Strife

This page details one or more prototype versions of Strife.

v1.1 beta of Strife, dated December 20, 1995, was leaked online on August 27, 2020. A modified version was officially released by Night Dive Studios the next day, with the copyrighted placeholder audio muted for legal reasons.

General Differences#

• The game's startup uses a Doom-style text-mode startup, compared to the FMV and Sentinel vs. Peasant startup sequence used in the final game.
• The "INTRO" option on the menu triggers the "casting call" sequence from Doom II, with one of the HELP graphics as the backdrop.
• There is an episode select, ala Doom. Selecting Episode 1 loads MAP02. The other two episodes pop up a Doom-style error, and they aren't available in the Shareware version of Strife.
• Quitting the game functions the same as in Doom, with various amusing messages at a Yes/No prompt and no splash screen or voice-over after confirming.
• Dialogue has no portraits or voice-overs.

Audio Differences#

• Nearly everything in the game still uses Doom II sound effects, which are stored in the WAD under the same lump names they used in that game.
• Some enemies use placeholder audio taken from films and TV shows.
• All music is taken from Doom and Doom II.

Graphical Differences#

Title, Credits, and Help Screens#

Proto	Final

The proto's title screen shows an Inquisitor in a dramatic stance with the title (using a different font) floating overhead, all behind the backdrop of a cloudy sky that remains in the final, unused. Also here is ID Software's logo, Rogue Entertainment's Logo, and a Doom-style shareware line. The final is much more barebones, only having the title, Rogue and Velocity's logos (Id apparently didn't want theirs to be displayed, and some copyright info.

Proto	Final

The proto's credits are way, and I mean Way smaller, using the menu font and only having 5 people credited.

Proto	Final

Instead of displaying the controls, the proto shows you what friends and foes you'll face, using early designs and names!

• Strifeguy: Referred to as "Player" and also uses the rebel's sprite.
• Acolyte: Referred to as "Armor Guard".
• Beggar: Same as final.
• Rebel: uses strife guy's sprites.
• Shopkeeper: Arms are in a different position. Referred to as "Merchant".
• Peasant: Same as final.
• Macil: Referred to as "Rebel Leader".
• Programmer: Referred to as "Programmer Boss", and uses an electricity-less version of its attack sprite. The addition of "Boss" to its name, the lack of The Entity (or any Spectres, for that matter) on these help screens, and its lone placement on the bottom of the screen might imply that it was the final boss at some point.

Proto	Final

More early designs.

• Mauler Death animation: Referred to as "Disruptor Death". The black silhouette doesn't contrast well with the black background, so it looks like a red-green fart cloud.
• Flame Death animation: Same as final.
• Templar: Referred to as "Enforcer". Uses an earlier, much more basic sprite.
• Stalker: Uses slightly different sprites, one of them being the unused firing sprite.
• Sentinel: Same as final.
• Reaver: Same as final.
• Crusader: Loincloth is different.
• Inquisitor: Same as final.
• Loremaster: Sprite is very different. Referred to as “Priest”.

Final

No equivalent in proto.

Inventory Sprites#

The weapons have inventory graphics in the WAD file that are not used in the final game, and in some cases differ from the final weapon designs.

Map Differences#

Level 1: Safe House#

Renamed "Sanctuary" in the final game. For whatever reason, this is the only map to be named in all-caps inside the executable.

• The watery area past the exit trigger for leaving to MAP02 through the river has, for some odd reason, a variety of different Peasant, Acolyte, and Merchant variants standing around.
• Your assassination target's cell is a little simpler geometrically, and the Acolyte room just northeast of it is much simpler and lacks the armor pickup present in the final game.
• The infamous Chalice and its chamber are not present.

Level 2: Town#

• You start in the tavern, upstairs, in front of a Peasant called Opithion who fills the purpose of Rowan in the final game.
• Harris, and his room at the tavern, are not present.
• The water treatment plant where you start in the final game isn't present. In its place is an elevator hidden behind a false wall to take you out of the damaging sludge if you fall in.