Duke Nukem 3D

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Duke Nukem 3D
Developer(s)	3D Realms
Publisher(s)	Apogee Software
Engine	Build
Release date(s)	January 29, 1996 (PC) May 25, 1997 (Mac) April 1, 2003 (Source)
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer
Rating(s)	RSAC: V4: Wanton and Gratuitous Violence NS1: Revealing Attire L1: Mild Expletives ESRB: Mature BBFC: 18 OFLC: MA 15+ OFLC (New Zealand): R16
Platform(s)	game.com, Mac, PC (MS-DOS), Sega Mega Drive (Brazil only), Sega Saturn, Sony PlayStation, source ports to many other platforms
Media	CD (PC/Mac)

Duke Nukem 3D is a first-person shooter developed by 3D Realms and released on January 29, 1996 by Apogee Software, featuring the adventures of Duke Nukem, based on a character that had appeared in earlier platform games by the company: Duke Nukem and Duke Nukem II.

Contents 1 Synopsis 2 Humor 3 Gameplay 3.1 Level design 3.2 Warping 3.3 Weapons and equipment 3.4 Monsters 3.5 Multiplayer 4 Controversy 5 Official addons 5.1 Plutonium PAK/Atomic Edition 5.2 EDuke 6 LameDuke 7 Unofficial addons 7.1 Commercial addons 7.2 Modifications 7.3 Popular Total Conversions 8 Source code ports 8.1 Standard ports 8.2 EDuke and other ports 9 Console ports 10 Successors 10.1 Duke Nukem Forever 10.2 SiN 11 Crew and cast 12 Theme Song 13 References 14 External links 14.1 Official 14.2 Fansites 14.3 Source ports 14.4 Other

[edit] Synopsis

"Murderous aliens have landed in futuristic Los Angeles, and humans suddenly find themselves atop the endangered species list. The odds are a million-to-one, just the way Duke likes it!"

Taking on the role of Duke Nukem, players must fight through 28 levels spread over three chapters. (A commercial upgrade later added a fourth episode of 11 additional levels.) As usual for a first-person shooter, players encounter a whole host of different enemies, and can engage them with a range of weaponry. As well as killing aliens to free the Earth, players must also solve puzzles to progress through the various levels. Some puzzles allow access to extra, hidden levels. Duke Nukem 3D is set in the early 21st century. ^[1] Throughout the game, there are hints at a more specific time period, including a calendar which says "December 2007". Ironically, Duke Nukem Forever is unlikely to be released before that date.

[edit] Humor

Duke Nukem 3D is mainly notable for the often crude humor it introduced into what had previously been a fairly humorless genre, including a stream of one-liners (heavily inspired by Ash Williams and John Nada) from the title character. Many of these related to the frequently gruesome deaths meted out by Duke ("That's gotta hurt"), interactions with usable props such as toilets ("Ahhh, much better") or noteworthy things Duke comes across and feels necessary to comment on, like Duke Nukem arcade machines ("Hmm... don't have time to play with myself."). Various Easter eggs appear in the game, such as a giant sign on a wall proclaiming "YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE" (signed "Levelord") in an area not accessible except by using a no-clip cheat or a jetpack.

The game also references and spoofs many films and other games. For instance, when the player comes upon a corpse that closely resembles the player character in Doom (Doomguy), Duke comments, "That's one doomed space marine." This quote became famous after websites dedicated to Duke Nukem 3D began reporting that Doom's developer, id Software, had filed a lawsuit against Apogee Games and 3D Realms, trying to obtain an injunction to remove it. (The suit was ultimately unsuccessful.) Another jab at a fellow shooter game was a line in a level in Episode 3 when a building (with a sticker warning of a fault line) blows up and partially collapses; Duke responds, "I ain't afraid of no quake", obviously poking fun at the game Quake, which was yet to be released. Another level also has the player pressing a TNT plunger and demolishing a building. This building was supposedly modeled after the Mesquite, Texas headquarters of id Software.

