Conception and design
While working on a title originally called "Heavy Metal", Apogee Software founder Scott Miller expressed his disdain for the title, feeling it should be named after a protagonist instead, taking inspiration from American comic books. He suggested the name Duke "because it's a strong-sounding name", while lead programmer Todd Replogle proposed Nukem. While the character's sprites were designed by Apogee's development team, Miller took them over to George Broussard 's home and had him "take a crack at making Duke more appealing", creating a look for his face they were all satisfied with. [2]
The character's name caused some legal troubles for Apogee, first from Duke University, and later from the Turner Broadcasting System. In the case of the former, the University claimed their trademark was violated; however Apogee's lawyer countered that there were no conflicting video games, and the two were unlikely to be confused for one another. Apogee agreed to use the character's full name in all advertising for the game, which satisfied the University's legal team. In the case of Turner Broadcasting on the other hand, their cartoon Captain Planet and the Planeteers featured a character also called "Duke Nukem", which caused Apogee to for a time change the game and character's name to "Duke Nukum". However, Turner had not filed for a trademark on their character's name, and their lawyer noted they were not competing in the same market as a video game. The name was changed back, and Turner's legal team did not pursue. [2]
While working on Duke Nukem 3D , towards the end of the game the team became familiar with another game that had just been released by LucasArts, Full Throttle . Broussard and programmer Jim Dosé felt that that game's protagonist "sounded like what we imagined Duke would sound like. Gruff, gravelly and low-pitched." They recorded some of the character's opening monologue and sent it to a voice director, while Broussard started writing lines for the character to say at key spots in the game. [3] The voice director, Lani Minella, proposed the role to her client Jon St. John. During the audition, she told him "I want you to think of Dirty Harry when he goes 'Do you feel lucky, do you punk?” After he performed the line verbatim, Broussard suggested St. John approach the voice as "a much bigger guy, much bigger than, say, Clint Eastwood.” St. Jon lowered the pitch of his voice, and Broussard was impressed, hiring him to voice the character. [4]
Appearances
Duke Nukem was initially created in 1987 by chief programmer Todd Replogle of Apogee Software (now 3D Realms) as the protagonist for the video game he was designing titled Metal Future, which was set in the then-near future of "one decade later from now" in 1997. After hearing the character's name, producer and founder of Apogee, Scott Miller, suggested the game should have the same name, and he helped design the character. Artwork was produced by George Broussard, Allen H. Blum III, and Jim Norwood. Duke was not voiced, but spoke through on-screen text.
In the sequel, Duke Nukem II, which was released in 1993, the same mostly-silent incarnation of the character was used, although he was now an American hero. Duke Nukem II features an intro with one line, spoken by Joe Siegler ("I'm back"), and a death scream by character co-creator Todd Replogle. [5]
For Duke Nukem 3D, the character of Duke Nukem was dramatically redesigned by George Broussard and Allen Blum [6] as the more familiar macho, wise-cracking character of today. Duke Nukem 3D was one of the most controversial games at the time due to its strong violence, cultural stereotypes, strong language, and sexual content. Duke Nukem 3D, as well as the dozen or so subsequent Duke Nukem games, feature Jon St. John as the voice of Duke Nukem. [1] Duke Nukem 3D was the first game in which the character has a significant speaking role.
