Alien Breed 3D 1x1 WIP Screenshots

[Nishicorn]

Alien Breed 3D was a classic masterpiece game that I will probably always have a soft spot for - so many good memories, so many nostalgic moments.

After the game's success, there was a lot of talk about "1x1 patch" that was supposed to arrive relatively quickly. Somehow it was always delayed, but I kept hoping and waiting.. asking, reading, hoping, waiting, checking..

.. and it never came.

But we got these amazing 1x1 fullscreen screenshots of what AB3D levels would look like if they were 1x1, to prove that the patch was underway and would arrive soon.

Then we started getting other 1x1 fullscreen screenshots of levels that weren't even in the game, as if the patch was expanding into something more, something new, something better.. I would've been happy with the patch, but I figured, if we get the patch AND a new AB3D game, what could be better?

AB3D levels were so great, the level design just worked - and the textures were amazing - not always Doom-level, but sometimes even better, as simplistic as they seemed. Those 1x1 screenshots looked fantastic, so I couldn't wait to get the patch and buy the new game.

In my mind, I was thinking.. "More AB3D with the same gameplay, same level design, same, beautiful, colorful textures, same guns (with gun flashes), same FOV, but as-fast-as-Doom 1x1 fullscreen mode (on a '060 at least, which I had)"

Of course, this is NOT what we got - I could write a long book about how atrocious the "TKG" is in all possible levels and MORE.

However, the point of this post is to remind people that once upon a time, there were "1x1 patch screenshots", but alas, I can't find them in aminet or anywhere else.

So my question is, does anyone happen to still have these "supposed 1x1 patch WIP screenshots" or whatever they should be called? Some of them looked like Star Wars movie sets, and were absolutely exciting, breathtaking and beautiful.

I would love to try to re-create that kind of aesthetic if I ever get my own projects that far.. (planning a Doom II "total conversion", but it's a lot of work, so might never happen)

However, I have lots the screenshots to the ravages of time, and as I can't seem to find them anywhere, I am asking whether someone here might still have at least some or even one of them..?

I would really appreciate it, thanks in advance.

[Firestone]

I remember these screenshots very well, Nishicorn.
I think I got them from a BBS or something in the late 90s, and me and my friend waited pationally for the "patched" version of AB3D.

I posted a thread about the same a while ago, and it seems like it all eventually became what we know today as AB3DII-TKG.

There might be a chance that these screenshots are hidden somewhere on my friends Amiga harddrive, which I happen to have an hdf-file of. He passed away in the early 2000's, so I will have to dig into his stuff to find it.

I guess this is the stuff you're talking about:
https://www.amigareport.com/ar320/news11.html

[Dunny]

The conversion to a Doom engine has already been done:

https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?t=67666

Though a few of the levels have been altered layout-wise which detracts massively from the experience. If you can find an earlier version (0.8 iirc?) then it's more faithful to the original.

[trixster]

He changed the level designs? What was the reason for that?!

[grond]

Originally Posted by trixster

He changed the level designs? What was the reason for that?!

IIRC the underlying engine did not allow for all features of the original level layout. It may have been about multiple floors above each other.

[d4rk3lf]

Yeah, plans of the Alien Breed 3D 1x1 just morphed into the AB3D 2.
Which is sad, because, as you were saying, original AB3D had insane quality level design, and I'll add, unmatched atmosphere.

As mentioned, check out the project Osiris, imho, it's pretty nice.

I hope someone (maybe me) try someday porting at least first level to Unreal 4/5 engine.
It would be very interesting to see.

[trixster]

I’d prefer to see Unreal ported to (ppc) Amiga

[Dunny]

Originally Posted by grond

IIRC the underlying engine did not allow for all features of the original level layout. It may have been about multiple floors above each other.

GZDoom handles that just fine. He didn't like the way some areas play so changed them. Mostly by adding "drops" so you can't backtrack and in one place adding corridors to a large open area so it's easier to just walk through and shoot everything.

As you can probably gather, I'm not a fan of the changes. At all. It's terribly disappointing after all these years waiting for a good PC remake

[saimon69]

Wonder if someone can make THAT patch nowadays

[Havie]

Holy Grail of Amiga games...

[Cobe]

Originally Posted by Dunny

The conversion to a Doom engine has already been done:

https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?t=67666

Though a few of the levels have been altered layout-wise which detracts massively from the experience. If you can find an earlier version (0.8 iirc?) then it's more faithful to the original.

Its great conversion. And all the respect to the guy who did it. But ifs for people that like pc fpss and gaming. It took me a while to figure out how to "degrade" the engine to 320x200 without bluring or any modern (side) effects. Cause 1x1 ab3d was all I ever wanted, nothing more, nothing less, though I could settle with 1x2 too. . And if I I dont see it running on the Amiga, it didnt happen

[NovaCoder]

[ Show youtube player ]

[Cobe]

But whats that map? It aint the first level.
I think that few years ago when I tried Odamex, it didnt work for me.. . I think it was on RPi2/Amibian. Or was it QBreed, now I dont remember. One of those two worked but had contrast toooo pronounced. However, I know, I still havent found what I'm looking for...

