Duke Nukem (1991 video game)

Duke Nukem
Developer(s)	Apogee Software
Publisher(s)	Apogee Software
Designer(s)	Todd Replogle, Scott Miller, Allen H. Blum III
Artist(s)	George Broussard, Jim Norwood, Allen H. Blum III
Composer(s)	Scott Miller
Series	Duke Nukem
Platform(s)	MS-DOS
Release date(s)	NA July 1, 1991 EU 1992[1]
Genre(s)	Platform
Mode(s)	Single-player
Rating(s)	ESRB: T
Media/distribution	3½-inch floppy disks, Download

Duke Nukem is a platform game developed and published by Apogee Software (now 3D Realms), featuring the adventures of the fictional character Duke Nukem. The game was released on July 1, 1991.

Story

The game is set in the year 1997 (which was the "near future" at the time of game release). Dr. Proton is a madman, determined to take over the world with his army of Techbots. Duke Nukem, the eponymous hero, takes upon the task of stopping him. The first episode takes place in the devastated city of Los Angeles. In the second episode, Duke follows Dr. Proton to his secret moonbase. In the third episode, Dr. Proton escapes into the future, and Duke pursues him through time, to put a permanent end to his mad schemes.

Gameplay

The main objective of the game is to get to the exit of each level, while destroying enemies and collecting points. Many objects onscreen can be shot including boxes, obstacles and blocks. Besides points, some collectibles include health powerups, gun powerups, and some inventory items with special abilities. The final level of each episode has no exit, and is instead completed by finding and defeating Dr. Proton.

At the end of every level (with the exception of the last level in each episode), the player can receive up to seven 10,000 point bonuses, earned by making certain achievements in the level, such as destroying all cameras. At least two other Apogee titles, Duke Nukem II and Rise of the Triad, have similar end-of-level bonuses.

Technical implementation

Due to technical limitations the game world scrolls by shifting 8x8 "blocks" rather than individual pixels. Similar techniques are used in e.g. Zeliard Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure and Duke Nukem II. Console and arcade platform games would typically perform this using dedicated hardware, such as the PPU in the NES which can scroll the background.

The graphics borrowed heavily from other games, such as Turrican^[2] and the MS-DOS version of Mega Man.^[3]

Name changes

After the game's release, Apogee became aware of a Captain Planet villain called Duke Nukem,^[4] and to avoid a lawsuit Apogee renamed the 2.0 version of its game Duke Nukum, having rejected the idea of discarding the pun on "nuke" and respelling the name Newcomb or Newcombe. It later turned out that Duke Nukem was not a registered name, so Apogee registered it and used the original Duke Nukem name in the sequels.^[5]

Sequels

Duke Nukem was followed by Duke Nukem II in 1993, featuring the same hero still without the dark sunglasses, and later Duke Nukem 3D in 1996. A third sequel, Duke Nukem Forever, was announced in 1997. Plagued by various developmental problems and delays, the game would later be picked up by Gearbox Software and released in 2011, fourteen years after the game was announced. Several spin-offs were developed for consoles only, such as the PlayStation titles Duke Nukem: Time to Kill and Duke Nukem: Land of the Babes, and the Nintendo 64 game, Duke Nukem: Zero Hour.

In 2002, Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project was released to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Duke Nukem. It uses a 3D engine and elements from Duke Nukem 3D, but with the side scrolling style of the first two titles.

References

1. ^ Release data, GameFAQs.com.
2. ^ "Duke Nukem stole graphics from Turrican!". http://www.nemmelheim.de/turrican/news/duke/. Retrieved 2008-06-21. 
3. ^ "S&F Prod. - Duke Nukum". http://www.student.tue.nl/p/f.a.m.smeijers/sfp/games/duke1.htm#copied_art. Retrieved 2008-06-21. 
4. ^ "Duke On Holiday Getting sunburnt - 3D Realms Forums". http://forums.3drealms.com/vb/showthread.php?p=414899#post414899. Retrieved 2008-06-21. 
5. ^ "3D Realms Site: Duke Nukem I". http://www.3drealms.com/duke1/index.html. Retrieved 2008-06-21. 

External links

• Official Duke Nukem website
• Duke Nukem - Mega Man (PC) graphics comparison
• Duke Nukem at MobyGames