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Updates
We wanted to address a rumour that has popped up in our email boxes a lot in regards to the recent (lack of) updates here on the 3D Realms news page. There has been rampant speculation that the reason for the lack of updates was that we were about to:
* Release Duke Nukem Forever
* Announce a release date for Duke Nukem Forever.
Both of these are false. The reason there hasn't been that much in the way of updates here is because there hasn't been much going on! Please keep in mind the release date for Duke Nukem Forever has always been and will always be (until about a week before it happens) "When it's done".
In other news updates, there are two things we're working on that should be on the web site this week. They are:
* Duke Nukem: Time to Kill Development Bible (see the genesis of a video game)
* Balls of Steel v1.2 Update (a bug fix update)
Keep your eyes peeled here for these updates.
Posted by Joe Siegler at 1:00 PM
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Happy 99 Virus
We wanted to point this out directly to our customers. Our Customer Support people as well as our webmaster have received several copies of the Happy99 virus sent to us via email attachments. We do have our LAN protected against this kind of thing, but we wanted everyone who sends us Email to check out their systems for it, as we have gotten quite a few emails with this virus attached to them lately. The Happy 99 virus is one that is automatically sent without the sender's knowledge, and here's some information on it.
This is a worm virus that is sent from the infected computer to any one that is sent Email. (This is not a Joke) Happy99.exe was first identified around mid-January and is now traveling across the Internet via e-mail attachments and newsgroup postings. The worm modifies e-mails and newsgroup postings by adding unauthorized attachments without the computer user's knowledge. As a side-effect, it can also create network slowdowns and, in a worst-case scenario, even crash corporate e-mail servers. While the computer worm does not destroy or alter files or otherwise cripple computers and networks, it creates a time- and energy-consuming nuisance to network administrators.
The computer worm works on Windows 95 and 98 platforms.
Happy99.exe is classified as a computer worm for its ability for self-replication. It arrives to a computer via an e-mail or newsgroup attachment, infecting machines that run the attachment. If the computer user runs the unauthorized attachment, Happy99.exe puts up an attractive fireworks display, which the computer user might mistake for a good-looking accessory to the message. However, while the fireworks burst on-screen, the computer worm modifies the winsock32.dll file in order to monitor what e-mails and postings are made from the machine. All Internet access goes through the wsock32.dll file. Afterwards, Happy99.exe spams the newsgroup or e-mail recipient with copies of itself any time the computer user tries to send a message across cyberspace.
We urge you to check our your system for instances of this virus, and eradicate it if you can. Please check with your virus checker software to make sure you are totally up to date and can track down and eliminate this virus. If you don't have any virus software, you should use one something - and keep it updated!
Posted by Joe Siegler at 1:00 PM
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Books!
We wanted to point out that we have several books available for sale through our web site (well, they're actually from Amazon.com) about our games.
* First off, we wanted to point out that the two original Shadow Warrior Novels, For Dead
Eyes Only & You Only Die Twice are still available. If you haven't read these books, and you're a Shadow Warrior fan, you should check them out! In fact, we have the full text of the first chapter of For Dead Eyes Only available for you to read online! You can also read several reviews of each book written by people who have read them (or add your own if you wish).
* We also have several book links for titles about Duke Nukem! From strategy guides, to help with editing your own levels, to Internet help, we have something that you can use if you play Duke Nukem (either on the PC or the console games)!
* There's also links to older games like Terminal Velocity & Rise of the Triad, too!
If you want to see the complete list of books we have available, check out our Books page today!
Posted by Joe Siegler at 1:00 PM
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Scott Miller Goes to Hell
Scott Miller was interviewed recently for the "10
Questions with SamHell" Web feature. Today, you can read what Scott had to say about several topics. Check out these:
Q: In your opinion, how has Duke Nukem helped shape the gaming community?
