Duke Nukem 3D on X-Play

The reaction to the announcement on Monday of Duke Nukem 3D coming for the Xbox LIVE Arcade has been extremely positive. We will have more information for you shortly, but in the meantime, you can check out today's "Gaming Headlines" video from the cable network G4's "X-Play" show.

In today's segment, Morgan Webb talks about Duke Nukem 3D. Check it out - the Duke segment starts around 1:23 into the video. In addition to Duke Nukem 3D, the news segment also talks about Bioshock for the PS3, a racing game called Fuel, and Street Fighter IV.

Posted by Joe Siegler at 8:00 PM | Permalink | Discuss this story on our forums
News Categories: Duke Nukem 3D

Duke Nukem 3D for Xbox LIVE Arcade

We've been asked about this for a long time, we've had fans pleading with us for some sort of announcement or information. Well, today is the day!

We're very pleased to announce that "Duke Nukem 3D for Xbox LIVE Arcade" will be coming to your Xbox 360 console soon!

As has been reported around the net today, we can confirm that the game has indeed passed final certification with Microsoft on Friday the 15th of August (on our first try, no less). That means the game is done - it is now in the hands of Microsoft. At this time we cannot give you details on release date or points cost, as we do not have that information. There's plenty of really cool stuff in this new update to a classic title. While we're not quite ready to divulge everything yet, we can tell you this.

There is a preview available now in the October 2008 issue of the Official Xbox Magazine. This issue of the magazine is hitting subscribers' mailboxes starting today, and will be available on newsstands in a few days. Some of the folks from the Official Xbox Magazine have been playing it, and have written up a preview about the game and their thoughts on the game, having played it. You definitely won't want to miss that.

Look for online previews of the game to start appearing on August 26th. We're really excited about this release - and we hope you will be too! More info on the way - stay tuned!

Posted by Joe Siegler at 4:49 PM | Permalink | Discuss this story on our forums
News Categories: Duke Nukem 3D

Interview with Jon St. John

It was brought to our attention this weekend that there was a video interview with Jon St. John posted on Youtube. It was done by the gaming website "Sadie's Gaming Infection" at the recent Comic Con convention.

Jon talks about how Duke Nukem has affected his life, how he came up with the voice originally, and general other remarks about Duke Nukem. Check it out:

Posted by Joe Siegler at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Discuss this story on our forums
News Categories: Duke Nukem

Max Payne Movie Trailer Released

It was a long time coming, but we noticed today that the first trailer for the Max Payne movie has been released. Starring Mark Wahlberg, the Max Payne Movie will be released this October 17th, and you can check out a streaming version of the trailer below.

There was a recent short interview with Mila Kunis (pictured here) regarding her work on the movie. Mila plays Mona Sax, and here is some of what she had to say:

"I can't really reveal too much," Kunis says of the project. "I play a character named Mona Sax who is based on the video game, but doesn't necessarily come in until [the game] Max Payne 2, if I'm not mistaken. Max Payne loses his wife and goes on this spree to find out why she was murdered. It's kind of lapse of three years and he goes on this mission and his child gets murdered, his wife gets murdered and it's this cop who is distraught and dark and cold and all he wants to do is just figure out why and who. My character -- her sister gets murdered by who she assumes is Max Payne. They bond over the loss of a loved one, not necessarily knowing why or who [the other person is], and they go on this mission together... "The movie is PG-13," says Kunis. "It's incredibly dark. You still get the gist of it. The only different between R-rated and PG-13 is you might not see as much blood. You might not see blood squirting everywhere, but as far as the sadness and the darkness of it and the distraught [nature] of these human beings is very much captured in the film. It's all unfortunate deaths and it's almost like these [are] two people that are so cold and distant from reality and from life - it's a pretty dark movie, yes."

The end of the trailer mentions an official movie site at www.maxpaynethemovie.com, but there doesn't appear to be any information there at this time. You can check out the cast at the IMDB page for the movie. You can also check out a higher quality streaming version of the trailer here.

Just a reminder, 3D Realms does not have anything directly to do with the release of this movie, so we cannot tell you anything specifically about it. We'll be there with you checking it out opening night. :)

Posted by Joe Siegler at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Discuss this story on our forums
News Categories: Max Payne

Help Wanted!

Need more help. Must go faster. Scotty, we need more powah! ATTN: 3DR Website level designers, local Dallas/Guildhall level designers and level designers everywhere...

If you're a pro, or an amateur, if you have talent and passion, feel free to send us your stuff. Programmers interested in game play programming, or with 360 experience should look us up, too.

