Duke Nukem Forever was announced in 1997, after its predecessor, Duke Nukem 3D, had rocked the PC market with a hero who liked kicking ass, hanging out with strippers, and murdering alien police officers that were, literally, pigs. It was inappropriate, raunchy, and amazing.
It was also one of the games that gave 3D Realms the success that brought its destruction. Duke Nukem Forever began life as a completely self-funded game; its developer wanted nothing less than perfection, and would chase every update in technology in order to deliver it. The game saw monumental delays, suffered the slings and arrows of a gaming world that was first angry and then tolerant of its favorite whipping boy, had its home taken away, and has since risen from the dead.
Is the public still interested in Duke Nukem? Hell yes it is. This is the story of the gaming industry's favorite joke, and how Duke may finally have the last laugh.
3D Realms announces via press release that Duke Nukem Forever will be created with the Quake Engine, instead of its own technology. This was 1997, and Duke Nukem Forever was slated to launch in 1998. From the press release:
This leads to the question being asked most about the Duke meets Quake connection: Why is 3D Realms using the Quake technology rather than using their own Prey technology?
Head of 3D Realms, George Broussard, responds: "It's a very good question, but we have a very good answer. Our Prey technology is predicated on 3D hardware, such as the 3DFX card and the Rendition card. Prey will not work without the current best 3D cards on the market. When Prey is released late in 1998 only then do we believe there will be enough of an installed base to support sales of a high-end 3D hardware game."
"Obviously, we considered developing Duke Nukem Forever with the Prey engine," said Broussard, "but that would have put us in the position of releasing both Prey and Duke at nearly the same time, and we didn't want both games competing so close together and taking attention away from each other. Both games would have been hurt under that scenario."
Scott Miller, head of Apogee, adds, "We want to give Prey as much space as possible, so this meant getting Duke Forever done early in 1998, and to do this we need a ready-to-go, track proven engine. I called Todd Hollenshead, CEO of id Software, and got the ball rolling."
1998 came, and instead of the game's release, another press release details the switch to the Unreal Engine:
George Broussard, project leader for Duke Nukem Forever had this to say, "The switch to the Unreal engine was simply a business decision, and it came down to what we wanted to do with Duke Nukem Forever and how best to achieve it. It's important to note that this decision has nothing to do with id software or our relationship with them, which still remains very strong."
"The game should not be significantly delayed," noted Broussard, "but it will take a little time to get up to speed with the new engine and learn how to exploit it. Fortunately, all of our game data will transfer very easily and we see being back to where we were at E3 within a month to 6 weeks."
People who have seen the Duke Nukem Forever E3 video, or back room demo voiced concerns that some of the items they saw would be lost. "Not at all," says Broussard. "If anything, the E3 demos showed what we could do with licensed technology and how we can extend it. We intend to apply the same ideas and efforts into the Unreal engine and push it until it breaks. Fans can expect all the stuff they saw at E3 to make the crossover to the Unreal engine."
This video is the trailer from E3, 1998:
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