I spotted that stupid allocation address with “strings” but still was too excited at the potential. :o)
Oh well think of the time and effort we’ve saved people from the future! It was an undocumented fake prior to all of this. And a fun excuse to build the debug version of DOSBox.
Guys, this is a real version, don’t listen to Dickblackshack. This is documented prior, in fact I found this independantly of you on a real bbs tape archive. This is from back then. I got it as far as displaying the loading graphic myself and it expects network and other drivers to be run at the same time as was this back then, like beame&whiteside. Don’t forget initial quake release also required that for tcp/ip. This relies only on that.
So given that there is at least a loading graphic present proves that this is not all garbage, and lack of strings simply means that carmack didn’t keep all that doom stuff in that it was more of a fresh start, which makes complete sense especially in the old days.
I have a testimony from acidglow (soft of) from around 2013 when he told me about this version and I believe it might be the same one. He compared it to the Unreal leak, besides guys read the NFO file. Also, don’t refer to Defacto for old warez beta releases! They and many others started having policy of erasing beta releases from their lists. If you’d take this into account then the old Unreal leaks also would never surface but they were real and they are comparable to this quake stuff. It also says that this prototype had no AI, hence the small size and all, it really is very barebones but unfrotunately I don’t have the resources to get it running into conditions it expects, but at least I went further than you guys did and I used a version of dosboxmg.
Just because someone says it’s all garbage who expects modern methods to work on accessing this is ridiculous.
This means he didn’t save you work. You guys jumped the shark and believed someone without knowing what he’s talking about.
So you got further than the others but didn’t screenshot or document your progress in any way? Why?
Uh, you might want to read and understand the messages and links in this thread. Feel welcome to ask questions if you need an explanation for specific details.
I’m not sure who you’re talking to. To me or Hal?
I perfectly understand what’s going on and if this is going to be the attitude then I’m on my way out as I don’t need another Duke4 sort of jerks.
Last time I tried to take screenshots it couldn’t capture it properly but it is so simple that I find it laughable nobody tried to run it without the netconfig, which probably won’t have a full result but at least you can get to the actual loading screen. And even then given your attitudes I won’t be surprised if I’d be accused of faking it so no thx. You figure it out, I gave you an incentive and told you you shouldn’t trust trolls with such obvious troll names. This is a documented release, I spoke to several people from defacto and around who explicitly told me that the beta releases were discarded at some point and not documented anymore as proper releases.
EDIT: take it or leave it, I told you what I used to run it. but it should be run preferably on real ms dos setup it will not work on windows 95, you will also need the BW tcp/ip drivers or similar.
Or ask acidglow that he used to run thism he made quite a name over the time.
Edit: nvm
Sorry Leo, I thought you were some random enthusiast.
I regard Rich and Rick as major experts on the topic of disassembling and reverse-engineering so I take their word rather than some rumors that this might magically DO contain something interesting. The user with the weird nick is a capable guy.
This might be a historical artifact but only as a hoax from back in the days.
Hey, I’m new to the forum, and needed to post the screenshots of what Leo is referring to.
https://i.imgur.com/U7gmGWB.png
https://i.imgur.com/Dbmez8D.png
https://i.imgur.com/mnAbFB3.png
This one shows the floppy graphic and that was how far Leo’s progress went.
I had html error last time I tried to post so I asked him to post them.
This was my original post:
I took screenshots finally. I hope this will prove that there are indeed graphics and not zero, even though it is just the flashing diskette symbol when loading that was present in something else iirc, maybe doom or heretic/hexen. But it is a graphic.
In regards to reverse engineering, I don’t doubt they are sucesful in modern programs but this was written completely differently than what they are expecting and I spoke to someone else on the subject who also found such statements that it is just garbage ridiculous. They are taking it out of context.
I don’t believe it’a a hoax, you have that NFO description and word from people back then who I trust like AcidGlow.
Its perfectly plausible to have it that small given everything. Some disassembler programs can be inaccurate given the age of this thing. That means you shouldn’t trust their word as a given, they dismissed it too quickly and I think the screenshots prove something that they said wasn’t the case.
EDIT: Also it might say netmode disabled but in practice still depend on part of the driver. If you can get BW to run which I wasn’t able to install myself then there might be some progress too.
You really shouldn’t dismiss it like that, look you can’t compare the output of doom2 to some very early alpha like this. Besides it did say an interesting string somewhere which was TRIDENT. That might be a weapon the only one that’s in this prototype. It looks to me that this is certainly not hoax and matches with what acidglow told me back in the days.
Thanks, those screenshots are nothing new though. That’s the stuff that was already discussed.
Why would an NFO give this any more credibility? If one makes a hoax, of course one would include that as well.
Rich for example is the author of Noesis if that helps you consider their input reasonably.
What about the last screenshot? I haven’t seen anyone getting that far, the diskette symbol flases in and out and then get stuck on the black screen.
