Mega Man's First-Person Rampage

After a lengthy conversation, I somehow was forced into writing about a Doom mod. Thanks, Laura. Welcome back to THE SITH ARCHIVES OF DARTH FANDOM, where I have been tasked with writing about one out of the… many Doom mods available on the internet. Seeing as though I’ve been in a bit of a Mega Man mood recently, I thought I’d take this opportunity to talk about Mega Man 8-bit Deathmatch, a total conversion mod for Zandronum (a source port based on id Software’s classic Doom/Doom II engine that mostly enhances the multiplayer) that converts the world of Doom into one centred on the Blue Bomber in his iconic, 8-bit NES days. That was a long sentence. Anyways, I guess it’s time to… Rock on!

Duel of the Mega Mans... Mega Men?
Image Credit: Destructoid

Let’s get the easiest thing out of the way: the story. The classic Mega Man games have never had massive story arcs, but MM8BDM does still have a nice alternate take on the Mega Man universe as its story: 1 year after Capcom’s Mega Man 6, rather than Wily going to jail and breaking out six months later (Mega Man 7), the real Mr X has been found and has organised a second annual robot tournament. Dr Light has entered his various robots, including a new one (spoiler: the player character), into the tournament. However, Dr Wily has decided that he can never be absent from a classic Mega Man plotline and enters his many creations into the competition too. The story of the mod is expanded through short dialogue segments with the cute 8-bit NPCs and letters received in the mail at the beginning of each chapter. On the topic of chapters, let’s move on to the gameplay.

I wonder who the mastermind behind the evil could be...
Image Credit: MegaQuint / YouTube

MM8BDM… actually, I’ll just start calling it 8BDM from now on. 8BDM has two main gameplay modes: multiplayer (the main attraction) and single player. The multiplayer is essentially classic Zandronum: various modes, such as deathmatch, team deathmatch, and capture the flag, with support for bots or player vs player matches. The single player is made up of the various chapters; each chapter contains some multiplayer maps filled with bots, as well as a few boss battles against characters that aren’t fought in the main maps. There is also a small hub world where you, the player, can interact with Dr Wily’s Robot Masters, select your missions, and change your costume. Hey, if that means I can be Bad Box Art Mega Man, I’ll always be happy. The music for each map is also based on each map’s respective original level. Yes, that does indeed mean you can listen to Dr Wily Stage 1 on loop while murdering fellow Robot Masters for hours on end. As Bad Box Art Mega Man. Brilliant.

My man!
Image Credit: Nintendo Life

Finally, you can’t have a Doom mod without having Doom mod mods. Cutstuff’s wiki has a page dedicated to mods 8BDM here, and there’s also this nice page from the forum which shows off quite a few interesting mods. My favourite of these mods is the Class Based Modification, which you can find here. What this mod does is balance out the various characters of 8BDM into their own classes, with weaknesses to certain weapons (based on Capcom’s official games), as well as other new features. Another interesting mod is this one, MM8BDM DOS Reborn, which incorporates new enemies based on the not very good DOS Mega Man games, but rather than their strange original designs, the mod uses hansungkee’s redesigns which look much better.

I just hope that damned dog isn't chasing me as soon as I start.
Image Credit: MagnetDood / Cutstuff

I’m not a Doom mod reviewer and I don’t plan on doing this again, but here I’ll gather my final thoughts: 8BDM is a great, fun mod, not just for Mega Man fans but just for anyone who is looking for a fun little Quake 3-/UT-type story in a more cutesy style or a new multiplayer game to experience with friends/random strangers online. The maps are open and allow for unique battles depending on your elevation and which weapons you’re using. The awesome 8-bit music also adds that extra icing to the already tasty cake. For me, I’d give this mod a 5/5. Yep, there is some Mega Fan bias in there, but I genuinely find this mod fun and would put it up there with my other favourite, QCDE. Well, that’s a wrap on this blog post against my free wi—sorry, that’s a wrap on THE SITH ARCHIVES OF DARTH FANDOM!

Happy 3rd Birthday to the Blog

Welcome back to THE SITH ARCHIVES OF DARTH FANDOM! As you can guess, today its the third birthday of this very blog. Woohoo! While I would like to write something nice, I'm about to enter stage 6 load shedding, which means I'll have the power on for only two more hours of the day. Not woohoo. Don't worry about my Duke Nukem series, it is still continuing (just need to finish up the next post), but I am currently working on another game-related project which I hope to announce soon. Talking about Duke, seeing as though he is my current topic of discussion, he's the star of this year's birthday poster.

I also have to post about my recent charity shop hunt, but no time for that, the power will be out in 5 minutes. I would like to talk more, but I have to get going. Well, that's a wrap on THE SITH ARCHIVES OF DARTH FANDOM!

Duke Nukem, Part 6: Duke Raider

After a bit of a break, I’m back (hasta la vista, baby) to talk about the next part of the Duke Nukem series: the Tomb Raider clones. Welcome back to THE SITH ARCHIVES OF DARTH FANDOM, and today I’ll be talking about three Duke Nukem games: Time to Kill, Zero Hour, and Land of the Babes. I just wanted to note that my format is going through a bit of a change; in fact this week I was writing some other posts in advance and I’ve gotten used to that new format, so there’ll be a bit of change in style when it comes to the writing. Other than that, we’re ready to rumble!

From the creators of... uh.
Image Credit: Amazon

To recap the last few posts in a single sentence, Duke Nukem 3D was released in its full form on May 5, 1996, it was very successful, and from here it received various ports and expansion packs from different companies. Flash forward to 1997 and it had only been a few months since Core Design (remember Fighting Force?) hit Tomb Raider had been released on Sony’s PlayStation console. Despite being a newer company with only two credits behind their name (one of which had a very bad reputation), American developer n-Space was asked by GT Interactive, publisher of Duke Nukem 3D’s ports on the PlayStation and Nintendo 64, if they were interested in developing an all-new Duke Nukem title. n-Space accepted the offer and began development, under the working title of “NewDuke”, as can be found in the game’s files. The game was also jokingly referred to as “Duke Raider” by the developers, because of its similarities with Core Design’s original Tomb Raider game. At least a year after development started, NewDuke was released on the PlayStation under the title Duke Nukem: Time to Kill on September 30, 1998. It generally received quite positive reviews, and was the first of two n-Space games released that year (the other being a Rugrats game, based on the cartoon of the same name).