In March 2018, it was announced that John Cena will star in a Duke Nukem movie for Paramount Pictures & Platinum Dunes. [7] [8] However, in January 2019, Duke Nukem voice actor Jon St. John stated that no movie was in development. [9] In a press statement announcing Embracer Group's acquisition of Gearbox Software, however, production of the film was reconfirmed. [10]
Games with Duke Nukem as a protagonist
- Duke Nukem (briefly "Duke Nukum") – 1991 – MS-DOS
- Duke Nukem II – 1993 – MS-DOS, iPhone/iPod Touch, iPad
- Duke Nukem 3D – 1996 – MS-DOS, Mac OS, Sega Saturn, Mega Drive, Game.com, Xbox Live Arcade, iPhone/iPod Touch, Nokia N900, Source ports, Android, iPad
- Duke Nukem 64 – 1997 – Nintendo 64
- Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown – 1997 – PlayStation
- Duke Nukem: Time to Kill – 1998 – PlayStation
- Duke Nukem: Zero Hour – 1998 – Nintendo 64
- Duke Nukem – 1999 – Game Boy Color
- Duke Nukem: Land of the Babes (temporarily "Planet of the Babes") – 2000 – PlayStation
- Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project – 2002 – Microsoft Windows, Xbox Live Arcade
- Duke Nukem Advance – 2002 – Game Boy Advance
- Duke Nukem Mobile – 2004 – Tapwave Zodiac
- Duke Nukem Mobile - 2004 - Cellular phones
- Duke Nukem Mobile II: Bikini Project – 2005 – Cellular phones
- Duke Nukem Mobile 3D – 2005 – Cellular phones (updated port of the original Zodiac version with enhanced graphics)
- Duke Nukem Arena - 2007 - Cellular phones (updated port of Duke Nukem Mobile 3D that included an arena-style multiplayer)
- Duke Nukem: Critical Mass – 2011 - Nintendo DS
- Duke Nukem Forever – 2011 – Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
- Duke Nukem 3D: World Tour – 2016 – Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch
Other appearances
- Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure - 1992 - MS-DOS
- Death Rally - 1996 - MS-DOS
- Balls of Steel - 1997 - Microsoft Windows
- Blood - 1997 - MS-DOS
- Serious Sam 2 - 2005 - Microsoft Windows, Linux, Xbox
- Death Rally - 2011 - Microsoft Windows, iOS
- Choplifter HD - 2012 - Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
- Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition - 2017 - Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
- Rad Rodgers: Radical Edition - 2018 - Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
- Wild Buster: Heroes of Titan - 2018 - Microsoft Windows
- Ready Player One - 2018 - Film
- Duke Nukem - TBA - Film [11]
Reception
Duke Nukem has been listed on many "Best Characters" and "Best Heroes" lists over the years, [12] [13] [14] including being listed as number one in ScrewAttack's "Top 10 Coolest Video Game Characters" list in 2007. [15] Featuring him in the section "top ten forces of good" in their 2004 list of top 50 retro game heroes, Retro Gamer called Duke "the ultimate cheese hero, and a true remnant of 80’s action flicks." [16] He was listed at number 27 in the "Top 50 Video Game Characters" list by Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition 2011. [17] GameDaily also ranked him sixth on their list of best anti-heroes in video games. [18] In 2011, Empire ranked him as the 20th greatest video game character, calling him "one of the best action characters ever devised" and adding that "Film might have Schwarzenegger, but Gaming's got Mr Nukem". [19]
Reception of the character by the time of Duke Nukem Forever's release was mostly mixed. Dan Whitehead of Eurogamer elaborated on Duke Nukem's decreased relevance since 1996, and added that the character's "half-hearted digs" at rival franchises were ill-advised due to the game's datedness. [20] Charles Onyett of IGN likened Duke Nukem's maturity to a "12-year-old boy with Internet access" and expressed disappointment in the character's datedness and the missed opportunity on the developers' part to "[play] with the idea of Duke as an anachronism". [21] Ryan Winterhalter of 1UP.com noted that Duke Nukem had become "a caricature of his former self. He's crossed the line from charmingly foul-mouthed to obnoxious and embarrassing." [22] Cian Hassett of PALGN was more positive about the character, finding him to be "genuinely hilarious" due to his tongue-in-cheek rejection of video game traditions (such as finding a key to open a door or wearing a special suit of armor). [23]
Duke Nukem 3D is a first-person shooter video game developed by 3D Realms. It is a sequel to the platform games Duke Nukem and Duke Nukem II, published by 3D Realms.
Rise of the Triad: Dark War is a first-person shooter video game, developed and published by Apogee Software in 1995. The player can choose one of five different characters to play as, each bearing unique attributes such as height, speed, and endurance. The game's story follows these five characters who have been sent to investigate a deadly cult, and soon become aware of a deadly plot to destroy a nearby city. Its remake was designed by Interceptor Entertainment and released by Apogee Games in 2013. The shareware version of the game is titled Rise of the Triad: The HUNT Begins.
Duke Nukem Forever is a 2011 first-person shooter game developed by Gearbox Software and published by 2K for Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. It is the fourth main installment in the Duke Nukem series and the sequel to Duke Nukem 3D (1996). Players control Duke Nukem as he comes out of retirement to battle an alien invasion. Like its predecessor, Duke Nukem Forever features pop culture references, toilet humor, and adult content.
