Duke4.net has turned 11-years-old. We send out a big thanks to all of our loyal fans who continue to visit our website by the thousands each day. Below are some Duke3D codes that you can redeem here on GOG.
That’s all folks! Rest in peace to our beloved community member, Alex Gorshkov. He was a Russian mapper, best known for a participation in the RCBP maps. He also made a dozen Dukematch maps back in the late 90s. One of his first maps, ALEXGDM1 (1998) still stands out. It’s a mall type of map (like E4L3), and it’s a pretty big one (despite the title, it’s also a single-player map). I think that the best way to remember him is to play this map again. (Thanks Sanek!)
Reports about various glitches in some entries of the EDuke32 Addon Compilation have reached me in the past two months. This gave me enough reason for yet another release. In latest version 3.1, hopefully the majority of all remaining annoyances will be addressed.
This time however, it’s mostly a maintenance release – so better don’t expect as many additions as you got previously. There’s four smaller new addons (one of them requiring WGRealms 2: Siege Breaker) and two entries which received content enhancements (Space Map Pack and Starship Troopers TC). Other than that, it’s about issues or visual glitches you may or may not have noticed if you have played previous versions.
Side note: It’s now a lot easier for technically ungifted users to launch the compilation since a batch file for fast startup is included. Just click on addons.bat in your EDuke32 installation folder and you are ready to play!
In other news, you may have probably already heard that Gearbox will release Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour”on October 11. The definite highlight of this re-release of the original game will be an additional episode with eight new levels created by designer veterans Allen Blum III and Richard “Levelord” Gray, with new music tracks composed by Lee Jackson. You will also get a new weapon (the Incinerator) and face a type of enemy you have not encountered so far – the Firefly!
Other changes of this edition appear to be more questionable and are controversially discussed, e.g. in the Duke4.net forums. For example: World Tour will feature a new port with different/upgraded lighting system and normal mapping. Not everybody likes the new lighting (which seems overdone in many places) and applying normal maps to the original textures, however. The new high-quality Duke speech recorded by Jon St John also gives reason for criticism as it seems to collide with all the other sounds which remain untouched and therefore sound kinda “muffled”. The product also appears to be overpriced according to many statements, especially considering that none of the commercial add-ons (Nuclear Winter, Life’s A Beach, and Duke It Out In D.C.) will be included. Randy Pitchford’s recent Twitter statement that the $20 for “World Tour” will only be charged for the new episode while the previous episodes are a “bonus” also didn’t exactly solve the pricing discussion.
Some of these issues certainly can be solved/improved even after the release of the game. What about you? Do you think this is the “definitive” edition of Duke Nukem 3D as claimed by Gearbox? Do you intend to buy the game (or maybe you have even pre-ordered it already)? How excited are you about the new content? Feel free to let us know and discuss “World Tour” over at the Duke4.net forums!
Bloodstone Courtyard by ToiletDuck64 – “A small Doom-style map with a different theme.”
LORCH 3 (re-release) by Sanek – “Much of the map is not changed, but I fixed most of the errors, as well as the ammo/enemy ratio. Also, the original ending (with underground jail) was completely cut, replaced by the hallaway that leads you right to the finish line.”
The Root by CruX – “Duke’s been contracted by the EDF for a reconnaissance job, sending him to a research facility that’s tucked off in a remote corner of a Californian desert. All he’s been told is that the facility is owned and operated by a private organization that was collaborating with the EDF on a top secret project, and a recent communication break down on the organization’s end has left the EDF brass a bit unnerved… ”
Hogwash Overboard Edition (re-release) by Captain Massive – “Now with slightly reduced lag for a better frame rate and a crap-ton more changes and fixes to the original. New music, recons (or flying pigs), and expanded areas. Improved looks, re-balanced combat and most everything now has a function (e.g. hand dryers in the bathrooms give pipe bombs).”
Dawn of the Pork by Jolteon – “ Sometimes when someone mutates into a pigcop by the aliens it may backfire, and as such, may still have their personality. After Duke Nukem went gambling in Norway and cleared L.A. from the evil aliens, all of the good pigcops were sent to a city called New Pork City, where pigcops lived peacefully without being judged by their appearances. However, the aliens had noticed this, and unleashed a virus all over the city known as the Bacon virus. This virus turns pigcops into bacon eating zombies. A lot of the good pigcops were infected by this virus. The EDF went in and tried to clear out the city, but they failed, as most of the soldiers were killed. So now it’s up to Duke Nukem to clear out New Pork City from the evil aliens and the zombie pigcops.”
