Retro Let's Play December 2022: Duke Nukem 3D

Duke Nukem 3D is a first-person shooter video game developed and published by 3D Realms.



Released on April 24, 1996, Duke Nukem 3D is the third game in the Duke Nukem series and a sequel to Duke Nukem II. The game was a commercial success and has seen numerous console ports, expansion packs, and special edition re-releases since its debut. It continues to maintain a strong fanbase, which has generated hundreds of mods and thousands of user maps.

As a groundbreaking entry in the first-person shooter genre, Duke Nukem 3D was generally well-received by critics. The game was also immediately controversial and drew criticism in the mainstream media for its violence and pornographic content.

Duke Nukem 3D features the adventures of the titular Duke Nukem, voiced by Jon St. John, who fights against an alien invasion on Earth. Along with Wolfenstein 3D and Doom, Duke Nukem 3D is considered to be one of many titles responsible for popularizing first-person shooters, and was released to major acclaim. Reviewers praised the interactivity of the environments, gameplay, level design, and unique risqué humor, a mix of pop-culture satire and lampooning of over-the-top Hollywood action heroes. However, it also incited controversy due to its violence, erotic elements, and portrayal of women.

The shareware version of the game was originally released on January 29, 1996 as version 1.0 (later, the shareware version got re-released as version 1.1 on February 20, 1996 and re-released once again as version 1.3D on April 24, 1996), while the full version of the game was released on April 19, 1996, as version 1.3D. The Plutonium PAK, an expansion pack which updated the game to version 1.4 and added a fourth eleven-level episode, was released on October 21, 1996. The Atomic Edition, a standalone version of the game that included the content from the Plutonium PAK and updated the game to version 1.5, was later released on December 11, 1996; it is only available digitally on ZOOM-Platform.com.[1] An official fifth episode was released on October 11, 2016, with 20th Anniversary World Tour published by Gearbox Software. A direct sequel titled Duke Nukem Forever was released in 2011, after fifteen years in development hell.
Episodes
There are five episodes in Duke Nukem 3D:

1. L.A. Meltdown: Set in Los Angeles, this episode starts in a run-down area of the city before traveling to a prison, a toxic waste dump, and eventually the San Andreas Fault.
2. Lunar Apocalypse: This episode spans several space stations and alien spaceships.
3. Shrapnel City: Set back on Earth, this episode features a range of locations, including a bank, a movie set, a subway, and a football stadium.
4. The Birth: Available only in the Atomic Edition, this episode features locations such as a fast food restaurant, a post office, an amusement park and Area 51.
5. Alien World Order: Available only in the 20th Anniversary World Tour, this episode brings eight new levels set in locations around the world.
   

Duke Nukem 3D includes a range of weapons, some of which remain unique to the Duke Nukem franchise even today.
Weapons
Weapons range from the Mighty Foot, which is a basic melee attack, to a pistol, a chaingun cannon, pipe bombs, and guns that shrink and freeze enemies. Five of the twelve weapons use hitscan, and another four produce explosions.

In addition to the weapons, Duke's inventory features a series of items that can be acquired and deployed throughout the game. These items include:

• Portable Medkit, which can be used to recover Duke's health at any time
• Steroids, which cause Duke to move more quickly and to deal greater melee damage
• Night Vision Goggles, which allow Duke to see in poorly lit areas
• Holoduke, which projects a hologram of Duke that distracts enemies
• Protective Boots, which allow Duke to traverse dangerous terrain, such as toxic waste or lava
• Scuba Gear, which allows Duke to swim underwater for longer periods without drowning
• Jetpack, which allows Duke to fly freely around the environment, sometimes to reach otherwise inaccessible areas

Apart from these standard inventory items, there are also a number of health-boosting items, and hidden Access Cards can be used to unlock doors, deactivate force fields, or trigger explosions.

Bosses
There are five boss enemies, one at the end of each episode. These are:

1. The Battlelord, equipped with a massive chaingun and mortar launcher
2. The Overlord, who is found on the Moon and has two rocket launchers mounted on its back
3. The Cycloid Emperor, found in a football stadium and has mechanical rocket launcher claws for hands
4. The Alien Queen, an underwater creature that spawns offspring and fires a powerful electrical blast
5. The Cycloid Incinerator, a twin of the Cycloid Emperor that shoots fire and summons Firefly Troopers

And the best part:
Multiplayer!
Duke Nukem 3D supports LAN and online multiplayer games. Multiplayer games can take place on any of the levels included with the singleplayer campaign, or they can take place on custom user maps downloaded from the Internet.

The game features several multiplayer game modes:

• Dukematch: A deathmatch game mode in which each player attempts to kill the other players.
• Co-op: A cooperative game mode in which players work together to complete singleplayer levels.
• DM-Bots: A Dukematch game mode with computer-controlled rather than player-controlled enemies.
• Duke-Tag: A capture the flag game mode that is only available on The Queen, introduced in the Atomic Edition.

