![duke nukem 1 duke nukem 1](https://static.3drealms.com/media/boxshots/box_dukenukem.png)
It had no background music, only bleepy PC speaker sounds, and the enemies were little more than minor obstacles.
![duke nukem 1 duke nukem 1](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/c4a3_wazRPA/hqdefault.jpg)
That was the real start of Duke's attitude, saving the world be damned.ĭuke Nukem wasn't an advanced game, even for the time. There were many popular shareware games out there, but not many had both the ability and the guts to make a big deal out of it. With Duke, not only did Apogee release a direct sequel, it made a big deal out of it, starting out with a big explosive intro for Duke to announce "I'm back!". Pharaoh's Tomb for instance became Arctic Adventure, while Crystal Caves was given a quick spy revamp to become Secret Agent. Apogee didn't typically go in for sequels in that way, preferring to release old ideas with a new look and title. This doesn't matter though, because the simple fact that we saw Duke Nukem II shows you how well the original sold. It wasn't really until Duke Nukem II that he became the character we know now, packing heat, delivering proper quips, and appearing on local chatshows to plug his autobiography "Why I'm So Great". Duke shot at robots, he drank Coke and ate turkey, and when he died, he exploded into a bit of confetti. Original Duke Nukem had no interest in being mature or pushing any boundaries. This week then, we're going back to before anyone knew to bet on Duke. However, chances are most people haven't played it.
#Duke nukem 1 series
Most people are at least dimly aware that the series didn't start with Duke Nukem 3D, and initially that game shipped with both the original and its sequel (the unsurprisingly named Duke Nukem II) on the CD. The original Duke Nukem definitely isn't an obscure game as such.
![duke nukem 1 duke nukem 1](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E0PsXFsUYAAWCtR.png)
After all, when's the last time you heard anyone talk about the far more popular Commander Keen, or other contemporary characters like Johnny Dash, Major Stryker, Snake Logan or Mylo Steamwitz? Come on, you know Mylo! From Crystal Caves? It's safe to say that when the first game came out, nobody would have predicted the world would ever spend years on tenterhooks, waiting for his next adventure. It's five years in which Duke went from a generic platform game character-who almost got renamed over fears that he might be mistaken for a Captain Planet villain-into the poster-boy for adolescent power fantasies. That's five years to go from a simple 2D side-scroller to full, multilevel 3D worlds that at least took a crack at recreating the real world. The original Duke Nukem came out in 1991. Looking back, it's almost impossible to comprehend just how fast PC games moved in the early 90s.