LA Terror by DakMax – “Most of the action happens in the building which evil aliens have infested. The building contains some very important artifacts, and even a library with books from 16th century, and seems like aliens are planning to steal the artifacts and use them for some evil plan. Duke has to stop them.”
In the last two months, various improvement suggestions and addon requests have reached me regarding a third version of theEDuke32 Addon Compilation. I have reviewed all community requests and decided it’s time for yet another release to polish everything a bit more and increase the addon archive even further.
As a result, we are counting 109 addons with over 1.100 levels now. Not all new entries are really new, though – some of them were split off from existing previous packs since they deserved to be standalone. There is still more than enough stuff that you may or may not have ever seen or played before – such as “Alien vs Predator”, “Castle Quest”, “Duke Is 007”, “Redrum”, “Sun Burn”, “Total Apocalypse” or “Zombie Crisis”, just to name a few. Two very recent – and excellent – releases are featured as well:“The Root” by CruX (now concluding the Urban Map Pack) and “LORCH3” by Sanek (as the final part of the LORCH Trilogy), both published in June 2016.
Map update for 5 addons to include the latest versions of 10 levels
Duke Hard v1.2 included
Oblivion returns after having been removed in 2.0
Including various smaller fixes – e.g. maps not starting without weapons as intended, regrouping of some addon content, music pack compatibility and more!
Visual impressions of some new compilation entries:
Baserape by neoacix – “After 3 years, it’s finally done. This is my tribute to Duke Nukem 3D and its 20th anniversary. Baserape starts as an open world military base assault and gets linear in the second half. You have to fight your way through this base to prevent a nuclear strike from the aliens.”
DoomBOX by Sanek – “It’s small, tiny canyon/outdoor map that heavily relies on use of the jetpack, so watch for the fuel!”
Vile Cistern by ToiletDuck64 – “Another one of my Doom-style maps; this map is basically about maze-mopping… and sewage… and maze-mopping in sewage.”
Der Ist Mars by Mister Sinister – “Duke has crash landed somewhere on Mars and found himself nearby a small alien colony.”
Overspill Area by ToiletDuck64 – “The hardest and most complicated Doom-style map I’ve released up to this point.”
Close Range by Mister Sinister – “A disjointed mess of a space level made in two weeks. The level was built from a blueprint I made sometime in March. It combines bits and pieces of different ideas I had back then, yet the main focus are laser tripbombs.”
Showdown In Suzhou by MetHy – “Brand new Shadow Warrior usermap for everyone’s enjoyment! I know this is the DN3D forum but I hope you guys will make an exception.”
Whoa, half a year since the last news over here. But fear not, I haven’t let things slide in the meantime!
After a considerable delay, but just in time to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Duke Nukem 3D retail version hitting the store shelves, I give you the EDuke32 Addon Compilation v2.0! This is a lot more than just an update to the previous release – it’s a full re-release! Over the course of more than a year, I have tirelessly polished pretty much each and every existing entry of the collection, fixing smaller and bigger bugs along the way. Tons of content was added, making the pack grow to 86 included addons with more than 1.000 SP levels! And it’s not only about old stuff – four high-quality addons from 2015 have made the cut: “Death Drive”, “DN64 Revisited”, “Haunted Nukem” and “TamDuke”! My heartfelt thanks to all the authors who gave their kind permissions to make this possible!
Widescreen support for all addons with custom statusbars and weapons that were previously cut off in non-5:4 video modes
Tons of fixes, e.g. sprite resize bugfixes finally working properly, corrected skyboxes, typo corrections and much more!
Covers a large variety of themes – there is stuff for X-Mas, Halloween, a collection of space and city maps, old and brand-new content
To demonstrate the widescreen feature, take a look at some examples from different addons:
Just as a reminder: I didn’t create any of these addons – this was just about fixing and polishing them for convenient usage in EDuke32. The real heroes are the mappers and modders out there who keep sharing their amazing creations with us, from 1996 till the present day. Due to their remarkable contributions, the classic Duke Nukem 3D becomes timeless.
My credits wouldn’t be complete without giving kudos to the guys from the EDuke32 coding team who gave us this amazing port, the best one of its kind. It allows us to enjoy the game any way we like – the old-fashioned way or with fancy special effects. Without their efforts, a compilation like this one would have never been possible!
