|
 |
EDuke Patch Released!
Today, a long awaited update to Duke Nukem 3D has been released. It's EDuke. What's EDuke? Well, in the words of the author, Matt Saettler..
EDuke allows greater flexibility and control for the large community of users making Total Conversions (TCs). If you want to make a TC, or want to run a TC that used EDuke, then please download it. There's a few things to get out of the way regarding EDuke up front. They are:
1.This is an enhancement for folks writing TC's. There are no new game features - the game itself is the same. The purpose of this update is to make life easier for folks who create TC's. Nothing more.
2.3D Realms did not write this patch - it was done by Matt Saettler - a former Build programmer (he worked on the Blood game by Monolith). It is being provided here as a convenience.
3.3D Realms does not support this patch - info on EDuke is available at the Official EDuke site.
4. This patch is free for US Atomic Edition v1.5 customers. It will not work with any other version of Duke Nukem 3D.
Again, we want to stress that there are not any new game features in this update - don't download this if you're expecting new levels, new enemies, art, sounds, etc. You'll be disappointed. The whole purpose of this update is to make it easier for folks who make TC's. They will have expanded control over various editable aspects of the game. That's it. Please also note that 3D Realms does not provide any support for this - if you have questions about EDuke, please visit the Official EDuke Web Site at http://www.dukeworld.com/eduke.
You can download the EDuke patch here. If you have any problems patching it, please make sure that you need to apply it to original unmodified US v1.5 Duke Atomic files. If you've modified your executable, or patched/cracked it in any way, this will fail. You need the original files from your CD.
If you have Duke Atomic v1.4, you can get a free update to update to v1.5 from our downloads page. If you don't have Duke Atomic, you can order it online - or if you have the v1.3d CD, you can get the Plutonium PAK online, which will update your v1.3d registered CD to v1.4 (from which you can then use the 1.4-1.5 patch).
Posted by Joe Siegler at 1:40 PM
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
More Fan Art
Today we bring you some more fan art sent to us by our fans.
First up is this piece of Duke battling some enemies drawn by Rayne Gallows. In his own words,
"I was somewhat bored yesterday so I drew a picture of Duke Nukem Battling some baddies. I did it off the top of my head." Check it out - you can see a larger version by clicking on the thumbnail here.
Second is this piece sent to us by Randy Ford - a long time entrant in our Camera Captioning Contest. He said "I made this .jpg for a Desktop Theme I am putting together. Hope you like it!"
Here is the background picture below. Kind of reminds me of the Fesarius from the Star Trek episode "The Corbomite Maneuver".
We have a lot more fan art on our site - check out our Fan art submissions page. If you have anything you'd like to submit, please let us know about it.
Posted by Joe Siegler at 3:20 PM
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Max Payne Radio is on the Air!
Well, OK - it's not on the air, it's on the Internet. Popular music site MP3.com is now the host of the newly created "Max Payne Radio" station at mp3.com. On it, you can hear Max Payne themes from the last couple of E3 videos, and more will be coming later!
Check it out - Max Payne Radio! An mp3 player such as Winamp or Musicmatch Jukebox is required to listen.
For more on Max Payne, check out the Official Max Payne Website, as well as the specials page for a little more on Max Payne Radio, and the music composer, Teque.
Posted by Joe Siegler at 11:15 AM
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
EDuke Happenings
As you've noticed there hasn't been a whole lot going on lately. That should change next week with the release of EDuke - an enhancement by Matt Saettler to the v1.5 Atomic edition of Duke Nukem 3D. What's EDuke? Well, we'll let Matt tell you in these words from the EDuke site.
Enhanced Duke is modifications to the Duke program itself. Matt Saettler has the source to Duke Nukem (from pervious projects for GT/3D Realms). Enhanced Duke builds on the changes Matt made for those projects (WW2GI and NAM/Napalm) and goes much further.
The modifications allow much more control over the program from the CON language. The features added are listed on this page. EDuke is NOT a "TC". It will allow TC makers to do many more things. As Matt says, EDuke is not any sort of new maps, new levels, art, or anything. It's an extension of the game so that folks who do make TC's and whatnot can have expanded abilities. If you are into making maps, your own art, or other TC related issues, than you'll be interested in EDuke. If you don't do things like this, EDuke is not for you. If you want to learn more about EDuke, head over to Matt's EDuke site.