The game freely plunders many themes from cinematic sources, notably the Alien (the proto-slimes come out of eggs exactly like those seen in the Alien series and people trapped in pods who whisper "kill me" like in Aliens) and Evil Dead film series. Duke's pose on the box art and title screen is almost exactly the same as that of Ash's on the Army of Darkness movie poster. There are also cameos from Indiana Jones (whose corpse is greeted by Duke saying, in a German accent, "We meet again, Dr. Jones"), Star Trek: The Next Generation (a hidden recreation of the Enterprise bridge with Jean-Luc Picard's personal pornroom or, as Duke phrases it, a "REALLY ready room"), Star Wars (the hanging corpse of Luke Skywalker in Stormtrooper armor : "Now this is a force to be reckoned with"), Escape From L.A. (the corpse of the movie's lead character, Snake Plissken, on a pike, with Duke saying, "I guess he didn't escape from L.A."), The Hunt for Red October (the submarine USS Dallas in Episode 1, Level 3), 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Terminator (a crushed Terminator is found, lifted from a scene the end of the first movie, while Duke utters "Terminated"; also a police station stage in the Atomic Edition where Duke overhears Arnold's "I'll be back" line). In the Atomic Edition, the game contains references to Dirty Harry, Die Hard, Mission: Impossible, and Independence Day.

There are also references to the contemporaneous O.J. Simpson trial, including the chase of Simpson's white Ford Bronco being played on TV sets in the game (such as the "Red Light District" level), and prominent billboards simply saying "Innocent?" ("Hollywood Holocaust" from episode 1, L.A. Meltdown) and "Guilty!" ("Fahrenheit" from episode 3, Shrapnel City).

[edit] Gameplay

[edit] Level design

A notable quality of the game is the immense interactivity and realism of its levels. While many past first-person shooter games like Doom take place within relatively confined corridors, usually in gloomy, claustrophobic bases, the levels of Duke Nukem 3D take the player outdoors through attractively rendered street scenes, military bases, deserts, flooded cities, space stations, moon bases and even Japanese villas. Levels were also designed in a fairly non-linear manner such that players can advantageously use air ducts, back doors and sewers to avoid enemies or find hidden secrets, which also makes the levels well suited to deathmatch. As well as being highly detailed, these locations are also filled with objects that the player can interact with (including light switches, toilets, pool tables, arcade games, closed-circuit cameras, and, infamously, strippers). While these rarely have a crucial role in play (the closed-circuit cameras being a tactical exception), they give Duke Nukem 3D an immersive feel greater than that in its rivals. As previously indicated, they also usually added considerably to its humor.

[edit] Warping

An extra "feature" in the game that can be exploited by players is warping (i.e. teleportation from place to place very quickly). This feature will only operate at some very specific locations in the game, and usually only under complex sequences and/or simultaneous moves. These warps or wallbugs are very difficult to find and able to convey powerful advantages during play.

The warps are nothing more than an unwanted bug in the software, more specifically in the 3D engine. 3D Realms eventually fixed most of the warps in version 1.5 (also known as Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition). However, for many experienced players the warps contributed a lot to their enjoyment of the game, and many people kept playing with the earlier version v1.3d (in which the warps were allowed), instead of using the v1.5. Most of these warps were an indirect result of the Build engine's inability to support rooms on top of other rooms. The developers had to work around this problem by overlapping different rooms to give the illusion of different floors. Crouching or jumping around in certain spots inside said overlapped rooms would occasionally confuse the game and warp the player to another "floor".

This concept is also used intentionally in the underwater portions of the game - crouching down on the surface of the water will actually teleport the player to a completely different sector shaped to look like an underwater room. This is used to create the illusion of being underwater.

[edit] Weapons and equipment

The game also features some of the most varied weapons in any first-person shooter game. Traditional weapons such as pistols, shotguns and chainguns are augmented by the inclusion of a range of more imaginative weapons, some of which, even today (Q3 2006), are still unique to the Duke Nukem series. Pipe bombs with remote triggers and laser trip bombs allow the player to set traps for enemies to blunder into. An RPG and the double-barrelled Devastator provide explosive solutions to more powerful enemies. A freeze gun locks enemies in blocks of ice for Duke to smash them with a well-placed shot or boot. A shrink ray would turn enemies into vulnerable miniature versions of themselves, that again were at the mercy of Duke's boot (using mirrors, the shrink ray could also be used on Duke himself to complete objectives that required a shorter stature). In the Atomic Edition, this weapon was upgraded with a microwave expander, so that enemies could be inflated and exploded instead.