I forgot to mention that there are a lot of Easter Eggs.
Image Credit: GBHBL

Time to Kill changed the formula of Duke from a first-person shooter (which in itself was changed from a side-scrolling platformer/shooter) to a third-person shooter, inspired by the third-person gameplay of Tomb Raider. The game takes place over 28 levels in three different settings: then-present day LA, common in the Duke Nukem series; the Old West; Medieval Europe; and Ancient Rome. The graphics, which have the classic jagged-edge look of many PlayStation games of the time, are rendered in full 3D, unlike (ironically) Duke Nukem 3D, which had 2.5D graphics to simulate a 3D effect. Like Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown (as a reminder: Duke3D’s port to Sony’s PlayStation), the game is lite on story but does have the occasional FMV along the way to give it some semblance of a plot. One certain improvement of Total Meltdown is the appearance of a two-player split-screen multiplayer mode, which allows two players to Duke it out it on one single screen. Time to Kill eventually received a sequel, but first, another similar game was released on the Nintendo 64.

Kicking ass and chewing FMV.
Image Credit: LHG / YouTube

On August 31, 1999, another third-person shooter, like Duke Nukem: Time to Kill, was released. Called Duke Nukem: Zero Hour, the game was developed by UK developer Eurocom (remember Cruis’n World?) on a modified version of the also Eurocom-developed Duke Nukem 64’s engine (i.e. a modified version of Ken Silverman’s Build Engine). The game follows a similar plot to Time to Kill, with Duke travelling through time to stop the aliens, although its more mature this time around with settings being then-present day New York, post-apocalyptic New York, the Old West, and the Victorian Era, where Jack the Ripper has just murdered Mary Jane Kelly. Cutscenes are now in-game, and multiplayer was expanded to feature up to four-player split-screen (albeit in first-person this time). Thanks to the N64’s Expansion Pak, graphics were much better than Time to Kill’s, and can be further improved thanks to this High Resolution Texture Pack for the game made by NUKEMDAVE. The amount of levels was also increased to over 30. To conclude this Duke Raider series, one more game was released the following year.

I'll always love this cover art.
Image Credit: PalitomanBass / SoundCloud

After two games earlier that year, specifically Die Hard Trilogy 2: Viva Las Vegas (a sequel to the game adapting the Die Hard trilogy of films) and Danger Girl (a game adapting the comic of the same name), n-Space’s third game of 2000 was released. This game, titled Duke Nukem: Land of the Babes, acted as a direct sequel to Time to Kill and ran on that game’s engine, or at least a modified version, with similar third-person shooting gameplay (although with less emphasis on the “Duke Raider” side of things). Interestingly, the game was originally called "Duke Nukem: Planet of the Babes", but was renamed to avoid conflict with the upcoming 2001 Planet of the Apes film. Rather than focusing on time travelling through multiple periods like Time to Kill and Zero Hour, Land of the Babes instead places Duke years into the future where the world has been taken over. All men were killed, and all women became slaves. The player, as Duke, must save the women and, as the only male, repopulate the planet alongside all the women that were saved. Phew. Graphically, the game is about on par with Time to Kill, and is also lite on story. It has two-player split-screen multiplayer, like Time to Kill, but only two players, and not four (which Zero Hour had). Unlike Time to Kill, Land of the Babes received negative reviews, because it’s bad (at least in my and many others’ opinions).

I can't think of a caption.
Image Credit: RiotPixels

And that ends the saga of Duke Raider. I’m sorry if this post wasn’t as good as usual, I kind of rushed it (whoops) because I was focused on the next series of blog posts after Duke Nukem and forgot that I was going to write about this trilogy of games in this post. Also, I’ve just got through a Hellraiser film marathon, so I guess that’s a good enough excuse as to why I’m not at my normal blogging standard. Let’s hope I can fix that next time. Next time, I’ll be talking about something that at least has some interesting story behind it (unlike this, where I couldn’t find much info about development): Duke Nukem’s handheld games. Well, that’s a wrap on THE SITH ARCHIVES OF DARTH FANDOM!

**EDIT 19/06/2022: Forgot to talk about Planet of the Babes**

Duke Nukem, Part 5: Expanding the Third Dimension

So far, I’ve talked about Duke Nukem, its sequel, its FPS sequel, and the FPS sequel’s console ports. Now, I’m going to move onto probably one of the biggest parts of Duke Nukem 3D: its expansions. Welcome back to THE SITH ARCHIVES OF DARTH FANDOM, where today’s topic is the expansions of Duke Nukem 3D. I’m going to cover all of the official ones, so that means no unauthorised addons. I also won’t talk too much about the shovelware expansions; after all, they’re mainly just garbage map packs. Right, let’s start digging.

WizardWorks really was in the zone.
Image Credit: Me

The first expansion pack for Duke Nukem 3D was Duke!ZONE, a map pack released in September, 1996. Technically, the Plutonium PAK was the first expansion, but I’ve already talked about it (see Part 3 of this series). The Duke Nukem 3D Level Design Handbook was also released before this, containing 50 user maps, although it was more of a guidebook than expansion. Duke!ZONE contains over 500 user maps, collected into one collection by WizardWorks, a company previously known for publishing other !ZONE expansions (albeit illegal, unofficial ones), such as D!ZONE for Doom, S!ZONE for SimCity and W!ZONE for Warcraft II. The levels in Duke!ZONE are poor, many are simple rooms with nothing to do an no exits. The pack was condensed into a 150-map pack, titled Duke!ZONE 150, which contains some of the better levels, although the pack as a whole is a waste. WizardWorks, alongside GT Interactive, later published an expansion pack, Duke Assault, containing a whopping 1500 LEVELS! However, this pack, like the previous two, was filled to the brim with unfinished or unplayable maps, which detracted from the experience. In February 1997, WizardWorks published their fourth authorised Duke Nukem 3D expansion pack, titled Duke!ZONE II. Unlike the original Duke!ZONE or its condensed version, Duke!ZONE II has only 15 levels (21 if you include secret levels) split into three all-new episodes, Artic Assault (spelt like that in-game), Alien Abby, and Monkey Shines. Some of the maps are actually quite fun, and less shovelware-like. There are still many bad moments, though, so it doesn’t end up really being a good expansion. Duke!ZONE II was previously available in the Steam version of Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition before delisting, and is available in the ZOOM Platform version here.

