectDraw object
SetCooperativeLevel failed
CreateSurface FAILED!
Cant create the offscreen surface
Cant create clipper
Cant set clipper window handle
Cant attach clipper to front buffer
Arial
angle was >180! (%f)
quat %f,%f,%f,%f
|s| was > 1.0!
i = %d div = %f 
Generate Vert Normals - Mem Error
Generating Vertex Normals...
LightMode = %d 
grQuery failed!
grOpen failed!
i = %d,  W = %f
ScreenRes    = %d
ScreenWidth  = %d
ScreenHeight = %d
Generating Node Radii
Setting Texture Palette
Swapping Screen
3DFX_%02d.raw
No Mesh File Found
No TUV File Found
Failed to LoadMalloc weights file!
weight file version %u
bones %d, welds %d
matrix %u
%u hard points
%u index %u
%u soft points
%u index %u, weight %u
weld %u, from %u, to %u
Opps too many faces.
No Texture File Found
Generating fade palette...
game\data\levels\level%d\glidetex\%02d.3df
L_LoadGlideTexture (Memory #2)
L_LoadGlideTexture (Load #1)
L_LoadGlideTexture (Memory #1)
L_CreateGlideUVs - tm_width  = 0.0
L_CreateGlideUVs - tm_height = 0.0
L_CreateGlideUVs - AspectU = 0.0
L_CreateGlideUVs - AspectV = 0.0
L_CreateGlideUVs Finished!
Could not allocate memory pool.
Free Mem when running. %d 
cdaudio
No .BSP file found
Not a valid BSP file
Old BSP Version
ShadowMan
ShadowMan

FrontEnd\Title.Bmp
FrontEnd\Options.Bmp
FrontEnd\LoadSave.Bmp
FrontEnd\Lang.Bmp
Unable to initialise DirectInput.
Unable to initialise application.
Exception
FrontEnd\Select01.bmp
FrontEnd\Select02.bmp
Unable to initialize DirectDraw
Exception
Unable to initialize game.
MainMenu

Reading Static Object...
Not a valid .SOB file.
Old SOB Version
in = %d
u  = %f
v  = %f
i  = %f

And a reference to a file that no longer exist.

data\pres\demtitle.raw