Website is designed for resolutions of 1024x768+
Tested with Mozilla Firefox.

Link to us:


All contents are (C) by the Diablo Evolution team or Blizzard Entertainment!

Affiliates:

DiabloDay - Polish BN-Retail Chronicle

The PreRelease Demo

In 1996, before the official Beta test, Blizzard released a prerelease-demo on the web and in several game magazines around the world. It was based on a build very close to the Alpha3 with the interface looking a little bit closer to the retail version, but with the same functionality as in the Alpha3 version. It is quite unusual for Blizzard to release such an early version of a game, but it makes sense. This may have been what Diablo was meant to look like. As you might know, Diablo was originally planned as a single player only game and that was still the plan a few months before the release of the game. So the pre-release demo exactly mirrors this fact. The multiplayer part was suggested as a nice addition to the game which resulted in the Beta version of the game, with the only purpose of testing the multiplayer/battle.net part. But more about that in the Beta section.
So the prerelease Demo was a normal demo, with the difference that plans for the game changed and it got updated once more.
The prerelease Demo can still be downloaded and played. Check the links section! Now here are the infos about this version:
Features:
-the first level is playable
-the warrior is playable -rogue and sorceror are disabled in this version
-the butcher quest is available (he's normally on level2)
-alpha3 interface with visual update
-alpha3 item graphics
-a ton of spells and item properties that aren't available in newer versions
-blood boil spell, book of identify, doom serpents, sentinal, blood ritual, +% spell duration items and much more

If you've played Diablo a lot, but never tried the prerelease demo: Do it NOW! It's a very interesting experience giving you the chance to play an early version of Diablo.

Pre-Release Demo enhanced
If you want to make the most of this version, you can alter it and make the following things available:
-sorceror (with warrior gfx) playable (in addition to the warrior)
-play levels 1-4 (if you're lucky)
-see a lot of crashes *g*
This version is playable up to level4. Sometimes it crashes when loading a level because the game tries to access enemy graphics that aren't in the game. Same applies for level5, which always crashes. The catacombs graphics simply aren't in the MPQ. The Rogue is also unavailable because her graphics aren't in the MPQ either.
The game also crashes sometimes when casting blood boil. The Skeleton King quest is available, but you can't enter his lair, because, again, graphics for the king are missing.
It's quite interesting to see all those (NW) marks behind item properties, meaning (NOT WORKING). Some of them were made working and some were kicked out of the game, because they made no sense or they couldn't get them to work.
For more fun with this demo, check out the Alpha4 section!
Screenshots from the regular prerelease demo:
(click to enlarge)
There is a bridge in the pre-release demo's Tristram that has been removed in the retail version. I -really- don't know why *g*
(click to enlarge)
The old "belt" in action. This would allow for a huge amount of potions to be accessed directly instead of just 8. I think a mixture of this system and the retail belt might be the ultimate solution.
6 Buttons, one for each type of potion (mana, health, rejuvenation) assigned to the potions in the inventory (if available). You could pack yourself full with different potions and drink them directly out of your inventory. On the other hand, your inventory is 8 spaces bigger in the retail *g*
(click to enlarge)
This is as far as you can go in the demo. "That is forbidden in the demo!" says the warrior and turns around. Luckily we can trick him into thinking that he's not running in a demo dungeon ;)
Screenshots from the enhanced version:
(click to enlarge)
Fighting the worst enemy a warrior could face! Even high-level heroes skip levels or exit the game if they face these foes.
(click to enlarge)
The entrance to leorics tomb. Closed for repairs!
(click to enlarge)

Here we're seeing a good proof that Blizzard really thinks about game balance. Although this item property is -really- interesting and might be a lot of fun to use, depending on its implementation, I couldn't think of a way this would really work effectively ingame. And so did Blizzard :)
(click to enlarge)
A fine introduction for the catacombs, that is (unfortunately) no longer in the retail version! The text was partially used in the retail version of the "Chamber of Bone" quest.
(click to enlarge)
The stairs to level 5 after reading the tome pictured in the fourth picture. Before reading the book you could not enter this location. It looks really good considering that it doesn't use any special graphics!
(click to enlarge)
These are the two shots mentioned above. They show the rogue, fighting Hell enemies in the Catacombs! But as we know now, these aren't the catacombs, it's really "Hell" as this version generates catacomb levels after the caves, but filled with Hell enemies!
Keep in mind: These are two OFFICIAL Blizzard shots, shown to everybody hitting "EXIT" in the pr-demo!