Duke Nukem 3D supports player-to-player communication through the use of in-game messaging. The player can type a message and send it to a specific player, to their allies, to their enemies, or to everyone. Newer versions of the game also support voice chat.
How to get it now:
There's plenty of ways to get it, here are some:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/434050/Duke_Nukem_3D_20th_Anniversary_World_Tour/

https://store.playstation.com/en-au/product/EP0290-CUSA05968_00-PAGODA0000000000

https://www.xbox.com/en-AU/games/store/duke-nukem-3d-20th-anniversary-world-tour/BZF309Q32MDT

I don't think you can load player created maps on anything other than PC though (really.. where else WOULD you play it?)
Once upon a time i created one of my own.. you can download it below and let me know what you think
Just unzip it and drop it in the same folder as the main duke exe, and then load it through the menu..
https://drive.google.com/file/d/165YYMchdPJVRFvAnXQMHF7Wt48MuK72X/view?usp=sharing

If you still have a disk version or other PC version you can bring it somewhat up to date with modern PCs with builds such as these:
https://www.eduke32.com/
Recently released mod: https://www.dsogaming.com/mods/duke-nukem-3d-legacy-edition-v1-2-is-available-for-download/

Enjoy!

 

There was this too...







I haven't played this game for a long time, so will give this a go for sure.



JSmith

 

Brilliant. It's been ages since I've played Duke3D *properly*.

I reckon pretty much the last two decades it's been a staple of "fire it up to test midi and performance of first level", and then shut it down again. I think I've completely forgotten the entire game out side of E1M1, which is a crying shame.

Even when it was released, I think young/dumb me just got too impatient and spend most of the time punching in cheats and not playing properly. Like my "Blood" adventures a couple of months back, it'll be nice to sit down and play this properly again.

Easy to forget that even titles that get a lot of mainstream attention deserve a solid, purposeful sitdown and play through. Glad this one has come up in rotation.

 

"Hmmm, don't have time to play with myself."

 

Yesss! I's time to thaw out the Duke!

 

GROOVY!

 

Wow, I just got the 20th anniversary edition on the Switch.. time to have a play through. Loved this back in the day. Beaut choice Sledge.









Holy shit, soo difficult to play with the switch controllers.. this ain't gonna end well.. can I plug a mouse and keyboard Into the switch?

 

wow i'm amazed this one has never been put forward before, but the more important question, are there Christmas Duke Nukem mods???

Google says this exists.

 

Looks like we have one here;

https://www.moddb.com/mods/duke-nukem-xmas-2014



JSmith

 

Ah Duke3D, what a classic. This is one of the few shareware games that I rushed out and bought the full version of. 'Members how the Australian version had the parental lock hard coded on? So that all of the good stuff was turned off?

When I bought it the dude behind the counter cryptically suggested I have a poke around in the .exe with a hex editor, which I rushed home and did, and it was pretty dang easy to fix that issue.

 

Like most people I love this game, played the demo to death on my P200 software-only machine.

I particularly love Grabbag, the main theme, and it's my standard MIDI to test soundfonts or synths. You can get the "full" version of it for SC-88 and General MIDI from Lee Jackson's site here: https://leejacksonaudio.lbjackson.com

Edit: the Lee Jackson MIDIs have a hard-coded high level of chorus set, they sound much closer to the rendered version in the Megaton Edition if you switch off the "chorus" effect in the synth and ramp up the reverb as far as you can tolerate.

Original MIDI (without the chorus "bug") through an SC-88:


For General MIDI, my favourite soundfonts are Patch93, SC55EmperorGrieferus, or the much smaller (but still in development) Trevor0402 soundfont reverse engineered from the SC-55. Interestingly, I have the Megaton Edition on Steam, and for the "classic" version it has a copy of Freepats in the "gameroot/data/freepats" folder. This can be used as a Gravis Ultrasound patch set with DOSBox GUS emulation, but the DOSBox configuration isn't hooked up for that. It sounds okay.

There's been millions of covers of the song, but my favourite is by FamilyJules:



And for the game, as I discovered in the Let's Play for Blood, Civvie has you covered for entertaining analysis of each episode, starting with some great background/history before episode 1:

 

Welp, wasted on the second level. Guess who's playing this on easy mode like he did with Blood, hahaha.

Playing this with eduke32+polymer on Linux. Very easy to get up and running with that setup.

 

Tried my amateur level?
No real storyline or anything

 

Not yet, but will definitely try it out this weekend.

 

Gunna be honest. I don't really rate D3D.

 

Having now tried it again.. i can't figure out how to finish it lol
and once you go in the water you can't go straight out again... small glitch that puts you at the bottom of pool again... hrmmm

Edit: Worked it out lol
man i made it hard to get to the end....

 

Loved this game. It ran fine on almost anything, Played it back then and replayed it years later. A lot of fun with the exception of a few labyrinthine levels. Remember I wasted a lot of time on the submarine level because I had no idea where to go and what to do.

 

I was a massive fan of Duke Nukem 1 and 2 and when my mate got a copy of Duke 3D I was super excited. Next time we were at his house I finally got to play it, and got up to level 3 and found the secret in the chapel that turns the cross inverted.
My mum happened to walk in around that time and saw it... as a devout catholic she wasn't impressed. I was banned from playing the game again, much less 'borrowing' the CD to install on our home PC.

 

Look, if video games influenced children, Pac-man would have had a generation of kids running around in the dark listening to electronic music and eating pills.

 

I cut my teeth on Duke Nukem, bring it.....big fan right here : )