Alpha and Beta Versions - Blood Omen - Legacy of Kain: The Lost Worlds

Alpha and Beta Versions

The Lost Worlds Collection

The following prerelease builds of Blood Omen are known to exist, and possessed by Lost Worlds staff:

1996-07-12 - obtained from an anonymous source
1996-09-15 - courtesy of Gh0stBlade

Other Suspected Builds

The 12 July build of the game includes a file named KEVY.DAT in its PILL.BIG file. KEVY.DAT contains a file listing of the contents of PILL.BIG from 3 June, 1996 - about six weeks prior. The Lost Worlds staff believe that a build of the game was created on that date, but it is unknown if that build ever left the Silicon Knights offices, or if it still exists.

The Lost Worlds staff have a private fund for the purchase of this version of the game, and are willing to offer US$1000 for it. If you are in the possession of this build and interested in selling it, please get in touch with us using the Contact form.

Test/Debugging Features

The 12 July and 15 September builds include various features to aid in testing and debugging the game. In the case of the 12 July build, it is impossible to complete the game without making frequent use of them.

Walking into the wall in the southwest corner of the first room will transport Kain to the Developers' Level Select room (map 0, section 0). Combined with the Sanctuary spell, this permits fast access to most of the game world. There is a second (perhaps older) level-select room in the game's data files (map 71, section 92), but it does not appear to be accessible without editing savegame files.
Holding down the square and circle buttons continuously will allow Kain to walk through any obstacle. Combined with the ability to traverse between sections by walking off the edge of a section (discussed in Map Survey, this allows access to many additional deleted or unfinished sections which are not linked from elsewhere in the game world.
Pressing the square, circle, triangle, and X buttons simultaneously will allow the player to save anywhere. However, the game is extremely finnicky about recognizing this button combination, and it usually requires multiple attempts.
Status information is overlaid in the upper-left corner of the game screen.

Differences

Many of the differences are chronicled in detail in other articles in the Blood Omen section. A massive amount of content remains to be added over time. For example, the overworld location of Vorador's mansion is completely different in the 12 July build. Not just the location on the world map, but the environment that the mansion is located in.

Vorador's Mansion - 1996-07-12 Build

Vorador's mansion in the 1996-09-12 build

That's just the first random image I had lying around of something I'd not documented properly yet. It is going to take awhile to go through all of this material.

I examined the data for known builds of the game, and compared it with the information in the KEVY.DAT file to generate the following high-level breakdown of the differences. The numbers indicate the count of sections within a given map. For example, the 12 July build has 43 sections for map 01 (the overworld), while the 15 September and final versions of the game only have 40. Map numbers followed by a letter indicate a known or suspected repurposing of a given map number. For example, map 07 in the 12 July build is one of the Additional Crypt Dungeons, whereas in the 15 September and final versions, it is used for the Lost City. The letters are not present in the game data, and are included here to make the distinction for the reader.

From the perspective of the total number of map sections in the entire game, the progression is as follows:

1996-06-03: 942
1996-07-12: 576
1996-09-15: 582
Final: 585

In other words, the final version of the game contains about 62% of the number of "rooms" that were present in 3 June, 1996, and that earlier version of the game already appears to have been reduced in scope from the original design.

