Techbots vs Duke Nukem

(Intelli Gaming: Game Series Review)

When humanity faced an evil like no other in Dr. Proton, it was Duke Nukem, an envoy of the CIA, who was sent to defeat him. In this short review, I look at the themes of Duke Nukem 1 and some of its followings. Duke Nukem 1 was developed and published by 3D Realms/Apogee Entertainment in 1991. But first, a quick Pros/Cons for the first Episode shareware only:

PROS

• Controls (has a chain to do like Spiderman)

• Upgradable weapon, claw, boots

• Secrets, destructible blocks

• Varied industrial environments with cameras to avoid/destroy, elevators

• Built-in hints

• Full save/load anywhere

CONS

• 30 years+ for episode one and the age shows. Today's offerings are better.

• Small screen interface. It performed better but is not nice.

• Short span of the first episode. I only played the shareware version of episode 1.

• Sounds were awful, PC speaker

Duke provided an alternative to Commander Keen, which I have reviewed recently. Unlike Commander Keen however, the series took to different directions. The controls were as good, if not better.

Rarely is a game released with such a well animated main character. Duke Nukem does realistic somersaults and uses his grappling hooks to hand-walk along ceilings. Duke is a hero everyone will like. Duke Nukem is rendered in vivid EGA graphics, with many special screen effects. As usual, Apogee offers two more episodes if players want to continue their adventures with Duke. -3D Realms, 1991

You could for instance change directions in mid-air and shoot at the same time. Here is what a screenshot of the game itself looked like:

Eliminating robots, also called the Techbots in this science-fiction world yields points. Also your character is being watched constantly, by cameras that you can destroy. Getting items yields more points through consumables such as chicken or soda cans. You can also upgrade you gun to a more powerful version. You also get a claw to hook onto the ceiling rails. Also special boots and a grappling hook. This makes for fun gameplay.

Notice also in the image above that Dr.Proton mentions killing Commander Keen in the Mercury Mines... I wonder what those are. There was a follow-up also in the same genre, as a 2D side-scroller but I never played the second episode. For reference, here is a screenshot of that follow-up game:

The interface is better and we can already see future game elements show up in the interface such as a minimap and an inventory with 6 items. This will be seen again about ten years later in Warcraft III! More on that later.

Official resources: https://3drealms.com/catalog/duke-nukem-1_24/

Intelli Gaming: https://read.cash/@Librarian

Thanks for reading!