I.M. Meen

Prerelease Info Bugs

Unused Scrolls#

Four unused scrolls can be found in L_SCRL.PRC, the archive which holds the text for all of the game's scrolls. They are basically complete, having both grammatically correct/incorrect versions and entries for all three Reading Levels. They were most likely cut due to a lack of available cell doors.

It should be noted that the scrolls themselves are ordered somewhat arbitrarily within the archive itself, but they are presented roughly in chronological order. For the purposes of readability, all changes between the Reading Level variants are highlighted in bold lettering.

A note about a Meenwall that opens up a sliding wall. The scroll is so generic that it could've been used anywhere in the labyrinth.

A page from Meen's self-insert space opera. Its position in the scroll text archive places it somewhere in the Tower. Interestingly, an edited version of one of the Reading Level 2 lines appears in-game, in the Writewell's Book page for commas.

A scroll describing a hidden room in The Tower 4 in great detail. This hidden room doesn't actually exist in the final game: the closest equivalent in the level has an extra Explode-O-Fruit and no Stealth Sneakers. There's another, much more vague scroll discussing a hidden room on the level that ended up being used.

A entry in Meen's diary that would've been found in The Library 2. It gives hints as how to find two of the hidden items in the level.

Inaccessible Areas#

The areas in question have been highlighted in light red.

The first map of the game, The Tower 1, has an inaccessible hallway in the central maze which contains two Trolls and an Explode-O-Fruit. There's no clear reason as to why the hallway was cut.

The Dungeon 4 has an entire inaccessible secret path. Starting at a now-deleted door in the Winter Wand room, the path would've given the player three Explode-O-Fruits and a Storm Wand before exiting out into the used Storm Wand room. Probably cut for balancing issues - the level already contains a bunch of weapons as is.

The Caves 4 has an inaccessible room near the top of the map which contains three Lizard Men, two Explode-O-Fruits, and a Power Potion. It was most likely a hidden area that never had its entrance finished for one reason or another.

Unused Graphics#

Walls#

Used	Unused

A second stained glass window tile is loaded in the Tower levels, but is never used. Compared to the first one, this window has a stone border on top of it as opposed to a metal one with an engraved cross.

Tower (Unused)	Hedgerow Maze	Dungeon

Tower (Unused)	Dungeon

Loaded alongside the unused window are two wall tiles that normally appear in the Dungeon. Interestingly, the tiles aren't just mere palette swaps - they have minor differences in their cracks and shading. The first wall tile would be edited and reused in the Hedgerow Maze.

Two wall tiles for the Sewer are unused. The first is the clean Sewer brick tile with "GNED WAS HERE" scrawled on it. It was most likely meant for a hidden area, either through marking the area's entrance or appearing in the area itself. The second is a Sewer version of the door frame tiles seen in the Catacombs, and was almost certainly meant for the same purpose.

A wall tile meant for a destructible wall in the Catacombs (specifically, the first two levels) which was never implemented.

The Castle has the most unused tiles by far, coming in at a whopping six! From left to right:

• A door frame tile, much like the Sewers. Almost all of the door frame walls use the generic Castle brick tile instead of this tile.
• The arch tile used for fireplace screens and ghost busts, but with nothing in the archway. Spooky.
• Starts/ends for the arches seen throughout the Castle.
• Two arch support variants; the first has those spike pillars typically seen near windows, while the second reuses the sprite of a pillar decoration seen in the Catacombs.

Much like the Catacombs, the Laboratory was meant to have destructible walls at one point.

The Library also has those unused door frame tiles in two flavors; caramel/regular level, and vanilla/final level.

Floors and Ceilings#

Used	Unused

An unused variant of the floor tile seen in The Catacombs 3 exists. The surface is lighter and has more gold specks, and the cracks are more detailed and darker.

A stone floor tile meant to appear in the Hedgerow Maze, which bears a resemblance to the unused Catacombs tile mentioned above.

