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Next Generation Does Time to Kill
 As some of you might be aware, the December issue of PC Gamer will feature a cover story on Duke Nukem Forever. Very anticipated, this issue of the magazine will have a story on the game and some of the game features. Also in this issue will be the first released screenshots from Duke Nukem Forever with the Unreal engine.
This issue of the magazine is due to arrive to subscribers on or around November 1st, with a street date on newsstands on or around November 12th. If you are not a PC Gamer subscriber, make sure to hit the newsstands around November 12th and pick up your own copy so you can get all the latest about Duke Forever!
Once the magazine hits the stands, we will be releasing the screenshots that appear in the magazine on our site so that you can see the high quality images in all their glory! Keep your eyes peeled here to the 3D Realms site, as they'll appear here before anywhere else.
Shown to your right is a scan of the cover art that will be on the magazine. You can click on the thumbnail here for a larger image. Please note however that it's about 430k, so it might take some time to download on slow modems). Thanks to the guys at PC Gamer!
Posted by Joe Siegler at 1:00 PM
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Game Soundtracks
Friday's edition of the USA Today newspaper contained an article entitled "Game soundtracks making noise". This article features quite prominently (with a picture and a short side story) the Duke Nukem: Music to Score by CD.
The focus of the article is not on any one particular CD, but on the trend of having "name musicians" (as opposed to regular game music authors) appearing on game soundtracks. In addition to the Duke CD, they also touch on Jon Anderson of the progressive rock band Yes, as well as rock stalwart David Bowie in addition to others like Rob Zombie & Trent Reznor. Here's what they have to say about the Music to Score by CD:
Publisher GT Interactive is already angling for Grammy consideration with its new soundtrack, Duke Nukem: Songs to Score By, a 12-track compilation with previously unreleased material from Megadeth along with Typo O Negative, Stabbing Westward, Slayer and others. Also on the CD: 175 megabytes of interactive content, such as screen savers, wallpaper and strategy guides.
This is a pretty cool article, so head on over to USA today and check out the article today! If you'd like to learn more about the Duke Nukem: Music to Score by CD, check out our page for it, which includes info, music sample downloads, as well as ordering information!
Posted by Joe Siegler at 1:00 PM
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Interview with Joe Siegler
AGN has posted a new interview with our webmaster, Joe Siegler. In this interview, Joe is asked about his involvement with our games, his history with the company (which is over 7 years), console games, and many other topics. Here's a few short bits from the interview:
Q: In my opinion, 3D Realms is one of the best put together gaming company websites. Always up-to-date, and refutably the highest hit count , how long have you worked on the website?
A: I'm the only Webmaster we've ever had. The first ever web site we had went online in 1995. Before that, our online presence was on places like CompuServe, America Online, & the Software Creations BBS.
Q: Do you do any actual work on games at 3D Realms, or is the online side your main business?
A: I have my hands in every game we release. I write all the disk based documentation in our games, as well as create the installation programs for all of our games since Major Stryker in Jan of 1993.
There's a lot more in this interview with Joe, so make sure and check it out today!
Posted by Joe Siegler at 1:00 PM
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Interview with Scott Miller
There is a really good new interview up with Scott Miller over at 3D Unlimited. Scott is asked a wide range of questions, not just the usual ones about "When will Duke Nukem Forever be out"? Here's a sample of what Scott has to say:
Q: 3D Realms has really had some outstanding titles in the past, what can you tell us about upcoming titles?
A: We only have two games currently in production: Duke Nukem Forever and Max Payne. Max is primarily developed by Remedy Entertainment in Finland, with our design assistance. In fact, just this week five key developers from Remedy visited our offices for a very productive design session, as well as to visit the Gathering of Developers offices, get a full demo of Duke, and also some bungie jumping.
Q: Do you plan to release any games on Dreamcast or the upcoming Dolphin Project and Playstation II?
A: The only thing I can say about the release is that it will not be this year. The game is making rapid and impressive progress, and has every sign of being a Major Hit. The upcoming Dec. issue of PC Gamer will have the first ever screen shots of the game since we've switched to the Unreal engine, plus additional game details we've not released. Look for the issue with Duke on the cover.
Q: What can you tell us about the engine of Duke Forever?
A: We're using the Unreal Tournament version of the engine, but we've added a LOT of new technology to it. There's no doubt in my mind that our enhanced UT engine is one of the most powerful, impressive engines ever used, and will very much be leading-edge stuff when DNF comes out. In other words, this game will not in any way suffer from looking dated, which many gamers have expressed some concern about.
