Proto:Duke Nukem 3D/LameDuke

LameDuke is a very early prototype of Duke Nukem 3D from December 1994, released by 3D Realms in 1997 to celebrate the first anniversary of Duke 3D 's shareware release. This build is very different in tone and style, acting as a direct continuation of Duke Nukem 2.

However, it seems like the developers decided to go down a completely different path...

General

 * The main menu is completely different from the final.
 * The game keeps track of your score like the first two games, and there's even a high score table (which doesn't seem to function).
 * Sometimes, the controls do not work smoothly.
 * It uses an earlier version of the Build engine. As a result, there are no slopes.
 * Saving doesn't work. The player can 'save' while playing the level. But restoring a saved game while in that level will cause a ton of graphical glitches and trying to do it while in another level crashes the game.
 * The map looks a lot more like Doom's map viewer. Interestingly, it's rendered in the uncommon 640&times;350&times;4 VGA resolution.

There are some convenient commands when you are about to load the executable from the command prompt. Enter d3d followed by...

\? - List of commands

\d - Activates debug mode (used in the go.bat file)

\e - Encode Maps

\l# - Enter L1 and L8; the # is a number between 1 and 8.

\oDIR - Reroute game output to a directory

\r - Records a demo

\q - Prints help quotes at the bottom of the screen (tells you when an enemy is nearby, when an enemy is squashed by a door, when you find a secret room, etc.)

\s# - Sets your skill number; the # is a number between 0 and 3.

\v# - Sets your volume level; the # is a number between 0 and 3.

Setup.exe
There appears to be several options set up, including an unused 3D goggles option. Most of them still run in 320&times;200 and don't work, with the exception of a glitchy 640&times;480 "VESA High Res" mode.



Only Soundblaster and AdLib actually work. Trying the other sound cards give an error message just before the actual game starts.

Also, multiplayer functionality can be customized, but it doesn't seem to actually work.

Controls
The basic functions (moving, running, shooting, etc.) can be changed through setup.exe, but there are several others (cracking knuckles, warp mode, etc.) that cannot.

Arrows keys - move

'left shift' - run

'a' - jump

'z' - crouch

'Left Ctrl' - shoot

'Right Ctrl' - strafe

'Space' - Open doors

'Pg Up' - Duke looks up

'Pg Down' - Duke looks down

'1, 2, 3, 4, 5' - cycle through the different weapons

'F1' - Shows instructions/Turns on Steroids (Debug Mode)

'F2' - Accesses the (nonfunctional) Save Game screen/Turns on Shield (Debug Mode)

'F3' - Accesses the (nonfunctional) Restore screen/Turns on Oxygen Tank (Debug Mode)

'F4' - Turns on Holoduke (Debug Mode)

'F5' - Turns on and off Jetpack (Debug Mode)

'd' - Toggles debug mode on/off

'c' - Duke cracks his knuckles

'i' - Brings up the inventory

'm' - Toggles music on/off

's' - Toggles sound effects on/off

't' - Type a Message

'u' - Unlocks/locks all doors (Debug Mode only). This remains in the final as the DNUNLOCK cheat.

'w' - Warp Mode (Debug Mode only)

'-' - Shrinks resolution/brings up HUD

'p' - pauses the game

'tab' - Renders the map (which looks very Doom-esque here). You can scale out with the '-' key.

'F10' - Adjusts brightness. If used in Map mode, the map will turn grayscale.

'k' - A graphic flashes onscreen

'v' - Adjusts the visibility

'F12' - Take a screenshot (in .pcx format). Note that newer sessions will overwrite screencaps from older sessions.

'esc' - Brings up the main menu

Game Text
Pulled from raw text in the EXE file:

She's tougher than she looks! Happens whenever a Femanoid or Captain (for some reason) is awakened.

Go get the gun. Occurs when a Laser Cannon is close to you.

The reactor must be destroyed! Unknown/unused(?)

Enemy ALERT!!! Displays when certain enemies are awakened.

The door is unlocked... The door is locked... Unknown/unused

Cola increases health. Used whenever a Cola can is close to you.

It's CRASHINGING!!!!! Unknown/unused

Shutting airlock bay doors. Unknown/unused

Falling to your bloody death. Unknown/unused. Possibly related to FALLINGGUY (see Graphics below)

You found a secret room..! Displays in L1.MAP when you find a secret room, but nowhere else.

Pintched by the doors! Displays if an enemy gets crushed in a door.

ALL DOORS UNLOCKED!!! Displays if the "U" debug key is pressed.

