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Duke Nukem 3D Turns Five!
Today is a landmark day in computer gaming. Five years ago today, we released Duke Nukem 3D v1.0 shareware episode. January 29, 1996 was the day we released Duke Nukem 3D to the world, and interactivity in computer games was taken to a whole new level. Duke Nukem 3D was the first 3D action game to include all the tools that the designers used in making the game on the CD, a practice that is fairly commonplace now.
One year later, on Jan 29, 1997 - we released LameDuke - LameDuke was an early Duke Nukem 3D beta that we decided to release solely for the purpose of letting people see what the game looked like during development - you can get more LameDuke info here.
Today, five years later, the game is still having levels and mods made for it, even as far newer technology has come out. A game can't still be having this level of user modifications for it this many years later, and not have something going for it.
For the two or three of you who still haven't tried Duke Nukem 3D, why not check out our Duke Nukem 3D page, where you can download the demo, view some screenshots, or check out some cool behind the scenes photos of the game's production. The shot here is of George Broussard standing in Joe Siegler's office on Monday, January 29, 1996. What he is pointing at is one of Joe Siegler's computers uploading Shareware Duke Nukem 3D v1.0 for the first time to Software Creations.
And what did our own Charlie Wiederhold do on this day? In his own words.. "I spent my 19th birthday on the computer waiting for the demo to come out so I could mirror it on my personal webpage at UT. I was so freakin' pathetic."
Posted by Joe Siegler at 6:10 PM
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Duke Nukem Forever & the Bermuda Triangle
We love winning awards before a game even ships.
It's come to our attention that C|Net Gamecenter awarded us the "Bermuda Triangle" award for Duke Nukem Forever - in their words, "So this year's final, and most well-deserved, award--the Bermuda Triangle Award--goes to the can't-be-present-at-the-ceremony Duke Nukem and 3D Realms."
One thing the article mentioned needs correcting though...
"...Maybe the folks at Infogrames knew more than they were telling when they jettisoned Duke to the Gathering..."
Nothing was jettisoned. 3D Realms initiated the deal with GT at E3 2000 and worked for months to get the game moved to a new publisher. Obviously Take 2 saw something interesting in DNF or they wouldn't have paid a gazillion dollars for it. Once Infogrames bought GT we noticed a change in company atmosphere and philosophy and we thought Duke's politically incorrect antics would be better served elsewhere.
But thanks for the award C-Net, we will cherish it.
Posted by Joe Siegler at 12:00 PM
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Ruben Cabrera & the Overlords of the Code Monkeys
 Our own Ruben Cabrera has formed his own rock band, "Ruben Cabrera & The Overlords of the Code Monkeys". In the band with him are Tim Wilson on guitar, Matt Wood on drums, & as the code monkeys: Scott Alden, Brendan Reinhart, & Jess Crable.
With his new found popularity, Ruben has a cover article in an upcoming Rolling Stone magazine with tips on becoming a rock star on your own, without having to quit your day job to do it. Also revealed in this issue is the fact that Britney Spears is in love with Ruben - this could be the reason for her swearing tirade at a recent concert in Rio. This, of course, comes much to the dismay of our own Charlie Wiederhold, our resident Britney Spears fan. Charlie recently was overheard mumbling in the corner "Why Ruben? He doesn't know the age of consent in all 50 states, I do!"... Charlie was last seen plotting to replace his Britney Spears posters with Christina Aguilera posters.
We've also been treated to some animated concert footage of the Overlords - click here to check that out (it's about 500k). Click on the thumbnail of the Rolling Stone cover for a larger image. If you want to pay homage to Ruben & the Overlords, or just want to learn to be a rock star like Ruben, click on the discuss link at the top of this news story.
UPDATE! - This candid photo is just in - it's Ruben showing his rock star cool. He's out of his rock star gab (to hide his identity) at dinner with the 3D Realms crew. Charlie Wiederhold, still upset at Britney Spears being in love with Ruben, can be spotted in the photo planning Ruben's downfall. Notice how Ruben keeps his cool in the face of Charlie's red mouthed, teeth knashing, hatred of him? Now THAT'S a rock star! You too can learn to be a cool, even headed rock star like Ruben!
For those of you who don't get it, this is a joke, of course. We had a silly fan contribution recently, and wanted to do something with it.
Posted by Joe Siegler at 2:30 PM
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Duke Nukem: Land of the Babes is the Worst...
 ...game for children in 2000, according to a recent report on video game violence. The National Institute on Media & the Family released a video and computer game report card today. The group credited our industry for adopting some of their recommendations, but still criticized stores for selling violent games to children. In their report card, they rate a pile of games against several categories, such as fear, language, nudity, illegal & harmful activities, etc. Anyway, of all the games they list on this page (and there are a lot), only one got their worst rating in every category, and that was "Duke Nukem: Land of the Babes".
