Upcoming Unreal Alpha and Beta versions release

[GreatEmerald]

Following the Unreal II Beta releases, Unreal will receive all the Alpha versions and Beta versions that ever existed as well!

What's interesting in those releases? Well, first of all, there's an updated Nali Castle flyby, featuring a flight through the inner halls of it. Furthermore, there are 4 additional unseen cutscenes in Unreal. They reveal a lot more info about the main character of the game, Prisoner 849, as well as story before the start of Unreal. The name of P849 will be revealed (in fact, I can tell you what it is right now: Maylia Simonyéz Fitzgerald), as well as why she was a prisoner. Strangely, the story shows that she is a Skaarj Hybrid (although she looks like Gina; that also shows how they managed to secure this info, remember UT1's "CLASSIFIED DATA" descriptions of all hybrids? And that also conflicts with UT2004's AS-Mothership description, which said that Humans met Skaarj on Na Pali, unless no humans knew about these genetic experiments).

Moreover, there will be addition voices for Skaarj - much like in UT1 and UT2004, they were supposed to speak English (with Skaarj accent ).

Interestingly, in Beta 1 of Unreal, you can actually see the Activision logo during the flyby. It seems that initially Activision was supposed to be the publisher of Unreal, but due to some disagreements between Epic and Blizzard (about the Necris), Epic switched to Infogrames. Another interesting thing is that the first Alpha versions of Unreal were held in 5 1/2" floppies (compare that to UT3 sizes ), and that Unreal as a game was started earlier than the Unreal Engine itself (although without the engine, it was developed on paper by drawing concepts ). And finally, Digital Extremes made the most of Unreal, not Epic Games; Epic were only developing the Engine (UnrealShare.u), not the game (UnrealI.u) itself (with a few exceptions, like CliffyB).

Also, there are all the lost monsters there, like Dragon and Big Man.

As for when it will released and by who... It's the same as with Unreal II betas, I won't say the source publicly due to spam prevention Jut FYI he's registered here on OldUnreal. And these versions will be released around the same time as Unreal II betas, except those really early Alphas which are on floppies, because it will take some time to extract those...

[Hellkeeper]

I read your two posts, and. there's one question that isn't answer : where did you get these infos ? Who's going to spread this, and why now ? Strange :-?

[GreatEmerald]

Like I've written - I don't really want to give the name publicly, because of spam and such (Though I guess if he forgets to release it, I'll do that lol). But a few people won't hurt, so if you want, I can PM you the name.
As for why now - that's because this is the time when his licenses expired. Unreal had a 10 year license - and 1998 + 10 = 2008, + 1 just to be on a safe side. Same with Unreal II, 5 year license: 2003 + 5 = 2008, + 1. Next year UT betas will be out too.

[Shivaxi]

Holy sh*t...it's not April 1st is it?

This is awesome news.  I can't wait to check out the betas and alphas...especially that dragon pawn and big man pawn lol...that's DEFINITELY getting ported to now-a-days Unreal lawl

[Gizzy]

Wow, this is just amazing. I thank whoever came forward with these gems, and as Shivaxi said, I look forward to porting ALL of the pawns, weapons and pickups (The Beta ones that is) to current-day Unreal.

Unfortunately, I never received a response from Dave Carter regarding the old beta animations and models on his old website, but suffice to say, I can make do with this.

[Hellkeeper]

I'd be glad to now who GreatEmerald, since I assume it comes from a developer of these games . Just send me a pm with the name (I'm not the spamming kind of guy).

[GreatEmerald]

OK, PMed you Hellkeeper

[Gizzy]

Ok GreatEmerald, when do you (Or the person who has these betas) plan on releasing them?

[Shivaxi]

Ok GreatEmerald, when do you (Or the person who has these betas) plan on releasing them?

Talked to him personally, and he says sometime in July.  Also, on November 21st, he will be releasing the betas of UT99!

Also he is sending me the 5 1/2 " floppy disc for me to convert!! As he doesn't have drive for this...and I do...man i feel special

[[]KAOS[]Casey]

extremelab seems to hint at genetic experiments, and the skaarj code hints at some kind of real language capability

[Gizzy]

Quick question, does anyone have any links to images of the beta? I mean images of the dragon, quadshot and such. The only ones I can find are the archived ones on Hyper's site.

Thanks

[GreatEmerald]

Talked to him personally, and he says sometime in July.

Not quite - this is if everything goes according to the plan. If not, they could even be released in 2010, so let's just say end of July - start of 2010. There are some issues with installers, however (we have to make sure none of the betas are free games ), so if someone could help with coding some, or making use of the current Unreal setup, we would be very grateful.

[Gizzy]

What's the problem with the installers? And what do you mean "Making sure none of the betas are free games"?