And one of the posts said there were no graphics. So, this is a graphic thus it must be new.
My main points remain though, AcidGlow played this back in the day, it was a barebones version that was leaked late 1995 which fits this. This was leaked way before qtest was there or any of the known screenshots.
Besides I have seen hoaxes. Back then the hoaxes were far more simple than this and the complex config with the net cfg? No absolutely not likely. I have seen a hoax from years after this which was called commander keen 3d and that’s how far that went, nothing like this absolutely not.
I don’t know what Noesis is but again that’s from a modern perspective. You need to take a look at it from back then’s perspective.
I play Quake ocassionaly, I am not familiar with the modern community enough.
Someone fooled me once with a hoax but it was created in the modern times and only examining the content closely proved it (even though in theory some of it could be copied from another build), but it was a fake, however we didn’t even get to see the content or see people try further.
EDIT: In practice they didn’t have back then such resources like later to make hoaxes. Sometimes, even betas that get released are altered from users who find them and its impossible to find the original anymore.
EDIT2: I am very much invested in the original Unreal and recovered many of the long lost leaks such as this
https://tcrf.net/Proto:Unreal/November_1995_UnrealED_Tech_Demo where I wrote the article for as well
and even got some bare unrealed versions from devs themselves, which were also leaked by another person involved with me who (unfortunately) altered them like adding the monsterhall map I made to show more monsters/weapons and backdated it. I never agreed with his actions but those versions are unfortunately the most circulating ones.
There were a couple of identified leaks that I wasn’t able to track down though and were even more obscure, one of them was called unreal beta network game from 1997 and Unreal beta (unrealb.zip) from 1996. There is also an undated version rumored to have the child3 music track by alex brandon. But if they weren’t persued the lost ror versions like the september and november 1995 ones would never get found again.
The three 1995 prototypes on tcrf were all leaked originally by release on rampage and the description wasn’t that unsimilar to the nfo in this quake version.
The thread has a link to https://twitter.com/schbirid/status/1096507034302906373 which is a video of the exe being launched, including the disc icon at the end.
I feel like a weird groupie now but some links on Rich: https://www.richwhitehouse.com/, https://gamehistory.org/who-we-are/, https://www.richwhitehouse.com/index.php?postid=68, https://www.richwhitehouse.com/index.php?content=inc_projects.php&showproject=91
You can rest assured he would have spent as much time as necessary to get this to run if there was a remote chance of it being legit.
Sorry :\
You think I am gonna trust that more just because they happened to make a new website? How can he explain the presence of that graphic then? Sure not a garbage, but I’m sure he’s too classy to devout more time to researching this. Most of the so called game preservation people who try to make a profile like that are nothing but elite hoarders. So no I’m not convinced and I believe people should feel free to research this on their own further.
I don’t see any video just a picture.
Please stop, you’re embarrassing yourself.
Take a moment to consider that two people with a lot of experience in disassembling software, both old and new, came to the same conclusion. You on the other hand have absolutely no experience in that subject whatsoever.
Also, you clearly know nothing about Rich Whitehouse’s background. He has had exceedingly more experience than you do and has dealt with significantly old software.
https://gamehistory.org/days-of-thunder-nes-unreleased
http://richwhitehouse.com/index.php?postid=71
Everyone appreciates the work you do chasing things down, but you’re no expert and people should stop regarding you as such.
Perhaps you should reveal yourself instead of posting as an anon. Thing is I did talk to an expert and I am an expert when it comes to Unreal. I am doubting these people’s experiences because of that yes. I am not someone who disassembles software but clearly my main questions have been dodged. I know enough to shoot holes in their way of disassembly. It is not perfect and never has been.
Can someone now then englighten me on the image of that diskette? Why hasn’t that shown up in his disassembled stuff then or any of the images I’ve seen? I also rather trust the word of AcidGlow that such an alpha version existed and this is before this thread popped up here.
The only one who’s embarassing himself is you. That disassembly is clearly incomplete and it can be notoriously faulty. That much I know.
Until I see people try to run this with BW Utils and so on, I’m not going to consider any of this relevant.
EDIT: And if you only value people on their reputation do I have to remind you that Roninmastafx who was on a team of Make Something Unreal winners turned out to be schizophrenic hoaxer who made up stories about upcoming unreal beta releases and what not? Meaning status means a big pile of horseshit here.
Zeurkous says that this doesn’t look like way all the code and it looks like he only reconstructed a single module. At least we can’t see more than the module he called “main” in there. It really looks to me just like the signon screen (as id used to call it).
As you can see on the third screenshot there’s more. So where’s your expert’s input on that HUH?
[Insult removed by Spirit]
Point of order, keep it civil.
Leo, you are wasting your time but since you are stubborn to take the advice, I don’t care anymore.
That diskette image is so basic it barely counts as a graphic. But yes I suppose this thread did jump the shark.