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

[Gamesharder]

Not just the minigun. All weapons. They forgot to delete them from the start cuz' it was still for testing, when they put down a bunch of weapons at the start for some maps.
Sky Town having an automag and a minigun right after you exit the stairwell is more interesting to me and why did they delete it.

Also, updated the UT images folder in MEGA with new screenshots from pre-release versions.
They're from the 'GT Digital Press Kit' CD from 1999.
Beta Rook for example

[Leo T_C_K]

Well it says...you're right its all weapons except the rifle which first appears here. I think it was for resupply and coop, but maybe they should have been flagged as bnet and bnetspecial only in the filter settings.

You're right, it confused me because skytown then starts with minigun and automag too. But still. Minigun only appears at sunspire and extremelab in the release version. I always wondered why. I mean you can even miss the weapon if you're not careful.

As for that Rook stuff, we discussed this privately beforehand but yea it is the same rook that appears as a screenshot in the interview with brandon reinhart and in the 222 ut beta as map preview, it still had those skaarj statues there. It reminds me of tower of shrakitha and of skaarj tower especially, even though I doubt Drew knew about it.

[Gamesharder]

I'm just going through some images, does anyone happen to know the backstory of this picture?


If I remember correctly it was a re-attempt of a Castle1 themed map from someone in the Epic team maybe? I don't know

[Leo T_C_K]

Umm, it looks like that map Gizzy made for Master_Unreal's project or around that time. Are you sure this is old stuff or is it simply that custom map by Gizzy?

[Gamesharder]

I don't know lol that's why I'm asking

[Leo T_C_K]

what was the original filename?

[Gamesharder]

10cmclv.jpg

And I found the original post I think I got it from
viewtopic.php?t=6617

[Leo T_C_K]

In that case it is an original screenshot and the map he made was based on this shot, lol.


btw Kira had minigun next to her on Bluff, so yet another map the minigun was cut from....

someone hated miniguns...they prefered maxiguns, like zeur said, lol

[Gamesharder]

Oh right, there was one on Bluff as well lmao

[Gamesharder]

I finally found the magazine with this screenshot, so I made a meme out of it

[Leo T_C_K]

I finally found the magazine with this screenshot, so I made a meme out of it

Data: That was...
LaForge: Not funny..

No but seriously, when was that picture made actually? And who's the guy with the sock over his head?

[Gamesharder]

Got it from the Boot magazine September issue from 1997

[Gamesharder]

A bunch of new screenshots got out from 1996/1997.
More info soon.

[Leo T_C_K]

Not to forget also Unreal Bible-like documents and more.

Btw this also confirms that the "alien starship" thing is really actually the old vortex rikers, the shots with skaarj on them and the player holding a quadshot, that's a different location than the alien starship.

[Gamesharder]

Long post incoming:

Aight, so...
Archive.org got some new materials, CDs specifically. Unreal Ad and Art assets, new documents about the progress of Unreal in late 1996 and such.
Coming straight from the Redump.org by someone "unknown":
https://archive.org/details/redump-id-99170
https://archive.org/details/redump-id-99014

The Art Asset disc features a good number of screenshots in original, in-game quality.
And new, never seen screenshots as well.
I separated them by map theme:

Image called as "Abyss". Map name maybe?
Y'all seen this, but you can make out new details now as it's in really good quality.


Finally, these in good quality as well...



Starship map.
It might have been the predecessor of Vortex Rikers, might not, who knows.
"Alien Starship". I just went by theme when renaming the pictures.




The Skaarj themed map, possibly Extreme in the making



This was also featured only once in a magazine and as small as possible lol
Now it's clear it's from that industrial, Foundry-like level


Finally... this one as well
Btw, the name of the map was Ionas and it was confirmed recently by Eric C. Reuter.


Possibly my new favorite screenshot...


Decayed Starship map.
This feels more like Vortex to me.
Looks like there's a hole in the wall on the 2nd screenshot...

Which is shown here


This was after the Decayed ship screenshots. Looking at the textures, they might have been connected in some way.
Just a theory tho.