Map #	Description	1996-06-03	1996-07-12	1996-09-15	Final
00	Level-Select	1	1	12	12
01	Overworld	61	43	40	40
02	Deleted City Interiors?^[1]	27	6	7	7
03	Vasserbunde, Steinchencroe, Nachtholm Interiors	8	24	26	26
04	Coorhagen and town east of Willendorf Interiors	0	14	20	20
05	Boss Rooms	17	21	21	23
06	Kain's Mausoleum	5	1	1	1
07(a)	Crypt Dungeon 1	3	3	N/A	N/A
07(b)	The Lost City	N/A	N/A	23	23
08(a)	Crypt Dungeon 2	4	2	N/A	N/A
08(b)	HMCS Bitter	N/A	N/A	2	2
09(a)	Crypt Dungeon 3	3	4	0	0
09(b)	Temple of Hash'ak'gik	N/A	N/A	2	2
10	Blood Fountains	8	9	9	9
11(a)	Deleted Area?	80	N/A	N/A	N/A
11(b)	Light Spell Dungeon	N/A	6	6	6
12	Wolf Form Dungeon	4	4	4	4
13(a)	Deleted Area?	6	N/A	N/A	N/A
13(b)	Mausoleum Dungeon 4	N/A	0	5	5
14	Spirit Forges^[2]	10	20	20	20
15	Nupraptor's Keep	97	20	19	19
16(a)	Force Shield/Magic Absorb Dungeon	5	8	N/A	N/A
16(b)	Repel Dungeon (Revised)	N/A	N/A	8	8
17	Inspire Hate Dungeon	6	9	12	12
18	Bone Armour Dungeon	10	10	10	10
19	[Not in any known build]	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
20	Malek's Bastion	34	34	35	35
21	Stun Dungeon	5	7	7	7
22	Mist Form Dungeon	9	6	7	7
23	The Oracle's Cave	7	7	8	8
24	[Not in any known build]	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
25	Control Mind Dungeon	4	4	4	4
26(a)	Deleted Area	98	N/A	N/A	N/A
26(b)	Blood Gout Dungeon	N/A	4	4	4
27	Repel Dungeon (Original)	7	8	N/A	N/A
28	[Not in any known build]	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
29	Vorador's Mansion	13	23	24	23
30	Flame Sword Dungeon	4	4	5	5
31	Dark Eden	14	14	14	14
32	Lightning Dungeon	4	3	3	3
33	[Not in any known build]	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
34	[Not in any known build]	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
35	Avernus	100	27	48	48
36	Avernus Cathedral Interior	3	3	5	6
37	Soul Reaver Dungeon	6	5	5	5
38	Wraith Armour Dungeon	18	18	19	19
39	Spirit Wrack Dungeon	3	3	8	8
40(a)	Deleted Area	6	N/A	N/A	N/A
40(b)	Beguile Dungeon	N/A	6	6	6
41	Willendorf	12	24	25	25
42	[Not in any known build]	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
43	Elzevir's House	9	5	7	7
44	Ottmar/Nemesis Battlefield	2	2	3	3
45	Nemesis Castle (Present)	4	2	3	3
46	[Not in any known build]	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
47	Overworld in the Past	8	5	7	7
48	William the Just's Castle Interior	6	5	10	10
49	Overworld in the Altered Present	8	5	5	5
50(a)	Deleted Area	95	N/A	N/A	N/A
50(b)	Ruined Castle of William the Just	N/A	4	13	13
51(a)	Deleted Area	33	3	N/A	N/A
51(b)	Secret Areas	N/A	N/A	7	7
52(a)	Deleted Dungeon	18	15	N/A	N/A
52(b)	Cave	N/A	N/A	1	1
53(a)	Deleted Dungeon	7	4	N/A	N/A
53(b)	Cave	N/A	N/A	3	3
54	Cave	3	0	5	5
55	Deleted Cave Interiors	4	4	0	0
56	Cave Interiors	2	3	2	2
57	Deleted Area	2	0	0	0
58(a)	Willendorf Tunnel Dungeon	11	11	4	4
58(b)	Caves	0	1	3	3
59(a)	Deleted Area	7	N/A	0	0
59(b)	Deleted Dungeon	N/A	1	0	0
59(c)	Stahlberg Interiors (Present)	N/A	9	9	9
60	Stahlberg Interiors (Past)	0	0	11	11
61	Stahlberg Interiors (Altered Present)	0	0	11	11
62	Deleted Area	12	0	0	0
63	The Pillars of Nosgoth	4	3	1	1
64	[Not in any known build]	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
65	[Not in any known build]	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
66	[Not in any known build]	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
67	[Not in any known build]	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
68	[Not in any known build]	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
69	[Not in any known build]	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
70	Ziegsturhl (Intro)	2	3	3	3
71	Alternate Level-Select	0	1	1	0
72	Energy Bolt Dungeon	6	2	2	2

These figures reveal a significant difference between the 12 July build and the final version of the game, but a truly staggering number of changes took place between 3 June and later builds:

The number of overworld map sections was reduced by approximately 50%. This (and related topics) are discussed at length in Alternate World Maps
Three extremely large areas (80 sections in map 11, 98 sections in map 26, 95 sections in map 50) and two medium-to-large areas (33 sections in map 51, 18 sections in map 52, 12 sections in map 62) were deleted after 3 June. These areas are briefly discussed in [[BO1/Unknown Deleted Areas]].
Nupraptor's Keep (map 15) was cut in size by almost 80%, from 97 sections to 19.
The city of Avernus was reduced from 100 sections to 27, then increased to 48 - a net loss of over half of the area. The significantly-different version in the 12 July build is discussed in Original Avernus City.
Vorador's mansion (map 29) almost doubled in size.
The number of sections for Willendorf (map 41) was doubled.
Kain's mausoleum (map 6) appears to have been more elaborate in earlier versions of the game.
The size of the tunnel beneath Willendorf (map 58) was reduced by over half, as discussed in Extended Willendorf Tunnel.
The Lost City, HMCS Bitter, and the temple of Hash'ak'gik are not present at all in the 12 July or 3 June builds. They were inserted in the spaces vacated by the deleted Additional Crypt Dungeons.
The original Repel spell dungeon (map 27, 7-8 sections) was deleted entirely, and the spell moved to the former Force Shield and Magic Absorb Dungeon, when those spells were deleted.
At least one city or large town (map 2) appears to have been deleted. Alternatively, Ziegsturhl and Nachtholm may have originally been much larger.
Vasserbunde, Steinchencroe, and Nachtholm (map 3) had a large number of interior locations added.
Coorhagen and the town east of Willendorf (map 4) had no interiors present in the 3 June data files.
Six additional boss rooms (map 5) were added between 3 June and the release of the game.
The Beguile ability appears to be a late addition to the game - it does not appear to be present in the 3 June build.
The Energy Bolt spell also appears to have been added to the game much later than other spells, and it was either not present or obtained in a dungeon with an entirely different design in the 3 June build.