Weapons on the PC version

• Mighty Foot : Duke Nukem can kick the enemy with his feet while carrying another weapon.
• Pistol : Inflicts normal damage.
• Shotgun : This pump-action shotgun packs a more powerful blast than the pistol.(4-5 time more powerful and more dispersed)
• Ripper Chaingun Cannon/Ripper Gun : Based on the old British Nordenfelt Gun, This 3 Barrel Meroka Machine Gun can disperse multiple foes at once with deadly, Extremely Rapid Gunfire.
• RPG : This weapon launches a very powerful rocket that explodes to damage everything around it (including Duke).
• Pipe bomb : After a single bomb is thrown, the thumb-activated detonator appears. To throw more than one pipe bomb, press "6" again, then throw another. The detonator will explode all of them at once.
• Shrink ray : This state-of-the-art weapon will temporarily shrink your enemies, allowing Duke to stomp on them for an instant kill.
• Microwave Expander: Created by combining a microwave dish with the shrink ray, this is an alternate version of that weapon. The Expander (found only in the Atomic edition) will cause enemies to inflate and explode after a few shots.
• Devastator : This is a double-barreled launcher which launches rapid fire small multiple stinger missiles. Particularly effective against boss enemies.
• Laser Trip Bomb : This is a weapon that must be set up on flat surfaces. Good for setting traps.
• Freezethrower : This weapon freezes your enemies when their health reaches the lowest point. If the player can get near a frozen foe, Duke will auto-kick to shatter him. If left undisturbed, a frozen enemy will eventually thaw out and resume being dangerous.

Aside from weapons, Duke's inventory also includes a series of items that could be picked up during play. A portable medkit allows players to heal themselves whenever they choose to. Steroids speed up player movement making transit through hostile territory easier (additionally, they render the player immune to the effects of the Shrink Ray, especially useful in multiplayer mode). Nightvision goggles allow players to see enemies in the dark. The "HoloDuke" device projects a hologram of Duke that can be used to distract enemies. Protective boots allow the player to cross dangerously hot or toxic terrain. Where progress requires more aquatic legwork, an aqua-lung allows the player to take longer trips away from air. Perhaps most impressively, a "jet pack" allows the player to range fully in 3D, often to reach carefully hidden weapons caches or extra health, although typically jet pack availability is restricted to avoid making levels too easy.

[edit] Monsters

The game features a wide range of monsters, some of which are bona fide aliens, others mutated humans (the LAPD has been "turned" into "Pig-cops", with LARD emblazoned on their uniforms). As usual for a first-person shooter, Duke encounters a large number of lesser foes, and a small number of boss enemies (usually at the end of chapters). Like Duke, these enemies have access to a wide range of weapons and equipment (some weaker enemies have jet packs). In keeping with the general tone of the game, Duke's enemies frequently experience humorous deaths, or engage in amusing, everyday activities (e.g. using the toilet).

[edit] Multiplayer

Duke Nukem 3D was one of the most popular multiplayer games of its time. At the time of its release Internet based gaming was just taking off. Unlike its popular rival at the time, Quake, Duke Nukem 3D did not support the TCP/IP client/server model and instead based its network play on the IPX LAN, Modem or Serial Cable like the FPS games before it. This hampered its online popularity, but its unmatched gameplay in 1-on-1 Deathmatch (thanks to its large arsenal and imaginative inventory) was loved by a hardcore following.

Duke Nukem 3D players either battled modem to modem, or using the $20.00 IPX network utility 'Kali', or via the Total Entertainment Network (TEN) online pay service. Kali allowed users to connect in a chatroom to host and join games, but you typically had less than a 50% chance of getting a good match going where nobody lost their connection. The Total Entertainment Network was far more reliable and user-friendly, with hundreds of Duke 3D players online at any given time, but you had to pay a monthly fee for it (originally $5.00, gradually increased to $20.00).

The game's own levels were often used as the battlegrounds for these encounters and, although there was a huge flow of community created levels (or maps), the most popular maps for online play were 'Hollywood Holocaust', 'L.A Rumble', 'Stadium' and 'Redlight District'.

Arguably what made Duke Nukem 3D so popular was its style of multiplayer. Its unique inventory items and weapons make the game relevant even today. Players would use a combination of weapons primarily the 'RPG' and 'Shotgun' combined with 'Steroids' (Which caused a players character to run a lot faster and jump a lot further) This would turn a mundane fight into an event where players would need to think much faster and move accordingly. Another item the 'Jetpack' enabled a player to fly effectively adding yet another dimension to 1-on-1 battles. All of these features were unavailable in other games of the time.