Also this image has some personal history to it.
When we first saw that collage picture, featuring this mine image in small, makemeunreal tried his very best to recreate it, because he liked it very much lol
But obviously because of the size of the image, he couldn't make out too much of it, and I promised him I going to find him a better version of it
And there you go... This was like 2 years ago tho, but still.

Another SkyCity themed map


Another shot from the collage image now in extreme good quality


We've just talked about this image in this thread not too long ago and there you go...

One of the weirdest images of early Unreal.

This is also the first time seeing this DecayedS.utx texture on the wall lol
I guess this is from Kazm.unr


There were some more images in high quality, I'll upload those in the MEGA folder soon as well.
Thanks to Leo who brought these CDs to my attention!

So cool to see these images in good quality after all this time.
Needless to say, they will be very useful for my Dark Earth project

[Gamesharder]

Also, I would like to point out that the Art Asset disc features some really high quality images of some Unreal enemies used in magazines and ads.
There's a brand new "Creature Information" document as well by David Carter from 1996 December. Featuring models, descriptions and other information about enemies.
And let me say, there are some interesting things in that too, like an entry about the Blob enemy (the one with many eyes), three new types of enemies (Robot1, Robot2 and Turret)



And also a very early image of the Warlord.

Weird, huh? lol

... So the Nelsian was the Nali Cow lmao


New, passive creatures as well

[Gamesharder]

There is a "Glyphs" folder on the disc as well and it has 4 textures from different themes.
I guess they were for the different artifacts on different maps.
But one of them is very weird...



Makemeunreal and I think it's Mine themed.

In the "Weapons" folder, there's 3 high quality screenshots of the Impaler

Very neat.

[Leo T_C_K]

I honestly think those two starship maps are not one and the same. It uses the playrshp textures the one with skaarj. They didn't have that many textures so some basic stuff was repeated. I think there's a chance the bigman photos are alien starship and possibly "Nemo" a continuation of the stuff in other screenshots with the round corridors. And the skaarj screenshots are most likely vortex rikers. The decayeds "rikers" thing is possibly an even older version, those screenshots are also older. The ones with the skaarj are newer. (but may be they were one and the same, we can't really tell whether it was same author or same map)

The warlord screenshot was probably before they decided he could fly just like the "nelsian" is an older very early model. It is possible the model was still made for something else. But still that's such a strange look to the nali cow that I am glad we got it remade into nelsian.

The warlord though gives real cyberdemon vibes and together with minotaur and gargoyle is another horned creature. Like fuck...someone should remake it and name it "cyberlord" or something lol. The description mentions flying but I think he was made before the flying idea came by, that model I mean, it looks firmly something in the 1996 era. Unless he used jetpacks or something.

It is interesting that the "rodent" was "fully animated" by this point. Also the information for gasbag was interesting:

Name: Gassius (GasBag)
Description:
This creature's body is composed primarily of an acidic,
combustible, lighter than air gas. They spend most of their time floating
around the environment, consuming small rodents and insects. They have two
powerful arms and a very tough leathery skin. They attack by belching forth
balls of flame or by pummeling with their powerful arms. They are tough to kill
with conventional projectile type weapons, due to the resilient balloon like
nature of the body. They are however highly susceptible to explosives and
flame.

it explains that the eating anim was used together with the rodents. It is possible we would have had those models had someone not swapped the resources/source files for 0.83/0.84 with older ones. The impaler, I assumed it would have looked different, since the old import code we found had different anim and two skin slot, but it probably means that the skin was higher res then, just like with some monsters that had two part skin.

the alien rat is so generic though that even that "rat" thing from emissary could be used instead.

Its interesting the Bluff related map was called Abyss too, just like Abyss in RTNP. (which was also similar to bluff)

There is "Abyss" mentioned in unbible as the starting map for the expansion pack though (which would be locked until you'd have the files). That was a different approach at expansion pack, meaning the entrance to the maps is already in the main game/hub system, just locked for now.

The turret we already had/knew from the may version and around, just the other models were missing by that point. it had uv maps the turret but the skin was missing at that point but possibly made already. however based on screenshots robot 2 should be easily reproducible if you take the main part of the turret. (remember we released gunturret mod which uses this stuff and separately as model parts/gibs too)

[Leo T_C_K]

There is a "Glyphs" folder on the disc as well and it has 4 textures from different themes.
I guess they were for the different artifacts on different maps.
But one of them is very weird...