Posted by Joe Siegler at 12:30 PM
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ch-Ch-Changes
George Broussard (DNF project lead) issued a plan update today regarding a few changes here at 3D Realms. Here's some of the text from his plan update:
GOODBYE
We say goodbye to Chris Hargrove tomorrow. Chris will be missed and has been with DNF since it's start. Chris is leaving for mainly personal reasons and it is 100% amicable. Also, Chris has done a small interview on GameDev.net that will clarify his leaving to put the rumor mill to rest. You can read it at:
http://www.gamedev.net/columns/interviews/chargrove2.asp
Chris picked a perfect time to leave, and we appreciate that. His skeletal animation and model system are essentially done and no major work has been done on them in a few weeks. Lately he's been working on AI as we've moved to the game play phase of the project.
I know I speak for the entire team when I say, good luck Chris and stay in touch.
HELLO
Jess Crable will be joining us in a week or so from Legend Entertainment. Jess worked on Wheel of Time, the Unreal add-on pack (Return to NaPali) and is currently working on Unreal 2. We look forward to Jess bringing his experience with Unreal to the project.
THE FUTURE
As we head into finishing DNF, we've identified two positions we want to fill to handle the increased workload.
You can find out more information on these positions at:
http://legacy.3drealms.com/gethired.html
The complete text of George's .plan update can be found here.
Here's a bit of what Chris had to say about his departure, and how it will affect Duke Nukem Forever:
After all, when I resigned it wasn't because I was trying to get away from here, it was more that I just wanted to get back home. Since I've enjoyed being here at this company, and I've enjoyed working with these people, the last thing I would want to do is screw them over by leaving and making a mess of things. I want DNF to succeed just as much as anyone. So I tried to pick a time when the work on my plate that I had a critical role in was mostly wrapped up, and where the remaining work could be picked up by other programmers without much trouble. When you're one of only a few programmers on a major project like this, it's a rare occurrence to find a window of time like that. Luckily this is one of those times.
Click here to check out the entire interview with Chris Hargrove.
Posted by Joe Siegler at 3:00 PM
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Interview with Lee Jackson
Gamespy.com has an awesome new interview with Lee Jackson up today. It covers the usual topics you'd expect to see in an interview with an industry person. However, Lee goes into some really good detail. He covers topics about his past job at the IRS before Apogee, how he came to be here, the creation of the Duke Nukem 3D theme song, other games, just a ton of stuff! If you enjoy the music that comes out of our games, or if you just want to read about Lee, you owe it to yourself to read this interview, oddly titled "Music To Play By - Part 5". Here's a few samples:
GameSpy: What have you enjoyed most regarding your career with 3D Realms?
Lee Jackson: Sitting back and hearing a finished product, or at least one that's right on the verge of being finished. For example, going through all of the MIDI files for ROTT or Duke Nukem 3D, or the MOD files for Stargunner, or the CD tracks for Shadow Warrior, just *one last time* before releasing the games. There's a certain rush you get, sort of a combination of panic, relief, satisfaction, and hope that's impossible to come by in any other job.
GameSpy: Your Duke Nukem theme, Grabbag, is now one of the most recognizable PC game themes to date! To what or who do you credit its success?
Lee Jackson: An incredible string of coincidences. I'd started the song as possible level music, after a session of listening to a lot of Ozzy, Pantera, and Judas Priest. I basically drew out a lot of heavy metal idioms from a mental grabbag and put them together, just to see what I'd get. I tossed in a drum line and some Rick Wakeman-esque keyboard riffs, and that was it. The song wasn't even a song in my opinion - just a test. When it came time to save it, I used the name Grabbag, since that's what I thought it was--a grabbag of styles thrown together and mixed up.
If you enjoy reading about behind the scenes stuff, read this interview now! It's one of the better industry interviews that's come along in awhile.
Posted by Joe Siegler at 11:50 AM
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
