Unreal Image and Video Collection (Magazines, Beta & Pre-release shots, UT Beta, Box covers and much more!)

[Gamesharder]

I've been collecting various pictures and videos related to the first Unreal and I'd like to share them with you.
This is a massive image collection that I've gathered from WayBack Machine, archive.org, different Unreal forums and websites and from friends too!
I made a folder system on MEGA since it provides you a decent amount of space to upload, - and the total size of this collection is more than 3.3GB at this moment!



Here's the link to the MEGA folder:
https://mega.nz/folder/elQjRQbC#FoFU4B8rIVl4LQP90-VBIw

This is gonna be a long post, but here's a little description to some of the folders:

The magazine folder is ordered by years from 1996 to 2000


The magazines are in a big variety of languages. English, German, Italian, French, Russian, Hungarian, Spanish, Czech, etc.
I was thinking about ordering them by language, but that would have looked a bit more complex than what it is ATM.
The pages were preserved in the best possible quality I could do (that's why the folder is this big).
I also included magazine issues related to UT99 separately and a txt file with all the known and missing pages I couldn't find, so if you have any of them, I'd be more than happy to put them in the folder.

For a little showcase, some cool looking magazine pages:

1996


1997


1998


Now here are some "rare" pictures you might have not seen from the beta versions:

-an unknown map from 1997, possibly a Hub map


-a Skycity level created by Eric Reuter, called Amethyst


-a boat map from late 96 / early 97


-a very early editor shot of the 1996 Skycity level, turned out its name was Iones!


-beta RTNP weapons and the UMS Prometheus map wasn't broken!


-the Gothic map, dates back to 1997!


-the Epic team and fans on E3 in 1997!
-found these on an 1997 Unreal fan-page in WayBack Machine

...and there's much more!
So feel free to look through this image & video collection!

Videos are also here, trailers, previews, interviews, but since MEGA cannot play other formats than .mp4 files here's a YouTube list for these videos:


Also check out the betaarchives.com topic for Beta / Alpha Unreal contects
https://www.betaarchive.com/forum/viewt ... 14&t=17420
Me and others post here the things we find.

Hopefully you will see something new.
This collection is mostly for preservation purposes and entertainment.

Thanks to everyone who helped me to make the collection!

[Leo T_C_K]

Oh yea...this is THE stuff. I think it will be too much for most of the userbase, but you did make some really nice highlights. I can provide a little more context though.

The amethyst pics were found in some archives from someone who had some old archives from alex brandon. Among it were also the tracks Title, the 1996 title version and the 1996 wargate. But he also kept some screenshots initially from Eric Reuter, among it more amethyst pictures and pictures from the Intel level pack, still developed under beta version so that it would be ready right after shipping.

The Gothic picture is from 1997 and was started even earlier and was to be part of the official Level Pack by Epic, the one that was teased with the "negative" box art. Shane Caudle was actually hired to work on the level pack first and not Unreal, but he was asked to help out with Unreal as well when someone else left the team who just barely started working on the game and different decisions were made.

He reused the level set and brushes later for the dm gothic level, possibly even taking parts from this level to make it. But shanechurch has indeed the level pack origins like this.

That cryptic hub map could have been indeed part of a hub or a small section to one of the other crypt levels we saw.

There was so much cut especially level wise that what we got in the end and what is out there is just a fraction of what was made, which sounds absolutely insane.

I'd like to point out that the boat level was most likely an early version of Triton as the level (or one part) featured a dock in it and it fits within the description. Sure it changed to being completely in a cave later and some detail overhaul most likely by Shane (while the original level might have been started by someone else or at least the docks were). It was to have a pirate boat in it as well, hence later pirates of nali land easter egg being tied into it, it was not supposed to appear at nali canyon and there is a different texture without the rock background (that was made later for nali canyon). Like the usage of it in nali chronicles, that was more like the original intention come to think of it.

