So I was browsing the ScummVM Game Demos section and found some early non-interactive demos Sierra put out for Hero's Quest I and Quest for Glory II.
The Quest for Glory II demo is really interesting, having a lot of alternate and early graphics. Here's a selection of its more notable screens, compared with those of the final game:
Compare the demo's title card with that of the full game. The final version of the "Quest for Glory" text was redrawn to be smaller and more legible.
Dinarzad's shop got redrawn to change the size of the stone masonry. Amazing how minor details like that get tweaked.
The gray background for random-monster combat was redesigned in the full game.
The mountains in the background during the endgame tightrope walk were recolored for some reason.
The finale scene with Ad Avis originally had a different night sky, showing a crescent moon between the Dragon and Scorpion constellations. Ad Avis's sprite was also entirely redrawn for the final game.
In the demo, the Hero fires a lightning bolt at Ad Avis, but it's deflected by the villain's Reversal spell and rebounds, killing the Hero. This screenshot can also be seen on the back cover of the game box, and it seems that a death message for doing this survives in the resource files: "You sure got a charge from that lightning. Perhaps you should have been galvanized into action instead."
The look of the Rasier landscape as seen when Iblis rises is different in the demo and the actual game.
There's also the Hero's Quest I rolling demo, which has one notable oddity.
The font for the "Hero Status" and "Enemy Status" legends is more elaborate in the demo than in the final release.
Quest for Glory II demo
Moderators: adeyke, VampD3, eriqchang, Angelus3K
Re: Quest for Glory II demo
Sorry for the double post, but I've got more stuff to share.
Here's a version of Iblis rising from the demo where I've taken away the demo's text box.
Here's that background at daytime from the demo's resource files (at left), compared with the same background from the final game's resources (at right). Oddly enough, though this version remains in the final game files, the actual gameplay uses another version of this scene, which is always set at nighttime and which features an entirely redrawn city.
Here's a version of Iblis rising from the demo where I've taken away the demo's text box.
Here's that background at daytime from the demo's resource files (at left), compared with the same background from the final game's resources (at right). Oddly enough, though this version remains in the final game files, the actual gameplay uses another version of this scene, which is always set at nighttime and which features an entirely redrawn city.
Re: Quest for Glory II demo
That's pretty cool.
Re: Quest for Glory II demo
That's cool ATMachine.
Why have you stopped updating your site with these?
It's harder following your findings this way (I also noticed your stuff in the Conquest of Camelot Wikia site).
Why have you stopped updating your site with these?
It's harder following your findings this way (I also noticed your stuff in the Conquest of Camelot Wikia site).