Heretic/Hexen series beta thread

[LEOTCK]

I find that the discussion about this is lacking here, especially that there's a thread that doesn't get much attention due to it being in the requests section:
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=31082

As far as I know there are prerelease close-to-release betas of heretic, hexen and then there's hexen 2 which is a little more unfinished but which surprised me how many maps are imo so much better and also have the completely cut meso7 map and the midi file of slot 6 associated with it.

I'd like a more coherent discussion about it all here.

As far as I could see, the Hexen beta unfortnuately didn't have different level order (its clear that earlier on some of the levels followed differently like castle of grief and that heresiarch was the final boss and that hub 1 and the last hub were later additions), but it had some notable differences like puzzles of the yorick skull etcetera, I have a list of differences that my boyfriend noted who is more familiar with the game.

Either way, Hexen 2 beta still remains to be the most different beast of the bunch and I am not aware of any pre-release heretic 2 and there are not even betas of other similarly themed games like wheel of time out there (I almost got them though). Or Rune, which was a game split from Raven and started as proposed Raven project when Ben Goki was looking into the Unreal engine circa 1997, yes Raven had a deal with Epic and had acess to the game/beta code before others, but ultimately they split off and made humanhead studios.

[Overdoze]

I was just going through some warez CDs which contain mostly games, so I went and checked if any copies of the Hexen/Heretic games are on the said CDs. Aside from the 27th September Hexen beta that is already on the FTP, I found two different 4-level demos of it.

The first one is dated 2nd October 1995 and has a nice flashing beta text overlay during gameplay. The second one is dated 18th October 1995 and the readme says it the re-released 4-level demo. There are significant file differences between the two. Mind you that the retail copy that went on sale on 30th October was compiled on the 13th (I've also come accross several releases of that). This re-released demo is only labeled as a demo.

As far as the original Heretic goes, the 20th December 1994 beta is widely available, but I've also come across a couple other supposed pre-releases, one is dated two days after the mentioned beta (so it could be the same thing) and one is labeled as a preview from September (though the latter might also just be screenshots of the game, rather than the game itself). Unfortunately, I don't have access to these files so I'm unable to check if they're legit.

I've seen no mentions of any Hexen 2 or Heretic 2 betas in the warez archives I have access to, sadly.

You can download the two Hexen demos here and here.

[LEOTCK]

I cannot download anything from mega, but your information is a bit useful. You say there was a september 1994 preview of heretic? Where did you see that? Can you quote your source? Usually when something says preview it doesn't have to be screenshots. I might be able to track it down if you tell me the filenames or any info.

Hexen 2 Beta was at a time widely known and I got the files out of BBS archives for example at one point. But I guess still obscure.

EDIT: I found the info about the heretic preview you mentioned.
It might be playable after all, but...I cannot contact the person who has it and still runs the BBS. I'm not on the machine that was able to connect to it either.

Ah I see you seem to have the same source as I do. Except there's more than just him, for example he doesn't seem to reference the Hexen 2 beta in his stuff, but other person had it in the same circle.

I do know where they hang out but I cannot do it myself atm. Tell me if you chat with them or not, otherwise we might talk more (through pm).

[dezodor]

I have a Heretic 1994 beta (demo?) in my collection which has 3 levels and other stuff. Check if its the one you are looking for:
http://www105.zippyshare.com/v/JZfNuLZi/file.html

edit: probably not, as its dated december 94, not september.

edit2: so I'm also interested in the september version

[Hallfiry]

edit: probably not, as its dated december 94, not september.

There are actually at least two demos from December, one from December 24 and one from December 26.
Additionally, there's a (shareware) version maybe from September 1995, it seems. The dec94 demos are marked v10, while the later one is v12
there are patches for shareware v10 to v12 and retail v10 to v12, and a patch for retail v13.

For Hexen I have the following:
There's a demo from October 2 1995 (by its archives' timestamps)
There's a demo from October 5 1995
and a demo from October 18 1995

[MrFlibble]

The Heretic three-level beta and the 2 October Hexen demo are freely available from idgames mirrors like this one:
http://gamers.org/pub/idgames/historic/

Note that the Heretic beta needs a fake date to run, otherwise it will report a broken WAD file to confuse the player. DOSBox SVN Daum will do the fake date for you.

There are indeed two differently dated versions of Heretic shareware v1.0, but IIRC there are no significant differences between them except for the installer and maybe some documentation (not sure).

[LEOTCK]

Well, whatever the September 1994 thing is, it's not yet avaiable at the source. I believe Hallfiry made a mistake by saying september 1995.

I hope it will be published soon.

[Hallfiry]

I believe Hallfiry made a mistake by saying september 1995.

Nope, my instance of 1.2 is from September 1995.
http://www85.zippyshare.com/v/jZQdjO2o/file.html

I didn't say there was no demo from September 1994.

[LEOTCK]

Ah, sorry I thought you were referring to the preview thingy. So this was a later "full" shareware version?

Either way I found that the initial shareware version contained less bugs. There are some bugs introduced in later versions of heretic and 1.3 is behaving really oddly and imo should be used just for the serpent riders additional content.

[MrFlibble]

I found that the initial shareware version contained less bugs. There are some bugs introduced in later versions of heretic and 1.3 is behaving really oddly and imo should be used just for the serpent riders additional content.

Could you please provide some details? I'm long interested in bugs that are introduced in game updates and whether an earlier version is "better" in any way because of that. (There are some bugs introduced in later versions of Wolfenstein 3-D for example.)

[LEOTCK]

Yea sure, well the demos are different, then in initial release version the demos don't desync which happens on later versions, the enemy infighting is broken on the seperent riders version, teleportation is broken in that it brings you up levitating mid air instead of spawning at the platform as it should, and only the shareware and 1.0 don't have an issue when an enemy is embedded in a wall that will lower down later. This makes certain enemies unreachable in later versions of the game.

[MrFlibble]

Interesting, thanks!

[Cire]

I'm a huge Heretic/Hexen fan myself.
As far as I'm aware, there's the Heretic Wide Area Beta dated Dec 20th, 1994, Heretic Shareware 1.0 Dec 23, 1994, Heretic Shareware 1.2 Oct 13th 1995. Not aware of a playable Heretic beta from Sep 1994. There's also Three screenshot packs for Heretic from different periods of development. Regarding Hexen, there's one early screenshot pack from Aug 31, 1995, the Retail Store Beta aka. Beta #3, comes in both full and demo flavors, Hexen 1.0 demo. All of those are for DOS. There's probably at least two earlier unreleased betas of Hexen since RS Beta is denoted as #3. There's a Mac Hexen Demo, with a different and newer 1.1 IWAD. And there's a Sega Saturn Hexen beta. That's all I know of, besides the full final releases. No idea when it comes to Hexen/Heretic 2, haven't had as big interest in those.

[MrFlibble]

There's also Three screenshot packs for Heretic from different periods of development.

If one of those that you refer to is this one, it is probably noteworthy that originally the images came on an Interactive Entertainment CD and were probably not intended to be distributed separately from the background narration, it's just that someone zipped them up and uploaded them.

[mohaa2002]

If one of those that you refer to is this one, it is probably noteworthy that originally the images came on an Interactive Entertainment CD and were probably not intended to be distributed separately from the background narration, it's just that someone zipped them up and uploaded them.

The exact source of the Interactive Entertainment CD from August 31st,1994 (EPISODE_04_AUG_1994.iso), can be found here: IE_Interactive_Entertainment_CD_ROM_CD_MAG
Also, I made a YouTube video many months ago showcasing the ripped Heretic beta gameplay footage in better quality: Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders - Rare Prototype/Alpha Footage