Apogee Entertainment, formerly Apogee Software, LLC, is an American video game publisher based in Rowlett, Texas. The company was founded by Terry Nagy in 2008 after he licensed the rights to the name and logo from Scott Miller and his company, 3D Realms, which had used both previously. After reorganizing as Apogee Entertainment in 2021, it hired Miller for its publishing operations.
3D Realms Entertainment ApS is a video game publisher based in Aalborg, Denmark. Scott Miller founded the company in his parents' home in Garland, Texas, in 1987 as Apogee Software Productions to release his game Kingdom of Kroz. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the company popularized a distribution model where each game consists of three episodes, with the first given away free as shareware and the other two available for purchase. Duke Nukem was a major franchise created by Apogee to use this model, and Apogee published Commander Keen and Wolfenstein 3D the same way.
Todd Jason Replogle is an American video game programmer best known as the co-creator of the Duke Nukem series. He wrote six 2D action games for MS-DOS released as shareware by Apogee Software between 1990 and 1993. This included Duke Nukem and Duke Nukem II, which were side-scrolling platform games.
Jon St. John is an American voice actor, former radio personality and ordained minister. He is best known for his voice roles such as Duke Nukem in the Duke Nukem video game series and Big the Cat and E-123 Omega in the Sonic the Hedgehog video game franchise.
Gearbox Software is an American video game development company based in Frisco, Texas. It was established as a limited liability company in February 1999 by five developers formerly of Rebel Boat Rocker. Randy Pitchford, one of the founders, serves as president and chief executive officer. Gearbox initially created expansions for the Valve game Half-Life, then ported that game and others to console platforms. In 2005, Gearbox launched its first independent set of games, Brothers in Arms, on console and mobile devices. It became their flagship franchise and spun off a comic book series, television documentary, books, and action figures. Their second original game series, Borderlands, commenced in 2009, and by 2015 had sold over 26 million copies. The company also owns the intellectual property of Duke Nukem and Homeworld.
Duke Nukem is a 1991 platform game developed and published by Apogee Software for MS-DOS. The 2D, multidirectional scrolling game follows the adventures of fictional character Duke Nukem across three episodes of ten levels each. The game's first episode was distributed as shareware. The name was briefly changed to Duke Nukum to avoid trademark issues.
Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project is a platform game developed by Sunstorm Interactive, produced by 3D Realms, and published by Arush Entertainment. It was released on Microsoft Windows on May 14, 2002, in North America and on June 14, 2002, in Europe. A port of the game would be released for the Xbox 360 on June 23, 2010, by 3D Realms directly, followed by an iOS port on January 9, 2014.
Balls of Steel is a pinball computer game developed by Wildfire Studios and released on December 12, 1997. It is the only game to be published under the Pinball Wizards label, a division of Apogee Software.
George Broussard is an American video game producer and designer. He is one of the creators of the Duke Nukem series, along with Todd Replogle, Allen Blum, and Scott Miller.
Duke Nukem is a media franchise named for its main character, Duke Nukem. Created by the company Apogee Software Ltd. as a series of video games for personal computers, the series expanded to games released for various consoles by third-party developers. The first two games in the main series were 2D platformers, while the later games have been a mix of first-person and third-person shooters.
Lee Jackson is an American composer. He was the music and sound director for the video game developer 3D Realms from 1994 through 2002.
Duke Nukem: Critical Mass is a shooter game developed by Frontline Studios and published by Deep Silver and Apogee Software, LLC for the Nintendo DS. A version for the PlayStation Portable began development, but it was never released.
The video game Duke Nukem Forever spent more than 14 years in development, from 1996 to 2011. It is a first-person shooter for Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, developed by 3D Realms, Triptych Games, Gearbox Software and Piranha Games. It is the sequel to the 1996 game Duke Nukem 3D, as part of the long-running Duke Nukem video game series. Intended to be groundbreaking, it became an infamous example of vaporware due to its severely protracted development schedule. Director George Broussard, one of the creators of the original Duke Nukem game, announced the development in 1997, and promotional information for the game was released from 1997 until its release in 2011.