[[]KAOS[]Casey]

you could talk to smirf about the unreal installer, but iirc it uses a portion of engine to actually run so it might be an issue

[Leo T_C_K]

Don't be so excited...it is not possible if DE will give out permission, etc. If they find it out it is all gonna be released without their knowledge, they are going to sue asses of all people here and the thing will be officially busted.

Sorry to scare you off on this. But really getting the permission is important thing. I always tried obtaining the stuff officially.

And Shivaxi how is he sending you floppies, you mean by post office? It can get lost, are you going to risc that? He should extract it at some normal drives...
I suggest him to not send the floppies, I wish I had email to him actually. You should read the threads at oldunreal about the concerns of legal stuff.

[Shivaxi]

He's going to mail them to me. And his dad knows Mark Rein personally....so I'm sure it'll be no prob getting permission. Besides the 10 year contract expired...so I think we already have permission

[[]KAOS[]Casey]

Really huh? their dad knows mark rein personally. Well theres a few matters{mostly minor} we could use assistance on.. i'd like to speak to this person. Drop me {and or} smirf a PM, and we can grant confidentiality as well.

Granted, rein actually has already responded {albeit it was more like "Go over there, not to me"}

[GreatEmerald]

What's the problem with the installers? And what do you mean "Making sure none of the betas are free games"?

The problem is that all Betas are actually standalone, that is, you install them, and you can immediately play them. That wouldn't be very well received by Epic and DE, because that's like a free game (and talking about Unreal II, that would be even more than a free game). So what we need is to create something like a patch, that is, it must ask you for your current installation to check if you really own the product before letting you install.

Don't be so excited...it is not possible if DE will give out permission, etc. If they find it out it is all gonna be released without their knowledge, they are going to sue asses of all people here and the thing will be officially busted.

I've already posted that we'll get all the permission we can. The contract will be published, as well as the confirmation we'll receive from DE/Epic. If that's not enough, then nothing is enough.

[Gizzy]

The problem is that all Betas are actually standalone, that is, you install them, and you can immediately play them. That wouldn't be very well received by Epic and DE, because that's like a free game (and talking about Unreal II, that would be even more than a free game). So what we need is to create something like a patch, that is, it must ask you for your current installation to check if you really own the product before letting you install.

How about a check that looks for the Unreal CD in the drive?
Or, let the person install the beta, but do not allow them to run it unless the Unreal CD is present in the drive.

[GreatEmerald]

No no, not possible. Remember that there are many versions of Unreal, like Unreal Anthology, Totally Unreal, UnrealGold that all have different directory structure (with Unreal Anthology, there are actually no directories at all). So we have to check for an installation. But, of course, it would be better if it installed the beta into something like C:\Unreal\Betas\*insertVersionHere*\System instead of completely destroying your current Unreal install...

[Krokus]

I like the idea of the installer.
This is some awesome news!

[Leo T_C_K]

Well, I still think it is a totally bad idea to send floppy disks over the mail and especially to Shivaxi, I doubt the drive can handle such old floppies, besides there is a high chance they get damaged.....If there is no copy of them this would be a high risc, but of course Shiv doesn't want to drop that offer, sigh....

I say absolutelly no to that.

This is all handled wrongly and as for the CD checks, it sounds crappy at best, I don't want to use installer, rather put in some other check which does not interfere with the betas.

Oh and btw Shiv, you were supposed to upload that Mac unreal additional music, but you didn't do it yet, I am still waiting on that.

[GreatEmerald]

This is all handled wrongly and as for the CD checks, it sounds crappy at best, I don't want to use installer, rather put in some other check which does not interfere with the betas.

Gah, what's with misunderstanding They will not, never have CD checks, but will have install checks, just like 227 has now!

[Gizzy]

Well, I still think it is a totally bad idea to send floppy disks over the mail and especially to Shivaxi, I doubt the drive can handle such old floppies, besides there is a high chance they get damaged.

Leo, the person that has these floppy discs, doesn't have a floppy drive. Personally, I would be willing to risk sending them by mail to a trustworthy person who can extract them, rather than letting the first ever prototype of Unreal lay in a box, never to be seen by the public. Ever.

[Shivaxi]

Well, I still think it is a totally bad idea to send floppy disks over the mail and especially to Shivaxi, I doubt the drive can handle such old floppies, besides there is a high chance they get damaged.

Leo, the person that has these floppy discs, doesn't have a floppy drive. Personally, I would be willing to risk sending them by mail to a trustworthy person who can extract them, rather than letting the first ever prototype of Unreal lay in a box, never to be seen by the public. Ever.

Thank you Gizzy...didn't know Leo felt so...wrong about me. What exactly DO you mean by "especially to Shivaxi" anyway? You know nothing about me, and there's only one thing you can do when you have absolutely no idea...keep you mouth shut...you'll only cause trouble.

As for the Mac music in Unreal...I already discussed that they are all in the beta Unreal which is available on Hyper's site.