Duke Nukum

[twelvepaws]

This is the original Duke Nukum, hence the spelling, which was the result of what was thought to be avoiding a conflict with a European game copyright spelled Nukem. When it was discovered that there was no conflict, Apogee used the Nukem spelling for all subsequent Duke games.

So much for ancient history. Right now I'm playing Duke3 in the original series, and at one of the later levels...I lost count...the one that's all light green, I'm having trouble using the grappling hook on a section of the overhead that has a gap, to get across it to the short chain or whatever it is you're grappling with, to what's above. I've tried pushing UP and RIGHT simultaneously, going really fast and everything else I can imagine but can't get across that gap. So I fall down and lose more lives because I land in a bunch of stalagmites. Sure would appreciate a tip from someone who has played and beat that level.

[Rapture_Rising]

Wait, wasn't the "Nukum" spelling because of the Captain Planet villain "Duke Nukem"? iirc, Apogee changed the name to avoid a lawsuit but discovered that the producers never trademarked the name Duke Nukem.

[Joe Siegler]

Originally Posted by Rapture_Rising

Wait, wasn't the "Nukum" spelling because of the Captain Planet villain "Duke Nukem"? iirc, Apogee changed the name to avoid a lawsuit but discovered that the producers never trademarked the name Duke Nukem.

Correct. At the time we thought our use of Duke Nukem was going to be a problem, and we changed the spelling for the v2.0 update of the original Duke Nukem game. Duke Nukem II started life called "Duke Nukum II", and somewere during the dev of that we found out we were clear with the original spelling, and changed it back for the release of Duke Nukem II. We never did go back and fix the original game. Wish we had, a lot of this would have been avoided.

Not sure what twelvepaws is on about there.

[twelvepaws]

Was trying to clarify which Duke game I was playing...guess I could have just said Duke Nukem 1 but wasn't sure because of the explanatory note that was included in the files for the game, which recounted the Nukem-Nukum controversy.

I'll have to go back to the game and find out which level I'm talking about, but I'm pretty sure it's one of the advanced levels in what the file calls Duke3 in the original Duke game...the first Duke N game. It's hard to describe the problem I'm having but anyone who's played that level should know what I'm talking about. OK, it's level ? in Episode 3 of Duke Nukem 1. Sorry for the misunderstanding. I guess this thread belonged in the Duke Nukem forum above. I hadn't been here in awhile, found a lot of changes and got confused.

[Alyxx]

Originally Posted by Joe Siegler

At the time we thought our use of Duke Nukem was going to be a problem, and we changed the spelling for the v2.0 update of the original Duke Nukem game. Duke Nukem II started life called "Duke Nukum II", and somewere during the dev of that we found out we were clear with the original spelling, and changed it back for the release of Duke Nukem II. We never did go back and fix the original game. Wish we had, a lot of this would have been avoided.

Eh, I've always referred to it as Duke Nukem and I think most people just simply ignore that it's called Nukum.

[Hendricks266]

Originally Posted by Joe Siegler

Wish we had, a lot of this would have been avoided.

Why not make a new version now? If Duke II got sunglasses...

[Frenkel]

Which level?

[Rigelatin]

This part?

[twelvepaws]

You found it! I used to be able to get across that gap and shift up to the section overhead, but I guess I've lost my touch.

[Rigelatin]

Originally Posted by twelvepaws

I've tried pushing UP and RIGHT simultaneously

Wait, you actually missed this platform, right?

[Joe Siegler]

Originally Posted by Hendricks266

Why not make a new version now? If Duke II got sunglasses...

You'd have to have the source code. We looked into releasing that some years ago, as far as we know, it no longer exists.

[Hendricks266]

Originally Posted by Joe Siegler

You'd have to have the source code. We looked into releasing that some years ago, as far as we know, it no longer exists.

Not necessarily. User K1n9_Duk3 made just such a patch. His link is a 404, but I've mirrored the file here: http://hendricks266.duke4.net/stuff/dukepatch_11.zip

I've tested it successfully on the Steam package and the 3DR Anthology package.

[Joe Siegler]

Originally Posted by Hendricks266

Not necessarily. User K1n9_Duk3 made just such a patch. His link is a 404, but I've mirrored the file here: http://hendricks266.duke4.net/stuff/dukepatch_11.zip

I've tested it successfully on the Steam package and the 3DR Anthology package.

Well, yeah, I suppose you could hack it like that, but after all this time, I don't see that happening, it's been "Nukum" for an exceptionally long time. Now having said that, Fred could turn and do it, while driving the bus over me...

But I know of no plans. Besides, there's no way we could use that, not on an officially released product anyway. It would have to be done on this end, so we could know precisely what is in a patch and what is being done.

[Lunick Fiore]

Why couldn't it be used on an official product when they used a different tool from the same developer to change the sprites in Duke 2...