In their report on Duke Nukem: Land of the Babes, this is said about the game: Due to extreme violence and its portrayal, frightening situations, illegal/harmful behavior, offensive language, nudity and sexual content this game is not recommended for children or teenagers.
That's right, Duke Nukem: Land of the Babes is the #1 worst game for children in 2000! Of course, we at 3D Realms feel that decision should be up to the parents, and with that in mind, we want to let all the parents out there know that the game is still available for sale. If you have a Sony Playstation (either 1 or 2), make sure to head over to our online store and buy it!
If you want to read more about this, there's a story over on CNN today that talks about how the video game industry has gotten better grades (according to some US Senators, anyway). You can also read more about the game at our Land of the Babes page, or at n-Space, the creators of the game.
Posted by Joe Siegler at 4:25 PM
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Duke is Dead
No, not really - far from it. However, Mad Magazine has declared Duke dead in a headline that looks like it came straight from the Onion. It starts off like this:
"Duke Nukem, 28, died of an apparent heart seizure after being informed he would have to wait for a 24 hour period before being permitted to buy 275 grenade launchers."
We here at 3D Realms thought this was totally hysterical - kudos to Mad Magazine, who keeps on doin it after all these years. Click on the thumbnail here to see the entire "Nukem Dead" piece from Mad Magazine.
Posted by Joe Siegler at 4:50 PM
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Fake Screenshot Contest Winners!
The Duke Nukem Forever Fake Screenshot has finished, and we've selected the winners! We got some really great shots, so many so, that we had to create a couple of categories. Originally, we were going to have just one winner, but we had some really great ones, and created two categories. The first was "Overall", and the other category was "Funny". The funny ones were just too good to not include in the winners, so we created a 'funny' category. We've also picked three runners up in each category, and have posted them on the contest results page. To check out the runners up, click here.
Here are the two winners of the contest - click on either for a larger image.
Overall Winner
Roy Leviner
Funny Winner
David Tomsic
The winners will be notified via email shortly about the prizes. Thanks go out to our forum user Tip, the original inspiration for this contest!
Posted by Joe Siegler at 4:50 PM
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Stomped Interviews Tim Wilson
As has been the custom for awhile, some gaming news site interviews the latest member of our staff within a week or so of them being announced on our site. This time, the site is Stomped, and this time, the interviewee is Tim Wilson. The interview was your basic stuff in these interviews (How did you get here, how do you feel about Duke, etc.) Tim answers these questions (and others) quite well. Here's a sample:
Stomped: How did you get your current job at 3D Realms?
Wilson: Ho! Ho! That's a good question -- but the answer lacks fanfare, I'm afraid. The entire process was so smooth I had trouble believing I was actually hired. I simply emailed George Broussard a resume and a link to my site. He wrote back with a horde of q's and a request for more samples. My replies were apparently to his liking because he sent me a contract within a few days -- and a Duke Nukem pen to boot. That's the part where I cartwheeled around the room a bit. I consider myself very lucky because they just happened to be looking for a texture artist when I was looking for a gig. Thank the Fates for my Internet connection.
Stomped: What exactly will your responsibilities be for the game?
Wilson: I am in charge of creating world textures galore -- though the mass of textures already in place are above swank, there is much that needs love and attention. That's where I come in; everything can always be better and I'm glad to have a change to up the visual ante. Putting in all those touches that make you feel you'll skin your knee if you fall down on that shit . . . Perpetuating the illusion, suspending that disbelief, etc. Aside from making textures I may do a little skinning and a Multiplayer map or two.
Tim's interview is pretty cool - head on over to Stomped and check it out. Also, make sure and check out Tim's bio page, which went online last week.
Posted by Joe Siegler at 4:30 PM
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Welcome Back!
 We're all back now after a great holiday season. We hope that you all had a great holiday, too! While we were away, our Christmas card (see below) was given the #1 best Christmas card award in a Gamespy report on various company Christmas cards. If you check out the story, you'll see cards from other game developers such as Interplay, The Gathering, and Ritual, as well as others.
Also, we were sent a cool magazine cover today. Do you remember this picture of this picture from a few years ago? Well, the new issue of Next Generation magazine spoofed this picture with Duke Nukem & Lara Croft. The article is about (in their words), "Games are rapidly becoming sophisticated and adult as the people who play them. But is the world ready for them?"
Anyway, the cover of the magazine as shown here parodies the Janet Jackson photo, but for the cover, has a "censored" image. The real parodies are shown inside the magazine, as you can see by this scan, and this one.. Thanks to Doug Howell for sending us some scans of this magazine, as we haven't received ours yet.
In other news, Tim Wilson is here (our new artist) - we'll have his bio page and picture up shortly.
Posted by Joe Siegler at 4:35 PM
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