ALERT THE SYSOP IMMEDIATELY! THIS FILE IS NOT SHAREWARE -- it is ILLEGAL and forbidden to upload this copyrighted software to bulletin boards. If you see this message on a BBS, please request that the Sysop remove this software IMMEDIATELY!!! OR CONTACT APOGEE: (214) 278-5655 IT IS ILLEGAL TO GET THIS FILE FROM A BBS! Unused anti-piracy text surrounded by some sort of (snipped) decorative text border.

It only looks painful! It's fun to kill things. I like blood and guts. Unused difficulty level descriptors? Or possibly screenshot descriptions?

Call Toll Free. 1-800-GAME123; that's a one-eight-hundred GAME 123. Possible placeholder for ordering?

Locating other players... Master Slave Multiplayer/Modem options.

BONUS Secret rooms Found e%, = .. points. Bad guys squashed Bad guys killed # Hero's Quote Score Early score tallying text. This is used when completing levels while debug mode is off.

SPBoard not found. Demo not found. Maxed out on anim walls Various error messages.

Game Over, or is it? Press SPACE to continue Unused game over text.

Jump Found in the menu text. Use unknown.

ptyDuck eShoot mpOpen Unknown. Appears before Build script commands but are probably not script commands.

ifskill resetmovecount actsink music Unused Build script commands. "actsink" is possibly garbled text.

Weapons
The weapons fire really fast in this build, especially on machines clocked higher than 90 MHz.

Tazer

Stuns enemies when charged up and whacks them when there is no charge at all. It was dropped in favor of Duke's mighty foot.

Pistol

Seems pretty similar to the final version at first, but it has a laser sight. The laser sight sprite is still present in the final, indicating it was around for a long time before being removed.

Plasma Rifle

Replaced by the three-barrel chaingun. There is also a barcode on Duke's hand. Development screenshots indicate the plasma rifle stayed in for quite a while after LameDuke before being made into a chaingun.

Pipe Grenade

Works like the final version, but collision is incomplete at this point (the pipe grenades can go through solid surfaces!).

Rocket Launcher

Far bigger than the final version, to the point where it takes up way too much screen space.

Items
Collecting any of these items raises the player's score by 100 points.

Steroids

The art looks quite similar to the final version, but it doesn't function.

Shield

Seems to be some sort of armor, but the temporary graphic looks a bit confusing. It appears to have lasted quite a while in development, as a similar object (Force Sphere) remains in the final. Probably replaced by Armor.

Oxygen tank

An early version of the scuba gear.

Holoduke

Somewhat functional, but you can't turn it off.

Jetpack

The icon looks quite primitive compared to the final. It works just like the final version, except the Jetpack emits flames when going backward.

Cola-Cola Can

These cans replenish your health by 10 points like the medkit in the final, but the player can also shoot it down. The item itself is a reference to the soda power-ups collected in the first two Duke Nukem games. The soda was renamed "Cola-Cola", but the resemblance to Coke is far too great for this to be anything but a placeholder object.

Cola-Cola Six Pack

It replenishes your health by 30 points like the big medkit in the final game. Like the cola-cola can, the player can shoot this down.

Enemies
Mandroid

No robot humans are in the final. He has a complete animation set for walking, shooting, and getting shot at. However, he never displays his animations without altering the game.con file.

Femanoid

Equally as complete in terms of animation. She also has actual AI in-game and even collision detection!

Sentry Drone

Looks completely different to the final version.

Flying Drone

A small enemy that seems to be quite unfinished, as it only has five directions for one frame of animation. These never appear in the game.

Turret Gun

Works like the drone guns in the final, but its attacking does nothing to the player. It also has different art.

Bat

Mostly inside caves and seems to be functioning.

Trooper

Development screenshots seem to indicate this guy eventually turned into the Alien Troopers.

Captain

Shoots you with a tazer. Rather than blowing up, it just dies with no gore or anything. This enemy eventually became the Alien Commanders.

Protozoid Slimer

Slightly different and much less detailed in appearance in the final, but it functions the same. The only differences are that it cannot suck your health by default since you have infinite health and it is unkillable.

Octobrain

Looks very different from the final version.

Shark

The art is rudimentary, missing details such as a shine and gills. It seems to be pretty much the same otherwise.

Other things
Exploding Barrel

Works quite similar to the final, except that it rockets to the sky when shooting it before exploding.

Trash Can

Works much like the final version, but it is rustier and splits in half when you shoot at it.

Graphics
The palette is identical to the final, but slightly darker.

Music
The game only plays one song, fastway.mid, which is the song "Goin' Down the Fast Way" from Rise of the Triad.

