Duke Nukem



Duke Nukem is a series of games made by 3D Realms (Apogee) that is named after its titular protagonist. As publisher to one of id Software's earliest franchises, Commander Keen, there are many ties between the two companies. Most notably this can be seen with the Dopefish Easter Eggs found in both companies' titles. John Carmack assisted the developers with the original Duke Nukem, a platformr.

The series became more popular when Apogee released its third game in the franchise, Duke Nukem 3D, in 1996; this game featured numerous deviations from the first two games. Most notable is the fact that the game was a first-person shooter released a few months prior to Quake, putting it in direct competition with the latter game. Designed on the Build engine, it was notable for having numerous improvements over the earlier Doom engine, also made by id Software. Unlike most other shooters of the time, Duke Nukem was designed to have an extremely machismo personality. This was heightened further by featuring a heavy amount of violence and strippers, the latter of which would remove their tops when interacted with.

Though Quake was 3D, Duke Nukem 3D was designed with the more familiar style of 2.5D. This meant Duke Nukem 3D benefited from being easier to play on computers in 1996 in comparison to Quake. Duke Nukem 3D also featured a more dynamic world than Quake; walls could be blown up, fires could be started, and the environment could be destroyed in scripted sequences. Not only could Duke Nukem jump, but he could crouch, or use a jetpack that allowed for a limited amount of flight around the world. Duke Nukem 3D was also praised for having a greater number of unique weapons; while Quake was relatively comparable to Doom's array, Duke Nukem 3D featured Shrink Rays, Pipe Bombs, and Freeze Rays.

Quake in comparison was heavily praised for its full-3D environments. It was also praised for its greater Multiplayer, Duke 3D used known standards at the time and therefore did not include TCP/IP, which meant limited Multiplayer games outside of LAN games with modems or IPX.

Doom and Quake are both referenced in Duke Nukem 3D. In E1M3 of Duke Nukem 3D a Easter Egg involving the Doom Marine's corpse can be found with Duke speaking the line "Hmm, that is one Doomed Space Marine". In E3M4 of Duke Nukem, an Easter Egg appears where he approaches a building that resembles the id Software headquarters before it collapses in a massive earthquake. Duke's response, "I ain't afraid of no Quake."