Duke Nukem 3D

Duke Nukem 3D
Developer(s)	3D Realms
Publisher(s)	Apogee Software, Virgin Interactive (Playstation)
Designer(s)	George Broussard & Todd Replogle
Engine	Build
Platform(s)	PC (MS-DOS), Mac, PlayStation, Xbox Live Arcade, Sega Saturn, game.com, Sega Mega Drive (Brazil only), source ports to many other platforms
Release	January 29 1996 (PC) May 25 1997 (Mac) December 3 1997 (PlayStation) 1997 (Sega Saturn) 2008 (Xbox Live Arcade)
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer

Duke Nukem 3D is a first-person shooter computer game developed by 3D Realms and published by Apogee Software. It was released on January 29, 1996. Duke Nukem 3D features the adventures of Duke Nukem, a character that had previously appeared in the platform games Duke Nukem and Duke Nukem II which were also published by Apogee. Duke is voiced by Jon St. John.

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!" "Its time to Kick Ass"

Taking on the role of Duke Nukem, players must fight through 28 levels spread over three chapters. (A commercial upgrade called The Plutonium Pak later added a fourth episode of 11 additional levels, some new enemies and one new weapon modified weapon from Shrinker, now with opposite effect, it expands enemies until they will explode.) 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 "sometime in the early 21st century".

Gameplay

File:Duke Nukem 3D Cover.JPG

The title screen of Duke Nukem 3D.

Level design

The levels of Duke Nukem 3D take the player outdoors and indoors through 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.

These locations are also filled with objects that the player can interact with (including light switches, toilets, urinals, pool tables, arcade games, closed-circuit cameras, and strippers).

Weapons

The game includes a range of lethal weapons, some of which, even today, are still unique to the Duke Nukem series. They range from Duke's "Mighty Foot", a basic melee attack, to a pistol, a Chain gun (similar in design to the Nordenfelt gun), pipe bombs, freeze- and shrink-rays, and laser trip mines.

Equipment

Aside from weapons, Nukem's inventory also includes a series of items that can 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, as well as instantly reversing the effects of the shrinker. 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, scuba gear (an aqua-lung) allows the player to take longer trips away from air. Perhaps most impressively, Duke's trademark jetpack allows the player to range fully in 3D, often to reach hidden weapons caches or extra health.

Monsters

The game features a wide range of monsters, some of which are aliens, others mutated humans (the LAPD has been turned into "Pig-cops" (a play on the word "pig", a derogatory term for police officers), with LARD emblazoned on their uniforms).

As is usual for a first-person shooter, Nukem 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).

One of the enemies, the protozoid slimer, features a peculiar attack that doesn't feature either a long-range projectile weapon, or a close-range melee armament; instead, when it gets close to the player, its face (a large green blob with a fanged mouth) appears occluding most things on screen, starting to chew out health from Duke (similar to a facehugger from the Alien (film) series). While they're extremely weak and can be killed with a single pistol shot, they do a considerable damage, and must be eliminated as quickly as possible.

Multiplayer

Duke Nukem 3D features multiplayer. In 1996 at the time of its release, Internet-based gaming was just beginning. Duke Nukem 3D did not support the TCP/IP client/server model, instead basing its network play on the IPX LAN, modem or serial cable. Duke Nukem 3D players often either battled modem-to-modem, using the $20.00 IPX network utility Kali or the Total Entertainment Network (TEN) online pay service. Kali allowed users to connect to a chat room to host and join games. The Total Entertainment Network featured hundreds of Duke 3D players online at any given time, but players had to pay a monthly fee for it (originally $5.00, gradually increased to $20.00). Later on; other Duke Nukem clients emerged included Microsoft's Gaming Zone (free), Heat and iC (free). In 2004 edited versions or ports allowed multiplayer over clients such as DukesterX and in 2006 Dukocnnector.