A popular proving ground for the multiplayer community was a website known as 'Case's Ladder' which allowed players to create a profile and log their wins and losses (more for bragging rights and pride than anything). Players who were ranked highly were regarded amongst the community as the best of the best.

Today, however, with add-ons and dedicated programs, Duke Nukem 3D can be played online with the same ease as any modern online first person shooter.

Duke Nukem 3D is the only FPS to date that has featured wet footsteps when a player emerges from water. This can have significant effects on multiplayer matches, allowing you to 'track' otherwise unseen players.

[edit] Controversy

The game has been heavily attacked by some critics, who allege that it promotes pornography and murder. For example:

"Duke Nukem 3D moves the 'shooter' through pornography stores, where Duke can use XXX sex posters for target practice. Duke throws cash at a prostituted woman telling her to 'Shake it, Baby' his gun ever ready. In the game bonus points are awarded for the murder of these mostly prostituted and partially nude women. Duke blows up stained glass windows in an empty church or goes to strip clubs where Japanese women lower their kimonos exposing their breasts. Duke is encouraged to kill defenseless, often bound women.

— Media Match, http://www.mediawatch.com/wordpress/?p=13

While some of this criticism is exaggerated (e.g. players do not receive "points" for killing women, and are usually attacked for doing so, and some have actually been infected by aliens and beg the player to kill them), the extreme depiction of women in Duke Nukem 3D is notable. George Broussard, the president of 3D Realms, defends the game, noting its success and arguing that consumers obviously do not find the content abusive or immoral. However, success with some consumers is clearly not evidence that Duke Nukem 3D is more widely acceptable. Significantly, the only women that appear in the game are either strippers, prostitutes, cheerleaders or alien prisoners, although a few of the following franchise sequels changed this, with Duke fighting alongside strong female characters.

This treatment of women is extreme, even by the standards of video games. It could be viewed that their presence is intended as an ironic and over-the-top send-up of Hollywood action-film stereotypes, but, unsurprisingly, it causes offence, even if this was never intended by the developers.

As a result of a gunman's rampage through a movie theatre in Brazil, Duke Nukem 3D was banned in that country along with Quake and Doom and several other violent first-person shooters, due to Duke Nukem 3D's opening level "Hollywood Holocaust" (Episode 1, Mission 1) where Duke inevitably gets into a firefight with aliens inside a cinema. Unlike Carmageddon, which was banned in Brazil too, this did not prevent the game from being published in a computer magazine. Quake was still found in a "Best Seller" package years later and Doom's Collectors Edition and Doom 3, as Quake III Arena, and other shooters are still found and sold legally in Brazil.

As a response to the criticism encountered, censored versions of the game were released in certain countries to avoid having it banned altogether. In Australia, the game was originally refused classification on release. 3D Realms proceeded to sell the game with the parental lock on, but due to a mix-up, the uncensored data was still on the game disc and soon the majority of the country was playing the uncensored version of the game. The OFLC then attempted to have the game pulled from the shelves, but it was discovered that the distributor had notified them of this fact and the rating could not be surrendered. Six months later, the game was later reclassified and released uncensored with an MA15+ rating.

[edit] Official addons

[edit] Plutonium PAK/Atomic Edition

The Atomic Edition of Duke Nukem 3D was released in late 1996, and contained the original 3 episode game as well as a new eleven-level fourth episode. The Plutonium PAK was also released as an upgrade package to convert the original release of Duke Nukem 3D (v1.3d) to the new Atomic Edition (v1.4, later patched to v1.5).

The Atomic Edition introduces three enemies: the Protector Drone, the Pig Cop Tank, and a new boss known as The Queen. It also includes a new weapon, the Microwave Expander.

The Atomic Edition also has several improvements to the scripting language of the game, allowing the game's active modding community to create new enemies and items without overwriting the pre-existing ones.

[edit] EDuke

Following the release of the Doom source code in 1997, many of those in the modding community began wishing for a similar source code release from 3D Realms. The last major game to make use of the Duke Nukem 3D source code was WW2GI in 1999. Its programmer, Matthew Saettler, expanded greatly upon the scripting language used by modders to change many aspects of the game.

Saettler let it be known that he was willing to expand further upon WW2GI's scripting language, and shortly thereafter agreed to make his enhancements available for Duke Nukem 3D with the permission of 3D Realms.