Expect this quality of mapmaking in Duke!Zone.
Image Credit: Me

On February 20, 1997, a mere 6 days after the release of Duke Assault, WizardWorks published their fifth Duke Nukem 3D expansion pack, Duke Xtreme. Duke Xtreme contains 50 maps: 25 single-player maps and 25 Dukematch maps. Some of Xtreme’s maps were developed by Sunstorm Interactive, an important company in the grand scheme of Duke, while the rest of the maps were taken from online sites, like the Duke!ZONE series and Duke Assault. Duke Xtreme was the first expansion pack to bring some new things to the table: Duke’s Mighty Foot was replaced by a bloody knife, his pistol was replaced by a silenced Uzi, the Devastator was given an upgraded look, and two new enemies (the Gorilla Captain and King Cobra) were added, as well as other smaller changes. Duke Xtreme’s single-player maps were not divided into episodes, although there is a script available here that splits the maps into three episodes. The maps are made more, uh, xtreme than usual Duke3D maps due to the presence of the two new enemies, who can be very overpowered a lot of the time. A 1997 WizardWorks compilation release, Duke: The Apocalypse, included Duke!ZONE II and Duke Xtreme. Duke Xtreme was also included in another 1997 compilation release, Duke Nukem 3D: Kill-A-Ton Collection, alongside Duke Nukem 3D, the Plutonium PAK, Duke Nukem 1 and 2, Duke!ZONE II and Duke It Out in D.C., the next expansion pack.

These guys gave me PTSD.
Image Credit: Me

Duke It Out in D.C. is the first of what are known as the three major Duke Nukem 3D expansion packs. D.C. includes 9 new levels and 1 secret level, all bundled as one new episode. The episode centres on Duke Nukem travelling to D.C. in order to save the area from the aliens, who have managed to kidnap the president of the United States of America. Developed by Sunstorm, creators of Duke Xtreme, D.C. was the first Duke3D expansion pack to receive some positive reviews. The levels are mostly fun and very much like the original Duke3D levels. There are some bad parts, though, such as the Smithsonian Terror map, which is an absolute slog to play through. D.C. was included alongside the original 500-level Duke!ZONE in the 1998 Duke: The Apocalypse 2 compilation, as well as the Duke Nukem 3D: Kill-A-Ton Collection, the delisted Steam Atomic Edition, the delisted 2015 Kill-A-Ton Collection and also the popular Duke Nukem 3D: Megaton Edition (more about it in a later post) before it too was delisted in 2015. It is currently available in the Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition on ZOOM Platform. Before going onto the next expansion, May 1997 saw the release of Duke Nukem’s Penthouse Paradise, a single-level expansion developed by Intersphere Communications that was a joint venture between GT Interactive and good old Penthouse Magazine. New content included renders of 13 fully-nude Penthouse Pets, a new beach-themed map, and a readme.txt explaining that the map takes place between Duke3D and the Plutonium PAK, during Duke’s R&R. Looks like Duke’s a naughty boy. The Penthouse Paradise map is available in the ZOOM Platform version. Back on track, it seems that Sunstorm learnt from their mistakes and made a great expansion after D.C.: Duke Caribbean – Life’s a Beach.

Hey pal, what are you gonna do? Save Mr President all by yourself?
Image Credit: Me

Duke Caribbean is by far the best Duke Nukem 3D expansion pack. It’s got 7 new levels and 1 new secret level (forming the Life’s a Beach episode), four new Dukematch levels (forming the Vacation Dukematch episode), and all the weapons have been redesigned to fit the Caribbean/beach aesthetic, as well as the items and the enemies. In terms of story, Duke is on vacation in the Caribbean when the aliens decide to start laying eggs and attacking the tourists there. This angers Duke, who decides that the alien bastards are gonna pay. Again. The levels are all very fun, the overall style is great, the movement and gameplay feels superb, and overall it’s an awesome expansion. Other than that, I don’t have too much to say, other than: Go play it. Caribbean was included in the delisted Steam Atomic Edition, the delisted 2015 Kill-A-Ton Collection, and the delisted Megaton Edition, but is currently available in the ZOOM Platform Atomic Edition. Now that I’ve covered two of the major expansions, it’s time for the third and final expansion pack: Duke – Nuclear Winter.

Time to crash this party!
Image Credit: Me

Released in late 1997, Duke: Nuclear Winter is a Christmas-themed expansion pack, developed by Simply Silly Software (who previously compiled the Duke!ZONE and Duke!ZONE II packs), that includes 7 “new” levels (forming the Nuclear Winter episode), 1 new Dukematch map and Christmas-redesigned enemies. As far as story is concerned, Santa himself has been captured (and brainwashed) by the aliens, who have teamed up with the Feminist Elven Militia (FEM) to do bad things. Duke goes to the North Pole to stop the aliens and stop Santa, to save Christmas. The expansion received negative reviews for many reasons, including the fact that many of the maps are reskins of Duke Nukem 3D maps with little changes. Nuclear Winter was included in the delisted 2015 Kill-A-Ton Collection, the delisted Steam Atomic Edition, and the delisted Megaton Edition. You can play it (if you are willing to waste your time) using the ZOOM Platform Atomic Edition. This was the last official Duke Nukem 3D expansion pack, and the next year, 1998, saw the release of the first game in a trilogy of Tomb Raider-styled Duke Nukem games, Duke Nukem: Time to Kill, as well as the disastrous Sega Genesis/Mega Drive port of Duke Nukem 3D (remember the last post?).

