Demo v2.0

Demo v2.0


On Mar 14, 1994 Bungie announced a PowerPC version of Pathways Into Darkness. A PowerPC version of the demo became available to download from America OnLine on Apr 7, 1994. The Read Me file refers to the demo as Demo v2.0 (3/5/94). Apart from texture mapped floors and ceilings the new demo came with "three completely new levels" as Jason Jones explained in this comp.sys.mac.games post. A few days later Alain Roy (a good friend of Jason's) posted the following comment: "It's got 3 full levels, and, well... some interesting aspects."

The new levels were called:

Ground Floor, its (Reprise) and a secret area (see below)
Charon Doesn't Make Change
Come And Take Your Medicine

Oddly the level names from the data fork of the Pathways Into Darkness Demo v2.0 Map file are:

Entrance To Hell
Search Me!
Carnage from Above

Yet when you play the demo the actually level names are:

Ground Floor
Charon Doesn't Make Change
Come And Take Your Medicine

These names appear in the resource fork of the Pathways Into Darkness Demo application (STR#2021). You can still find the level names "Entrance To Hell", "Search Me!", and "Carnage from Above" at the end of the full list of level names in STR resource #2018.


Although the levels are different the new demo (v2.0) plays pretty much the same way as v1.0. The objective is to find the Blue Crystal on "Charon Doesn't Make Change" to survive the Phantasms on "Come And Take Your Medicine" and thus retrieve the Alien Pipes to access the final room on "Ground Floor". On the way you'll meet a monster only found in v2.0 of the demo - The Stalker. Unfortunately there is no Yellow Crystal so you can't talk to the two dead Germans on these levels.


Ground Floor (Secret Area)

Back in Oct 20, 2000 Graham Cull <gscull@swbell.net> wrote:

I've found a secret in the Pathways v2.0 demo. After you blast your way through all those critters in the last room, pick up the bungie propaganda, then make a hard right (90 degrees). Walk forward, and step into a room loaded with... with...

...skulls and bones and dead monsters!

Hard to believe but this is probably the first time that this secret has actually been documented (Note see update below). Here's a map showing the location of the secret room on "Ground Floor".


Two days after the discovery of the secret room mizark316 (full name pending) <mizark316@earthlink.net> wrote:

The hidden room at the end of the Pathways Demo v2.0 holds more than just dead monsters and bones...

If you walk around the hidden room tapping 'g' to search the area, you'll find that one of the skulls holds the infamous Easter Egg. Upon eating the egg you are transported to an area on the lower part of the map that spells out CARNAGE. I'm not sure exactly what the point of this room is (besides the fact that it might just be part of the Easter Egg) but there is a save spot at the E of CARNAGE.




Matt Heath <PoetOTR@aol.com> makes some interesting observations about the Pathways Into Darkness v2.0 demo and its recently discovered secret area:

Hats off to those who felt all those stretches of walls and clicked on all those skulls....

(By the time you get there [the secret area] , you probably won't have a blue crystal left (or only a few remaining blasts) and only a clip or two left of Walther ammo, so it's really hard to survive to the end of the hidden part -- you have to stab those bloody Nightmares and back up a long way and rest each time.) Also, it's kind of a let-down to kill off some twenty Nightmares and about eight Headlesses just to finally get to a save rune at the end. A new weapon or monster at that point would have been great. But, hey, just being able to discover it was the main thing.

I noticed that no matter where you eat the Easter Egg, the map afterwards shows a teleport at that spot. Also, you can teleport from the other two levels as well -- it dosn't matter where you are when you munch on the egg.

So why is there a save game rune at the end of secret area when there is no where else to go or do... or is there?

Interesting to note that not only does a teleporter appear (in map view) at the spot where you eat the egg but the ladder going up to "Charon Doesn't Make Change" changes into a teleporter (in map view). One might reasonably wonder if this is in fact a teleporter and whether it leads anywhere. If only one could go back and check. ;-)




Update. Well it appears that the secret room was discovered shortly after the release of the demo v2.0. On the 11 April 1994 Howard Berkey posted to comp.sys.mac.games stating:

The demo has 3 new levels (plus at least one cool secret room, BTW :-) and one monster I don't remember from PID. (could be wrong, though).

Alain Roy who worked on the PowerPC conversion of Pathways Into Darkness followed up by enquiring:

but did you get past the secret room? heh, heh.

So the hint was there to keep searching for a possible exit. The exit was discovered by at least one person. Sean McDowell posted the following to comp.sys.mac.games:

From: seanmcd@ac.dal.ca (Sean McDowell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
Subject: PID Demo Secret Area: Now What??
Followup-To: comp.sys.mac.games
Date: 14 Apr 1994 14:37:32 -0300
Organization: Nova Scotia Technology Network
Lines: 7
Sender: news@nstn.ns.ca
Distribution: world
Message-ID: <seanmcd-140494144031@arpp.stmarys.ca>
NNTP-Posting-Host: owl.nstn.ns.ca


Okay, so I found the secret area in the demo (so those of you who haven't:
start looking!)

After a rather grim battle with the survival knife against the last of the
nasties, I found the save rune...and nothing else. Now what? Anything?

Sean


He got no response. In addition the existence of these secret areas were never documented in any FAQ or Guide. Indeed on the 7 October 1994 Doug Creutz asked in a comp.sys.mac.games post:

4) Are there any secret areas in the demo, and if so how do I go about looking for them?

Sorry if this is an old topic - if there is a faq somewhere, please point me in that direction (I've seen one for the full game but not for the demo.)

He got no response.

Knowledge of the demo v2.0 secrets vanished into the virtual ether... until now.



Page maintained by Hamish Sinclair
Hamish.Sinclair123@gmail.com
Last updated Feb 12, 2012