From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Duke Nukem (initially known as
Duke Nukum) is a platform video 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, is hired by the CIA to stop 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. The game was
notable in its time because of its smart level design which allows
very fast gameplay.
Additionally, it allows many objects onscreen to be shot:
obstacles, as well as enemies, can be destroyed by gunfire. Besides
points, some collectibles include health powerups, gun powerups,
and some inventory items with special abilities.
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, the game's sequel Duke Nukem II and Rise of the
Triad, have similar end-of-level bonuses.
Technical implementation
The game's play control suffers from all objects only moving in
8x8 "blocks" rather than individual pixels like most other
shooters. This limitation also appears in Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure
and Duke Nukem
II.
The graphics borrowed heavily from other
games, such as Turrican[1] and the
PC
version of Mega Man[2] .
Name
controversy
After the game's release, Apogee became aware of a Captain
Planet villain called Duke
Nukem[3], and to
avoid a lawsuit Apogee's game was renamed Duke Nukum in
its version 2.0. 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.[4]
Sequels
Duke Nukem was followed by Duke Nukem II in 1993, also
featuring the same hero still without the dark shades, and later
Duke Nukem
3D in 1996. Duke Nukem 3D was an outstanding success, and
a strong competitor to Quake. A
third sequel, Duke Nukem Forever, was
announced in 1997 and was in development until May 2009 when
development was halted by the shutdown of 3D Realms. Several other
sequels were developed for consoles only, such as the PlayStation titles
Duke Nukem: Time to Kill and Duke Nukem: Land of the
Babes.
In 2002, a new special title was released to commemorate the
10th anniversary since the first Duke Nukem. This title
was Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project, done with a 3D engine
and elements from Duke Nukem 3D, but with the side
scrolling style of the first two titles.
References
External
links
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