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Leak of a cancelled 1996 “Duke Nukem Forever” side-scroller

241 points| _Microft | 3 years ago |twitter.com | reply

100 comments

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[+] twelvechairs|3 years ago|reply
Lets not forget Duke Nukem started with two moderately popular platformers [0]

https://dukenukem.fandom.com/wiki/Duke_Nukem_I

[+] adamgordonbell|3 years ago|reply
Duke Nukem the side scroller was my first computer game and I loved it.
[+] JasonFruit|3 years ago|reply
I spent hours playing Duke Nukem when I was a kid. Based on my son's love for absolutely idiotic games, and the assumption that I was like him at his age, that may or may not say anything for its quality, but I have fond memories of it.
[+] whywhywhywhy|3 years ago|reply
Could never get over seeing a bunch of stolen graphics from the Amiga game Turrican 2 in one of them.

Didn't help that that game was far superior to Duke

[+] ChicagoDave|3 years ago|reply
I loved those first two games. They were hard to complete and a ton of fun.
[+] magic_hamster|3 years ago|reply
Amazingly nobody mentioned it yet, but around Christmas the leak of the 2001 DNF build came to some fruition with the release of the "first slice" from the DNF restoration project. If you liked Duke Nukem 3D, this will be a treat for you. It has that certain personality and charm that was long lost by the time DNF 2011 came out. You can download it for free on moddb: https://www.moddb.com/mods/dnf2001-restoration-project
[+] sho_hn|3 years ago|reply
What I'd love to see is a leak of the original "Prey". Not the id Tech 4-powered shooter by Human Head Studios, but the 3D Realms one.

So many stories about this one. At least 3 generations of creatives, a KMFDM soundtrack, a perhaps over-ambitious heavily portals-based engine, destructible environments, later engine work by Corinne Yu, etc.

Edit: Oh wow! I just googled for a YouTube video of the 199x E3 demos to link here, and the 1995 version apparently did leak days ago: https://archive.org/details/prey-1195/

Next, a leak of the 1997 rework please: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbBDzzOzS4E

The level of detail and the dynamic portals were just so cool at the time. The demos from about 4:00 onward and especially at 5:00 onward more or less predict the later gameplay of Valve's Portal games.

Edit 2: Since this is HN, after all, here's a fascinating Usenet discussion with on the of the Prey engine developers, W. Scarboro, on his experiences with the portals approach: https://groups.google.com/g/comp.graphics.algorithms/c/2Oa-M...

Unfortunately since passed away, at only 31, due to asthma.

[+] boastful_inaba|3 years ago|reply
You're in luck! An early engine test for the original Prey leaked just this last week. (So early, it's before the portals concept.)
[+] devindotcom|3 years ago|reply
Looks a lot like Abuse. I would have played it! The original Duke Nukem sidescrollers were fun. Them and Commander Keen, Dangerous Dave, Jazz Jackrabbit... what else?
[+] FartyMcFarter|3 years ago|reply
Secret Agent was another fun Apogee sidescroller. Someone else already mentioned Crystal Caves which is great.
[+] voisin|3 years ago|reply
I would pay to play these on my iPhone now. Also, I would die for a modern version of Raptor: Call of the Shadows, and Uncharted Waters.
[+] dwringer|3 years ago|reply
I really enjoyed Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure. A lot of interesting features in that one and a great art style.
[+] xahrepap|3 years ago|reply
Crystal Caves was a ton of fun.
[+] phyalow|3 years ago|reply
Halloween Harry, Contra, Pitfall!, Captain Quazar (although more isomorphic). Dont make them like they used to.
[+] rl3|3 years ago|reply
Bio Menace, Monster Bash, In Search of Dr. Riptide
[+] caf|3 years ago|reply
Prince of Persia
[+] hoherd|3 years ago|reply
After seeing the graphics, my first thought was Blackthorne.
[+] 8n4vidtmkvmk|3 years ago|reply
Wasn't there a Jill of the Jungle or something?
[+] Fuzzwah|3 years ago|reply
Killing Gameshow was excellent, as was Onslaught. Both were released on Amiga and Atari ST.
[+] leeoniya|3 years ago|reply
Jazz Jackrabbit was super fun over LAN.

> what else?

Lemmings?

[+] GalenErso|3 years ago|reply
2D side scrolling games were still popular in browser Flash games until the mid 2000s. I remember playing a few of them on Miniclip and other websites. Shoutout to anyone who remembers Bonus.com around the year 2000. The website was an ad infested mess, but also home to some decent games.
[+] b1ue64|3 years ago|reply
2d side scrolling games are still popular today*
[+] brightball|3 years ago|reply
I was once ranked #10 on Case’s Ladder in Duke Nukem back in the day. With a dial up modem on a system called Kali.

Good times.

[+] danjc|3 years ago|reply
Curious to know the history here. Was it scrapped because 3d was replacing this format? Duke Nukem 3d was also released in '96.
[+] barbecue_sauce|3 years ago|reply
I vaguely remember seeing a black and white screenshot of this in the back of a 3D Realms manual/cd-booklet (possibly for another 3D Realms game, or for the Macintosh release of Duke Nukem 3D which would have released after development on Duke Nukem Forever was underway).
[+] LocalH|3 years ago|reply
I love seeing prototype and prerelease builds leak. I can only hope the binders full of discs at Harmonix follow that same fate some day in the future.
[+] RajT88|3 years ago|reply
This would undoubtedly have been more fun to play than the real DNF.
[+] Tepix|3 years ago|reply
What's a safe way to try this? DOSBox?
[+] pluc|3 years ago|reply
"I can't believe these fucking leaks

Also here's a link for it that will never expire"

uuuh ok

[+] raffraffraff|3 years ago|reply
Does it have LAN multiplayer? Please say it has...
[+] imhoguy|3 years ago|reply
Now we need a leak of Flash Player source code :)