There are three other songs in the directory: E2M1.mid (same as fastway.mid), browneye.mid (a midi version of "Brown Eyed Girl" by Van Morrison), and mistache.mid (also from Rise of the Triad, called "Mist Ache" unsurprisingly).

You can edit what music is played through the music.con file.

Levels
The oldest maps are M8.MAP (June 2, 1994) and L9.MAP (September 10, 1994), although neither can be read since they use an ancient BUILD format unsupported by any editor. However, by downloading convmap5 from here, one can convert these maps to a playable format. The oldest playable map, without any sort of modification, is N6.MAP (October 31, 1994), following maps as they were updated at random.

Mrr Caliber
The real name should be "Mr. Caliber". But a text rendering error results in "Mrr Caliber", hence the mission name given.



When debug mode is not enabled, this picture pops up with a little message saying "Press Space to Continue" and a cursor. This appears to be a "you are here" map of where Duke would be at certain levels similar to the Phobos, Deimos, etc. between-level landscapes in Doom, but it doesn't work properly.

Level 1
You can actually go outside of the space station merely by going out a door that leads to nowhere. If you edit the GAME.CON file to remove the default unlimited health, you'll be crushed immediately.

This map can still be seen in the final on some display monitor textures (SCREENBREAK11 and SCREENBREAK12). It bears a resemblance to Spaceport in the final game.

Level 2
A level to test out the movement of carts. It can sometimes get glitchy and cause a hall of mirrors effect.

Level 3
It starts in an old, rusty-looking base.

Level 4
You start out with two Octobrains near your starting position.

Level 5
This map can be seen on one of the display monitor textures. This texture changed to a single track in the final, possibly to reflect the final's Rabid Transit level or even a completely different build.

Level 6
For whatever reason, when playing this in VESA Mode it immediately crashes unless you turn on your jetpack. Even then, touching the ground causes the game to crash. This is an early city level and some parts bear a close resemblance to the first levels of Duke Nukem 3D.

Level 7
Duke climbs a tall, poorly-textured tower visible from L6.MAP (it's on the western side of that map). There are several floors, complete with elevators. Going around the tower may cause the game to crash.

Level 8
Appears to be some sort of boss level, taking place atop the tower from L7.MAP. There are several Mandroids and Sentrys, as well as a "helicopter" boss made out of level walls that doesn't appear to do much of anything.

Level 9
A modified version of one of Ken Silverman's levels for the BUILD test game.

Mission Cockroach


Just like the previous mission, there's a picture (possibly of a between-levels "map") that shows up when debug mode is disabled. It's worth noting that the left side of this image blends in with the right side of the previous mission's image, so the developers may have intended to pan between the two.

Level 1
It starts you off in what appears to be either a cage or a teleporter.

Level 5
This level contains a long hallway connecting two rooms with lots of troopers. The player can't get far as the switches needed to navigate the level aren't found.

Level 6
Parts of this level appear to be the basis for the Hotel Hell level in the final.

Level 8
This placeholder/template sewer level was reused as a part of E2L8 in the final.

Suck Hole
This mission, along with the following one, does not have a picture when starting it. This results in the demo being played spazzing out with "Press Start to Continue" being displayed at the bottom of the screen.

Level 1
The start of the level is pitch black, making it quite difficult see anything without using the map. In order to see anything properly, you have to press Esc twice. The concept of being captured inside a prison was reused for Death Row in the final.

Level 2
Huge portions of this level were revamped for the Derelict level in the Plutonium Pak/Atomic Edition. It has some odd oil rig, but the oil leaking just stays stationary.

Level 8
It's identical to Level 8 of Mission Cockroach, except it's already in the proper format.

Hard Landing
This mission has barely even begun and it seems to be for testing/debugging purposes. Only four maps exist.

Mission 1
It has quite a few enemies placed around your starting point. What is unique about this level is that there is a mirror effect on the floor right behind your starting point. However, since 486s would lag while showing the effect and it was just a hack that did not completely work, it got cut out.

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Missions 2 and 4
Two maps seemingly designed to be tech demos. O2.MAP is a slightly later build (by one day) than O4.MAP.

Mission 3
A small spaceport level. Whether it's a tech demo or a work in progress is unknown (there are lift tags on the elevators).

Misc.
There are two maps which are inaccessible without renaming: WAR1.map and WAR2.map, which seem to be early multiplayer maps.


 * WAR1.map - Appears to be a duplicate of Hard Landing Mission 1.
 * WAR2.map - Items are placed all over the map, probably to test item functionality and multiplayer.