A: a) Duke helped show that defined characters are important to players. The conventional wisdom before Duke Nukem 3D was that players preferred to play an undefined hero, so that they could take the role of that hero. With Duke, we instead create a larger-than-life hero, and you give to live the game through the hero's eyes and voice.
b) Duke's political incorrectness opened a lot of eyes around the industry, and now we see a lot of games trying to go over-the-top in their content and attitude.
c) Duke Nukem 3D also showed that realistic places can be as fun as fantasy locations.
Q: Can we anticipate a demo of Duke Nukem 4 before the game hits the shelves? If so, what will it offer (multiplayer support, number of levels, etc.)?
A: Our plan is to release a demo about one to two weeks before the game itself. And the demo will not be more than a level or two. We don't want to give away too much of the game for free, but from what we do give away you'll be able to tell how cool the game is.
There's several other things Scott has to say, so head on over to SamHell's site and check out "10 Questions with Scott Miller".
Posted by Joe Siegler at 1:00 PM
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3D Mark '99 to Launch Today
3D Mark '99 MAX, the net's best graphics benchmark program is slated to launch with a new version this afternoon. What is 3D Mark? Well, here's some of the description from the Official Site:
3DMark� 99 MAX - The Gamers' Benchmark is a diagnostic suite that analyzes, tests and reports Your system's 3D performance. In the fast moving world of 3D-acceleration working out which 3D accelerator is best for your system is a difficult job. There is an endless stream of advertising that claiming numerous products claiming that they are the latest and greatest solution.
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Futuremark Corporation helps You to cut through the jargon and judge for yourself with 3DMark�, an advanced diagnostics and testing tool based on MAX-FX� Technology.
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3DMark� tells how to maximize Your 3D performance by producing one easy to understand result from a balanced testing methodology that includes image quality, rendering speed, CPU capability and an Internet information base.
But don't just take the word of the web site for it. Check out some of these cool quotes about the software package...
AMD�s Vice President of Marketing, Dana Krelle:
"With 3DMark 99 MAX, Futuremark has created a unique performance tool capable of benchmarking the power of 3DNow! technology to accelerate leading-edge graphic and multimedia applications," said Dana Krelle, Vice President of Marketing at AMD. "3DMark successfully demonstrates the SIMD capabilities of 3DNow! technology currently supported in more than 10 million PCs powered by AMD-K6*-2 and AMD-K6-III processors."
Intel's Vice President and Director, Platform Launch Operation, Michael Aymar:
"We see 3DMark� 99 MAX as one of the most comprehensive 3D benchmarks in the market today for testing the 3D performance of both processors and systems. We are pleased that this benchmark highlights the performance benefits of Pentium� III processors with its Internet Streaming SIMD Extensions (S.S.E.)," said Michael Aymar, Vice President, Intel Corporation."
The launch is today at 4PM Pacific Time, so make sure to head on over there and download yourself a trial copy, learn more, or purchase your own registered copy of 3D Mark '99 MAX!
Posted by Joe Siegler at 1:00 PM
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More on Megadeth
Over the weekend, George Broussard (head of development for Duke Nukem Forever) posted this message on our Web forums offering some clarification regarding Megadeth's involement in Duke Nukem Forever:
 It's important to clear something up before rumors get out of hand. Megadeth is only doing one song for DNF. They are doing their own version of the Duke 3D title theme song (by Lee Jackson). It's very cool and fits the attitude and mood of Duke, and the original song.
Lee Jackson will still be doing the remainder of the music for DNF, although a surprise or two could pop up along the way.
We are very excited about the Megadeth cover of the theme song and if we all love it, we know you all will as well.
Posted by Joe Siegler at 1:00 PM
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Duke Nukem Forever Update
George Broussard updated his .plan file this afternoon with a short Duke Nukem Forever-related update. Check it out:
 Well we finally almost have the motion capture room setup. The ceiling has been yanked (so we can jump up and not hit our heads) and the stage will be installed tomorrow. Then we just setup the equipment (We opted for the MotionStar Wireless system from Ascension), calibrate it and start capturing motions for the game. The 3 animators (Chris, Allen and David) are in Canada now getting training on the mo-cap cleanup software we're using (Kaydara FilmBox).
