As with many other shareware games of the time, the initial shareware releases of
Shadow Warrior (v1.0 and v1.1) have been made before the registered version was completed (v1.2) and as such reflect a pre-release state of the game.
While the general content of the early shareware versions is the same - there are four levels, and available weapons, items and monsters are similar to the final release - there are quite a few noticeable differences worth mention:
- First off, versions 1.0 and 1.1 have self-running demos, similar to other FPS games of the time, including Build games in general and the direct predecessor of Shadow Warrior, Duke Nukem 3D. Both early versions feature demo records of two levels, Zilla Construction and Master Leep's Temple. The self-running demos can be turned off with the -nodemo command line parameter.
- Further on, the early versions use the rotating shuriken selection marker, as opposed to v1.2 that uses the Yin Yang symbol as the selection marker. Here's a screenshot from v1.1, with a similar screenshots from v1.2 for comparison:
- Versions 1.0 and 1.1 also do not have episode titles yet. On the episode selection screen, the episodes are simply called "Shareware levels" and "Registered levels":
- In both versions 1.0 and 1.1, it is impossible to switch between single UZI and dual-wielded UZIs after the second UZI had been picked up. It is not clear whether this was an oversight in the earlier versions, or the intended effect which was changed in v1.2.
- Versions 1.0 and 1.1 do not yet have the air meter that shows the amount of remaining air while underwater, or the boss health meter. Those were added in v1.2, along with a command line parameter that allows to disable the meters.
- Compared to v1.0, most of Lo Wang's voice clips have been edited to increase their volume in v1.1. These new versions remain unchanged in v1.2.
- Throughout the levels, there are many minor differences concerning placement of certain item caches, switches and the like, which do not, however, affect the general layout of the levels.
- One of the notable graphical differences between v1.0/1.1 and v1.2 is the appearance of Lara Croft in the secret area on level four. Early versions use the same graphics as the beta version, with a more anime look. Version 1.2 replaced this with an appearance that is much closer to the original character:
Interestingly enough, the walkthrough for level 4 featured at the 3D Realms' website shows a screenshot of the Lara Croft area with the beta graphics.
- The built-in command line help in v1.0 mentions two command line parameters, -commbat# and -coop#, which turn on fake multiplayer and fake co-op modes in single-player game:
Version 1.1 removed the description of these parameters from the built-in help, but they are still listed in the electronic manual (SWHELP.EXE). Version 1.2 removes all mention of these from its electronic manual as well. Nevertheless, the -commbat# and -coop# parameters work in all three versions, although no parameter that would actually turn on bots in "fake multiplayer" single-player games is mentioned in any of these versions.
- There is a Win95 compatibility mode for MIDI music in early versions which can be activated with the -win95 or -win95awe32 command line parameters. Version 1.2 also makes no mention of this whatsoever.
You can get the old versions of
Shadow Warrior shareware at
RGB Classic Games. One thing though, they seem not to run in DOSBox at all.