There is also the earliest morose screenshot with the first ever eightball that seemed a little more bulky/roundish and still having the old statusbar despite the general game overhaul at the time. We don't have that particular version even as a game base, even though it seems close to the May '97 version in content but the eightball there wasn't like this and is very off in its scale.

And at that hungarian mag that's a good version of that extremelab screenshot as you can see it used to have a forcefield at one point, this detail is still seen in the release version of extremedark, but for some reason in extremelab there's that door instead...and that's a big continuity error in the release version because there's no trace of the door in extremedark. Instead you see the same stuff as in the other disabled forcefields. Brilliant that they messed that up in like the last month of developement.

[Gamesharder]

Thanks for the additional info!

[Blu3Haz3]

viewtopic.php?f=49&t=7015&p=68908&hilit ... rty#p68908

Take a look at this, I remember doing a very similar expedition to uncover some old Unreal related content from the internet, mostly content from during the years of press and showcases. But the biggest and perhaps the coolest one I found was the Unreal Release Party on YouTube where there was a mini deathmatch competition on DM-Deck16 and some prizes for the top placement. Everyone I think walked home with some sort of special edition release of the game that had really neat box art and a signature from Epic Games Jeremy War I think. I actually found this by total accident on YouTube, I am still baffled at YouTube's ability to workout what games I like even if the video titles are totally unrelated and I don't ever put in related search strings.

This is a bit unrelated, I went to a hockey game years ago in Raleigh and I somehow recognized someone I was sitting above in the nose bleeds and it turned out to be one of the Unreal devs Mark Rein, and turns out to be a co-owner of the Carolina Hurricanes which was who I went to see play. I remembered him specifically from the UT3 pre-release trailer with Malcom jumping out of the window lol. I had always wanted to travel to Raleigh just to see the city beforehand but the only time I've ever spent there was at the PNC\RNC Arena for hockey. Kind of awesome!

So yeah, lots of interesting things out there for Unreal on the internet but I think the majority of it is like excavating through centuries of dirt and mud. You can't always find things with strings like 'Unreal Gold', more over looking for Epic Mega Games or something like that often times yielded me better results when using google's time capsule searches. Try to get creative with what you're looking for because often times it will yield you totally unexpected things.

[Hyper]

I've tried to download the pack for 3 days. 26KByte/sec then a "temporary error, new attempt". Which never starts.
I've let it download for more than 24 hours. 7.8MB of 3.32GB downloaded. 0%. Progress stopped.

[Leo T_C_K]

There are still like one or two unreal versions that once leaked and haven't been re-found, despite my efforts to find them all. They just exist on a couple of obscure cds if they ever get found One beta or alpha was notably in hands of someone in the community, but handed over to someone else, if it was all true in the end and wasn't just endless baiting. Sorry I would have more faith in this person if there wouldn't be this constant baiting and endless process not going anywhere for years. Yea, some people got blamed for applying too much pressure or disbelieving this person despite some evidence, but who knows, perhaps its like some of them said, that person had it once/dumped it, stopped caring or took most of the info from people who played it or whatever. Even if its mostly just the ued dev builds many of them contain unique things or skins that were cut all thorought the developement. Like we didn't even see skins to all the models that were recovered with the texed program (basically an earlier and inhouse unrealfx/unst/yrex's u3dbinread kind of thing). As for skins of existing models. The "bug eyed" bigman skin was never found proper, or the robes of the later wizard version, or one particular krall skin variant (despite there being tons across builds and ones that were never even showcased like the dark angel one). Or the earliest female1 skin that we only have "mugshot" of from really early 1997.

It is all art that deserves to be preserved. And most of all, the countless of cut levels that are especially missing and even if they would be found alone we would be able to run most of them on some of the ued builds that got out via emissary and other devs.

I also forgot to mention the missing original skaarj skin as well, the one with the "metal" underwear lol.

[Hyper]

I still can't download the pack. I tried different browsers on different PC's. Are there any alternate hosts to download from?

