DieHard Wolfers

[Robbbert]

I think I've played every spinoff of the Wolf3D engine, and similar of the time (with cheats, naturally).

My copy of Corridor 7 was a 30-level beta which mostly worked. The main issues was a crash on level 20 when the boss woke up, and a sudden exit when entering your name for a high score.

I suspect the official release had different levels to mine. Certainly, it's completely different to the demo release.

One problem on level 1 was the fact that some pushwalls didn't work, making it impossible to get 100%.

My (extremely old, pre-internet) guide can be found here: http://messui.polygonal-moogle.com/cheats/48.txt

[vermil]

A beta of Corridor 7 with different levels/early level layouts? Willing to share it?

[Robbbert]

Of course... I share almost anything..

Corr7:

::: CODE :::

https://mega.nz/#F!jtlwQKSQ!WA96jhEFTCLS0fd1IVnKUA

[vermil]

Thank you for sharing it.

[doomjedi]

I have an old Corridor 7 demo from my old shareware CD.
Exe from
‎Wednesday, ‎March ‎16, ‎1994, ‏‎9:14:24 PM 180 KB

[vermil]

Thanks for the offer Doom Jedi, but I believe that is the standard demo version Capstone released publically.

The version Robbert has, has at least one difference to the full version, different muzzle flair graphics for the M24 weapon, as well as several sound related crashes; I guess Capstone were still working on the in-engine re-sampler. Corr7's sounds are recorded in, presumably, standard Wolf format, but sped up during playback in game.

I can't get WDC to work on Windows 8, so I can't view the beta's resources yet, to see if their are any more differences beside the mentioned muzzle flair.

[vermil]

I was able to use Chaos Edit instead, though it couldn't view the patches or sound effects from the beta version.

At a glance I noticed the following differences between it and the full version.

GENERAL:
Alien quantities don't seem to vary between skill levels.
You seem to have to kill 100% of the aliens on all skill levels.

LEVELS:
Levels 7 and 8 are both missing their north western sections.
No secret exits other than the first are present on the respective maps.
Only the first secret map is present in the map files.

GRAPHICS:
The M24 muzzle flair graphics are different.
The patch displayed when quitting has coming soon text written on it.
The second credit patch is missing the credit for the computer voice; Melody Blais and lacks several visual flourishes compared to the full version one.
Beta testers graphic isn't displayed between the capstone
The intracorp copyright graphic text is green instead of yellow.
Neither the capstone logo graphic or beta tester graphics are in the title loop.
The ENDCORR7 text also talks about the game coming soon.

I haven't yet listened to the music.

[Tricob]

vermil wrote:

I can't get WDC to work on Windows 8, so I can't view the beta's resources yet, to see if their are any more differences beside the mentioned muzzle flair.

I have it running on Windows 10. IIRC, what I ended up doing was ZIPing up whatever was in my WDC Program Files (x86) folder, copying it over to the laptop, and right-clicking the EXE to set Properties.

[vermil]

I've done a fresh install of the latest WDC and it appears to work fine. But thank you for the suggestion.

Some sound effect differences between the beta and full version:

Insufficient clearance noise may be longer
Eitak/Tenaj sight sound may be a bit deeper.
Anim probe death sound 1 lacks the second thud at the end.

Vortex closing sound is different
Sloppy alien death is different
Breathing ambient sound is different
Anim probe death sound 4 is different

There are no different music tracks in the beta, but I haven't listened to the tracks to see if there are any sections in them that are different.

[doomjedi]

You're very throughout, Vernil, impressive.

[Tricob]

OT -

vermil wrote:

I've done a fresh install of the latest WDC and it appears to work fine. But thank you for the suggestion.

Yes, whether or not it installs properly seems to depend on your settings in Windows. Windows 10 is overloaded with all sorts of distracting pop-up programs that make your current window inactive while a different program loads up and closes that you didn't ask for; not good when you're using a word processor. I seem to have gotten rid of them for the most part, but one or two still seem to show up every hour. Can't blame it on Spyware this time; I haven't even hit the 'Net with this laptop yet.

[Adam Biser]

I also found a Corridor 7 beta on a site that cannot be listed here, but it's essentially the same as Robbbert's just with a different end screen (different BBS information and layout).

An easy way to compare data between versions (at least if the number of chunks is the same) is to export all chunks in WDC then zip each set of files and compare the CRC32s (such as with 7-zip).

The sounds in C7 are stored differently that Wolf3D and it takes some extra steps to change them: https://itch.io/t/46778/changing-digital-sounds-in-corridor-7
They are also 9009 Hz instead of 7042 Hz.

[Adam Biser]

I just found an earlier beta version of C7 that still has graphics from Wolf3D (dog and BJ), completely different weapons, a different song. WL6 extension.

EDIT: An it looks like an even earlier beta exists. Still has a lot of Wolf3D guards (SS, most bosses) The TIE fighter looking enemy is a floating orb. Different weapons from the other betas.

[Chris]

Adam Biser wrote:

I just found an earlier beta version of C7 that still has graphics from Wolf3D (dog and BJ), completely different weapons, a different song. WL6 extension.

EDIT: An it looks like an even earlier beta exists. Still has a lot of Wolf3D guards (SS, most bosses) The TIE fighter looking enemy is a floating orb. Different weapons from the other betas.

I looked out of curiosity from your post and found one called "a1 demo" that has WL6 files. The level itself was quite long and intricate so far (currently looking for the red door access wall), though used all Corridor 7 graphics in game. Using Digitized Music in it was quite interesting, if you let it play for a while it switches through different music "samples" it seems.

[Adam Biser]

I will post what I found. What's a good uploader server? mega.nz? Something else?
I hadn't noticed the digitized music option. Very interesting. You probably found the site I found, but given the nature of the site I can't share a link.

I found one with a JOESND file and one with BLORCH, both have WL6 files. These files have the sounds in them instead of the VSWAP. Goldwave can open them, unsigned 8-bit mono 9009Hz. I haven't really looked, but I bet these are basically just the VSWAP sound chunk information split into a separate format, lookup table at the end, etc.

EDIT: The digitized music samples are used in the CD version audio tracks.

[Robbbert]

Thanks for that info which made it easy to find. I'll try it out tomorrow.

[vermil]

Apologies for the delay in response. Thank you Adam for sending me the betas you found; there are some substainal differences in them to the full versions incluing what appear to be the weapon sprites they used on the back of the box. Looks like Capstone originally planned a darker game atmosphere wise, with those black sphere bad guys and such.

[Robbbert]

I tried out that a1 beta, played it through without cheating, then deleted it. Why? Because it's the same as the demo I already have.

[Adam Biser]

@Robbbert: You have a version with the WL6 extensions?

[Robbbert]

No, these had some other extension.


I don't have any version of Corridor 7 with WL6 extension. If one exists, can you point me to it?