This is a really good long interview, and covers a lot of ground besides just what's coming up (it also hits on the past, too). Head on over to 3D Unlimited today and check it out!
Thanks Al Behrens.
Posted by Joe Siegler at 1:00 PM
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Rise of the Triad Levels Released!
In a bit of a throwback to one of our earlier games, we've released a pack of levels for our mid 90's release, Rise of the Triad. You can download this level pack by clicking on the ROTT logo below.
Back in early 1995 when Rise of the Triad was a new game, there was a special shareware version of the game produced entitled "Rise of the Triad: The HUNT Begins Deluxe Edition". The game itself was the same, the only difference between the regular shareware and the deluxe shareware was the inclusion of 6 additional levels (3 regular & 3 Comm-bat) in the deluxe version that never appeared in any other variant of the game. The six levels are entitled:
Regular : Prelude to a Kill, Jumpin Jehoshapat, & Gadzooks!
Comm-Bat: The Siege, The Box, Rise & Tide
All 6 levels were designed by Tom Hall, and you can use these either on your registered Rise of the Triad game, or on the shareware edition. The other levels in these level packs are the existing shareware levels - these extras are in addition to the shareware levels that are already in your game.
In October of 1999, these levels were finally released to the general public, as this product is no longer sold commercially. As a piece of historical note, the level "Rise & Tide" was actually named after a magazine review of Rise of the Triad at the time that mistakenly referred to the game as "Rise & Tide".
If you're a fan of Rise of the Triad, you should check out the ROTT downloads on our master download page. There's tons of over levels available for your registered game, as well as level editors and other cool stuff.
Posted by Joe Siegler at 1:00 PM
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New Version of the Apogee FAQ Released
Samuel Stoddard is a name that you probably haven't heard much before, but he has authored one of the more interesting documents written about us and our games. Back in August of 1994, Sam started an Apogee FAQ. It was "officialized" shortly after that, and became the official FAQ on our company.
This is an extremely well written FAQ, and if you've ever had an oddball question about Apogee, 3D Realms, Pinball Wizards, or our staff, this is the place to find an answer. There's little in the way of information that isn't in here, and if you have ever played one of our games, this FAQ is for you!
A new version was released today (v6.4), and you can download it from the FAQ area of our web site. There is both a plain text version as well as an HTML version available. You should really check this out, as it covers some of the more asked questions such as:
* What's the difference between Duke Nukem & Duke Nukum?
* "Call Apogee & say Aardwolf" - What's that?
* Who designed each of the 174 officially released Rise of the Triad levels?
* What do Fury3 & Hellbender have to do with Terminal Velocity?
* What released games of ours were originally called Mercenary 2029 & The Adventures of Zonk?
* Was there really a v1.3 of Wolfenstein 3D?
* Did you know that Doom & Descent were originally Apogee games?
These obscure questions (and a lot lot more) can be answered by checking out the Apogee/3D Realms FAQ. Do it today!
Posted by Joe Siegler at 1:00 PM
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What Makes an Instant Classic?
What makes an instant classic? That's what the Planet Nukem site asked in their article entitled "Features that made Duke Nukem 3D an instant classic". In this article, they list 10 different portions of Duke Nukem (the game and the character) that make up the entire mystique. Some of their features include "Lead character", "The humor", "The Build editor", and of course, "The strippers". Here's a few quotes from the article:
* I talked with a friend who runs a local software store and he says that the original Duke 3D sells more copies than Quake 2 does in a given month.
* There are few games that have a theme song as memorable as Duke's.
* Duke 3D raised the bar above goofy shooters like Doom with Pink demons and (compared to today) squeaky clean gameplay.
A lot more was said about Duke Nukem 3D in this article, so make sure to check it out! Unfortunately, we missed this when it was first put online back in mid August, but hey, better late than never, eh?
Posted by Joe Siegler at 1:00 PM
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License Plate Submission
As some of you may remember, we started a piece some time ago about computer game license plates.
We got a recent submission from none other than Ken Silverman (the author of the Build engine that was used in Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior, etc). Ken was up at our offices back in 1995 to do some work on Duke Nukem 3D when he snapped this picture of Todd Replogle's car at the time. (Todd was the main programmer for the first three Duke Nukem PC games.) Check it out - Texas plates of "I NUKUM". Todd no longer lives in the state of Texas, but this is a pretty cool plate, and we're thankful for Ken for finding this shot.