[trixster]

Originally Posted by Havie

Holy Grail of Amiga games...

Yes, this would be the dream!

[Nishicorn]

Originally Posted by Dunny

The conversion to a Doom engine has already been done:

https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?t=67666

Though a few of the levels have been altered layout-wise which detracts massively from the experience. If you can find an earlier version (0.8 iirc?) then it's more faithful to the original.

Thanks for all the links and suggestions.

I am aware of all these 'conversions' like that, however, they're not quite what I am looking for.

I am interested in finding the original PICTURES of the 'supposed 1x1 patch' that eventually just became the sequel instead. (So much was promised, like 8-channel sound, which I thought meant that the water splosh-sounds would play separately for 'each leg', but no such luck, and so little delivered, and even that little was in the form of slowly trickled patches afterwards)

Doom engine can't handle the AB3D levels, because of the 'true 3D' nature of them - for example, bridges aren't possible with Doom (or Doom II) engine.

Quake's engine can't handle the SIZE of the AB3D levels, so even that's doomed (no pun intended) to fail - although I was fairly impressed with what someone had done with a couple of levels, it was pretty cool.

I was just hoping that someone might still have those pictures, as they were completely unique - some showed the AB3D in its full glory in fullscreen 1x1 mode (you can't really reproduce this easily, as the 'downloadable textures' lack the color and bright nature of the AB3D look - just compare what a real Amiga shows you on a bright CRT TV to what your dim TFT monitor shows you as those downloaded textures to see what I mean - the color is washed-out at best, and doesn't look quite the same - also, the texture placement and scaling/sizing isn't always quite identical, Doom engine performs its 'lighting' stuff a bit differently, and so on - plus, some of the screenshots used different textures and showed (at least potentially) interesting level designs)..

..and some showed completely different levels that still looked good (they hadn't yet butchered the FOV for those screenshots like they did for the awful sequel game).

Some of the pictures were almost 'Star Warsy' in a good way that seemed to surpass even the glory of Dark Forces graphics.

I guess no one has those anymore.. too bad. Oh well, maybe it's best left them as nostalgic memories, perhaps they wouldn't be as awe-inspiring as I remember, and might destroy the illusion of a 'perfect 1x1 AB3D' that lives somewhere in my imagination and maybe in a parallel world out there somewhere.. the Universe is vast, surely it has to exist somewhere.

If I ever muster enough energy and the stars align just the right way, mayhap I might be able to create my plan of 'Total Doom Conversion' that would partially try to recapture the good, old atmosphere of the old Alien Breed 3D while still adding my own personality into the mix, while trying to remember the 1x1 WIP screenshots I once drooled so much at..

.. my dream is to make it into a more 'sci-fi' game than 'zombie/demon/monster' stuff that's so overdone - so the look would be much closer to 'alien designs' and 'technological beauty' than 'depressing satanism' that's so popular these days.

Whereas 'Doom' games are very 'red' and 'demonic', I would want to create something that's similarly 'blue' and 'future-alien-technology'-oriented. However, I don't know if I will ever be able to do it, so another dream probably bites the dust.

Thanks for everyone that participated.. if anyone ever finds those pictures, I would appreciate a link or upload in this thread.

[pipper]

There was an attempt to use the AB3D sources and create an RTG version from it (1x1); made by John Girvin. I think it can be downloaded from Aminet.
I recently approached John and asked him if the sources are still around (all links I could find otherwise were dead). He actually still had them and provided them to me. I uploaded them here to be preserved: https://github.com/mheyer32/ab3d-rtg

I have not yet looked into them or attempted to compile them; but at least now it’s available to everybody who wants to give it a shot.

This source was created from the AB3D source code which was contained in the AB3D-II TKG source package. It apparently missed some files but back in the day John got it to work somehow.

The TKG sources are truly messy in the sense that the source package contains multiple versions of the same engine, but it is hard to know which one is the right one. I have not been able to compile them as they are apparently files missing (like precalculated tables). It needs a miracle to try figure out what these tables are supposed to contain and then recreate them. It seems nobody in the past 24 years was able to recompile AlienBreed3D(II)

[abu_the_monkey]

@Nishicorn, are these the pictures? they were in with the source code pipper posted the link to.

[eXeler0]

I believe it should be doable to convert the AD3d levels to TKG format and simply run them in TKG in 1x1? But since no one has done I suspect there's a "small problem" somewhere. ;-)

[abu_the_monkey]

@pipper

Thanks for the link, I have managed to get the `original` version to compile and work of sorts(there are some graphical glitches and can only play the first level before it crashes or if you enter water). not so much luck with the rtg version (need more time to understand what it requires).

I am sure someone with more experience/skill could get it to work without much trouble.

[abu_the_monkey]

so I managed to get the original to compile and play without crashing on entering water or finishing a level, however still have a couple of graphic glitches (this may be due to using the .vec files from the RTG version as the originals are missing) and the pause/settings screen does not display when paused but is still functional.
my knowledge of assembler is not good enough.