3D Realms approved the project. Saettler was the sole programmer, working with several mod authors to beta-test the new addition that would carry the Duke Nukem 3D version numbering to v2.0 and be titled EDuke.

EDuke was released as a patch for Atomic Edition users on July 28, 2000, and included a demo mod made by several beta testers. The demo included new sector-based effects, sprite-based elevators, ladders, a bouncing particle fountain, a personal teleporter, and a more sophisticated translucent water effect.

Saettler has since archived his original Eduke site for reference.

[edit] LameDuke

LameDuke is an early-development, beta version of Duke Nukem 3D which was released by 3D Realms as a bonus one year after the release of the official version. Lameduke has been released as is, with no support. It is still available on the official site [1].

Lameduke featured four episodes: Mr. Caliber, Mission Cockroach, Suck Hole and Hard Landing. A lot of maps in the game are early versions of the ones contained in the official version and in the Plutonium Pak add-on. Some weapons have been removed during the development, such as the tazer stick, and others have been changed, such as the rocket launcher and the barrel chaingun.

[edit] Unofficial addons

[edit] Commercial addons

Although Plutonium Pak is the only official add-on pack, some companies have marketed their own add-on packs for Duke Nukem 3D. Of these, the most well-known are :

• Duke Caribbean: Life's a Beach: This game supposedly takes place after Duke Nukem 3D. Duke relaxes on a tropical island when he discovers that the aliens are having their own "vacation". This add-on pack has often been praised by players.
• Duke it Out in D.C.: Duke Nukem has been called out to rescue US President Bill Clinton from an abduction.
• Duke Nuclear Winter: The aliens have taken over the North Pole, and kidnapped Santa Claus. Duke Nukem must fight the aliens to rescue him. Although this add-on has been praised for its Christmas theme, it has still been criticized for unoriginality and poor level design.
• Duke Xtreme: This add-on pack contains around 50 levels and many utilities for Duke Nukem 3D. This pack has often been criticized for its many software bugs.

[edit] Modifications

Many mods/total conversions of Duke Nukem 3D have appeared on the Internet, including Jesse Petrilla's controversial conversions Quest for Al-Qa'eda: The Hunt for Bin Laden and Quest for Hussein, in which the player is a U.S. Marine who must single-handedly dispose of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, respectively.

Duke Nukem 3D's graphic engine was an evolutionary step from the engine used for Doom. While the levels were still defined as 2D maps, the capabilities of Ken Silverman's Build engine allowed more complex levels than Doom and Dark Forces. Most notably, the game supports diagonal slopes in the floors, which was not possible with the entirely "top-down" level design of other contemporary FPSes. It also supports mouse aiming, which would become the norm for many future FPSes. Since Duke Nukem 3D was still not a fully 3D engine, it was considered to be a 2.5D game. Although the era of true 3D games had begun with Descent in 1995, it would not be until Quake was released later in 1996 that a true 3D engine would be used for an FPS.

[edit] Popular Total Conversions

• Alien vs Predator TC
• Borg Nukem
• Brave New World
• Chimera
• City Terror
• City Terror Gold Edition
• Crucial Conflict
• Daikarin
• Duke Tournament
• Fusion TC
• Imagination World
• JJ Duke Nukem 3D
• Last Reaction and Water Bases
• MSSP
• Murder: The EDF Conspiracy
• Pray your Prayers
• Redrum: The Shining
• Starship Troopers TC
• The Final Confrontation
• The Gate
• The Lost Highway
• The Realms of Grune
• WolfPack
• WGRealms
• When Scum Returns
• Zerohour TC

[edit] Source code ports

The source code to the Duke Nukem 3D v1.5 executable, which uses the Build engine, was released under the GPL on April 1, 2003. However, the game content still remains the sole property of 3D Realms. The game was quickly ported by enthusiasts to modern OSes. As of 2005, these ports gave the game a second life in multiplayer games through the Internet and a growing community is still actively playing.

[edit] Standard ports

The first Duke Nukem 3D port was from icculus.org. It is a cross-platform port that allows the game to be played on BeOS, FreeBSD, Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris, Windows and probably runs on others. The icculus.org codebase would later be used in the Duke3d_w32 (Rancidmeat) port, and later, the xDuke port.