It might be fun to ride in a one horse open sleigh, but it isn't fun to play this.
Image Credit: Me

That just about sums up the history of Duke Nukem 3D expansion packs. Another expansion, Duke It’s Zero Hour, was rumoured to be in development for publication by WizardWorks as an authorised expansion pack. These rumours have never been confirmed, but either way, It’s Zero Hour was released as freeware in November 1997. It has been announced that it will be added to ZOOM Platform’s Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition soon, so I guess it counts as official. Next time I’ll be talking about the “Duke Raider” trilogy that I briefly mentioned just now, so stay tuned for that. Well, that’s a wrap on THE Sith ARCHIVES OF DARTH FANDOM!

Duke Nukem, Part 4: Console Wars

Duke Nukem 3D, the topic of the last part’s discussion, was released on computers but was not exclusive. Like many other shooters of its time, Duke Nukem 3D was ported to home consoles so that more people would play the game. Welcome back to THE SITH ARCHIVES OF DARTH FANDOM, where I will be talking about the console ports of Duke Nukem 3D. Just as a note, I won’t be covering the handheld/mobile ports of Duke Nukem 3D (ports like Game.com and mobile) in this post; those are for later. In this post I’ll be talking about things like the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 ports. Right, let’s get going.

Whoa! A whole extra level! For free! Sadly it sucks.
Image Credit: Nach0 / Duke Nukem Wiki

Saturn
Duke Nukem 3D’s first home console port was to the Sega Saturn. The Saturn port was developed by Lobotomy Software, a company previously known for developing the FPS/Metroidvania PowerSlave, a game which ironically was ported to PC using the Build Engine. Duke Nukem 3D’s Saturn port ran on the SlaveDriver engine, a new FPS engine developed by Lobotomy for the PowerSlave game on Saturn. Out of all the original 5th generation ports, the Saturn port is generally regarded the truest to the original DOS release. Only some minor changes, such as no selection of the three episodes or the disappearance of a few secret levels, appeared in this port, and a new secret level, Urea 51, was included as a bonus. Urea 51 has been ported to PC and can be found here. I personally haven’t played the Saturn port, so I’m not sure what it’s like in terms of movement, controls, gunplay, etc. One notable feature of the Saturn port is the inclusion of Death Tank Zwei, a hidden multiplayer artillery game that was a sequel to Death Tank, a minigame featured in PowerSlave. Many say that you should get the port just for Death Tank Zwei. The port seems to be quite good, but as I said before I haven’t played it yet. Onto the second one.

Death Tank it out on Saturn.
Image Credit: Alchetron

PlayStation
The second home console port of Duke Nukem 3D, the PlayStation port, was handled by Aardvark Software. Aardvark Software was previously known for Zalaga, a BBC Micro port of Galaga, although there port of Duke Nukem 3D was not exactly popular. Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown, as it was titled, included the original three episodes (L.A. Meltdown, Lunar Apocalypse and Shrapnel City), as well as a whole new episode, Plug ‘N’ Pray. PNP is all about the aliens building a robot to try and kill Duke, and it added six new enemies to the roster of aliens. The port was filled with bugs, many more than the Saturn version, and had rather poor graphics. A standout feature, though, was the inclusion of an awesome remixed soundtrack created by Mark “TDK” Knight, composer of soundtracks for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Crysis and The Witcher. The TDK soundtrack is available as an addon for Duke Nukem 3D here, and a total conversion of the port to the PC version (with many of the bugs purposefully intact) can be found here. I personally enjoyed playing through this version, but I’ve only played the fan-made TC so I’m not sure what the original controls and performance are like. Onto the third one.

At least these guys are enjoying the party.
Image Credit: T-002 / Duke Nukem Wiki

Nintendo 64
When compared to the PlayStation, Sega Saturn and Nintendo 64 had relatively few each, both around 15 in total. One of the Nintendo 64’s titles was The World is Not Enough, a James Bond First-Person Shooter that attempted to continue on from GoldenEye. It was developed by Eurocom, who handled the Nintendo 64 port of Duke Nukem 3D, titled Duke Nukem 64, the “64” being a tagline of many ports and exclusive games on the system. Duke Nukem 64 is easily the most different of the ports. Levels are often changed, graphics are changed, explosions are now full-3D, weapons are different and some are new, some enemies have been remade, the soundtrack has been removed but at least now babes can be saved, something which was brought into later mainstream Duke Nukem games. The port was notorious for its censorship, something prevalent in ports to Nintendo systems (including the SNES port of Wolfenstein 3D), and some its changes to graphics, gameplay and overall style were not well received. In 2020, the Rednukem source port (a port aimed at running the two Redneck Rampage games) added support for Duke Nukem 64 without emulation, meaning that the game is now fully playable with mouse and keyboard in its raw form. The Rednukem source port can be found here. Duke Nukem 64 is a disappointing port, and is almost an entirely different experience in some ways, but is still, at its core, Duke Nukem fun. Now it gets really weird.

Cycloid Emperor in threee-deeeee.
Image Credit: Tropicon / GameFaqs

Genesis/Mega Drive
I don’t even know where to start. The Sega Genesis, or Mega Drive depending on your region, was home to a Duke Nukem 3D port. It was the fourth (fifth if you count Star Cruiser) and final First-Person Shooter on Sega’s console, and it sure wasn’t a good way to go. First off, the port is as ugly as it gets. It reminds me of things like The Fortress of Dr. Radiaki. Kind of. Secondly, you only get the second episode. No L.A. Meltdown, no Shrapnel City, no The Birth. Just Lunar Apocalypse, and it is EXTREMELY bastardised. The audio mixing is awful, the graphics are clunky, the music is terrible, and there’s this annoying border around the screen which I guess is for technical reasons. I haven’t even talked about who made it. Duke Nukem 3D’s Genesis port was released by Tec Toy, a Brazilian company who essentially acted as Sega’s distributing company in Brazil. Interestingly enough, it was only available in South America until 2015, when Piko Interactive bought the rights to the game and started distributing it. The thing is, I’m not even sure if the original version was official or not, but if you can find any strict info saying whether it’s official or not, please tell me.

