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Duke Nukem 3D

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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

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.

Humor

"That's one doomed space marine."
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"That's one doomed space marine."

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 useable 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.

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. There are also cameos from Indiana Jones (whose corpse is greeted by Duke saying, in a German accent, "We meet again, Dr. Jones"), ' (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 LA."), The Hunt for Red October (the submarine USS Dallas in Episode 1, Level 3), ' 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, , and Independence Day.

There are also references to the contemporaneous OJ 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).

Gameplay

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.

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. Many players particularly liked these warps as they were very difficult to find and because they were able to convey powerful advantage during play. In fact, 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 can also be seen in 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. However, this behaviour is intentional and is used to create the illusion of being underwater.

Weapons and equipment

Duke Nukem engages some enemies with the freezer.
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Duke Nukem engages some enemies with the freezer.

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 (Q2 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

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.

Inventory

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 pigs, with LARD wittily 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 humourous deaths, or engage in amusing, everyday activities (e.g. using the toilet).

Multiplayer & Multiplayer History

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 greatly 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 who either battled via dialing modem to modem or by installing a 3rd party program 'Kali' which allowed users to connect in a chatroom to host and join games. Due to the speed of most users internet connections at the time games were limited mainly to 1-on-1.

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 1-on-1 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.

Much like Quake's 'Speed Jumping' Duke Nukem 3D players also invented means to gain advantage over opponents that perplexed the games creators. In the aforementioned multiplayer maps certain areas of the map contained a bug whereby if a player used the right approach and combination of keys the character would be transported to a different area of the level. Known as 'Warps' or 'Wallbugs' these special areas (which were actually a fault in the Build Engine in regards to sectors atop of sectors) were used to gain a huge advantage over an opponent in some cases transporting a player from a near death battle on the ground to the top of a 20 story building with health and ammo items.

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 modern online first person shooters, something it originally sorely lacked.

Criticism and Controversy

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

"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 Duke Nukem 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." [link]
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 at least some are actually disguised aliens), 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, virtually all of the 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 as ironic and over-the-top parody of Hollywood action-film stereotypes; but, unsurprisingly, it causes offence.

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. For instance, in Australia the game was shipped with a 'parental lock' that removed features such as strippers and blood spatter. This eventually lead to the creation of a cracked version by the community that was then made available for download. Upon installing this, the game reverted back to its original version with all of the controversial features included.

Official Addons

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.

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.

LameDuke

An early version of the Octabrain, as shown in LameDuke.
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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 still available on the official site [link].

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.

Unofficial Addons

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 :

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. 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.

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, including Microsoft Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. 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.

Standard ports

The first Duke Nukem 3D port is the icculus.org port. It is a cross-platform port that allows the game to be played on Linux, Windows, BeOS, Solaris, OSX, and FreeBSD. The icculus.org codebase would later be used in the Rancidmeat port, and later, the xDuke port. The game has also been ported to the Xbox.

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.

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 [link] 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.

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.

Console ports

The elusive Mega Drive port
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The elusive Mega Drive port
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. [link]
The Sega Saturn version retains the original name and lacks extra levels, but uses a polygon-based engine as opposed to the raytraced engine 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. [link]

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 a raytraced engine and is not capable of 3D hardware acceleration. In addition 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.

In 1998, it was also ported to the Sega Mega Drive by Tec Toy [link]. 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 TecToy. The legality of the port is currently unknown, with 3D Realms not giving a clear answer, or eliminating the possibility of secretly having a corporate affiliation with Tec Toy. 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".

Successors

Duke Nukem Forever

Today, more than 10 years after the release of Duke Nukem 3D, the long-promised sequel, Duke Nukem Forever, is still in development. It last made a public appearance at the E3 of 2001, where a video trailer of the game was released, citing again the "When It's Done" release date. However, even that recent appearance no longer represents the true state of the game, which, according to 3D Realms President George Broussard, has been rebuilt from the ground up at least twice. Some critics have nicknamed the game "Duke Nukem Whenever".

SiN

The game SiN is considered by some a spiritual sequel to Duke Nukem 3D[[Citing sources 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. The first of SiN's sequels, , 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 silent protagonist, in the vein of Gordon Freeman, Half-Life's lead.

Crew and cast

Todd Replogle, Allen H. Blum III, George Broussard, Greg Malone, Ken Silverman, Mark Dochtermann, Jim Dose, Richard Gray, Chuck Jones, Stephen Hornback, Dirk Jones, James Storey, David Demaret, Douglas R. Wood, Lee Jackson, Robert Prince, Lani Minella, Jon St. John, Robert M. Atkins, Michael Hadwin, and Duke Nukem.

External links

 

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