[TigerTheGreat]

The problem is on you. Either ISP, or whatever unusual security setup you might have.

That being said, I am downloading the entire thing as we speak. I'll zip it later. Any particular host you want it on?

[Hyper]

The problem is on you. Either ISP, or whatever unusual security setup you might have.

That being said, I am downloading the entire thing as we speak. I'll zip it later. Any particular host you want it on?

Must be my ISP then. perhaps the easiest option is if I start an open FTP server:
ftp://ftp.hypercoop.tk/

Copy this address in Windows Explorer (Not internet explorer nor any other browser) and drag the file to the window.
No need to log in.
Thanks.

If that doesn't work: Downloading from Google Drive or Dropbox usually downloads fine for me.

[Smirftsch]

Very cool collection, just downloading.
Thank you very much

[TigerTheGreat]

Must be my ISP then. perhaps the easiest option is if I start an open FTP server:

I think I've done it successfully.

[Hyper]

Must be my ISP then. perhaps the easiest option is if I start an open FTP server:

I think I've done it successfully.

Yes you did! Thanks a lot!

[Gamesharder]

I added a bunch of new pictures to the collection.
I don't want to write a post about every new find, so instead I'll write sometimes a little "monthly summary".

Here's the new things:

Beta (1997-1998) folder:
-added shots from various magazines that I cropped
-added a beta Sky Town picture in good quality


Magazines, Articles folder:
-a new page in 1997
GameStar

-new pages in 1998
CDA
Action Plus
Game Over
LEVEL
APC
BigMax
(a lot of) GameStar
PC Gaming

-new pages in 1999
Xtreme PC
Secret Service
Reset
CD Expert
3D Gamer
PC Gaming

-a new page in 2000
LOGIN

-added a new subfolder "Unknown Dates" and added magazine pages

-new pages in Unreal Tournament
PC Powerplay
GameLand
Secret Service
CD Expert

Misc folder:
-added a new picture "gamestar-pic.png"

[[]KAOS[]Casey]

huh. that Skytown pic looks like the specular was green tinted. I wonder if they edited that just for that picture. I don't think it's normally possible to edit the specular color. You can even see it on the candle meshes which presumably should have lights right next to them

[Gamesharder]

You're not wrong, there is this turquoise colored lights in the beta and in the final Sky Town.
They just increased the light radius by a lot lol

[Leo T_C_K]

huh. that Skytown pic looks like the specular was green tinted. I wonder if they edited that just for that picture. I don't think it's normally possible to edit the specular color. You can even see it on the candle meshes which presumably should have lights right next to them

It might have been the glide rendering of the beta engine doing that too. I remember there was also more of that light appearing when destroying the nali statue.

[Gamesharder]

Summary of the new things from the previous month.
Right click in MEGA and sort it by "Date Added" to see the new things.

Here's the new things:

Beta (1997-1998) folder:
-added a new screenshot of beta Dark Arena


Magazines, Articles folder:
-new pages in 1999
GameStar (6 new)

-new pages in Unreal Tournament
GameStar (8 new)

Unreal Tournament Beta folder:
-folder has been reworked a little bit, some screenshots had been replaced with better quality
-added 2 new beta shots

[Leo T_C_K]

where was the dark arena pic from exactly? Also that looks like might have been the version I played back then, except I never played dark arena in that version. I had chance to play up to chizra/ceremony and then play that loaded save from a later cut level (mountain fortress maybe) and play some dm on tundra, villa, ariza, deathfan, curse, healpod, darkmatch on nightop (and maybe a diff level too, I swear there was something else at one point or nightop looked different). Strange how sometimes an old memory unlocks more clearly. That should be all the levels I played back then. I was satisfied when I played villa again in the leaked beta around 2005 because I could never tell what was that really difficult level with bots similar to tundra, that i kept getting killed at as soon as i spawned LOL.

