Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition




The third chapter in the series, and the first with a 3D perspective (the original Duke Nukem and the sequel, Duke Nukem II, are side scrolling platform games). This game, set sometime in the early 21st century, begins in a ravaged LA, which was overtaken by aliens while you were abducted during Duke Nukem II. Duke, upon returning to Earth, finds himself with another mess to clean up, and another alien race that needs exterminating. Duke is a can-do hero who realizes that sometimes innocent people have to die in order to save Earth, so accuracy of gun fire is not a real concern to him. :) 

This game has a long list of cool things that haven't been attempted in 3D action games, yet. The weapons, for example, kick-butt: 

  • There's a mine that can be placed on any wall and sends out a laser trip beam-- perfect for multiplayer games. 
  • There's also a shrinker ray that reduces an opponent to the size of a G.I. Joe, at which point they are foot fodder--watch them splat! 
  • As in Shadow Warrior, you can swim under water, and even shoot players who are standing outside the water, or vice versa.

Originally released January 29, 1996.

Plutonium PAK?  Atomic Edition?  What's all that about?

Until November 1996, the only registered version of Duke Nukem 3D was v1.3d. We created a new version that had a new fourth episode, and we changed the version to v1.4 - We also gave that a new name - "The Atomic Edition".  In order to upgrade customers who had the registered v1.3d CD, we created a patch that could be purchased - that patch was called "The Plutonium PAK".  

In December 1996, we updated it again for a few minor bug fixes, and the version number was again changed to v1.5.  Both v1.4 and v1.5 are "Atomic". The term "Plutonium PAK" refers ONLY to the patch you need to use to upgrade an existing copy of v1.3 to v1.4. (There is a further patch available online for free to upgrade a v1.4 to v1.5).

Using 'The Plutonium PAK' will result on your copy of Duke Nukem 3D becoming 'The Atomic Edition' - The term "Plutonium PAK" refers only to the actual patch.  The resultant game is called 'The Atomic Edition'.   If this is all confusing, your best bet is to forget about the names and use use the version numbers.  :)

In short, if you had the old 3 episode registered version (the registered v1.3d CD), you want to get the Plutonium PAK (and the 1.5 free patch online), and if you don't have any Duke Nukem at all, or just the shareware, you need to buy the "Atomic Version" CD. If you buy the Atomic version, you are done.

We no longer sell the old registered version, we only sell the Atomic Edition.  Furthermore, in October of 2001, the Plutonium PAK was discontinued.  Contact Customer Support for more information about this.



Image Gallery


Click on any of these screenshot thumbnails for a larger image.

shot1.jpg (67347 bytes) shot2.jpg (61991 bytes) shot3.jpg (60322 bytes) shot4.jpg (52219 bytes) shot5.jpg (95848 bytes) shot6.jpg (63700 bytes) shot7.jpg (61635 bytes) shot8.jpg (37194 bytes) shot9.jpg (43280 bytes) shot10.jpg (47654 bytes)

Don't forget to check out the "Behind the Scenes Photo Gallery"!

 

 

Downloads

 

  1. 3dduke13.zip - v1.3d Shareware Episode (5785k)
  2. dn3d11pt.zip - v1.0 to v1.1 shareware patch (701k)
  3. dnsw13pt.zip - v1.1 to v1.3d shareware patch (1349k)
  4. ppack15.exe - v1.4 to v1.5 registered patch (673k)
  5. ozpatch.zip - Patch to change the v1.3d registered Australian restricted version of the game back to the original US release. (579k) 
  6. dnsndfx.exe - Patch for Duke Nukem 3D to correct PCI sound card crash (41k)  - Please check readme.txt before downloading!
  7. dnsepat.exe - Patch to update v1.5 Atomic "Parental Lock" patch to the 'regular' Atomic v1.5 (385k)
  8. eduke20.exe - EDuke patch for US Atomic v1.5 customers to allow for easier editing of the game.  Please see Eduke page for more info.
  9. lameduke.zip - Pre-Release UNSUPPORTED beta of game. (3926k)
  10. dukectrl.zip - External Control Interface API info file (23k)
  11. dukenet.zip - Commit Interface Specs (27k)
  12. cooldemo.zip - v1.3d demo file showing 3D Realms during final night of game development Dukematching (79k)
  13. duke3dvc.zip - Real Video clips showing items being digitized for game use (323k)
  14. grabbag.zip - MP3 version of Duke Nukem 3D theme song (4810k)
  15. duke3dsource.zip - Source code to Atomic Edition of Duke Nukem 3D (3.8Mb)
 

System Requirements

 

  • 486DX2/66 with 8 megabytes of memory and VGA graphics. We STRONGLY recommend a good Pentium with 16Mb of memory and PCI local bus video.
  • For the SVGA modes, a VESA compliant video card is required. Please see your video card's manual for info on how to find out if your card is VESA compliant. If yours is not VESA compliant, you will need to use a software driver to provide this compliance. We suggest a driver such as Display Doctor.
  • For game play, the following devices are optionally supported: Keyboard, Mouse, Joystick, Gravis Gamepad.
  • The following sound cards/devices are optionally supported for music: Gravis UltraSound, Sound Blaster (all of them), SoundMan16, Pro Audio Spectrum, SoundScape, Waveblaster, Sound Canvas, Adlib, and General MIDI.
  • The following sound cards/devices are optionally supported for sound effects: Sound Blaster (all of them), Gravis UltraSound, SoundMan16, Pro Audio Spectrum, SoundScape, Disney/Tandy Sound Sources.
  • There is no support for the PC Speaker.
  • Duke Nukem 3D is a DOS game.

 

 

Cool Stuff

 

 

         Links


Duke Nukem Pages

  1. Yahoo's Listing of Duke Nukem Pages (if you run a Duke page, you should go here)
  2. PlanetDuke
  3. http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Battlefield/9408/Duke3d.html
  4. http://www.multimania.com/duke3d/

Web Sites for Duke Nukem 3D utilities

  1. http://indexes.totalconversions.com/duke3d/rel.html - A Listing of Total Conversions for Duke3D - Excellent!
  2. http://members.aol.com/jedisquest/index.htm - Jedi's Quest - A Star Wars Total Conversion for Duke3D

Duke Nukem 3D Web Contests & Giveaways

  1. http://ww.uta.fi/~sl60889/duke.html - Academic Dukematching Society of the Medical Students at the University of Tampere (Finland)
  2. http://www.cyberrodeo.com/duke/ The Duke Nukem 3D Rodeo Shootout! (It's no longer active - this is old info.  It was founded by Charlie Wiederhold, formerly of Ritual & 3D Realms.

Only the best sites will be listed here.  If you know of a link that you believe should be here - please let us know.  Also, if one of these links is dead, please let us know that too.

 
 

Registered Download Information


Format: Registered Download - File size: 27.3 Mb

Estimated Download Times:
28.8 Modem - 2 Hours, 6 Minutes, 44 Seconds
56k Modem - 1 Hours, 5 Minutes, 20 Seconds
128K ISDN - 28 Minutes, 26 Seconds
T1 - 2 Minutes 21 Seconds