RGB Classic Games Forum

Hey folks,

Long-time Apogee lurker, only sometime poster here.

Within the community is a lot of fragmented cliques (I could say "Shattered Worlds", but that would be bad of me), and so there seems to be a large portion of people who know some things in the community and not others.
I was thinking that 3DRealms is largely defunct, and there seems to be a bit of a resurgence in the Apogee community. So, it would be great now to list, and perhaps later archive, of all the changed Apogee games out there to make sure they're preserved, and just as importantly, known about.

(I will be posting this on other forums, so apologise for the X-posting. Just want to get it out there.)

Without further ado:

Beta Versions of Retail
Hocus Pocus
Realms of Chaos
Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold
Keen 1 (2 dates from same week)
Keen 2
Keen Dreams
Raptor
Wacky Wheels (called "Wacky Kart" at the time)

Fan Mods/Games
(I'm not mentioning Keen edits for obvious reasons, there's a zillion and those are much more well-known.)
Hocus Pocus Xmas (same as retail release; sprite changes for Xmas-y feel- I think Violet CLM did it?)
Bio Menace levelpack (from 2011, forget who did it)
Duke 1- Proton's Revenge/Master Plan levelpacks (Nicks Software, ~2006)
Duke 1- The Returning levelpack (2010, _DNV_)
Cosmo levelpack- NewCosmo- http://home.online.no/~p-olstad/apogee/cosmo.html
Hocus Beta- Windows (remake of HP beta in Windows, 2007)
Special Agent- Windows (Windows remake of Secret Agent episode 1, David Newton, 2006)



Now, I KNOW there are more out there. Please help me complete and tidy up this list, people!

Well, there has been a recent discussion of leaked beta versions at 3DRealms' Forums which mentions some stuff that you don;t yet have on the list, most notably the beta versions of Duke Nukem 3D (v0.99) and Shadow Warrior (v0.90).

BTW, I think "Beta Versions of Retail" in your list title is a bit confusing: do you mean that those are leaked beta versions of complete retail games? I'm asking because both Duke3D and SW beta versions are essentially the shareware episodes (SW beta does have some incomplete versions of registered levels in the data files, but they're not accessible from the game itself).

Also, there's a completely legal, official public beta of XenoPhage.

I wonder why most of fan-made levels you mention come from mid-late 2000s? Haven't there been earlier hacks from the nineties?

I know of a Hocus Pocus version that had all the text translated into Russian (or rather, replaced with something the people who did the translation felt appropriate). I don't own that, just saw a video on YouTube. I guess it can be looked up whether this was a pirate full version release, or some shareware hack.

Then again, I don't think you're much interested in pirate Russian translations of games, eh?

Well, there has been a recent discussion of leaked beta versions at 3DRealms' Forums which mentions some stuff that you don;t yet have on the list, most notably the beta versions of Duke Nukem 3D (v0.99) and Shadow Warrior (v0.90).

Cool. As you may have guessed, I'm not a FPS fan, but it's good to have what's out there for everybody, that's the goal.

BTW, I think "Beta Versions of Retail" in your list title is a bit confusing: do you mean that those are leaked beta versions of complete retail games? I'm asking because both Duke3D and SW beta versions are essentially the shareware episodes (SW beta does have some incomplete versions of registered levels in the data files, but they're not accessible from the game itself).

Beta versions of games that made it to retail, basically, not completely different games or unreleased games or fangames.

Also, there's a completely legal, official public beta of XenoPhage.

Yes there is. I'm surprised I forgot that.

I wonder why most of fan-made levels you mention come from mid-late 2000s? Haven't there been earlier hacks from the nineties?

Well, you tell me That's why I started this thread; I've forgotten most of the older hacks and fan levels and don't have them, we need an archive and a list.

I know of a Hocus Pocus version that had all the text translated into Russian (or rather, replaced with something the people who did the translation felt appropriate). I don't own that, just saw a video on YouTube. I guess it can be looked up whether this was a pirate full version release, or some shareware hack.

Yeah, I saw that on YT. Not really interested in a translation, unless they changed the game up more than the speech between Hocus and Terexin (although, that in itself would be interesting!).

See the ROC thread here for more info on the ROC beta, I found a lot of things in the game resources.

spikey wrote:That's why I started this thread; I've forgotten most of the older hacks and fan levels and don't have them, we need an archive and a list.

Overall that's a great initiative of yours! It's a pity I can't contribute much, as I'm not familiar with any hacks of Keen or older Apogee games. I do think though that I've seen some Duke Nukum and Commander Keen related files at cd.textfiles.com. There certainly was a "hack" that allows to play the demo level in Duke Nukum shareware. I also think there was some third-party Duke Nukem II level editor or something. Additionally, S&F Prod. should also have some related stuff (like unofficial editing tools).

I see you've made some similar threads in the past, so thanks for being part of this one.

I found some info on the Cosmo one, it's called NewCosmo and I put the link in the first post.

There's also some Duke 1 levels at http://dosclassics.com/duke/dl.php

spikey wrote:There's also some Duke 1 levels at http://dosclassics.com/duke/dl.php

Ah, right, I've visited this site, I guess got there from Frenkel's S&F Prod.

I sure am interested in all sorts of third-party extras, leaks and all that stuff, just didn't investigate the Apogee oldies in that direction yet

Hopefully more interesting things will turn up soon

Seem to have missed this thread completely, thought I'd chime in with what I know. Note that these are only betas that have in one way or another been released/leaked meaning that they are out there.

Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold
Beta Version 0.63 1993-11-12 (Registered, 6-Episode)
Beta Version 2.00 1993-12-30 (Registered, 6-Episode)
Beta Version 2.00 1994-01-11 (Registered, 6-Episode)
Beta Version 2.00 1994-02-01 (Registered, 6-Episode)

Commander Keen: Goodbye, Galaxy
Special Demo Version 1991-10-09 (Shareware, 5 level demo)

Commander Keen: Invasion of the Vorticons
Beta Version 1990-11-20 (Shareware)
Beta Version 1990-12-03 (Shareware)

Duke Nukem 3D
Alpha Version 1994-12-30 (LameDuke)
Beta Version 0.99 1996-01-04 (Shareware)

Hocus Pocus
Beta Version 1994-01-15 (Shareware)
Beta Version 1994-01-18 (Shareware)

Raptor: Call of the Shadows
Beta Version 1993-12-16 (Shareware)
Beta Version 1994-01-15 (Registered)

Realms of Chaos
Alpha Version 0.2 1994-01-05 (Shareware)

Shadow Warrior
Beta Version 0.90 1997-04-04 (Shareware)
Beta Version 1.2 1997-08-10 (Registered)

Wacky Wheels
Alpha Version 1994-02-02 (Wacky Kart)
Beta Version 1.0 1994-09-10 (Shareware)

Wolfenstein 3D
Alpha Version 1992-03-12 (Shareware)

Xenophage: Alien Bloodsport
Beta Version 1995-12-29 (Shareware)


Just wondering, what is that beta version of Keen Dreams you are listing? I'm not aware of such a version. Are you talking about the initial registered version?