An early prototype build of 3D Realms’ portal-based first-person shooter from 1995, Prey, has been leaked online.
Enthusiasts and those in the modding community now have a chance to check out an early prototype of Prey, which was released back in the year 1995.
As per the description, those who download this early build of Prey can either pass a map name as the argument when launching it, i.e. ‘prey demo4’, or once launched via ‘prey’, press TAB to open the console and then type ‘load demo4’. Several demos are available (DMO files) as part of this early build, each of which can be played by using the ‘play <demoname>’ command. The display mode can be altered using the W key, and it defaults to wireframe mode. The L key will enable auto-leveling, the X key will strafe left, and the C key will strafe right. Meanwhile, the A and Z will go up or down, respectively. Lastly, hitting the TAB key will open access to the console.
Other available commands include pressing the G key to toggle gravity on and off. The prompt “gravity on” and “gravity off” appears in the console, and it will result in the gravity pulling you down to the floor if you are not floating above ground. Pressing the F key shows a prompt that says “time = ” followed by a number. The number appears to change at random, and it’s unclear what it indicates.
The developer behind Prey, 3D Realms, is a video game publisher based in Aalborg, Denmark. In order to publish his game Kingdom of Kroz, Scott Miller established Apogee Software Productions in his parents’ Garland, Texas, home in 1987. The business popularized a distribution model where each game consists of three episodes, the first of which is distributed for free as shareware and the other two of which can be purchased, in the late 1980s and early 1990s. To implement this model, Apogee developed the well-known franchise Duke Nukem. In a similar vein, Apogee also released Commander Keen and Wolfenstein 3D.
