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Death of 3D Realms

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SavannahLion:
Wow... somehow I didn't really expect this to happen.
http://www.3drealms.com/

I practically cut my teeth on 3D Realm/Apogee PC games. One of the first shareware titles I ever picked up was Whacky Wheels. I remember my setup then too. A crappy AMD K6 233Mhz with all IBM hardware (crappy because it was IBM, not because it was K6). I couldn't figure out how to configure the audio card under DOS so I had to settle for the farting noises from the built in speaker. Built in Ati Rage II video, built in crap audio pretending to be Soundblaster, plugin modem, no NIC. Can't remember if I had 32MB or 64MB of RAM at the time.

Then I discovered Duke Nukem and practically fell in love with FPS games overnight (no really, it was an all night gaming session). I remember setting up some of my earliest LAN games with Duke. Before I shelled out for a NIC, I used a hacked Serial NULL cable from Rat Shack for some of those earliest games.   :) Then I got copies of RotT and Wolfenstein 3D and overnight gaming sessions suddenly balloned in to three day marathons. I spent weeks building new maps using the Build editor then playing out scenarios with friends. I created fully mapped out local ski resorts, schools, businesses and grocery stores for D3D. Hours wasted tweaking each map for maximum playability. I lost track how many aliens I've killed, how many times I died a crushing death, or laughing at the alien on the toilet.

I don't think even Quake could interfere with my game time with Duke. The only game that would ever steal my love of Duke was Half-Life (Unreal almost succeeded). No other game since Duke grabbed my attention as much.

Now, with this whole DNF fiasco, I can see why there's a lot of love lost for the company and the franchise in general. ---smurfing--- around in forums instead of actually working on the game is probably a good way to get some negative publicity. Still, having DNF in infinite, "when it's done," status hovering there in the corner of ones mind is a lot like having McDonalds at every other street corner. I don't eat there (I used to as a kid) but I would never expect any Mickey D's to suddenly shutter their stores. They're just too much a part of the landscape.

Oh well. It's been fun while it lasted.  :cry:

TOK:
I loved Duke 3d, it was one of the first games I played multi-player in, spending entire nights with a buddy playing modem deathmatch games.

With its popularity, they had a franchise for life, and should have been on the 4th or 5th release by now. That team snatched failure from the face of victory and totally shoulder the blame. The fact that anybody even cares 12 years later is a testament to what they had.

CheffoJeffo:
Damned kids ... get offa my lawn !

There is only one true Duke!



j/k ... while I did enjoy the scrollers, DN3D has always been my favourite "fun" FPS.

Hoopz:
I read this story the other day and found it quite depressing.  Like SavannahLion, I enjoyed Duke Nukem 3D tremendously.  It was the first game that I played online with TEN and also with a null modem.  The only FPS that I enjoyed like Duke was the original quake.  I remember hauling around a P60 to play with a buddy....

Heck, my user name that I've used all these years was the one I first picked playing DN3D on TEN.

It's a shame that they ran into all those problems.  The game play was fun and entertaining and the number of innovations in multiplayer really set it apart:  pipe bombs, jet pack, steroids, shrinker, etc.  I last installed it and played through it about a year or so ago.  Despite the lower quality graphics, the game play still stands up very well.

Flip_Willie:

--- Quote from: pinballjim on May 15, 2009, 09:46:52 am ---They deserved to die after they made that Shadow Warrior game, IMO.  Proof positive that you can't simply change the graphics and tap the same well twice.


--- End quote ---

You are clearly wrong, Shadow Warrior was a phenomenal game. Come on man, you could drive tanks and bulldozers! Also, some of SW's weapons are cooler than DN3D's.   ;)


--- Quote from: SavannahLion on May 15, 2009, 02:20:59 am ---Wow... somehow I didn't really expect this to happen.
http://www.3drealms.com/

--- End quote ---

Honestly, I was quite surprised. They seemed to have been making pretty good progress on DNF in the last couple of years.





Interestingly, Take-Two is now suing them for not delivering the finished product. Apparently, Take-Two invested a nice sum of money into the games development.
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