[twelvepaws]

Originally Posted by Rigelatin

Wait, you actually missed this platform, right?

I sure did. The background and platforms all being the same color makes it easy to miss something like that. Can't wait to go back and try it. Thanks for taking the time and trouble to solve this problem for me.

[Joe Siegler]

Originally Posted by Lunick Fiore

Why couldn't it be used on an official product when they used a different tool from the same developer to change the sprites in Duke 2...

What?

[TerminX]

Originally Posted by Joe Siegler

What?

The guy who made the "Nukum" -> "Nukem" patch for the original DN is the same guy who made the utility Interceptor used to "retcon" Duke's sunglasses into the Duke Nukem II release that's on iOS and Steam.

[Joe Siegler]

Originally Posted by TerminX

The guy who made the "Nukum" -> "Nukem" patch for the original DN is the same guy who made the utility Interceptor used to "retcon" Duke's sunglasses into the Duke Nukem II release that's on iOS and Steam.

Ah, OK. Didn't know that. That happened when I wasn't involved. I'm personally not a fan of that, I think it should have been left as is. It was "my" Duke, eh?

[twelvepaws]

Originally Posted by Frenkel

Which level?

Didn't realize you had all those level maps, Frenkel. A lot of time and work went into those. Now I can see what all I've missed in the levels I've played. One question: Where is level 11? My game ends with the boss confrontation at the end of Level 10 in Episode 3.

[Rigelatin]

Demo.

[Frenkel]

Start the game with command line argument asp (e.g. C:\duke1\dn1.exe asp) and then at the main menu press ALT + F6 to play the demo level a.k.a. level 11.

[twelvepaws]

Thanks Rigelatin and Frenkel. That it was the demo level never occurred to me, probably because I never played the demo level.

[Frenkel]

The demo level looks a lot like level 1 of episode 2.

[Commando Nukem]

Originally Posted by Joe Siegler

Ah, OK. Didn't know that. That happened when I wasn't involved. I'm personally not a fan of that, I think it should have been left as is. It was "my" Duke, eh?

Hey, it's still your Duke. They didn't replace your vocals with JSJ.


In fact, was it not you who did that little edit of the intro on Youtube?

[Damien_Azreal]

I'm with Joe.
I don't think they should've added the shades to Duke in DN2. Just... not a fan.

[Joe Siegler]

Originally Posted by Commando Nukem

Hey, it's still your Duke. They didn't replace your vocals with JSJ.

In fact, was it not you who did that little edit of the intro on Youtube?

Yeah, that was me. I've met JSJ once face to face. That was at the Community Day Gearbox did surrounding the release of Duke Forevever. I got him to say "I'm back" into my cel phone, and I slapped the audio (rather crudely) into the opening sequence.

[King Duke]

Originally Posted by Frenkel

Start the game with command line argument asp (e.g. C:\duke1\dn1.exe asp) and then at the main menu press ALT + F6 to play the demo level a.k.a. level 11.

How did you find out about that? Disassembly?

And since it's been brought up: I am the bastard who created the NUKUM to NUKEM patch, the editor for Duke Nukem II that Interceptor used, a little project called "ReDuke", and some other stuff. I hope Joe isn't too mad at me for this.

If you've read the original thread about the NUKUM to NUKEM patch, you'll see that I was saying something about not having finished what I wanted to release to celebrate Duke's 20th anniversary. If you were wondering: I was talking about ReDuke. Any suggestions for the 25th anniversary next year?

And if anyone has trouble finishing the original Duke trilogy, try playing the games with ReDuke. I'll let you know a secret: Start the game with a -debug parameter. This will let you scroll through the level by hitting the TAB key and then using the arrow keys to scroll. Hit TAB again to resume the game. You can also place Duke anywhere you want by placing the mouse cursor at the desired location and clicking the left mouse button. The right mouse button has a neat effect, too.

[Frenkel]

I disassembled the executable with IDA.
Somewhere in the executable there are a bunch of bytes that are either 0 or 1, depending on whether a key on the keyboard is pressed or not. Esc is the first key in this bunch, ! or 1 is the second and F6 is the 40th (in hex). Not every key is used in the game, but I found out F6 is used.
I also found out the game does something when you start the game with the command line argument asp and you press ALT + F6 at the same time.
I used the DOSBox debugger to set a breakpoint at the start of the piece of code that checks whether F6 is pressed or not. Then I played the game and started pressing ALT + F6. Suddenly the debugger popped up. I pressed F5 to continue the execution and then I was playing the demo level.

Or something like that. It's more than 6 years ago that I discovered this cheat.

[Frenkel]

BTW, I should have said "IDA Pro Freeware". It's a free version of an interactive disassembler, so everyone can try it out.

I use version 4.1 to disassemble executables. I think it handles DOS executables better than later versions, but I hate its text-based user interface, so I use version 5.0 and its graphical user interface to process the output of version 4.1.