Duke Nukem: The Once & Future King?

Duke Nukem: The Once & Future King?

Posted 11/19/2010

Thrills, drama, a long grind, and a twist ending—these are the sorts of things you normally expect from a videogame. They are not what you expect from the story behind a game. But then, Duke Nukem isn’t any ordinary game, and the saga of its development has been anything but normal. For more than 13 years, the gaming world’s been waiting for Duke, and now the end is in sight. But first, let's review what's happened until now.

It all started back in 1996, with Duke Nukem riding high. The game for which he was known, Duke Nukem 3D, was a megaton hit, and gamers clung to the cocksure hero’s every machismo-laden word. He was, quite literally, the king. He was on top of the world. Then in 1997, the follow-up, Duke Nukem Forever, was announced and, shockingly enough, it was all downhill from there. Duke disappeared. Year after year passed, and short of a few quick glimpses of the game, Duke was a disappointing no-show. His once-loyal fan base declared him dead. Anticipation rotted and festered, boiling over into angry cynicism.

The nail in Duke’s supposed coffin, however, came in the form of developer 3D Realms closing up shop in 2009 and a subsequent lawsuit from publisher Take-Two Interactive. And then everything went silent. Game Over. Continue? 5... 4… 3… 2… 1…

But wait! At the last second, Borderlands developer Gearbox Software stepped in and saved the day. Now, Duke Nukem Forever’s back on track and—get this—it’s actually going to come out this time. So, how’s the game? Who’s in charge now? After more than a decade of waiting, will it all be worth it?

We traveled deep into the heart of Texas—to Gearbox’s only-slightly evil lair—for three interviews with the men responsible for the past, present, and future of Duke Nukem. We’ll tell you what they have to say about the legendary franchise and we’ll share the details of our hands-on experience with the upcoming game. Yes, Duke fans, it’s safe to dream again.

Read more at source: Duke Nukem: The Once & Future King? | Maximum PC

Yee haaa.... Duke(Nukem Forever) is back(ontrack)! But it started long before 1996 Duke3D with the original 8bit dos version followed by Nukem 2 a short time later.

History

Duke Nukem was introduced to the world as the title character of the Apogee platform game Duke Nukem I, which was published in 1991. This game is a side-scrolling platform game, and contained three episodes, the first of which was distributed as shareware. Many staples of a Duke Nukem game were established here, such as Duke's general appearance, the necessity of collecting keys/access cards, various pick-up items (although the types of items were fairly generic, and some have never been seen since) and many destructible objects. It also introduced a wide variety of enemies to fight against, although most if not all of these enemies would be absent/heavily redesigned in the sequels.

Duke Nukem I is set in the "near future" of 1997, and depicts Duke's attempts to thwart the evil megalomaniac Dr. Proton and his army of Techbots. The first episode shows Duke's journey through the devastated city, before the second episode takes him to Dr. Proton's secret moonbase. Finally, Duke follows Dr. Proton to the future and puts a permanent end to his plans to take over the world.

The first sequel, Duke Nukem II was released in 1993, and featured many improvements on the original, such as sloped surfaces, more colours and multiple weapons to use (although only one could be carried at a time). It is still a side-scrolling platform game, like the original.

More

3DRealms later released the Windows version for the old W95, W98 legacy versions. Since then DOSBox has been the one thing that kept the game going all this time as you can see with the images here.

Memorabilia!

i used to play duke nukem on my pacbell 133,mhz later up'ed to 200mhz cpu with 8 mb of ram up'ed to 32 mb which ran it lol I don't miss my old unit that much for i used to use win 95 and aol 2.5 back in the day

Hot babes

Big Guns

Lets Rock!!

Long Live The King!!

It certainly seems as if "come get some!" will be heard again! You won't be saying Rest in Peace Duke Nukem Forever

"Your face... your ass... what's the difference?" - Duke Nukem

Awesome! Can't wait!