If you have seen or have a license plate that has some cool computer game reference on it, take a picture of it, and send it to us! It doesn't have to be about one of 3D Realms' games, but just any computer game. The only thing we ask is that it be a real license plate, not something from a computer game itself.
Posted by Joe Siegler at 1:00 PM
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All Duke, all the Time
Back in February of 1999, we ran a piece entitled "All Duke, all the Time". It was a comprehensive list of all the Duke Nukem games that have appeared anywhere. Since that time, a couple of the games have been released, and at least one more has been announced. Here's the updated comprehensive list of all the Duke Nukem games there have ever been anywhere:
Games already released
Duke Nukem I (PC - Released Jul 1, 1991)
Duke Nukem II (PC - Released Dec 3, 1993)
Duke Nukem 3D (PC - Released Jan 29, 1996)
Duke Nukem 3D (Mac - Released May 25, 1997) (This is a Mac port of Duke Nukem 3D)
Duke Nukem 64 (N64 - Released Nov 16, 1997) (This is a port of Duke Nukem 3D)
Duke Nukem: Zero Hour (N64-only original game - released Sep 1, 1999)
Duke Nukem 3D (Sega Saturn - Released ??? 1997) (This is a port of Duke Nukem 3D)
Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown (PSX - Released Dec 8, 1997) (This is a port of Duke Nukem 3D)
Duke Nukem: Time to Kill (PSX - Released Oct 12, 1998) (This is a PSX-Only Original Title)
Duke Nukem: "Color Gameboy Game" (Color Gameboy-only original game - released Sep 10, 1999)
Duke Nukem 3D: (TigerToys game.com Handheld game - Released ??? 1998) (This is a handheld cartridge game)
Duke Nukem 3D: (TigerToys "Grip Games" - Released ??? 1998) (This is a handheld game)
Games under development (Release date for all of these is When it's done")
Duke Nukem Forever (PC)
Duke Nukem: Planet of the Babes (PSX Original game from same people as Time to Kill)
Duke Nukem: "Rockstar Game" (unnamed undetermined console game)
Duke Nukem 5 (the next PC game after Duke Nukem Forever.. way way way in the future)
Posted by Joe Siegler at 1:00 PM
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Max Payne Interview
Recently, our webmaster Joe Siegler conducted an interview with Petri Jarvilehto, project lead on the Remedy Entertainment/3D Realms game, Max Payne. Petri had several things to say about Max Payne, the game's history, what it's like doing a game being based in Finland, and other cool things.
Check out the full interview with Petri here. Before you do that, here's a small bit of the interview to whet your appetite.
Q: How beneficial do you feel that your recent trip to New York was to the "feel" of the game?
A: It was extremely good. The mappers came back from NY with approx. 5500 photographs (digicams are great), and 12 hours of video footage. Before the trip, we were still holding back on some of the back street scenarios (dude, no-one is going to believe you if you make the rooms that dirty), but after seeing on-site some of the real drug-dens, construction sites, abandoned buildings etc. the mappers have been going all-out creating the sleaze and filth *grin*. Also, now we have authentic material for all of the signs, posts, which creates a lot more realistic experience.
NOTE: As of April 2006, this interview appears lost from our servers. The original filename is maxint1099.html, but it cannot be located anywhere at this time.
Posted by Joe Siegler at 1:00 PM
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Games that Refuse to Die
Over the weekend, we were informed of an article that was placed online entitled "Games that refuse to die: Duke Nukem 3D". This article, written by JontheGrape, is an interesting look at Duke Nukem 3D's continuing popularity. This article examines why the game has remained a popular one both from a gameplay standpoint, and also from an editability standpoint. The article contains thoughts from Jon, as well as Andy Morris from 3D Portal, and our own Webmaster, Joe Siegler (among others). Here's a few quotes from the article:
1. The reason why I still love that game, and still go back to it once in a while is pretty obvious -- it's just pure fun!! The blowing from the rockets, the explosions, and the chicks is amazing, and always -- here's that word again -- FUN. (JontheGrape)
2. Proving it's still alive even more so than the TCs are the amounts of maps and other individual files people are still producing to this day. We get a nice steady stream of user maps, CON hacks, replacement art, etc. month after month, and insane amounts of downloads for all of them. (Andy Morris)
3. We gave the player someone to identify with, and the success of the games that have followed have shown this (Gordon Freeman, Johnny Blade). Companies have seen that you need a character to have a really big hook to get the player involved with the games' character. (Joe Siegler)
This is a pretty cool article, so make sure and check it all out today!
Posted by Joe Siegler at 1:00 PM
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