Currently the most prominent port is Jonathon Fowler's JFDuke3D, which in December 2003 received backing from the original author of Build, programmer Ken Silverman. Fowler, in cooperation with Ken, released a new version of JFDuke3D using Polymost, an OpenGL-enhanced renderer for Build, which allows hardware acceleration and 3D model support, along with 32 bit color high resolution textures. Another port based on JFDuke3D called xDuke (unrelated to the xDuke port based on icculus.org/duke3d) runs on the Xbox.

Silverman has since helped Jonathon Fowler with a large portion of other engine work, including updating the network code and continuing to maintain various other aspects of the engine. Projects such as the Duke 3D High Resolution Pack [2] were started in order to take advantage of the various engine improvements and attempt to update Duke's graphical resources almost to the level of modern games. Plans are still in the works to include additional engine features as time goes on.

[edit] EDuke and other ports

The first port aimed at expanding features for mod authors is an experimental port called CDuke, authored by Colourless. It cleaned up and enhanced some unused code in the original source designed to allow translucent sector-based water and other "sector over sector" effects. The implementation is not perfect, but shows promise. CDuke is also the first port to demonstrate voxels within Duke Nukem 3D, which had been seen in other Build engine games. The port ceased production shortly after it was released.

EDuke is a branch of Duke Nukem 3D that was officially released by 3D Realms in 2000; it focused primarily on enhancing the CON scripting language in ways which allowed those modifying the game to do much more with the scripting system than originally possible. Around May of 2003, not long after the release of the Duke Nukem 3D source code, Blood project manager Matt Saettler released the source for both EDuke 2.0, the version of EDuke released by 3D Realms, and EDuke 2.1, the test version of what was to become the next official EDuke release. A few ports emerged (most notably WinEDuke and EDuke 2.1.1), but it was not until the release of Richard Gobeille's EDuke32 (an extended version of JFDuke3D which incorporates Saettler's EDuke code) in 2004 that EDuke became a real community focus. EDuke32 has seen consistent and frequent releases, often giving the community access to experimental new engine features weeks before the next JFDuke3D release.

[edit] Console ports

In 1997, Duke Nukem 3D was ported to all the major consoles of the time; the PlayStation version, Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown, includes six extra levels and slightly inferior graphics when compared to the PC version. This version also has remixed music and also features "ghost" enemies in some of the new stages. [3]

The Sega Saturn version was ported by Lobotomy Software and published by Sega. It retains the original name and lacks extra levels, but uses Lobotomy's SlaveDriver engine (which also powered the Saturn version of Powerslave), as opposed to the original Build engine port that all the other Duke Nukem console ports used. Other features that are exclusive to the Saturn version are Lightmaps as opposed to sector-based lighting, and dynamic colored lighting. It is also capable of using the Sega NetLink for online gaming, and has built in support for the Saturn's Analog Pad that came bundled with NiGHTS into Dreams.... [4]

As an unusual additional bonus to the Saturn version, if the player destroys every toilet in the game (or has a save from the Saturn port of Quake on their system), they gain access to a mini-game called Death Tank Zwei. The mini-game is a sequel to Powerslave's original mini-game, Death Tank, and is essentially like Scorched Earth, only with support for up to seven players, and taking place entirely in real-time (ie: all players are moving and firing at the same time instead of taking turns).^[2]

The Nintendo 64 version, Duke Nukem 64, has a split screen 4-player mode as well as bi-linear filtered textures, however it is still at its core using the Build engine and the only elements rendered in real 3D are some of the explosions. To meet the low memory requirement, in-game music was also dropped. The game is considerably censored, with most of the sexually suggestive material removed. For example, Episode 1, Level 2, "Red Light District", has been replaced with "Gun Crazy", an almost-identically shaped level where porn stores have been replaced by gun stores. Also, the steroid item was renamed "Vitamin X", to avoid the glorification of steroid use. On the plus side, Duke Nukem 64 does include better rendered and partially different weapons set, such as dual machine guns, plasma cannon and inflater. The final boss, the Cycloid Emperor, is also changed into a new 3D model of himself.

In 1998, it was also ported to the Sega Mega Drive by Tec Toy [5]. The obscurity of this port (it was only released in Brazil) has frequently led to it being mistaken for an unlicensed "hack". It is not based off any other game made for the Mega Drive, instead it was programmed from the ground up by Tec Toy. 3D Realms claims that the port is not legal, but Tec Toy maintains that it was licensed by now-defunct publisher GT Interactive. Ironically, the Mega Drive port was less advanced than the game Doom.