Take a look at our jobs page for more details.

Posted by Joe Siegler at 10:23 AM | Permalink | Discuss this story on our forums
News Categories: Misc

Top 10 FPS of all Time

The website ScrewAttack just posted their list of the Top 10 FPS of all time. They hit a few Apogee / 3D Realms titles from the past, those being Duke Nukem 3D & Wolfenstein 3D.

Duke Nukem 3D, the "coolest character in videogames", came in at #7 on the list. This placed it higher than Doom 3, Bioshock, & Half Life 2 on their list. Of course all of these games are below Wolfenstein 3D, which came in at #4 on the list.

Check out their complete Top 10 video here:

Posted by Joe Siegler at 4:50 PM | Permalink
News Categories: Duke Nukem 3D | The Classic Games

DNF Footage in High Def!

A short update to the Jace Hall show announcements of the last couple of days.

You can now check out the game footage shown from Duke Nukem Forever in high definition on your television! All you need to do is fire up your Xbox 360, and check out the Games Store. If you go into the Games Store, you need to look in the "Games Videos" area, and then the "Independent Videos" subsection. From there you can select the Jace Hall Show!

Episode 1 which includes the interview with Scott Miller & George Broussard, and the footage from Duke Nukem Forever will run you 80 Microsoft points. Jace Hall is working to get the show visible in a slightly more prominent location than this, but in the meantime, this is how you can get to it. Future episodes of his show will be available here as well!

Check it out!

Posted by Joe Siegler at 9:08 AM | Permalink | Discuss this story on our forums
News Categories: Duke Nukem Forever

Jason Hall Show Blooper Reel

Earlier in the day, the first episode of Jason Hall's new show hit the net, and the Duke Nukem Forever footage contained within was quite popular. On Thursday evening, an interview with Jason turned up over at 1up.com, where he talks about his show, and how he came to have access to the footage used in Duke Nukem Forever. Here's a small bit from the interview:

1UP: The biggest gaming score from the first episode of your show is that you got a sneak peek at Duke Nukem Forever, including footage of the game. With such a long-awaited, secretive game, this is a pretty major deal. How did you manage to pull this off?

Hall: Honestly, I simply asked. George [Broussard] and Scott [Miller, of 3DRealms] are great guys, and I've known them for like 15 years. We have a long history together and they know for a fact that I am a HUGE Duke fan. Because of our relationship, I knew that they were building greatness down there in Texas, and I felt that it might be a good time to let the world see a little of the game but through my eyes. I had no interest in doing a "preview" or "feature look" or anything like that, as I am not a journalist and when Scott and George are ready for that they can talk to the professionals.... No, all I wanted was to kick it with Scott and George, and then maybe check DNF out simply as a gamer who wants to buy it -- and they let me do that.

Jason has more to say about Duke Nukem Forever, you should go check it out. Additionally in the interview is a video which we've copied here. This is a "blooper" video that 1up.com is running. It has a short additional piece that was not used in the main video (although no more game footage than you've already seen). Check it out below:

Posted by Joe Siegler at 11:27 PM | Permalink | Discuss this story on our forums
News Categories: Duke Nukem Forever

Jace Hall Show and Duke Nukem Forever

The Jace Hall show has premiered, and as expected, has already proven quite popular. In the video, Jace Hall interviews Scott Miller & George Broussard. He also has some video you're going to want to see. Let's just get to it.

For some more Duke, here's our teaser trailer from December of 2007 again to check out. :)

Posted by Joe Siegler at 2:04 PM | Permalink | Discuss this story on our forums
News Categories: Duke Nukem Forever

Rumor Alert! Does the Jace Hall Show Scoop Duke?

Word on the street has it that long-time game industry vet, Jason Hall, has a new episodic show debuting on Xbox Live and Crackle.com on June 4th, and the first episode reveals his recent undercover visit to 3D Realms. There's a surprise in this story, but you'll have to watch the show to see it.

The Jace Hall Show episodes will be weekly recurring, each about five minutes long. Most people remember that Jace Hall was a founder and CEO of Monolith Studios (Blood, Tron, No One Lives Forever, Condemed, F.E.A.R.), and then became head of Warner Bros. Interactive Studios division for several years. Hall is still on the Warner lot with his own company HDFILMS, and is now producing feature films, full scale television shows and online internet programming.

We expect an announcement very soon to confirm the June 4th launch date rumors.

The first episode also has been rumored to contain one of the stars of NBC’s hit series “Heroes.”

This show may have landed the greatest scoop of all time in the history of gaming… We shall see!