The games own levels are often used as the battlegrounds for these encounters and users are able to create their own levels (or maps) via the in-game build engine. Popular levels amongst original players include(d); Stadium, L.A Rumble, Hollywood Holocaust for the DeathMatch mode of play. The game also features COOP or Co-operative play which allows players to complete the story based single player mode together.

In the Atomic version, a new game play mode was introduced: Duke Tag. In this add-on there was a Capture the flag style mode introduced.

Technology

File:Duke Nukem 3D Assualt Trooper.png

A diagonal slope

Duke Nukem 3D's graphic engine was an evolutionary step forward from the Doom engine. While the levels were still defined as 2D maps, the capabilities of Ken Silverman's Build engine allowed more complex levels than Doom. Most notably, the game supports diagonal slopes in the floors, which was not possible with the entirely "top-down" level design of most other contemporary shooters. It also supports vertical mouse aiming (though aiming up and down distorts the graphics due to a lack of perspective correction), which later became the norm for FPS games.

While Doom was limited to doors opening and closing only by sliding up and down, the Build engine also introduced doors/walls that can move sideways. The Doom engine usually only moved a single platform at a time in response to a player event, while the Build scripting system allows a whole string of moving and sliding actions, synchronized with sound effects, to create collapsing buildings, earthquakes, and walls that crumble apart when hit with explosives. One of the more advanced effects that went far beyond the limits of the Doom engine is the horizontal sliding platform that can move the player inside a small sliding room, to create subway cars moving in a timed sequence around a ring-shaped track.

Since Doom was not a fully 3D engine, it was considered to be a 2.5D game. This 2.5D engine design limited Doom to relatively simple non-overlapping map designs since it is not possible for there to be an exposed bridge or balcony that the player can both see over and walk under. In Doom, only a simple moving platform rising up in front of the player could allow the player to cross over a path they previous walked along below.

The Build engine solves this problem by allowing multiple overlapping 2D paths to cross through the same 2D location. The key is that while inside one of these spaces, it is not possible to see into the other space, and so the 2.5D engine has no problem rendering one space or the other even though the map data literally shows the two areas to be occupying the same place. Several Duke Nukem 3D maps exploit this engine feature to create bizarre mind-bending maps where multiple large rooms all seem to be occupying one 3D space. One secret level in particular ("Lunatic Fringe" from episode 2, Lunar Apocalypse) has a map where the player can travel 720 degrees around a circle and not cross their path. This would be much more difficult to duplicate with modern true-3D map editors and engines.

To resolve the problem of not having balconies or bridges that the player can walk over or under, instead special objects are used by the Build engine that are not actually part of the flat 2D map design. Instead they are a special type of decorative sprite inserted into the world, similar to the breakable cameras, flowerpots, lights. These special large sprites allow the player to walk over the object and under it as if it were an actual part of the map, to create the illusion of a true 3D space. However these special objects have a highly restricted shape, typically as a perfectly square or rectangular non-sloping structure, greatly limiting their usefulness in the map design to simple bridges, balconies, or exposed rectangular air ducts.

Controversy

The game has been heavily attacked by some critics, who allege that it promotes pornography and murder. Media Watch made the following comments about the game.

"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 Watch, Teaching Boys To Kill

George Broussard, president of 3D Realms, defends the game. Duke Nukem 3D does not contain a "bonus points" system; even accidental shooting of innocents in the game is, sometimes, punished by a sudden onslaught of enemies.

Due to a gunman's rampage through a movie theatre in Brazil, Duke Nukem 3D was banned in that country along with Quake, Doom and several other violent first-person shooters. The Brazil rampage was allegedly inspired by Duke Nukem 3D's opening level "Hollywood Holocaust" (Episode 1, Mission 1), where a firefight with aliens takes place inside a cinema. Despite this ban, Duke Nukem 3D was subsequently being published in a computer magazine, and other titles such as Quake and Doom are still sold openly 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 repackaged the game with the parental lock feature permanently enabled, although a patch available on the 3D Realms website allows the user to disable the lock and revert the game back to its original uncensored version. 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 reclassified and released uncensored with an MA15+ rating.