The floor tile used in The Laboratory 1 and 2 has a variant that has a brown stain (soda?) on it. A similar tile is used in the Dungeon to mark a hidden area, so this was most likely meant for the same purpose.

Used	Unused

The Library's levels load in a garish, green version of a ceiling seen in various levels, but never actually use it.

Enemies and Decor#

An unused attack animation for the Spider where it spits out a green projectile. This idea might've evolved into the Giant Ant enemy, which is just a slightly modified Spider.

Used	Unused

The skull gargoyle statue seen in several levels is an edit of an unused (regular) gargoyle statue. It's loaded in the Dungeon, Castle, and Library.

Used	Full

Meenmouth's attack animation has two unused starting frames, in which it starts off laying prone before getting up to blast the bookworm with fire. This could've been used for Meenmouth's death animation as well, given that both animations share the same two opening frames.

Used	Unused

There is an unused pillar sprite which seems to be a fusion of two other pillars seen in-game. It is loaded in the Catacombs and Library.

All of the tables in the Library are lit up by ceiling lights and tend to have books and/or quill pens on them. As a result, this plain & boring variant is never used.

Unused Sounds#

This sound was meant to play when activating the wheel switches in the Sewers, but they use the generic button push noise instead.

A sound meant for Sludgemeen. There are two possible places as to where it would've played;

• Sludgemeen throwing a slime ball, as indicated by the sound being part of the ES (Enemy Sound) group of sounds. The final game uses a splat sound, ES11HIT, which was meant to be the slime ball's impact sound.
• Sludgemeen walking, as stated in the executable list detailed below. None of the enemies or bosses make noises when walking, not even Sludgemeen.

Unused Music#

This jingle is referred to internally as "Win_Fight_Fanfare", and was meant to play when enemy fights were won. Possibly cut due to how grating it would've gotten after a long enough period of time.

For whatever reason, this track isn't in the Hedgerow Maze's LAB files.

This longer jingle would've been played after completing the last scroll or during the credits, as it's in the data for the Library levels and is referred to as "Win_Game_Music" in the executable.

While this jingle is used when the player loses all health, it abruptly ends after a second, leaving the rest of the song unused.

Executable List Findings#

A long list of object/sound names, debug strings, and file paths can be found near the end of IMMEEN.exe, starting at 6F884. For those who don't have much time to spare, here's a rundown of interesting findings within the list;

• Three unused "VIAL" entries are in both the item object and item sprite lists.
• Several item sprites are labeled in Russian - for example, the Magic Mallet and Stealth Sneakers' sprites are "MOLOT" and "SAPOGI", respectively.
  • Humorously, the sprites for the Power Potion are labeled as "C2H5OH", which is the molecular structure for alcohol.

Objects Behaivour & Game Design Tools was written by Baremenkov Dmitri, Sept-July 93/94
INTERNAL

• A message from one of the developers, Dima Barmenkov, can be found right before the list of enemy and object names.
• Meenmouth, Sludgemeen, and Count Meenula have different internal names - "Dragon", "Dirtmen", and "Drakula". The rest of Meen's creations are unchanged, although the Meen part of their names is shortened to just 'Men'.
  • The placing of Count Meenula on the first two object lists has him after Frankenmeen. Was the Castle meant to be after the Laboratory at some point?
• An unseen Goblin enemy is mentioned in both the enemy object list and the sounds list. A Goblin-like enemy was pictured in an early screenshot of I.M. Meen, and its design appears in decorations seen throughout the labyrinth. Its attack sound, ES06, was most likely reused as the Rat Man's death sound. Another goblin enemy, the Viking Goblin, would appear in Chill Manor.
• The music track MU08 is missing from the game's files, implying that the Castle and Laboratory were meant to have unique tracks instead of sharing the same one.
• A sound was meant to play when the freed kids start cheering. This action is silent in the final game.

SAMPLE

• At the very end of the executable at 7AD74 is this sample string, possibly originating from I.M. Meen's demo.

References#