Another chapter in ‘things that were on the Story Page for ages that I’m only just now noticing’: Inside Mac Games’ July ‘94 preview of Marathon. This is the beta, where an alien trojan horse is unwittingly brought on board the ship.

Let’s see: you could sneak past enemies, some parts would require you to disguise yourself as one of them, the final confrontation would’ve taken place on their home planet, and…you could enter cyberspace?

Yep; there would’ve been random cyber-portals scattered about the ship. The way it’s described, it mirrors the real world to an extent (there’s structural differences like extra corridors and moving objects, and some doors that can only be unlocked on this plane). I would’ve really liked to see how this would’ve been explained in-story; the closest we get to ‘cyberspace’ in the final are the AIs’ interactions with each other.

(I’m guessing that the beta didn’t get far enough to implement this concept, as there’s nothing resembling a portal in the graphics rip)

An early preview of System Shock 2; scanned from Computer Games Strategy Plus January ‘99. I don’t think that interface is the final one.

So, has anyone else noticed that the third-person and pick-up sprites for the SPNKR don’t line up? Turns out that the Security Officer’s third-person sprites are older than said pick-up sprite, and weren’t edited to reflect this.

That ten-ton bastard on the left is the first-person SPNKR from the M2 Preview (shapes converted into a ShapeFusion-readable format by Hopper). Quite a bit more detailed than the final, but I imagine that most of it would’ve been hidden off-screen anyway.

I watched the E3 2000 trailer for Halo (I know, what took me so long); at the end, a surviving Marine asks Master Chief if he’s “staying”, to which the Chief replies that his battle’s only now begun. So, was he meant to be the Security Officer this late in development, or what?

(Sure, the context for this exchange could be anything, but “SO = MC” is the one I find the most interesting, especially since that was the original plan, AFAIK)

Preview of Halo from Computer Games Strategy Plus August 2000, along with the cover. We’re between builds here; Master Chief’s model is looking closer to the final, yet he’s staring down the native fauna and the Elites are rather saurian.

There’s also talk of features, like dropship piloting and nabbing energy swords, that didn’t make it into the final (or weren’t planned to begin with), and Cortana once again goes unmentioned.

Previews for an old build of Prey, from PC Gamer September 1997. It began life as a 3D Realms project, and late into its decade-long development cycle, they commissioned Human Head Studios to work on it.

Mostly notable to me because of how long it took me to realize that Prey’s release date had been a tad delayed.

Also included is a bit of Max Payne, the first installment of which wouldn’t come out until 2001.

Sorry for the quality; the only scan of this Mac Home Journal ad for Marathon that I could find was on the small side, so I embiggened and lightened one section. As pointed out on the Story Page, where the ad was originally found, there were once thirteen strains of enemy; the Hound is the one we have the clearest images (and residual evidence) of, I think. This is the only place I’ve seen the other two.

The stilt-bot is, presumably, the Pfhor Crewman; like the BoBs, they were harmless and mostly scrabbled about. Memory limits per level forced their exclusion.

The nasty red thing is the Armageddon Beast, modeled after the Big Blue Meanie of Pathways into Darkness. Said to be cut because no levels were designed such that these creatures would be anything but frustrating damage sponges.

If anyone has a larger scan of this advert, I’d really like to see it.

EDIT: D’oh, there was a larger excerpt on the page itself. See what happens when you don’t pay attention?

Two images relating to the primordial 1997 Halo RTS “Blam!”–well, maybe two; I’m not sure if the in-game screenshot was from Blam! or an early build of Halo Wars. Either way, a search for images this old brought up nada, meaning that these could be the only bits of Blam! available at this time.

Now, what spurred me into scanning these were memories of other images, including a Flood form bursting out of some poor sod’s chest (note the humanoid lower body in the first pic) and a view of the playing field. I searched high and low to no avail, so unless I misplaced something, I’ve once again run afoul of False Memory Syndrome.

Chips & Bits Inc. listing for Team Fortress 2, scanned from Computer Games Strategy Plus November 2000, that shows its old logo and subtitle.

The Spy and Sniper are familiar; I think the Marine and Commando became the Solider and Demoman, respectively?

Preview of Halo from PCXL/PC Accelerator #21, May 2000. From here.

This one goes into more detail on the story than some other previews I’ve posted, but multiplayer is still the primary focus. There’s talk of specialized non-verbal cues, like saluting; I can’t remember if these made it into the final game.

Cortana’s absence from all of the previews I’ve found thus far, despite having her own pre-marketing campaign in the Letters, tells me that, in this draft, Master Chief might not have met her until after landing on the Halo (in the fifth Letter, she grouses over being kicked out of the Pillar of Autumn and being forced to share brain-space with MC).

…now, if I may talk about PCXL itself. You notice that blatant innuendo in the top-left corner? One thing this mag prided itself on was fanservice, and the sheer amount of it was absolutely intolerable. They only lasted twenty-two issues, by the way.