03-24-2005, 07:32 PM | #1 |
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Gabriel Knight 1 Demo
I recently got my hands on a copy of the Gabriel Knight Mysteries collection and played Sins of the Fathers. It was extremely excellent, probably the most entertaining Sierra game I've ever played. Certainly for me it's the one with the richest story and best voice acting.
I also got a copy of the GK1 novelization thrown in, which I'm reading when time permits, but that's irrelevant. But playing the game got me to thinking...I discovered on my old computer a demo which I'd downloaded years ago. It's of a good chunk of Day 1 of Sins of the Fathers, minus the "Grandma Knight's House" and "Mosely's Office" gameplay bits. Does anyone remember it? Basically, Sierra created the demo to get feedback from the players about what should be changed and what should be kept. In case anyone's interested, I'll post screens of it: Warning for dial-up users: Big pictures ahead. This is the menu screen. Added, probably at request, was the Restore button. Also, when the Intro is finished, the gameplay doesn't begin as in the final game. Day 1. Notice a different quotation. The poem in the final game is Gabriel's own. Also, the WAIT shield is different; it looks more kingly. Inside the St. George's Book Shop; Grace chides Gabe The interface. In the final game, the lion's head and snake's head were flipped. Also, the WALK icon is different, and the four manipulation icons and the four other icons are switched from their normal places. Mosely shows Gabe the seventh Voodoo Murder victim An options menu greatly simplified from the final game's The inventory screen. That OPERATE icon was removed in the final version; also the snake scale is much larger than in the actual release. Sierra's notice explaining why it released a demo (an unusual practice for the company at the time, it would seem). If you don't think that blue-and-gold color combination is ugly, you should see it on the save/load screen. Well, that's about it for now. On to the sequels... EDIT: I thought it should be known that I only posted this because this demo seems now to be rather rare. If it's generally known of already, just ignore this thread. Thanks. |
03-24-2005, 08:31 PM | #2 |
Rattenmonster
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That's very cool! Thanks for sharing.
So... do you still have this demo? As far as I know, sharing demos with others is not illegal. I didn't even know it existed. I'd love to play it if you have it (or if someone can tell me where to find it). -emily |
03-24-2005, 08:36 PM | #3 |
fire breathing
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ha! well I know Jane Jensen's step-daughter....so there!!!
HA HA HA HA HA!!!
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03-24-2005, 09:23 PM | #4 |
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As a matter of fact, I do still have the demo. I salvaged it from my old computer.
I've put it in a ZIP file at this location for you to download. As usual with a Sierra game, the "SIERRA" executable starts the game, not the "DEMO" one. You may have to tinker with the install settings a bit to your taste. I played it in DOSbox, as I did the actual game, and had no problems at all. By the way, my savegames are included in the zip file - you can delete them if you wish. |
03-24-2005, 09:26 PM | #5 |
Rattenmonster
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Very cool. Thanks.
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03-24-2005, 09:33 PM | #6 |
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Two last screenshots before I go to bed:
Here're the Quit and Restart screens. More humorous than the final game's ones, for sure.... |
03-25-2005, 02:55 AM | #7 | |
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"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature." ---Helen Keller Last edited by fov; 03-25-2005 at 09:08 AM. Reason: fixed quote tag |
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03-25-2005, 07:09 AM | #8 | |
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Quote:
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03-25-2005, 07:08 PM | #9 |
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So, fov, did you play the demo yet? I'd like to hear what, if anything, your thoughts were about it.
Did you get all the points? There's nothing in the demo that you can't do in the full game, though some of the point-giving actions have no point in the demo's short timespan. |
03-25-2005, 07:43 PM | #10 |
El Luchador
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You might want to consider sending FileShack the demo, so they can host it on their ĂĽber-machines.
They usually put the game up on ShackReviews too, which gets these oldies some well-deserved attention. I remember when they managed to fnid the Neverhood demo. Ah, good times.
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03-25-2005, 09:49 PM | #11 |
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Ah the old, generic Sierra font.
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03-26-2005, 09:56 AM | #12 |
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There is some nice "work in progress" stuff inside that demo.
I've attached this image that shows some actors during sequences in the Voodoo Museum and in Jackson Square. The first row shows the early actors in the demo, the second row the actors in the final game. Of course, I'm too lazy to post the entire animations, but these are just representative frames. Following is a description of the scenes. Spoiler: |
03-26-2005, 10:15 AM | #13 |
Rattenmonster
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Interesting! I haven't had a chance to play it yet. Maybe today.
-emily |
03-26-2005, 10:47 AM | #14 |
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Hendroz, are you sure that's Dr. John's sprite from the demo? It looks much more like a motion capture of Bruno, Gabriel's annoying neighbor.
SPOILER Spoiler: Maybe it was mislabeled or something, but I can tell you that doesn't look like Dr. John at all. EDIT: Here's a picture of Bruno in Gabe's shop for comparison. It seems he has the ponytail, the dark hair, the white shirt, the bare legs, and the running shoes of the "Dr. John" demo sprite. Of course, the developers could have considered the sprite for Dr. John and rejected it, but I doubt it. It was probably mislabeled or something. Last edited by ATMachine; 03-26-2005 at 10:55 AM. |
03-27-2005, 02:23 AM | #15 |
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ATMachine, I got these infos from *inside* the demo data.
Those strange actors in the demo are just placeholders/stand-ins used during the making of the game scenes. |
03-27-2005, 12:19 PM | #16 |
Rattenmonster
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I tried the demo this morning and got an error message that I didn't have enough memory. Never seen this one on a Sierra game so I thought there was something wrong with my computer. After much puttering, playing with the page file and such, it occurred to me to run the demo in DosBox - which worked perfectly, of course.
-emily |
03-27-2005, 12:56 PM | #17 |
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I have no problems running it under XP, apart for the fact that mouse doesn't move.
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03-27-2005, 01:34 PM | #18 | |
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03-27-2005, 02:06 PM | #19 | |
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03-27-2005, 02:09 PM | #20 | |
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