Duke Nukem

aka: Duke Nukum, Metal Force
Moby ID: 559
DOS Specs

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Credits (DOS version)

5 People

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 45% (based on 1 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.3 out of 5 (based on 60 ratings with 7 reviews)

Duke begins his reign of kicking ass...

The Good
By the present time, the "Duke Nukem" series is one of the biggest game franchises, even if we've been waiting forever for Duke 4. This is where it all began, and what an awesome beginning it is!... Even today, Duke Nukem is one of the best side-scrolling games in existence. You, as Duke Nukem, a kick-ass, one-liner spewing action hero, must stop the evil Doctor Proton from taking over the world. Blocked by hordes of his evil tech-bots, Duke is ready to "Save the world and still be in time to catch 'Oprah' " in his own special way...shooting everything IN his way! In this game, the shooting is important and fun, as Duke Nukem can shoot anything from soda cans to, obviously, your robot and mutant enemies. While Duke's famous attitude and one-liners are just starting out, and Duke doesn't have his cool "Terminator-esque" shades yet, Duke Nukem is still recognizably Duke Nukem, and his dialogue during the cut-scenes with Dr. Proton is suitably corny and hilarious!...

The Bad
Unfortunately, the original Duke Nukem game is just slightly repetitive, and the best episode of the three in the game is easily the first one, the shareware "Shrapnel City". While the game has for the most part aged well, there are a few parts that haven't, most notably the slightly irritating PC speaker sound effects.

The Bottom Line
The greatest game series ever gets off to an awesome start, and the original Duke Nukem is still VERY playable, even to this day!

DOS · by Mr. Me (28) · 2003

It's time to kick ass and chew bubble gum... where's my gum?

The Good
In 1991 it would seem like there would be an abundance of platformers. What Apogee did that was so special was that they took everything that was great about scrolling shooters and just packed it all into one game. The story isn't much to brag about. It's there but basically as an excuse to blow up a thousand Tech-Bots before you can kick Dr Proton's ass, again and again. This game is just pure fun. You can blow up a lot of the stuff on screen, including a massive dose of power-ups, and the levels aren't really that frustrating. I rarely got lost. Good graphics for the time as well. Despite being EGA, the graphics still look great today in my opinion. Everything looks like what it's supposed to be.

The Bad
The PC speaker sound effects can be a real pain after a while. Although I'm a fan of PC speaker effects, they are obviously a relic of the past when there wasn't anything more sophisticated available for IBM computers. I think most modern gamers will be put off by it. I think sound-wise, Duke Nukem would have been better on a Sega MegaDrive or a Commodore 64. The controls are a little annoying as the character moves in 8x8 blocks instead of pixel-wise like in most platformers.

The Bottom Line
A fun platformer with a lot of replay value. I highly recommend it.

DOS · by x0n1c64 (12) · 2008

Fun platform shooter; the best of Apogee's EGA games

The Good
Duke Nukem is mindless fun. Levels aren't so difficult that I became frustrated. Lots of little touches and generous bonus items are everywhere. It's cheesy and goofy, but I liked it. The other Apogee with better graphics didn't live up to this standard.

The Bad
The gameplay is too scripted. Everything is in exactly the same place each time you play. Animation is choppy.

The Bottom Line
Of the brief era from 1991 through 1994, when PC game developers were racing to show that they couldn't be outdone by NES games from six years earlier, Duke Nukem is a high point.

DOS · by James Hague (10) · 2000

[ View all 7 player reviews ]

Trivia

Duke Nukem 3D

Duke Nukem for DOS (full version, all three episodes) was included on the Duke Nukem 3D for DOS CD.

Editor

While it would later become a standard matter of course that companies would form solely to sell new level packs to iD Software's first-person shooters, a couple of enterprising individuals led the vanguard as early as Duke Nukem 1, before there was the same calibre of groundbreaking excellence to co-opt. One Tony Kamin of Green Bay, WI seems to have reverse-engineered the DN map format and gotten a level editor together as early as 1992, shopping around two alternate level sets under the name "Duke Nukem Extension Set" for only five dollars' registration a piece. It would look like a coincidental case of parallel evolution when Larry Shanker of Salem, OH began selling his map pack, "Duke's Next Adventure", the following year for the same price... but suspiciously much of the legal boilerplate and installation instructions in their respective README.TXT files are identical! There's no word on the record as to how Apogee responded to these cats turning a quick buck off of their product.

Sales

The trilogy was rated the best selling shareware software (of all categories) for 1991 and 1992.

Soundtrack

Even the world of Duke Nukem got its own soundtrack to establish the realm. Soundtrack was released in 1999.

Tracklist: 1. Duke Nukem Theme - Megadeth - Cinnamon Girl - Type O Negative (previously unreleased in U.S.) - What U See Is What U Get - Xzibit - Blisters - Coal Chamber (previously unreleased in U.S.) - Song 10 - Zebrahead - The Thing I Hate - Stabbing Westwards - It's Yourz - Wu-Tang Clan - Screaming from the Sky - Slayer - New World Order - Megadeth (previously unreleased) - Stone Crazy - The Beatnuts - Land of the Free Disease - Corrosion of Conformity (previously unreleased)

Sprites

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery! Keen-eyed gaming enthusiasts might notice through the first Duke Nukem series occasional level sprites as having been adapted or lifted wholesale without credit from PC ports of Mega Man and Turrican.

Title

From the Apogee FAQ:

There is frequently a great deal of confusion over the correct spelling of one of Apogee's most prized characters, Duke Nukem. The original spelling for the name was "Duke Nukem"; however, during the code fix stage between v1.0 and v2.0 of the original game, Apogee found a character overseas named "Duke Nukem" that was thought to be copyrighted. So, for v2.0 of the original Duke game, the name was changed to "Duke Nukum." Then, during the programming of the next Duke Nukem game (Duke Nukem II), it was discovered that the character they found overseas was not copyrighted after all -- and so the original name was reinstated. "Duke Nukem" is also the spelling used in all successive games that featured the character.

The spellings "Duke Nuke 'em," "Duke Nuke'um," "Duke Nuke'm," "Duke Nuk'em" or other variations are not, and were never, correct. The correct spelling of the game is "Duke Nukem".

Awards

  • FLUX
    • Issue #4 - #39 in the " Top 100 Video Games of All-Time" list

Information also contributed by Big John WV, Indra was here, LepricahnsGold and MAT

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  • MobyGames ID: 559
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by MajorDad.

Linux added by Plok. Macintosh, Windows added by lights out party.

Additional contributors: Trixter, Xantheous, Frenkel, Caelestis, Patrick Bregger, Narushima.

Game added December 10, 1999. Last modified February 15, 2024.