Duke Nukem | |
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![]() Episode 1 title screen | |
Developer(s) | Apogee Software |
Publisher(s) | Apogee Software |
Producer(s) | Scott Miller |
Designer(s) | Todd Replogle Scott Miller Allen H. Blum III |
Programmer(s) | Todd Replogle |
Artist(s) | George Broussard Jim Norwood Allen H. Blum III |
Composer(s) | Scott Miller |
Series | Duke Nukem |
Platform(s) | |
Release | |
Genre(s) | Platform |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
Duke Nukem is a 1991platform game developed and published byApogee Software forMS-DOS. The 2D, multidirectional scrolling game follows the adventures of fictional characterDuke Nukem across three episodes of ten levels each. The game's first episode was distributed asshareware.[5] The name was briefly changed toDuke Nukum to avoid trademark issues.
Duke Nukem was followed by the similarly-styledDuke Nukem II, in 1993. The series made the jump to 3D graphics withDuke Nukem 3D in 1996, which became the most popular of the three games.
The main objective of the game is to get to the exit of each level, while destroying enemies and collectingpoints. Many objects onscreen can be shot including boxes, obstacles and blocks. Besides points, some collectibles include healthpowerups, 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 everylevel (with the exception of the last level in each episode), the player can receive up to seven 10,000 point bonuses, earned by making certainachievements in the level, such as destroying allcameras.
The game is set in the year 1997. Theantagonist, Dr. Proton, is amad scientist determined to take over the world with his army of "Techbots". Duke Nukem, the eponymous hero, is the only one who can take on the task of stopping him. The first episode takes place in the devastated city ofLos Angeles following a Techbot invasion. In the second episode, Duke chases Dr. Proton to his secret moonbase. In the third episode, Dr. Proton uses atime machine to escape into the future, and Duke pursues him through time to put an end to his mad schemes.
According to programmer and co-creator Todd Replogle,John Carmack helped him program some low-level parts of the game code inassembly language.[6] The game world scrolls by shifting 8x8 "blocks" rather than individual pixels. The game's original title wasHeavy Metal, but producer Scott Miller hated the name and chose to name it after the lead character, similar to comic books. He proposed Duke, which he felt sounded strong, and Replogle proposed Nukem as his last name.[7]
After the game's release,Apogee Software became aware that theCaptain Planet and the Planeteers animated series featured a character with the same name (Duke Nukem) and therefore to avoid a lawsuit, thesoftware house renamed the 2.0 version of its gameDuke Nukum.[8] It later turned out thatDuke Nukem was not a registered name, so Apogee registered it and used the original Duke Nukem name in the sequels.[8] Apogee also received a legal letter fromDuke University alleging trademark violation. Apogee successfully fought back, and agreed to use the full Duke Nukem name in all their marketing materials.[7]
Duke Nukem Collection 1, which includes remastered versions ofDuke Nukem andDuke Nukem II alongside a port ofDuke Nukem: Total Meltdown, was released for theEvercade retrogaming console in November 2023.[9][10]
Scott Miller estimates that the game eventually sold between 60,000 and 70,000 copies.[11] In 1995,Flux magazine ranked the game 39th on their Top 100 Video Games writing: "Without a doubt, the best platform game for the pc ever created."[12] Afree software parody of the game was made by fans entitled Dave Gnukem.[13]
Written by David Jaffe, Dave Gnukem is a 2D scrolling platform game, similar to Duke Nukem 1. It includes a sprite and level editor. It uses GGI and thus runs on the console as well as X, windowed or fullscreeen. It also runs on Windows, using DirectX. Download it and blow yourself away