Eugh. It hurts my eyes.
Image Credit: 3D Realms

And Beyond
This isn’t the end of Duke Nukem 3D’s console life. An Xbox 360 port was released which is a lot truer to the original game, with some added features. 2015 saw the release of Abstraction Games’ port to PlayStation 3 and Vita, based on the PC’s Megaton Edition, but I’ll get to that at a later stage, as with the 20th Anniversary World Tour port that was released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. In other news, it was my birthday on the 23rd (yippee) and I managed to snag Doom 3 and Prey (the original and best version)’s physical copies. Just for fun, I’m also going on a bit of an Uwe Boll marathon. I’ve already got through House of the Dead, Assault on Wall Street and Rampage, and I’ll probably go onto Rampage 2 and 3 next. Well, that’s a wrap on THE SITH ARCHIVES OF DARTH FANDOM!

Life Hits Back, Part 1

Welcome back to THE SITH ARCHIVES OF DARTH FANDOM! Before I start, I don’t intend to make a series about this topic, it’s just that I expect something like this to happen again, so I’ve made it the first part. Currently, life’s busy. It happens sometimes. I had my blog posts all planned out, and boom, something comes up that demands more attention. I always seem to forget these moments – I’m sure that, if you’re one of the people that has ventured into the den that is my old blog posts, you will most likely notice that this sort of thing tends to happen to me a lot. I just forget.

Well, fear not, this isn’t anything too major. In a few weeks (hopefully), I’ll be back on my normal track, posting once a week every Sunday or Saturday. During this busy time, I’m certainly not going to stop blogging, just don’t expect posts to be as frequent. Just to be on the safe side, I’ve decided to put together a little roadmap of some of the upcoming content:

Duke Nukem 3D’s console ports
Duke Nukem 3D’s expansions
Duke Nukem “Duke Raider” games
Handheld/mobile Duke Nukem games
Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project
That one 2011 Duke Nukem game
Some more of the Duke

I do have more stuff planned after this, but let’s not get too ahead of ourselves. I’m currently writing up the console post, but due to my current busy-ness I’m not sure how long it’ll take before I can post. As I said before, I’m not stopping the blog, just going to be a bit infrequent for a few weeks. I almost forgot: I have a little Doom WAD that I’m making (I found some great tutorials that I’ll link sometime) which I also hope to unveil soon. Well, that’s a wrap on  THE SITH ARCHIVES OF DARTH FANDOM!

Rush: The Height of Arcade Racing, Part 1

Back on March the 20th, I made a post about Cruis’n, an arcade racing game series that made its way from the Nintendo 64 all the way to the Nintendo Switch, with (most) of the entries being in good, while some were... less so. At the end of the post, I mentioned that I planned to make a series on arcade racing, and fear not, those plans have not been canned. This is a birthday post for a recent viewer of the blog, who happens to love this game series, but next week I’ll be back in with the Duke. Today’s blog post is all about Midway’s Rush series, which, at least in my opinion, is the height of arcade racing. This post will be split (I don’t have the time right now to do the whole Rush series justice), though I will post the second part sometime soon. Right, let’s get into it.

RUSH-rush-rush-rush...
Image Credit: GameSpot

It's Rush, baby.
Image Credit: Game Developer

Is it real? Or is it RUSH? This was the slogan of the first game in the series, San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing. Only months after the original Quake game, Rush was released into arcades in December, 1996, running on a modified version of 3dfx’s Voodoo Graphics chipset with some modifications. The game plays across San Francisco, although this rendition is not true to its real counterpart, as the locations were changed to be more fun in-game. The original arcade version includes eight vehicles, playable across three maps based off of San Francisco. In October of 1997, San Francisco Rush was updated to San Francisco Rush: The Rock, including four new tracks (one of which is the Alcatraz track, originally intended for the N64 version) and four new cars. This led to the release of a Nintendo 64 port, which included all the content from the original arcade version, as well as three new tracks and all of the cars (other than some from The Rock). Early 1998 saw the release of a more barebones PlayStation port, including only three tracks (plus a new bonus one), a different soundtrack, a modified announcer and some gameplay changes, such as fiddling with the gravity. The PlayStation port was followed by a Windows version, San Francisco Rush: The Rock – Alcatraz Edition. This version took advantage of the Quantum3D graphics card (a spin-off of the 3dfx hardware powering the original arcade release), so much so that until a fan fixed it, the game was blocked from running on anything other than Quantum3D. Soon after, San Francisco Rush: The Rock – Wave Net was released, which is an updated version of the arcade release with online multiplayer capabilities. Rush is a very fun game, all about speeding through the tracks and getting in the air. It’s certainly one of my favourite arcade racing games, and it was great enough to receive a sequel.

The PlayStation port is a bit... lackluster in the graphics department.
Image Credit: ArmadilloZero / YouTube

Now with stunts.
Image Credit: Viperr818 / YouTube

Rush 2: Extreme Racing USA, released in November, 1998 onto the Nintendo 64, is to San Francisco Rush what Cruis’n World was to Cruis’n USA: a massive expansion of the boundaries of the predecessor. Sure, Rush didn’t expand to the whole world like Cruis’n did, but no longer are you stuck in the Golden City. Rush 2 includes tracks based off of Las Vegas, New York, Hawaii, Los Angeles, Seattle, and more. The car selection was also upgraded to 16. Strangely, Rush 2 was only released for N64, unlike the first game, which was released for arcade and then ported to home consoles. There were, however, apparently plans for a PlayStation version and a Windows 95 version, but there is no significant evidence to prove it. Because of this, Rush 2 has never received any modern rereleases, such as in the Midway Arcade Treasures collections, but we’ll get to that later. In my opinion, Rush 2 is certainly a worthy sequel to Rush, and in some ways, I enjoyed it more. Like its predecessor, Rush 2 received a sequel in 1999, the game that truly put Rush on the map.