Additionally, a version of Duke Nukem 3D was also released for the Game.com, Tiger's short lived handheld system. Due to the console's hardware limitations, this version is not a true first person shooter but instead a sort of dungeon crawl.

[edit] Successors

[edit] Duke Nukem Forever

In 1997, 3D Realms announced a direct sequel titled Duke Nukem Forever. It has been shown at two E3s (1998 and 2001) and has gone through several engine changes and restarts. The developers have repeatedly stated that it will be released "when it's done". As of 2006, it is still in development, and will celebrate its tenth year in development hell in March 2007.

[edit] SiN

The game SiN is considered by some a spiritual sequel to Duke Nukem 3D^{[citation needed]}. Like Duke Nukem 3D, SiN features a vocal main-character, over-the-top guns, hideous monsters, large-breasted women, and a realistic near-future setting. Ritual Entertainment, SiN's developer, was founded by several members of the Duke Nukem 3D team (including notable level designer Levelord). The first of SiN's sequels, SiN Episodes: Emergence, is run on Half-Life 2's Source engine, and appears to have modelled itself more after Half-Life; most tellingly, its main character John Blade has become a (mostly) silent protagonist in the vein of Gordon Freeman, Half-Life's lead.

[edit] Crew and cast

Project Leader/Director
George "Frame rate sucks" Broussard

Game Programming
Todd "How's the game running?" Replogle

3D Build engine/Tools/Network
Ken Silverman

Map Design
Allen H. "Nice Hat!" Blum III
Richard Bailey "The Levelord" Gray
Keith "Duke maps are easy" Schuler

3D Modeling
Chuck "The animation is cookin" Jones

Additional 3D Modeling
Douglas R. "Hiccup... Kill me!!" Wood

Artwork
Stephen "Chillin" Hornback
Dirk "Don't touch my toys" Jones
Brian "Left MP in time" Martel
James "Fish and Chips" Storey
Douglas R. "Slippers" Wood

Music and Sound Effects
Lee "Make it louder" Jackson
Robert Prince

Voice Talent
Lani Minella-ProMotions Prod. Co.
Jon St. John as "Duke Nukem)"

Special Thanks to: Steven Blackburn, Scott Miller, Joe Siegler, Terry Nagy, Colleen Compton, Kevin Green, Bryan Turner, Dennis DeSmeth Brett Young, all the 3D Realms beta testers.

[edit] Theme Song

Duke Nukem's popular theme song was created by Lee Jackson. It's title is "Grabbag".

[edit] References

1. ^ http://www.3drealms.com/duke3d/index.html
2. ^ Page on Death Tank Zwei mini-game

[edit] External links

[edit] Official

• Official Duke Nukem 3D homepage

[edit] Fansites

• Duke4.net, featuring Duke3D content
• Mikko Sandt's Duke Nukem 3D Page -- Duke3D fan-site
• Planet Duke (GameSpy)

[edit] Source ports

• Duke3d_w32 -- Duke Nukem 3D port for Windows
• EDuke32 -- EDuke port for Windows/Linux
• icculus.org/duke3d -- Duke Nukem 3D port for BeOS/FreeBSD/Linux/Mac OS X/Solaris/Windows/Other
• JFDuke3D Duke Nukem 3D port for Windows/Linux/Other
• xDuke -- Duke Nukem 3D port for Windows

[edit] Other

• Duke Nukem 3D at MobyGames
• 3D Realms' Duke Nukem 3D Source Code forum
• Duke Nukem 3D Multiplayer setup -- A multiplayer game launcher for Windows/Linux/Other
• Dukester X -- Manage multiplayer games of Duke Nukem 3D on the Internet; supports the Duke3d_w32 and JFDuke3D ports.
• Dukonnector -- A multiplayer game launcher for Duke Nukem 3D on the Internet/Local Network; supports EDuke32, JFDuke, xDuke and Duke3d_w32.
• The Duke Nukem 3D High Resolution Pack -- Art and models to enhance your playing experience when using either JFDuke3D or EDuke32.

v • d • e Duke Nukem video games
Duke Nukem • II • 3D • Manhattan Project • Forever 64 • Zero Hour • Time to Kill • Land of the Babes Duke Nukem (Game Boy Color) • Advance • Mobile Duke Nukem (character)

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