Home • Reviews • Features • Guides • Full Archives

September 11 2010

Hail to the king, baby!

The year was 1996, and first person shooters were all the rage. One game stood out among all of the other unique titles at the time. A title knows as Duke Nukem 3D developed by 3D Realms and published by Apogee Software. It was a sequel to the platform game, Duke Nukem and Duke Nukem II, also published by Apogee.

Duke Nukem 3D offered us a hero that was rude, crude and full of awesome one liners. Massive weaponry, steroids, aliens and strippers made this game an instant classic with a large group of people. The game cemented itself as the B-movie of video games, borrowing heavily from movies such as They Live, Evil Dead and Mad Maxx. At the time it was so refreshing that it earned itself a place as a cult classic and fan favorite very quickly.  

The plot itself was fairly thin. Duke discovers that aliens are capturing women. After he kills the first boss, the Alien Battle Lord, he journeys to space, where he reaches the alien mothership and kills an Alien Overlord. He finally saves the day after he goes back to Earth and kills the leader of alien menace: the Cycloid Emperor. The story continues in the Atomic Edition, the fourth episode, The Birth. It is revealed that the aliens were capturing women to produce a Queen, who could quickly give birth to alien drones. Duke is set out to find her lair and kill the Queen, thus thwarting the alien plot.

One thing that really sold the game though, was the development tools that were released. Players were encouraged to develop their own Duke levels. At the time it was pretty rare for developers to release tools for customizing levels and it served to launch the 3rd party career of the nuclear royalty. Third party addon packs were released frequently for purchase and included several hundred user made maps. A mod community rose up and by the time they announced the second game (and sequel), there were already 500+ custom made levels for the game.

In 1997 3D realms announced the sequel to Duke Nukem 3D, Duke Nukem Forever. Promotional information for the game was released in one form or another from 1997 to 2008. This information included screenshots, different graphic styles for the game, and various other tidbits. During this long “production” run, it became a joke that the game would never actually be released, and it was dubbed Vaporware. Release dates were never given and the phrase “when it’s done” was uttered quite a bit. Screenshots and even a teaser trailer became available, but ultimately did nothing to push away thoughts of vaporware.

Eventually, 3D Realms folded as a company (2009) and a battle began for the intellectual property rights to Duke Nukem. A lot of the details about the legal struggles are not well known. Take-Two Interactive, which owns the publishing rights to the game, filed a lawsuit in 2009 against 3D Realms over their failure to finish development. 3D Realms retorted that Take-Two’s legal interest in the game is limited to their publishing right. The case was settled with prejudice and details undisclosed.  That was in May, 2010.

Now, thanks to Gearbox Software, we are getting a chance at an actual release. On September 3rd, after 13 years, Duke Nukem Forever was officially reported by 2K Games to be in development at Gearbox Software, with an expected release date of 2011. Gearbox was approached by 3D realms and asked  if they were interested in helping Triptych Games in polishing the nearly finished PC version and then to port it to the consoles.

Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford, who had worked on an expansion to Duke Nukem 3D and very briefly on Forever before he left to found Gearbox, felt that “Duke can’t die” and decided that he was going to help “in Duke’s time of need”. Pitchford started to provide the cash for the game and contacted 2K Game’s president to persuade him to let Gearbox and Triptych complete the development of the game and get it released on all platforms in time.

The game was officially announced at the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) 2010 on September 3, 2010. On the final day of the Penny Arcade Expo, during the Gearbox Software panel, it was announced that the company has bought the Duke Nukem intellectual property from 3D Realms and 2K Games now holds the exclusive long-term publishing rights of the game. Since then it has  been officially confirmed that development is almost completed with only minor polishing to be done, before the game is released in 2011. We have been promised a playable demo once the timing of the release is figured out.

For fans of the B-Series game, this has come not only as a relief, but almost as a dream come true. Some still can’t believe this is really happening, and are in a state of denial waiting for the proof in the form of a playable demo. In a time where games take themselves way too seriously and pride themselves on realism and “adult gameplay”, Duke Nukem Forever is a long awaited breath of fresh air. It is something that is over the top, fun and rude. It is to gaming what Shoot ‘em up and Machete is to cinema. All I can say, is there is no killing the Duke of Mayhem. Hail to the king, baby!

Filed under: News • Features • Old School • Shooter •