Drive the future!
Image Credit: GameSpot

And now with rockets too.
Image Credit: LeopardYiu's Storage Wiki 

Remember how Rush 2 went country-wide? This time, we’re going sci-fi. San Francisco Rush 2049, released in June, 1999, is what happens when you take a reasonably grounded racing game (albeit with some silly bits here and there) and make it futuristic. Rush 2049 doesn’t have the large amount of cars like Rush 2 did, but what it lost in quantity, it made up for in quality. Rush 2049 features customisation for handling type, engine type, tire type, frame type, wing size, tire rim style and car colours. The game also has only a few tracks, less than the previous game. This could be seen as a bad thing, but this game really makes up for it with its soundtrack. The 2049 soundtrack is awesome; you should be listening to it while reading this post. The game was ported to Dreamcast and Nintendo 64 in 2000, with some changes such as the addition of stunt wings. The arcade version of Rush 2049 was upgraded, also in 2000, to the Tournament Edition, with some added tracks/cars and online multiplayer. A 2003 version, San Francisco Rush 2049: Special Edition, is a rerelease of the Tournament Edition, minus the online multiplayer, as Midway’s servers had shut down. San Francisco Rush 2049 is one hell of an excellent game, and is definitely one of my favourite arcade experiences.

Fun.
Image Credit: GameFabrique

That’s not the end of Rush. When I next talk about Rush, I’ll talk about the handheld games, the Midway Arcade Treasures collections, and that time that Rush went to Los Angeles. I hope you’ve enjoyed the post, and to the birthday boy, happy birthday. Another little thing I forgot to post last time was that I got shout-outed (probably not a word but who cares) in a YouTube video. Check out CD-ROM Fossil’s video on Knights of the Temple here for a bit of info on my amazing creation that I, ahem, created for him. Next week, I’ll be discussing something Duke3D-related, but I’m not sure entirely what yet. Well, that’s a wrap on THE SITH ARCHIVES OF DARTH FANDOM!

Duke Nukem, Part 3: Now in 3D

In last week’s post, I talked about Duke Nukem II, the sequel to the original platformer, and now I’m moving onto the third game, the one that truly made Duke who he is known as today. Welcome back to THE SITH ARCHIVES OF DARTH FANDOM, where my Duke Nukem series continues, now focusing on the first 3D entry in the series, Duke Nukem 3D. I’ve now reached the 100th post on my blog, which is extra special, but I won’t be able to cram all of my Duke Nukem 3D content into one post, so be ready for more. Right, let’s get going.

Damn, he's good.
Image Credit: ZOOM Platform

Introduction: The Build Engine

Ken Silverman first ventured into First-Person gaming with his demo Walken. Walken was an incredibly basic demo, with almost no interactivity, but was further expanded in Ken’s Labyrinth, a game initially sold as one episode directly by Ken, but later published as a full, three-episode game by Epic MegaGames (now Epic Games, known most recently for... Fortnite) in January 1993. Ken’s Labyrinth is a basic First-Person Shooter, similar to Wolfenstein 3D, with (in its final version) 30 levels and boss battles. After the release of Ken’s Labyrinth, Ken began working on a new, more advanced engine, in order to keep up with the Doom engine, itself the product of the Wolfenstein 3D engine. The first game to use the Build Engine was Rock’n’Shaolin: Legend of the Seven Paladins 3D, otherwise known as Legend of the Seven Paladins, released in 1994. This game used an illegal version of the engine due to broken contracts, bad communication, etc., but it is still the first Build engine game. Witchaven was the second game to use the engine (created by the infamous Capstone, the pinnacle of entertainment software, who you’ve hopefully heard of), followed by all-time “classic” and personal favourite of mine, William Shatner’s TekWar, also created by Capstone, both released in 1995. The fourth game released for the Build Engine was today’s topic – Duke Nukem 3D.

Before Unreal, Epic published... this.
Image Credit: Hardcore Gaming 101

Introduction: Duke Nukem 3D

Duke Nukem 3D was first teased at the end of Duke Nukem II and began development around that time. During development, it was became a competitor for the original DOOM game. One of the earliest versions of Duke Nukem 3D is LameDuke, a beta version featuring four episodes, different weapons, very different enemies and a totally different story. Over development time, Duke Nukem 3D became a very different game, until its eventual shareware release (see the “Apogee model” in previous posts) on January 29, 1996, containing the first episode, L.A. Meltdown, under Apogee’s new title, 3D Realms. Duke Nukem 3D was not the first First-Person Shooter to be developed or published by 3D Realms; under their original Apogee name, they had developed and published the awesome Rise of the Triad game on the Wolf3D engine, as well as published Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold and its sequel, Planet Strike!, and even the original Wolfenstein 3D itself! Gameplay is quite basic, but fun: Duke Nukem must shoot down any aliens he sees and pick up red, blue and yellow key cards in order to progress to new areas. Different weapons and powerups can be picked up over the course of the game, and the game could also be played in multiplayer, something that had only started to begin during the “Doom era”. On the 5th of May, 1996 (one day after May the Fourth, and not long before Quake), the full version of Duke Nukem 3D was shipped, including two new episodes, Lunar Apocalypse and Shrapnel City. The first two Duke Nukem games were included as a bonus. Duke Nukem 3D was a commercial success, and as such, an expanded version was released. This version, Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition, added in a new, fourth episode, The Birth, as well as two new enemies, a new boss, and a new weapon. All the content was also available as a patch for the original version, as the Plutonium PAK.

This might reignite some old memories.
Image Credit: Abandonware Games

Story

*WARNING* Spoilers for Duke Nukem 3D and Plutonium PAK.  Just after the events of Duke Nukem II, Duke has left the Rigelatin Battlenaut, now in a Skycar, a smaller ship located in the Battlenaut. All seems well, when all of a sudden, the Skycar is shot down by an alien blast, not belonging to the Rigelatins. The Skycar crashes down from the atmosphere at lands on a building in Holllywood, back in good old Los Angeles. In anger, Duke goes on a rampage to make those alien bastards pay for shooting up his ride, encountering. Duke makes his way through an adult cinema and the Red Light District, before being captured by the aliens and taken to Death Row. Duke gets his weapons back and escapes Death Row by submarine, making his way to the toxic dump where he is shrunken for the first time. Duke finally gets to the San Andreas Fault and kills the Alien Battlelord, but that’s not the end of the invasion. Duke escapes to the EDF’s space port and navigates his way to the Moon, visiting what may have been Dr Proton’s Lunar Fortress back in the day. Duke hunts down and kills the Alien Overlord in the mothership, but it turns out that the aliens have already begun a full-scale invasion of Earth. Returning to Shrapnel City, the place once take over by Dr Proton, Duke kicks more alien ass through the bank, a movie set and even a hotel, before arriving at the Shrapnel City Football Stadium and defeating the Cycloid Emperor, leader of the aliens. Duke kicks the eye of the Emperor through the goals and decides to go out for a little R&R.