Makemeunreal and I think it's Mine themed.

That's definitely the artifact of Batman of Unreal or Batman Gargoyle...

LOL

[Gamesharder]

The GasBag eating animation makes so much sense now holy shit
The Rodent was most likely done just for the sake of the animation.

That's definitely the artifact of Batman of Unreal or Batman Gargoyle...

LOL

Honestly, at first glance I thought the symbol in the upper left corner reminded me of the Nelsian/Nali Cow (NelsiCow?)
And I recognized the Batman symbol as well lmao

[Leo T_C_K]

Also Kaal was the default Male Player (all the models are flat shaded in the creature doc even if they already had a skin made btw) confirmed 100 percent before the 1997 one was made. KAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLL

Just imagine if you had a choice between "gina" (with the early mugshot face which was more like Drace in a way)
obviously "Woman" was already considered obsolete by late 1996 and they were to replace her later

between that and KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLL

Which one would you choose?

Also of note is the official canon description of the Dragon, which now in retrospect the "expansion notes" make more sense

Because it talked about possibility of playing as the shunned dragon...and i wondered why "shunned", but this explains it.

Name: Skaarj Dragon
Description: The dragon is, to put it bluntly, a failed skaarj transmutation.
Shunned by all skaarj and their ilk (the skaarj hate to admit failure) the
dragons have a distinct hatred for all life. They wander around purposefully
destroying any and all signs of life they may encounter. They have the
ability to fly and that is their preferred mode of movement. They attack by
belching noxious gases or biting when in range. Their bite is rumored to be
poisonous.

Also...the hawk was meant to spit acid too at one point (but later they seemed to drop dragon and wanted to replace him by fang in unbible and kind of combined that concept and hawk was to remain as simple wildlife? or maybe they just wanted to rename hawk to fang, it gets confusing)

Name: Hawk (Skaarj)
Description: More lizard than birdlike, the Hawk is a swift and powerful
flyer. It attacks, primarily, by breathing forth a cloud of highly corrosive
acidic gas, from its dragon-like mouth. Known for their enormous lifting
power, hawks have been witnessed carrying off the more foolish of players
to unknown locations... *SPECIAL NOTE* The player may be able to
transmutate into this creature through the use of an alien device or artifact.

[Leo T_C_K]

The GasBag eating animation makes so much sense now holy shit
The Rodent was most likely done just for the sake of the animation.

That's definitely the artifact of Batman of Unreal or Batman Gargoyle...

LOL

Honestly, at first glance I thought the symbol in the upper left corner reminded me of the Nelsian/Nali Cow (NelsiCow?)
And I recognized the Batman symbol as well lmao

Ye it looks somewhat similar but I don't think that was intention with the nali cow thing.

[Leo T_C_K]

It is also possible that the map that uses the playrshp textures for those big doors, that it was actually early isv kran or what became it and the decayeds stuff was the early vortex...we can't know for sure though unless we'd have some of those maps

[Leo T_C_K]

The GasBag eating animation makes so much sense now holy shit
The Rodent was most likely done just for the sake of the animation.

That's definitely the artifact of Batman of Unreal or Batman Gargoyle...

LOL

Honestly, at first glance I thought the symbol in the upper left corner reminded me of the Nelsian/Nali Cow (NelsiCow?)
And I recognized the Batman symbol as well lmao

btw I did make a thread separately about the blob thing

viewtopic.php?f=49&t=10480

But...I noticed that this old mesh, it mentions animation being partially complete, so that's yet another blob mesh. I mean...we have three already (well technically we couldn't get the one from 88 out, but still), from the may 1997 and later versions, then the version 88 blob, then the final bloblet that appeared later. But this is yet another mesh and partially animated. just wow. Except we don't have it. But it was supposed to do what the description said.

[Leo T_C_K]

Yrex notified me of the discovery (just one line that you can miss) of the original Prophet's name. It wasn't Haute.

He was called Kantis and his face is on the "skantis#" textures in the skycity package. Yup, that lion-like face is actually the Nali Prophet and he had a lot of hair obviously from living as a hermit.