Chris Hargrove already has the full skeletal system in the game and it all works great. A character can be doing his animations and you can use the bones in the skeleton to override various animations like: Have enemies heads track Duke's position, shoot them in the shoulder and they can recoil, independent things like ponytails or tails, while doing another animations.
We've spent a good deal of time re-working Unreal's character system, and it's time for it to all start paying off. Once you have skeletal control and motion capture data, putting animations in the game becomes trivial (the cleanup is very minor with the right software), and capturing complex motions like strippers becomes easy
Add to this, a fully dynamic real-time LOD system for every mesh in the game, and you have a character system that we are very, very happy with.
Motion captured strippers, eh?
Posted by Joe Siegler at 1:00 PM
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Megadeth to do Duke Nukem Forever Theme Song
There's a couple of very new news stories floating around the next we wanted to bring to your attention...
From 3D Portal:
The folks at Megadeth.com have reported that Megadeth (heavy metal group, for those who don't know) have already recorded the theme song for an "upcoming Duke Nukem game." It's not known at this point which game will use this version. Be sure to check back often, as we'll bring any new information on this as it becomes available.
From Megadeth's Official Site:
The band has recorded the theme song for a future Duke Nukem video game. Further details have not yet been released, as is the case regarding with details on A Tout Le Monde II. More to come as it's released...
Well, I guess we couldn't expect this exciting news to not leak sooner or later. We've been working with Megadeth (and GT) to record the opening theme song for Duke Nukem Forever. So far, things kick ass, and they are going to record another version of the song soon. We'll release more info later regarding the song, but rest assured it will be cool.
Posted by Joe Siegler at 1:00 PM
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Our Camera Captioning Contest Reviewed
Geoff Keighley of Gameslice has covered our Camera Captioning Contest in his weekly "The Gist of it" series. This is where Geoff writes about the "highlights and lowlights of the industry this week". Here's what he has to say about our contest..
Some of the entries are absolutely hilarious. (Check out the one with Apogee President Scott Miller and a Celery Stick). However, the one that takes the cake for me is this image of 3D Realms President George Broussard watching his Porsche being towed away by a mechanic. The quote submitted by Tom Thurston said, "The Mechanic says to George, �You�ll get it back �when it�s done�.�"
Geoff talks a little more about the contest in him full review of it. Check out our contest today if you haven't (or even if you have!). You could win a free game coupon as well as a Duke Nukem Time to Kill T-Shirt!
Posted by Joe Siegler at 1:00 PM
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Two New Duke Nukem Web Articles
Today we bring you links to two articles on the web about Duke Nukem. The first is about Duke's history, and the second is about 3D gaming user maps, which covers Duke Nukem 3D.
Article #1: Duke's Domination - 3D Portal chronicles the rise of Duke to total PC gaming domination and beyond in this new article, "Duke Nukem's ascent to World domination". Written by Robby Bryant, it's a look at the Duke Nukem game series from the first game back in 1991, to the current projects, and things into the future. It's a short article, but good and worth the read.
Article #2: Where have all the maps gone? - In this article over at Grape's Thoughts, the history of user maps is covered. As Duke Nukem 3D was a big part of this movement, it's covered nicely there. From the history of the user Map FAQ's and a history of the Build editor itself, there are lots of topics covered. Here's a bit from the article:
Unfortunately, it looks as if map making has reached its peak of popularity. While map making was on fire with Doom and Duke3D, when games like Quake, Unreal and Half-Life hit the market, the flood of levels became a trickle. But why?
To find out why, check out the full article.
Posted by Joe Siegler at 1:00 PM
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You've asked for them, and they're finally here! Our