In Germany, the BPjM placed the game on the List of Media Harmful to Young People.

Add-ons

Plutonium PAK/Atomic Edition

The Atomic Edition of Duke Nukem 3D was released in November 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).

It 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, complete with its own ammo.

It 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 existing ones.

A feature exclusive to the Atomic Edition is the Fake Multiplayer computer controlled bots which can be launched at the DOS prompt. These bots are capable of putting up a decent offline fight against the player to give a glimpse of what the player can find in real online games or if the player has no available connection. They can also be useful for testing DukeMatch sessions offline during the creation of a map.

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 Team TNT's WWII GI 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 WWII GI'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 (Enhanced Duke Nukem 3D).

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.

Duke Caribbean: Life's a Beach

This is an authorized add-on developed by Sunstorm Interactive. Duke relaxes on a tropical island when he discovers that the aliens are having their own "vacation". This unofficial add-on includes sunny Caribbean atmosphere and theme like beaches, vacation hotels and modifications from the original Duke Nukem 3D stuff to fit to the sunny theme. It features levels created by Charlie Wiederhold, who was later hired by 3D Realms to work on Duke Nukem Forever, the upcoming sequel to 3D.

Duke it out in D.C.

In this storyline, President Bill Clinton is captured by alien forces, and it is up to Nukem to save him. This expansion pack featured levels that were based on real world locations, such as the White House, the FBI headquarters, the Smithsonian museum, and the Washington Monument and other places in Washington DC. This game was also developed by Sunstorm. While this was considered an unofficial add-on, it was included in an official compilation called Duke Nukem: Kill-A-Ton Collection through business deals with 3D Realms.

Duke: Nuclear Winter

Unlike the previous add-ons, this one was developed by Simply Silly Software. In the storyline, Santa Claus is mind-controlled by aliens into causing trouble on Earth. Several of the levels take place near the North Pole. This game has sometimes been criticized for recycling content from the original game.

Duke Xtreme

Duke Xtreme was an add-on developed by Sunstorm and contained 50 levels and various utilities. It has sometimes been criticized due to its many technical problems.

Duke!Zone I and II

A product called Duke!ZONE was once sold by WizardWorks and had over 500 levels made by fans of Duke Nukem 3D. WizardWorks later created an add-on called Duke!ZONE II, which contained three episodes of its own design.

Compilations

Duke Nukem 3D has been included in several compilations. A bundle called East Meets West included the full versions of Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition and Shadow Warrior. A bundle called Duke Nukem: Kill-A-Ton Collection featured Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition, Duke Xtreme, Duke!ZONE II, Duke Nukem I (Duke Nukum), Duke Nukem II, and various other utilities. Both of these compilations are no longer sold. Earlier packages of Duke Nukem 3D also included the complete versions of Duke Nukem I and II as a bonus.

In 1998, 3D Realms filed a lawsuit against Micro Star over its add-on pack Nuke It and won.

LameDuke

File:Lameduke octabrain.png

An early version of the Octabrain, as shown in 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 currently available to download from the 3DRealms FTP [1].

LameDuke features four episodes: Mr Caliber, Mission Cockroach, Suck Hole and Hard Landing. Some weapons were removed and/or altered from the original versions

Software projects working with the GPL'ed source code

The source code to the Duke Nukem 3D v1.5 executable, which uses the Build engine, was released as free software under the GPL on April 1, 2003. The game content remains under a proprietary license. The game was quickly ported by enthusiasts to modern OSes. As of 2007, these projects gave the game a second life in multiplayer games through the Internet and a growing community is still actively playing.

The first Duke Nukem 3D project was from icculus.org. It is a cross-platform project 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 Rancidmeat, and later, the xDuke projects.

One popular project is Jonathon Fowler's JFDuke3D, which in December 2003 received backing from the original author of Build, programmer Ken Silverman. Fowler, in cooperation with Silverman, 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 projects based on JFDuke3D called xDuke (unrelated to the xDuke project based on icculus.org/duke3d) runs on the Xbox.