Cinematic Video File Dates

The 12 July build includes versions of the story cinematics which (except for act 1) are earlier versions than those included in the 15 September build and the final version of the game. The content of these videos is virtually identical to the later versions, except for the use of placeholder music (as discussed in Placeholder Cinematic Music). However, the modification dates for the files on the earlier disc may give some sense of which parts of the story remained concrete for most of the game's production, and which were altered closer to release.

Based on the file data, the visual content of each video was finalized no later than the following dates:

ACT1.STR (Introduction) - 1996-05-10
ACT2.STR (Kain is resurrected as a vampire) - 1996-05-23
ACT4.STR (Kain meets Ariel at the Pillars) - 1996-04-18
ACT7.STR (Kain meets Moebius in the Oracle's Cave) - 1996-05-20
ACT8.STR (Kain meets Vorador) - 1996-03-12
ACT10.STR (Kain encounters Bane, DeJoule, and Malek) - 1996-03-10
ACT11.STR (Kain meets King Ottmar) - 1996-04-18
ACT12.STR (Ottmar's army meets the legions of the Nemesis in battle) - 1996-05-22
ACT13.STR (Moebius incites fear of vampires and asks "take me to your king, so that I can prepare you for the onslaught") - 1995-10-18
ACT14.STR (Vorador is executed, and Moebius commands peasants to attack Kain) - 1996-04-24
ACT14B.STR (Kain kills Moebius) - 1996-03-17
ACT15.STR (Anarcrothe attacks Mortanius, and is killed) - 1996-04-24
ACT15B.STR (Mortanius' true nature is revealed) - 1996-05-08
ACT16.STR (Kain is given a choice) - 1996-03-15
ACT17.STR (Kain makes the choice that is best, because it leads to the best game ever being made) - 1996-02-29
ACT18.STR (Kain chooses to sacrifice himself instead) - 1996-06-03
AVERFIN.STR (bat flight to Avernus) - 1996-05-09
EDENFIN.STR (bat flight to Dark Eden) - 1996-03-19
MALFIN.STR (bat flight to Malek's bastion) - 1996-05-09
NUPFIN.STR (bat flight to Nupraptor's keep) - 1996-03-18
ORACFIN.STR (bat flight to the Oracle's Cave) - 1996-12-06
PILLFIN.STR (bat flight to the Pillars of Nosgoth) - 1996-03-21
TIMEA.STR (travel backward in time) - 1996-06-01
TIMEB.STR (travel forward in time) - 1996-06-01
VORFIN.STR (bat flight to Vorador's mansion) - 1996-03-20
WILLFIN.STR (bat flight to Willendorf) - 1995-12-06

Theories

I believe that one of the large deleted areas was a separate location featuring Bane as a standalone boss.

One or more of the large deleted areas may also have been used for more-complete versions of the game world at different points in the time. That is, instead of being limited to the northeast corner of the map, the alternate eras might have encompassed the entire game world.

Alternatively, all three of the large deleted areas may have featured a Pillar guardian. In the final version of the game, Kain never fights Anarcrothe, and Vorador defeats Malek. One or both of these battles might have been intended to take place.

Video
File	Size	Author
"BMG Xmas" 1996 Crystal Dynamics Trailer	60 MiB	Crystal Dynamics
This video, provided by Halfiry, was discovered on a BMG promotional CD-ROM from Christmas 1996. It includes footage from Blood Omen featuring the five-tier magic meter and an unknown deleted area. The formal name of the trailer is currently unknown. The original file is named CD.MOV, and the BMG CD-ROM's label is bmgxmas.

Footnotes

1.	A few of the map sections were retained and used for the interiors of buildings in Ziegsturhl and Nachtholm.
2.	The large discrepancy regarding the number of sections in this map is due to the addition of antechamber rooms for each Spirit Forge, as well as two additional copies of the Pentalich of Tarot Spirit Forge being added to account for the alternate time periods.

Related Articles:
Alternate World Maps
Open-World Design

The Legacy of Kain series and related material (including images and sound files) is the property of Square Enix (formerly Eidos Interactive Ltd). The Lost Worlds is an independent, not-for-profit fan site. All content created for this site is Copyright 2002-2018 Ben Lincoln except where noted as being provided by another author.