Posted by Joe Siegler at 2:34 PM | Permalink | Discuss this story on our forums
News Categories: Duke Nukem Forever

Interview with Jon St. John

One of the more important names in Duke Nukem lore is that of Jon St. John. Jon has been the voice of Duke Nukem since Duke Nukem 3D first appeared on the scene January 29, 1996. Since then, every Duke Nukem game that has come out (and there's been a lot across all platforms) have made use of the voice talents of Jon. We frequently get asked what he looks like (despite having had his picture on our site since June 1997. But less frequently appearing are interviews with Jon. Well, no more.

The gaming news site ZERG Watch published an interview with Jon back in April, and we wanted to make sure you saw it. In it, they talk to Jon about a great number of things. Jon has a very versatile voice, and has been in a number of other popular games besides the Duke Nukem series, as well as other things outside videogames. It's a cool interview with someone who you don't often hear from in this format. Here's a few snippets from the interview.

Zergwatch: Have you ever answered a telephone using the Duke Nukem voice or have you ever misused or abused the Duke Nukem voice (or any of your other voices) for a laugh that you could share with us? Jon "Duke" St. John: Oh yeah...many times. I often have friends ask me to place a call to some unsuspecting victim and get medieval on their asses in the Duke voice. I once called a radio morning show on the east coast and harassed the DJ's in Duke's voice...they had recorded the call and ended up using parts of the call over and over again on station promos!

Zergwatch: One of the cool things we found on your website was that you offer a service to make custom Duke recordings. How does that service work and how much does it cost?

Jon "Duke" St. John: It's very simple really...I can record a message of up to 30 seconds in length which is available in any audio format for use as a ring tone, answering machine, etc. for fifty bucks. You email the script to me, Duke says whatever you like, and after you make payment on Pay Pal, or after your check clears the bank, I email the audio back to you. Please keep in mind that I will not say "this is Duke Nukem". I will refer to myself as "Duke" and I will say anything you want me to say...I have no issues with profanity...in fact, I enjoy it!

You'll definitely want to check out the entire article; Jon talks about how he feels being involved with Duke Nukem all these years.

As a side note in Duke Nukem lore, Jon St. John was not the original voice of Duke Nukem. Back in Duke Nukem II, the character spoke two words in the "cinematic opening", those being "I'm Back". That was voiced by 3D Realms staffer Joe Siegler, and the screaming Duke did in that game when he died was by Todd Replogle. But it's been all Jon since then.

If you want to check out some of Jon's versatility, check out these outtakes from the Playstation 1 game, "Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown". Some of them are still darn hysterial, 11+ years later.

Posted by Joe Siegler at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Discuss this story on our forums
News Categories: Duke Nukem

Prey Overture Cover Version

Today we were made aware of a rather cool fan created item for Prey. It's a cover of the Prey Theme, also known as the "Prey Overture". It's not a straight cover, it's a "metal" version of the theme, something which lends a different feel to the song. Here's a few words from the creators of the song, which they posted on our forums yesterday:

Greetings, players and creators of the Prey game! I'm here to tell you that our work over the metal version of Jeremy Soule's Prey Overture is finished and we are interested in your opinions. It was hard but pleasant work - to find the thoughts of this awesome and talented composer, turn them into metal and return them back. We tried and hope that we were successful. You're welcomed to listen the tune in high quality at our website and share your thoughts with us here or on our site. Good luck!

P.S. I want to say that this track is made without any plans of profit-making and only for Internet free distribution. Mr. Soule knows about it and we have his personal permission for this work. This is the pure fan project, that was made only to express our admiration of this beautiful music and remind you that great hours spent inside the world of Prey.

We rather enjoyed it, and thought you would like to check it out as well.

Don't forget, the original Prey soundtrack is still available for purchase over at DirectSong. Once you get to the Prey page, you can check out an audio sample of the Prey Overture to compare the work done by Epinikion on the cover version.

Finally, if you register (for free) at their site, you can download an mp3 of this track. If you do not register, you can just listen to the streaming version.

Posted by Joe Siegler at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Discuss this story on our forums
News Categories: Prey

Wolfenstein 3D's Sweet Sixteen!

We don't know if you realized it, but Monday was the sixteenth anniversary of Wolfenstein 3D. Released by Apogee back on May 5, 1992, this game by all accounts was one of the all time most influential titles, well.. EVER! Originally created by id Software, and released by us (under our then name Apogee Software), this title laid the groundwork for a lot of things that have come since.

