Duke Nukem (game series)

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Duke Nukem
developer 3D Realms , Frontline Studios, Koch Media , Sunstorm Interactive, n-Space, Eurocom , Torus Games, Gearbox Software , MachineWorks Northwest, Aardvark Software, Triptych Games, Piranha Games, Lobotomy Software, Tiger Electronics
Publisher 3D Realms , Deep Silver , Apogee Software , Take-Two Interactive / 2K Games / Rockstar Games , ARUSH Entertainment, Infogrames Europe SA, GT Interactive Software, US Gold , FormGen, MachineWorks Northwest LLC, King Records , Sega , Tec Toy Indústria de Brinquedos SA, MacSoft Games, Skyzone Entertainment, Gathering
First title Duke Nukem (also Duke Nukum) (1991)
Last title Duke Nukem Forever (2011)
Platform (s) DOS , Windows , Mac OS , macOS , Game Boy Color , Game Boy Advance , Sega Saturn , Nintendo 64 , game.com, PlayStation , Sega Mega Drive , Xbox Live Arcade , iOS , Xbox 360 , PlayStation 3 , Nintendo DSi , Tapwave Zodiac , Mobile phone
Genre (s) First person shooter , third person shooter , platformer , shoot 'em up
information Third part of the series indexed until January 2017

Duke Nukem is a game series under the banner of which thirteen video games were released by 2011. The series began in 1991 with the two-dimensional platformer Duke Nukem , the last publication so far is the first-person shooter Duke Nukem Forever . The series was named after its protagonist Duke Nukem .

history

The first game in the series , a classic jump 'n' run game, was released on July 1, 1991 by 3D Realms (then Apogee Software ) as free shareware . The story takes place in 1997 and is about Duke Nukem's attempts to defeat the mad scientist Dr Proton and his robot army. The graphics were mainly copied from the games Turrican and the MS-DOS version of Mega Man .

Due to positive reactions, the successor Duke Nukem II was published on December 3, 1993 . It is about the attempt of the alien race Rigelatins to enslave humanity, which Duke Nukem must prevent. The story takes place a year after the events of the first part. The game was only partially available as shareware, only one of the four episodes of the game was free.

After 3D games such as Doom and Wolfenstein 3D had taken over the market, Apogee Software renamed itself to 3D Realms and released the first person shooter Duke Nukem 3D on January 29, 1996 , which was then considered to be technically and playfully innovative. Due to its depiction of violence, the title had been indexed by the Federal Testing Office for Media Harmful to Young People until January 2017 . The game originally developed for MS-DOS was later ported to over fifteen platforms. Duke Nukem 3D currently has a Metacritic score of approx. 81 (PC, N64 and XBox 360 in total).

After the success of Duke Nukem 3D , 3D Realms published several spin-offs for various consoles, including the third-person shooters Time to Kill , Zero Hour and Land of the Babes , which, however, did not match the success of Duke Nukem 3D . Several games for handheld consoles and mobile phones were also released . The spin-offs generally received mediocre to good reviews, only Critical Mass received mostly negative reviews.

A successor to Duke Nukem 3D was first announced in 1997 and should have been released in 1998. However, the build engine was already obsolete a year after the appearance of Duke Nukem 3D , whereupon the then advanced Quake II engine was used. The company GT Interactive Software should act as a publisher. The first screenshots of the game were published in 1997, and the first videos were shown at the 1998 Expo . When the more realistic Unreal Engine appeared in 1998 , the developers Duke Nukems switched to it, which threw the project back to the beginning. In December 2000, Gathering took over the game's publisher role . After three years with no video or photo material of the game in development, a several-minute film was shown at Expo 2001 that impressed critics and fans alike.

After the death of one of the Gathering founders and financial problems, the company had to close its offices and was integrated into the parent company Take-Two Interactive . In 2003, the number of developers working on Duke Nukem Forever had dropped to 16, when the release date was given in late 2004 or early 2005. In 2004 rumors circulated that the developers had switched engines for a third time, in this case to the id Tech 4 engine (also known as the Doom 3 engine). However, these rumors were denied by the developers.

In 2006 it was announced that the main elements of the game had been completed and the first demonstrations took place in the same year. Conflicts between publisher and developer increased, part of the development team left the project.

In 2007, two job advertisements were published on the Gamasutra website with two screenshots from the game attached, after which the number of developers doubled within a short period of time. A new trailer was released in 2007 and additional video material was released in 2008. As the developers' financial problems began to pile up, Take-Two was asked for six million dollars. When Take-Two offered only 2.5 million for development and another 2.5 million after release, work on Duke Nukem Forever was stopped. In 2009, Take-Two sued 3D Realms because Take-Two paid $ 12 million for the publisher's rights in 2000. Gearbox Software took over development in 2010 , and Take-Two acted as publisher again.

Under Gearbox , the game was completed within a year and published on June 10, 2011 under the name Duke Nukem Forever . Despite the long development time, the game received poor to mediocre ratings. Among other things, the outdated graphics and the long loading times were criticized. Duke Nukem Forever currently has a Metacritic score of around 51 (PC, PS3 and XBox 360 in total).

In view of the long development time and its unpredictable end, Duke Nukem Forever is often cited as an example of the term vaporware .

In 2008, the film producer Scott Faye ( Max Payne ) expressed the desire to make a film of Duke Nukem . In 2009 it was announced that the film was in pre-production . The comic book Duke Nukem: Glorious Bastard was published by IDW in July 2011.