Don't expect too much story from a 90s shooter.
Image Credit: Marphitimus Blackimus / YouTube

After his brief R&R period (which I’ll cover in a later post), General Philip Graves, a high-ranking member of the EDF, briefs Duke on a new threat: the aliens have kidnapped a woman from Earth and bred her with the aliens, causing the creation of the Alien Queen. Duke must stop the Alien Queen before it’s too late. Duke navigates his way through the Impossible Mission Forces base, his own restaurant the Duke Burger, the Shop-N-Bag supermarket, the Babe Land theme park, an L.A.P.D. police station, the post office, the XXX-Stacy adult film centre, a garage and a boat. Along the way he encounters two new enemies: the Pig Cop Tanks (Pig Cops in tanks) and the Protector Drones, the new-born children  the Alien Queen, on top of his previous enemies: the Assault Captains, Assault Commanders, Assault Troopers, Battlelord Sentries, Enforcers, Octabrains, Protozoid Slimers, Recon Patrol Vehicles, Sentry Drones, and of course, Pig Cops. Duke locates the Alien Queen’s lair and defeats her, saving the planet once again.

It's time to kick ass... again.
Image Credit: Me

Legacy

Duke Nukem 3D certainly has quite the legacy. This includes console ports, source ports (official and unofficial), tons of expansions (both good and bad), spiritual successors, sequels, spin-offs, compilation releases and more. Obviously, as I stated earlier, I won’t be able to cover ALL of this content in one little paragraph at the end of this post, so I’ll be splitting the remainder of the Duke3D content into a few posts, each focused on different aspects of its legacy. Once I’m done with this, I’ll be able to move on to the rest of the series, which means the “Duke Raider” game, portable releases, mobile release, Manhattan Project, and... *sigh*... Duke Nukem Forever. I will, however, briefly interrupt the Duke series with a special 101st post tomorrow based on a series that I’ve been meaning to cover for quite some time now. Well, that’s a wrap on THE SITH ARCHIVES OF DARTH FANDOM!

Yep, there's more.
Image Credit: Steam

**Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition is available on ZOOM Platform**

**Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour (a.k.a. Cursed Randy Version) is available on Steam**

Duke Nukem, Part 2: Those Alien... Scum

Last week, I talked about the self-titled first entry in the Duke Nukem series. This time around, I’m moving onto the sequel. Welcome back to THE SITH ARCHIVES OF DARTH FANDOM, where I am continuing my series of posts on Duke Nukem, this time focusing on Duke Nukem II, the sequel to the original. This is actually the 99th post on my blog, so I hope I can make the next one extra special. Right, let’s get going.

Now that looks more like the King.
Image Credit: ZOOM Platform

Introduction

The planning process of Duke Nukem II began back in 1991, shortly after the release of the first game in the series. According to Scott Miller, the producer of the original game, in the Bio Menace freeware readme, id Software had offered to license off their latest engine (used in Commander Keen in Goodbye Galaxy!) to Apogee, although it was only used for one game, Bio Menace. Duke Nukem II’s engine is rather an enhanced version of the original game’s engine, with some new features added. Duke Nukem II’s first episode (simply titled “Episode One”, as this game doesn’t have original titles for each one) was released as shareware under the “Apogee model” (see last week’s post), followed by a full release in December 1993 as Duke Nukem II: Escape from Alien Abductors!, later simplified to Duke Nukem II. Gameplay is similar to the original Duke Nukem: side-scrolling platforming and shooting, although there are some changes. Duke is no longer wearing pink; he sports red clothing closer to his appearance in Duke Nukem 3D. The game also has music, something that the original did not, as well as slightly better visuals due to the updated engine. This time around, Duke is fighting the Rigelatins, an evil alien species attempting to win a war against Earth. Each episode ends with a battle against a Rigelatin boss, until the final episode where Duke takes over a Rigelatin Battlenaut.

They didn't shoot up his ride, but they're still going to pay.
Image Credit: GOG

Story

*WARNING* Spoilers for Duke Nukem II. One year has passed since Duke Nukem saved the world from the threat of Dr Proton. In this time, Duke has become famous and even written an autobiography, Why I’m So Great. However, things get messy when a four-mile wide UFO (a ship belonging to the Rigelatins, a feared alien race of conquerors) appears over Los Angeles which kidnaps Duke while he’s promoting his book on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Duke is not happy, and the Rigelatin Emperor explains that he plans to import Duke Nukem’s brain patterns into the X5G Thinkomatic War Computer in order to win a war against Earth. Using his trusty technology, Duke escapes from his imprisonment and begins fighting his way through the Rigelatin ship, eventually finding a teleporter which takes him to Rigel, the Rigelatin home planet. Duke defeats the first of four Rigelatin bosses and makes his way into Rigel’s caves. Duke clears the caves of Rigelatins and fights a second boss, defeating him. Duke enters a live volcano and continues through more of Rigel, defeating all the Rigelatins he meets along the way. Using a Skycar, Duke defeats the third Rigelatin boss and boards an escaping Rigelatin Battlenaut Planet-Threatener Symmetrocruiser Mark IV. Ploughing down the forces on the ship, Duke finally reaches the captain of the Battlenaut and defeats him. Duke enters the bridge of the Battlenaut and traps the undefeated Rigelatins using the ship’s bulkheads. Duke starts making his way back to Earth, content with the fact that he has saved the Earth once again.

