It’s always fun to hear about what new retro sweetmeat has found its way to Good Old Games‘ DRM-free servers – to sigh and think of times gone by, to think of how silly our hair was in 1995 and to wonder whether the Manic Street Preachers would be any good today if Richie hadn’t gone missing.
Today, it’s the turn of Duke Nukem 3D, along with a host of other old Apogee stuff. It’s almost odd to think of people paying hard cash for Duke 3D these days – so many FPSes of that era simply haven’t aged as well as their less graphics-reliant strategy, RPG and adventure contemporaries. Of course, Duke earned some 21st century stripes last year, with the well-received XBLA port, so it’s nice to see him back on his original home too.
D3D was one of those games that personally passed me by entirely – I spent a few years without a decent gaming PC, years which encompassed this. So I have no strong feelings about it whatsoever. I know full well what it is and its place in PC history, but it’s more like a museum piece to me. I played it through a few years after its release, and it seemed too crude in both technology and wit for my snooty liking. Yet I’ve got friends for whom it’s an essential part of their growing-up, one they’ll forever be as fond of as I am of X-COM or Doom 2. I’m too far on from it to ever be able to appreciate their enthusiasm, which I find curiously saddening. What about you lot? Regardless of that nasty Duke Nukem Forever business, is Duke a figure of legend for you?
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I loved it back in the day, until Quake came out. I was twelve.
I tried it again a few months ago and it left me cold. “Old fashioned misogyny” just about sums it up – it’s insultingly crude, really. Still, the range of weapons and the realistic environments were nice for when it came out.
I remember having a blast playing Duke Nukem. Wasn’t too into the whole ‘cool Duke is cool’ thing, but fun, yeah.
Can’t remember when or how I got my hands on it, strangely enough.
This game is LEGENDARY, and I’m so glad GoG have picked it up to introduke (sorry) to a new audience.
While Doom reveled in slick shooty action, it could be a touch…sterile. Duke reminded us that shooters could still be made with tons of personality, humour and fun. The first level still ranks as one of the best game openings ever put together by human beings – by the time you’ve played through that you are in no doubt about who Duke is and what type of game you’re playing.
If you’ve never tried this I URGE you, IMPLORE you to pick up this slice of gaming history: you won’t regret it. I’m only sad that I don’t have time to revisit this tonight as my GF is coming over! (But then again, do I really need a girlfriend….?)
Now bring Blood out, please.
Hmm, GoG’ve got Rise of the Triad on the way, too…while not quite as good as The Duke I seem to recall having some fun times with that as well. :)
Gotta love some Duke.
“It’s time to kick ass and chew bubble gum” etc.
I loved Quake. Quake was utterly lovely. But coming to Duke3D AFTER playing Quake it was…. just as good. What impressed me most at the time was that a previous generation 2.5D game like Duke could hold its own against TEH FUTURE. So yeah, a lorra lorra fun.
My enduring memory of Duke3D is of about six of us crowded around the PC in schools computer room that I had managed to install it on and the baying mob behind me imploring me to kick everything to death and make the girls get their titties out. I think I was about 13 at the time.
Bizzarely though, I never finished the full game. I was far, far more interested in rumours I’d read about this game ‘Quake’ and spent more time with other build engine games like Shadow Warrior and ROTT when they came out that I ever did with D3D.
I like the fact that it’s taken longer to develop Duke Nukem Forever than it took for the creation of the first nuclear weapons. If they can recapture what made Duke 3D so good, then they might have a chance.
One of the best things I enjoyed about Duke 3D was some of the expansions. I think it was Atomic edition where there was a level based around Mission Impossible, where you had to go through an air vent, past the laser trip bombs, then hover in front of the computer terminal with the jet pack. Fun stuff, I especially liked some of the space station levels too, and of course that one time where you find the San Andreas fault… more of that kind of thing please.
Duke 3D takes me back to a time when I used to love visiting my cousin, as he had one of these new-fangled computer thingies my technophobe parents still hadn’t got round to buying yet. Bouts of Duke and Quake were common (I think my first encounter with the shambler is going to be etched on my consciousness forever).
Recently, however, I bought the Live Arcade version of Duke, and realized that the humour hasn’t dated well – it’s definitely something aimed squarely at horny teenagers. It’s still fairly fun to play though – I think I could just do without the mercy killings.
@Malgate
Did you get that from this site by any chance?
http://duke.a-13.net/
I was amused that the entire career of The Beatles, from forming to splitting up, actually took less time.
@Corvus, yes I did, because ascagnel posted a link to that very site further up the thread. It’s easy to forget that there were still a whole bunch of other duke games being released in that time, heck I’ve even played and iirc finished one of them on the N64. ’twas a weird 3rd person affair with time travelling and less misogyny, wasn’t half bad actually.
XCOM, DoomII and Duke3D. Ah, such happy times. I recently bought the ID package on STEAM when it was on super sale. .. and also XCOM actually.
I first met Duke on a magazine demo-disc and was amazed by the graphics. So clean and crisp. I got the full game as a Christmas present which led to many MANY hours playing with the Build engine.
@ BooleanBob
“(the ‘mercy-killing’ of female captives was physically sickening – I’ve never known why 3DR felt that was necessary)”
It WAS an 18s rated game, also it was a nod to ‘ALIENS’ with the women saying “please kill me.” Not that it made it any less disturbing.
The Atomic Edition levels were great.. the theme park one was my favourite.
I never cared much for Duke. Even my testosterone-addled teenage brain understood it was much too crass and vapid to be worth anything. It really isn’t, you know … the whole game falls apart 1/3rd of the way through anyway.
Realms of the Haunting, now THAT was a creepy shooter. Pity almost no-one played it.
I never played Duke3D when it came out, having an Amiga and all. Even when I got a PC (sometime in 1997), I played Doom and Quake, but never even really noticed that Duke3D had ever existed.
So, my first (and only) encounter with it was playing multiplayer deathmatch in it in 1999 – one of the computers involved was in a cardboard box, the original case having been lost or something, and wasn’t capable of playing anything more demanding… After having played through Half-Life the previous year, I suspect I wasn’t primed to consider it an awesome peak in PC gaming.
Duke Nukem 3D is probably the watermark of all my teenage PC gaming, particularly for the level design and, yes, the titties. The Atomic Pack continued the “real world” theme that made it great into marvellous new territory – the supermarket level sticks in my head as well.
@Malgate: That was Duke Nukem Zero Hour, which was pretty accomplished in its way. A lot of atmosphere throughout, which is no small thing.
Sadly, after all this time, DNF will clearly be rubbish. Ho hum.