Since it is Wolf's birthday, we wanted to bring you a few small tidbits to mark the anniversary. First up is a recreation of the Episode 3 Boss battle with Adolf Hitler from the game. The unique thing here is that it was done in Lego! There is a current craze in doing things (especially games) in Lego, so why not recreate a classic game? This was done by Wolf fan Ciamoslaw Ciamek. Here is a screen capture below - make sure and check out all of his Wolf3D Lego pictures.

Second up is an old piece of video. It's a TV interview from 1992 by Byron Harris for NBR with Scott Miller & George Broussard of Apogee as well as John Romero (then of id ). It talks about the two companies, and shows some of the background development of Wolf3D. We originally posted this video back in the summer of 1998, you can read that old news story for some background on the video.

Wolfenstein 3D is still an item we sell 16 years later. The game has been ported from its PC original to a ton of platforms, including the 3DO, Super Nintendo, the Game Boy Advance, the Macintosh, the Atari Jaguar, and the good old Apple IIgs.

Here's a few links for Wolfenstein 3D for you to check out:

• Our Wolfenstein 3D Page
• Our Wolf3D Pages in our Online Store ( CD | DL )
• Wikipedia Page for Wolfenstein 3D
• id Software's Wolfenstein 3D Page

If you're one of the two people left who have never played Wolfenstein 3D, hit our Wolf3D page to grab yourself a copy of the shareware game. Thanks to John Romero for the Lego story. John, it's time for YOU to go down the *)*$%)$ stairs! ;)

Posted by Joe Siegler at 9:39 AM | Permalink | Discuss this story on our forums
News Categories: The Classic Games

Wanted for Pigslaughter

This is Duke's Mug shot. We were sent a poster by the Liberty City Police Department about Duke. They say this about him:

Suspect was observed for the first time in January 29, 1996 in Hollywood. Witnesses last saw suspect in a teaser trailer, Wednesday December 19, 2007. Investigators remind the public that he is considered heavily armed and extremely sarcastic.

You can view the entire mugshot poster image here. Print it and hang it where people might find the suspect. Others under investigation at Liberty City can be viewed here.

This is of course a fan creation by forum member RedSplat. We thought it was funny, and wanted to bring it to your attention.

Posted by Joe Siegler at 4:15 PM | Permalink | Discuss this story on our forums
News Categories: Duke Nukem Forever

Shacknews and Duke Nukem Forever

A few weeks ago, Steve Gibson and Maarten from Shacknews were in town doing Shacknews work. George Broussard invited them over to see Duke Nukem Forever. They checked it out for about half an hour, and today they posted a few comments about what they saw.

Something you'll definitely want to read. :) It's available at Shacknews here.

Posted by Joe Siegler at 1:38 PM | Permalink | Discuss this story on our forums
News Categories: Duke Nukem Forever

Rise of the Triad Review

We noticed over the weekend a fan posted a video review of Rise of the Triad over on Youtube. We're presenting it here for you to check out.

Pretty thorough review from someone who really loved Rise of the Triad. We still have this game available in 2008, and if you're interested, check out our Official Rise of the Triad page where you can check out several pieces of goodies out there.

Posted by Joe Siegler at 8:33 AM | Permalink | Discuss this story on our forums
News Categories: Rise of the Triad

Duke Nukem Forever Screenshot Released

When we released the teaser trailer last December, the one thing people asked us all the time was when we were going to release more media. Well, today, we're here to bring you some new media.

This is a new piece of conceptual art. One thing we weren't happy with in the teaser from December was the pig cop design. Shortly after the video was released, we happened upon a really hot new artist by the name of Alex Huenick. Here's Alex's take on the classic pig cop.

We're really excited about Alex's work, and had him redo the 3D Realms corporate logo as well. You can see that work below. Wait till you see this new pig cop design in action. It'll be like nothing you've ever experienced in a game before!

Stay tuned....

Posted by Joe Siegler at 12:03 AM | Permalink | Discuss this story on our forums
News Categories: Duke Nukem Forever

Scott Miller on Radar Group, Prey 2, and more

Some pretty exciting news broke yesterday that will be of interest to 3D Realms fans. Formally announced yesterday are two new ventures that 3D Realms is involved in, those being the Radar Group, and Depth Interactive. What are these? Well, to answer that, we'll go straight to Scott Miller, the founder of Apogee / 3D Realms, and the Chief Creative Officer of the Radar Group:

Q: First, the obvious question: What is Radar Group?

Scott Miller: Radar Group is neither a publisher nor a development studio. We're something new. We believe that the best ideas in the game industry are original ideas, and so we will incubate, nurture, co-design and co-produce ideas that are tailor-made for the game industry, versus using existing licenses from other media. Think of us as the anti-Brash. lol!