In August 2014, the Library of Congress was able to get the source code and data of the unpublished and lost game "Duke Nukem: Critical Mass" for the PSP and archive it.

Duke Nukem

The Duke Nukem figure was designed by Todd Replogle, Jim Norwood, George Broussard, and Scott Miller, and since Duke Nukem 3D it uses a revamped look based on that of bobsledder Doug Sharp. Nukem is about 1.90 meters tall and weighs 109 kg.

In the first two games in the series, Nukem is a self-proclaimed hero who travels on behalf of the CIA . Since the third game, Duke Nukem 3D , he has been portrayed as a self-deprecating stereotype of an American action hero - a platinum-blonde, patriotic, muscular macho who likes to play around with guns and pretty women. His appearance is based, among other things, on the film characters and actors of Arnold Schwarzenegger , John Wayne , Dolph Lundgren , Jean-Claude Van Damme , John Rambo, John McClane and Dirty Harry, whose speaking styles were adopted for Nukem. Much like the characters portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone , Nukem is muscle-bound, aggressive, politically incorrect, and has a large ego. Much like Bruce Campbell 's Ash Williams from the movie Dance of the Devils , the Duke is a loudmouth, although Nukem's humor is less sarcastic and more aggressive and cocky.

Dubbing actor Jon St. John has been the duke's voice since 3D , with Nukem barely speaking in the first two parts. In German-speaking countries, Duke Nukem is spoken by Manfred Lehmann .

Colt M1911

Nukem has a large arsenal of automatic weapons , energy weapons and explosives at his disposal, his trademarks are the jetpack , the Ray-Ban sunglasses and the golden Colt M1911 . Nukem always occurs since the first game with a red tank top, blue jeans and Flattop on -Haarschnitt.

In Duke Nukem Forever , set several years after Nukem saved the earth, the Duke owns a casino on the Las Vegas Strip ( The Ladykiller ) and the Museum of Duke . In the same game, he also expresses a desire to become President of the United States . After what happened in the first game, Nukem wrote the autobiography Why I'm So Great .

Nukem's first name Duke is the English equivalent of the German Duke ; the surname is a play on words with nuke 'em , slang for nuke them , from nuke (slang American English for' atomic bomb ') and the verb to nuke (slang for' destroy with nuclear weapons').

Duke Nukem achieved cult status in the computer game scene, not least because of his sayings, e.g. B .:

  • "What are you waiting for, Christmas?"
  • "It's time to kick ass and chew bubblegum. And I'm all outta gum. " (The saying is based on a quote from the main character John Nada from the film They live on:" I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I'm all outta bubblegum. ")
  • "I've got balls of steel!"
  • "Wanna dance?" Or "Shake it baby!" (When pulling cash towards a pole dancer etc.)
  • "Hail to the king, baby"
  • "Rest in pieces!"
  • "Who wants some"

Games

Main series

title Publishing year genre platform
Duke Nukem also Duke Nukum 1991 Jump 'n' run DOS , Steam (for Windows and macOS ) (2013)
Duke Nukem II 1993 Jump 'n' run DOS, Game Boy Color (1999), iOS (2013), Steam (for Windows and Mac OS X) (2013)
Duke Nukem 3D 1996 Ego shooter DOS, game.com (1997), Mac OS (1997), Sega Saturn (1997), PlayStation (1997), Nintendo 64 (1997), Windows (1998),
Sega Mega Drive (only in Brazil) (1998), Xbox Live Arcade (2008), iOS (2009), Nokia N900 (2009), Android (2011), Steam (for Windows and Mac OS X) (2013)
Duke Nukem Forever 2011 Ego shooter Windows, Xbox 360 , PlayStation 3 , Mac OS X

Spin-offs

title Publishing year genre platform
Duke Nukem: Time to Kill 1998 Third person shooter PlayStation
Duke Nukem: Zero Hour 1999 Third person shooter Nintendo 64
Duke Nukem: Land of the Babes 2000 Third person shooter PlayStation
Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project 2002 Jump 'n' run Windows, Xbox Live Arcade (2010), Steam (for Windows and Mac OS X) (2013)

For handheld consoles only

title Publishing year genre platform
Duke Nukem Advance 2002 Ego shooter Game Boy Advance
Duke Nukem Mobile 2004 Ego shooter Tapwave Zodiac
Duke Nukem: Critical Mass 2011 Jump 'n' run Nintendo DS

Exclusively for cell phones

title Publishing year genre platform
Duke Nukem Mobile 2004 Shoot 'em up Cellphone
Duke Nukem Mobile II: Bikini Project 2005 Shoot 'em up Cellphone

filming

On January 22, 2018, it was announced that a film about Duke Nukem was being worked on. This is produced by Platinum Dunes , a subsidiary of Paramount Pictures .

Web links

Sources and web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ SPECIAL: The "Duke Nukem" History. In: play3.de. March 27, 2011, accessed August 15, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Michelle Starr: Unreleased Duke Nukem source code found at Library of Congress ( English ) cnet.com. August 6, 2014. Retrieved August 12, 2014: “ A cache of recently acquired video games at the Library of Congress turned up a true find: the source code for unreleased PSP game Duke Nukem: Critical Mass. "
  3. Jump up ↑ Duke Nukem - John Cena is slated to star in a video game adaptation . In: moviepilot.de . January 23, 2018 ( moviepilot.de [accessed January 24, 2018]).