Silverman has since helped Fowler with a large portion of other engine work, including updating the network code and continuing to maintain various other aspects of the engine.

Enhancement by fans

Projects such as the Duke Nukem 3D High Resolution Pack 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. However, JFDuke3D appears to be on hiatus as no new versions have appeared since late 2005.

The first port aimed at expanding features for mod authors was an experimental project 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 was not perfect, but showed promise. CDuke was 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 2003, not long after the release of the Duke Nukem 3D source code, Blood project manager Matt Saettler released the source code 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 projects 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 the community focus. Among the various enhancements, support for OGG music was added in September 2007. A pack of digitized music was compiled and is planned to be included in future releases of the High Resolution Pack. In June 2008, EDuke32 became the first Duke Nukem 3D project to compile and run natively on 64-bit systems without the use of a 32-bit environment thanks to contributions from the DOSBox team.

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 areas and a secret level, the latter which was also included in the PC version. It also features music, some rearranged from the PC version and some original, in streaming XA-Audio made by Mark Knight, new enemies and a new boss.

The Sega Saturn version was ported by Lobotomy Software and published by Sega. It retains the original name and uses Lobotomy's SlaveDriver engine. It's also the only console port which uses real 3D worlds, thanks to the SlaveDriver engine. This version uses the Sega NetLink for online gaming, and has built-in support for the Saturn's analog pad. It also includes a hidden multiplayer mini-game called Death Tank Zwei.

The Nintendo 64 version was retitled Duke Nukem 64. It features a split screen 4-player mode. In-game music was removed from this version and many items have been renamed to avoid drug and sex references. Other changes include a different 3D model for the final boss.

A screen of the little-known Mega Drive port.

In 1998, a Sega Mega Drive version was released by Tec Toy. The visuals were drastically simplified, being closer to early shooters like Wolfenstein 3D; also, it consists solely of "Lunar Apocalypse", the second from the original game's three "episodes". This version was released in Brazil only.

A version of Duke Nukem 3D was also released for the Game.com, Tiger's short lived handheld system.

On February 6, 2008, 3D Realms President Scott Miller confirmed that Duke Nukem 3D would be released to the Xbox Live Arcade (possibly in 2008) and feature on-line multiplayer support, Xbox Live achievements, on-line score boards, and a co-op mode.

On August 18th, 2008, 3D Realms officially announced that Duke Nukem 3D would be coming to the Xbox Live Arcade, and that it had passed through Microsoft's Certification Process.

Theme song

Duke Nukem's theme song was created by Lee Jackson. Its title is "Grabbag". The thrash metal band Megadeth recorded the song as a bonus track on their 1999 album, Risk, complete with sound bites of Duke's one-liners. A 'tongue in cheek' Gabba version entitled 'Gabbag' was included in the Total Meltdown playstation version.

Duke Nukem Forever

Main article: 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 stated that the game will be released "when it's done." Most recently, 3D Realms released a teaser trailer in December 2007 and announced that composer Jeremy Soule was working with the team.

References in Popular Culture

Many of Duke's one liners and phrases are taken directly from various films.

"Come get some" "Groovy!" and "Hail to the king, baby!" are all a reference to Bruce Campbell's character Ash Williams from the Evil Dead series.

"I've come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass...and I'm all out of bubble gum," which is said by the main character John Nada in John Carpenter's They Live is used in the game in the form of "It's time to kick ass and chew bubble gum... and I'm all out of gum".

External links

• IMDB title
• Official Duke Nukem 3D homepage
• Duke4.net fansite, featuring Duke Nukem 3D content
• DukesterX Client allowing online multiplay.

Reviews

• Review — GameSpot
• Review — Computer and Video Games
• Review — Metacritic

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 XP and Vista
• Download Mirror - Site that mirrors the High Resolution Pack, EDuke and xDuke for direct download