The plot thickens.
Image Credit: GOG

Legacy

Duke Nukem II was successful enough to receive a direct sequel, Duke Nukem 3D, in 1996. In September 1999, Torus Games (an Australian company with whom I hope to cover on this blog in the future) released a Game Boy Color port/remake using the name “Duke Nukem” (dropping the “II”). This version is quite different when compared to the original DOS version. The game starts off in Nerola City, where Duke is being interviewed by someone who isn’t Oprah. He is then teleported onto a Zorgonite vessel (rather than Rigelatin) and must fight his way through the Zorgonites to get back to Earth. The game also gives Duke his iconic sunglasses to keep it in continuity with the later games. In December 2012, Duke Nukem II was rereleased on Steam and GOG by Interceptor (see the previous post), though both versions were slightly different. While the GOG version was the raw, original game, the Steam version gave Duke his iconic shades (like the Game Boy Color version), though this was later patched out. For those who are interested, K1n9_Duk3 created a modified version of an earlier fan patch that restores the sunglasses, which can be found here. Rest assured, the patch does not require the Steam version, as it works with retail, ZOOM and GOG versions too. The Steam version (pre-sunglasses removal patch) was ported to iOS using Aemula for the game’s 20th Anniversary. A HD remake of the game had been planned, but the project never came to be. A fan-made re-implementation source port, Rigel Engine, was first released in 2018 and can be found here. I hope I’ve summed up everything about Duke Nukem II, and don’t forget that it is available exclusively at ZOOM Platform. Well, that’s a wrap on THE SITH ARCHIVES OF DARTH FANDOM!

Now with shades.
Image Credit: Steam

Duke Nukem, Part 1: Explosive Beginnings

A few days ago, I posted about ZOOM Platform’s Duke Nukem Classics Collection. To finish what I’ve started, I’ve decided to blog about the Duke Nukem series’ complete history. Welcome back to THE SITH ARCHIVES OF DARTH FANDOM, where today, I will be talking about Duke Nukem and the first game in its series, well, Duke Nukem. I’m hoping that by the time that I’ve finished this series, I’ll have covered at least the most important parts of Duke Nukem’s history, in-universe and out, and yes, that does mean I will have to play Duke Nukem Forever again. Bugger. I’m also hoping that by that time my main laptop will be fixed so that I can get back into my PSP ramblings. Now, onto the Duke.

Hail to... the King?
Image Credit: ZOOM Platform

Introduction
Apogee Software, known at the time for publishing Commander Keen in Invasion of the Vorticons (developed by what would become id Software, creators of Wolfenstein, DOOM and Quake), published the first episode of Duke Nukem under their “Apogee model”. In simple terms, the “Apogee model” involved releasing the first episode of a game for free (as shareware), to generate interest for the next two or more episodes. Duke Nukem’s first episode, Shrapnel City, was released as shareware under this model in July 1991, running on the same engine as one of Apogee's previous games, Crystal Caves. After the shareware’s release, November 1991 saw the release of the full game, now also including the second episode, Mission: Moonbase, and the third, Trapped in the Future! Duke Nukem’s gameplay is very simple, similar to Commander Keen. You play as Duke Nukem from a side-scrolling perspective, armed with a gun to shoot down the enemies (called TechBots). The main villain is Dr Proton, who you will fight at the end of every episode. Each episode starts and ends with dialogue between Duke Nukem and Dr Proton, until Dr Proton is defeated at the end of the third episode.

Kicking ass and not chewing bubblegum.
Image Credit: GOG

Story
*WARNING* Spoilers for Duke Nukem. The year is 1997, and Duke Nukem (sporting pink clothing that changed drastically in the later games) has been hired by the CIA to take down Dr Proton, an evil man who was formerly Dr Blunderwitz, a nuclear physicist, until a deadly nuclear accident damaged his brain. Dr Proton went underground, enhanced himself with cybernetic parts and began building an army of robots to take over the world (called TechBots). He also managed to build a base on the Moon, known as the Lunar Fortress, and a time machine, known as the Time Warp Device (TWP). After completing his initial plans, Proton attacked Shrapnel City (a place located somewhere near or in Los Angeles) and took over, attracting the attention of the CIA. Duke is dropped by plane onto a skyscraper and begins attacking the TechBots. Duke defeats all the TechBots in Shrapnel City and attacks Dr Proton, who manages to escape to his Lunar Fortress on the Moon. Using a rocket, Duke follows Proton to the Moon and destroys the TechBot army there, fighting Proton again. This time, Proton uses the TWP to escape to the future in order to have time (literally) to rebuild his army. Duke manages to use the time machine and destroys the final TechBot army and seemingly kills Dr Proton in the process. After returning back to the correct time period, Duke is handed the key to Shrapnel City due to his efforts in saving it and becomes a famous hero in the process.

Dr Proton in all his EGA glory.
Image Credit: BADX / Duke Nukem Wiki

Legacy
Apogee became concerned legally after hearing about the animated series Captain Planet and the Planeteers, which includes a villain named Duke Nukem. Due to this, Apogee updated the game to version 2.0 and renamed it “Duke Nukum” to avoid any possible legal action, but later learned that the “Duke Nukem” name was not registered and instead registered it themselves for future games. Duke Nukem received a sequel, Duke Nukem II, in 1993, which uses the same basic gameplay on an enhanced and updated engine. In December 2012, Interceptor Entertainment (now known as Slipgate Ironworks), the developers of the cancelled Duke Nukem 3D remake, Bombshell and the Rise of the Triad remake, rereleased Duke Nukem I and II on Steam and GOG, also including them in the Duke Nukem Platformer Pack alongside Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project on Steam. A Mac version followed in July 2013 alongside the second game, as well as a Linux version in 2015. However, all versions of Duke Nukem / Duke Nukum were delisted in 2015, other than the ZOOM Platform version, which can be found here. A level editor was released, which can be found here, as well as a reverse-engineered source port, ReDuke, which can be found here. Duke Nukem spawned a legend, which will carry on into the next posts in this series, although that legend wasn’t always known for good things. Well, that’s a wrap on THE SITH ARCHIVES OF DARTH FANDOM!

No, not that Duke Nukem.
Image Credit: Plunderer01 / Captain Planet Wiki