Not only are we something new, we're something our industry desperately needs. Radar will team up with many of the industry's top independent studios to help them create original IP in which they own a substantial ownership stake. Why is this important? Because in today's industry it's nearly impossible, unless you're Epic or Valve, to create original games and not give away full IP ownership to the publisher. Radar believes that creators should share ownership, and all of the long-term benefits that come from that.

Another key part of the Radar plan is that all of our projects are built around a rich storyverse. Think about properties like Star Wars, Harry Potty and Lord of the Rings. All of these fictional creations have a vast and deep storyverse that can support numerous stories, with numerous compelling characters. Quite simply, a storyverse is the possibility space for stories, and all of our projects are being developed as a storyverse that can then support not only games, but linear media, too, like film, comics, TV, novels, webisodes, and so on.

Radar has every intention of leveraging our games in these other media, through our sister company based in Los Angeles, Depth Entertainment. The Max Payne film, currently filming in Toronto, is Depth's first production, by the way. Depth will specialize in respectful, high-quality game-to-film adaptations.

Q: Is there anything that you wanted to tell our readers about Radar Group or any of its titles that we hadn't hit on yet?

Miller: In part, Radar is an extension of 3D Realms' long history of working with external teams to co-create hit games, going back to 1990 when we teamed with Id Software on Commander Keen and then birthed the FPS category with Wolfenstein 3-D. It's not as well known that we were also involved with the inception of Descent, funding that game and giving design guidance for its first 16-months, before selling the publishing rights to Interplay. And then of course we played a huge role in Max Payne, working with Remedy, and also Prey, working with Human Head. If you include Duke Nukem into the mix, all of these franchises have sold over $1.1 billion at retail.

Scott also spoke in some detail about Prey 2, giving some previous unknown detail about that title.

IGN: Prey is obviously the most well-known franchise of the bunch. Since the original's release, we've also played a little game called Portal. Has said title's use of portals influenced how the technology is being used in Prey 2?

Miller: Absolutely! While Prey pioneered the portal concept, Valve's Portal took it to an all-new level. It really shows what you can do when you focus on a single core cool gameplay concept. So, while Portal impressed the heck out of us, it has also inspired us to return the favor to Valve and hopefully leap frog them as they did us. We believe we have new ideas for portals that will keep the portal race interesting.

In the original Prey, the lead character, Tommy, was too reluctant, and didn't realize his hero status until late in the game. So, in the new game we're making him a hardened, take-charge character who's learned fast from his previous experience, and ready to accept his status as a galactic savior. We're definitely beefing up the combat—expect more enemies onscreen simultaneously versus 3-4 in the original—as well as the spirit powers. And while the original was too much of a corridor shooter, Prey 2 will have much more variety and wide-open areas: think CoD4 to get a good idea of what we're shooting for in terms of open-world look and feel.

Scott also talks about the other previously announced title, Earth No More, in addition to a new title that had not been mentioned before, "Incarnate".

The quotes above are taken from a lengthy interview over at IGN where Scott talks more about Prey 2, the Radar Group, and other things you will definitely want to read. Head over to IGN and check out the full interview. For further details, make sure and check out Scott's blog at the Radar Group website here.

One final note about this announcement. It does now mean that Prey 2 & Earth No More, which had previously been announced as 3D Realms titles, are now no longer so. These are Radar Group titles. Before anyone asks, this won't affect Duke Nukem Forever. Duke Nukem Forever remains a 3D Realms title, and all this Radar stuff will not affect DNF in any way, as none of the internal DNF 3D Realms staff is working on any Radar titles, other than Scott Miller in an advisory fashion.

These titles look and sound quite exciting, you'll want to keep your eyes on the Radar Group website for all the latest!

Posted by Joe Siegler at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Discuss this story on our forums
News Categories: About 3DR / 3DR Staff | Duke Nukem Forever | Earth No More | Prey | Radar Group

Duke's Search for Jenny

Saw a fan video pop up on Youtube today based on the old Tommy Tutone song 867-5309 (Jenny). It was done by 3DR fan "Vinsane". Check it out:

If you don't remember where this turned up, in the Hollywood Holocaust level in Duke Nukem 3D, you can see above one of the urinals in the bathroom the number (867-5309) on the wall. Surprisingly, we still get asked about that to this day 12 years later. :)

Posted by Joe Siegler at 9:45 AM | Permalink | Discuss this story on our forums
News Categories: Duke Nukem