EDIT: But either way it looks more or less the same as the released version of dark, except clearly beta just like the version i played the dp fired two shots when doubled still....

Yea...but of course without playing it we can't know how many differences there were. Who knows, maybe those rooms were explorable that are locked/disconnected in the release version like the door on the lower floor.

[Gamesharder]

It's from a GameStar issue from 1999.
https://archive.org/details/GameStar.N0 ... 8/mode/1up
Nothing crazy tho. I think it's "just a beta Dark".

I always find interesting the version you talk about.
Do you have a thread about it by any chance where you sum it up the whole thing?
What you remember etc...
It might be useful in the future.

[Gamesharder]

Yea...but of course without playing it we can't know how many differences there were. Who knows, maybe those rooms were explorable that are locked/disconnected in the release version like the door on the lower floor.

I actually never knew that there was a locked door on the lower level in Dark lol
There's a door called "LowerLobbyDoorLeft" and there's a room behind it with no decoration.
What do you think were there?

[Leo T_C_K]

Yea...but of course without playing it we can't know how many differences there were. Who knows, maybe those rooms were explorable that are locked/disconnected in the release version like the door on the lower floor.

I actually never knew that there was a locked door on the lower level in Dark lol
There's a door called "LowerLobbyDoorLeft" and there's a room behind it with no decoration.
What do you think were there?

I have no clue, some people like that unreal evolution dude, connected it with the outer ring of water of the titan arena itself, as a shortcut of sorts after you get there. It could have been just a storage room or meant to connect that or I dunno.

And no I don't have an overall summary thread sorry. I don't think I would be able to write one in one go.

[Leo T_C_K]

I often remember one thing at a time too. Now its the DM maps specifically that popped in my mind. There were some slight differences in healpod. The central column/trap for example, something was different about it. Now part of it might be my interpretation at the time, however...I do believe there was a secret area above the piston that got removed and the piston was probably not a full column, so there was space above it to get to the secret. But if you didn't make it on time you'd get crushed most likely.

deathfan was more like the release version except there was larger danger area where you could fall down and maybe even more lifts but not sure. I remember it was harder to get around than in the release version.

I will be leaving soon for a day or two so I won't be avaiable.

In the meantime you could also read the blood gate stuff at unreal general threads, because that also involves my memories of old things obviously. I don't know what you think of the project or its premise and how it stacks up against anything. Part of the reason why "shotarena" was so experimental was because I had no clue you could subtract/add anything at will, I thought some shapes were meant to be only added and some subtracted due to mistranslation of unrealed tutorial/example lol.

[Leo T_C_K]

viewtopic.php?p=100076#p100076

I got carried away there explaining history of UT in that post lol.

But yea...in January I reached someone important who might have an old Unreal disc still. Thanks to everything that's been happening to me I didn't really inquire it further but I did reach out now again, because some acknowledgment from someone from Epic is necessary for this person to share it. We don't know 100 percent if its intact or if its the version that I played or what, but I hope it can still work out.

[Gamesharder]

I just read it. Wasn't the "city stuff" meant for the 2nd expansion for Unreal?
That'd by my guess.

As for your contact, I hope they will reply back!

[Leo T_C_K]

None of the stuff I know of included any city stuff, of the cancelled projects (and unreal psx having just that "flight" map with the city background without actual city textures, the stuff reused for episode 0 intro as released but using the modified ut textures instead). The only addon done by professionals or half having any city stuff in it is stuff like Stone Killer, but that was absolutely not Epic's stuff (and ironically continued developement under UT for a little bit once that got released). So I still don't know what it was made for. Its possible it was just a personal project of somebody or a different game altogether that got scrapped. I bet Shane would shed some light maybe, but who gets him to talk? I was never able to talk to him. It should be tried, I mean he got to talk to Shivaxi years ago but not about anything deep as this lol.

We just don't know. But for sure I've never seen any plans or descriptions of original unreal expansion packs (especially by epic) having any city stuff in it.