Duke Nukem 3D (PC)

Duke Nukem 3D
Developer: 3D Realms Publisher: GT Interactive Platforms: DOS, Mac OS Classic Released internationally: January 29, 1996 This game has a hidden developer message. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused enemies. This game has unused objects. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused items. This game has unused sounds. This game has unused text. This game has a prototype article

Ass, bubblegum, you guys surely know the drill by now.

Unfinished/Unused Monsters

Organic Turret (sprite 2420)

Some sort of brown creature attached to the ceiling, which opens like a flower revealing a tentacle. It has 30 hit points, and can be killed by the player. The CON files have the code for some melee attack, which is never used due to incorrect syntax.

• 

  Organic Turret in-game.

Early Pig Cop Tank (sprite 1870-1876)

Sprites for an early version of the Pig Cop Tank located somewhere else in the .art files. There is no code associated with the sprites.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Early Pig Cop Tank	Used Pig Cop Tank

Early Pig Cop Tank	Used Pig Cop Tank

Early Pig Cop Tank	Used Pig Cop Tank

Mini Overlord

A small version of the Overlord boss, like the mini Battlelord seen in regular gameplay, can be added into a level by placing his sprite in a level, then changing the palette to being anything other than 0.

In-game, he behaves like the regular Overlord, but has a very fatal flaw: he has only one hitpoint. That means anything damaging can kill him. His missiles will also occasionally detonate very close ot him after he fires. Because of this, he has a tendency to accidentally kill himself.

This variant was fixed and used in both Duke Nukem 64 and Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour.

• 

  The Mini Overlord killed by a single pistol round because of his extremely low health.

Mini Cycloid Emperor

A mini version of the Cycloid Emperor boss can also be added to levels by adding a regular Cycloid Emperor sprite, then changing his palette to anything but 0.

Like the mini Overlord, he behaves like a smaller version of the regular Cycloid Emperor, but also has one hitpoint. His rockets tend to explode near him more often than the Overlord's, giving him a high chance of killing himself before he can hit the player.

This enemy was fixed up and used in World Tour.

• 

  The Mini Cycloid Emperor killed by a single pistol round because of his extremely low health.

Mini Alien Queen

A smaller version of the Alien Queen can be found. She's added the same way the other mini bosses are.

Unlike the other mini versions of bosses, the only difference between this one and the regular version of the Alien Queen is size. Otherwise, she has the exact same stats and behavior of the regular Alien Queen, down to making a level end when she is killed.

Unused Objects

Forcesphere (sprite 2590)

Creates a large sphere of solid white sparks. When one of the sparks gets shot, it is destroyed and the sphere starts rotating at a fast pace. After enough of the sparks are destroyed, the sphere gradually vanishes. May have been part of a planned force field power-up. A video of this object in action is available here.

• 

  Small Forcesphere.

• 

  Expanded Forcesphere.

ROTT Flame Trap (sprite 2333)

The flamethrowing obstacles from Rise of the Triad make a return in Duke3D. While they were never actually used in the game, they're fully functional.

• 

  Flame Trap damaging the player.

Unused Flame Trap	Rise of the Triad Flame Trap

Trash (sprite 1272)

Small pieces of trash that blow around and disappear when they hit something, but are nowhere to be seen in the final game because Duke gives a hoot and doesn't pollute.

Space Suit

A planned inventory item that would have activated automatically like the Scuba Gear. In the pre-release 1.0 demo leak, it changes Duke's speed/physics to moon conditions while letting him survive in the vacuum of space. However, very few vacuum areas were built so the Space Suit's coding was removed and the pickup sprite was turned into a decorative sprite, and the remaining vacuum areas (only one, in E2L8: Dark Side) was altered slightly with a forcefield so that they could be played normally.

It's still placed in the bonus Zoo demo level and the Space Suit's sprite is located among the rest of the item sprites in the files, so it must have been cut late.

• 

  The Space Suit's unused inventory sprite.

• 

  Space Suit among the items in the Zoo demo level.

• 

  Pre-release image showing the Space Suit being used.

AMMOLOTS (sprite 48)

AMMOLOTS is an invisible object that gives 48 rounds of ammo for the Pistol when picked up. Interestingly, regular Pistols scattered throughout levels also give 48 rounds of Pistol ammo.

In Lameduke, large ammo pickups for the Pistol can be found. They also give 48 rounds of Pistol ammo.

Reactor2 (sprite 578)

The game contains code for another reactor type called "REACTOR2". Reactor2 behaves the same as the regular reactor found in Episodes 2 and 4, but uses a much smaller sprite for the reactor ends. However, the reactor ends are bugged, as the game will constantly cycle through the regular reactor2 sprite, its broken variant, and the beam meant to be emitted by it.

Reactor2 also has its own special electricity graphic meant to be shown between the two reactor end sprites, Tile 580 (Reactor2spark).

• 

  A bugged Reactor2, showing the beam sprite in place of the reactor connector sprite.

Reactor2	Reactor

Reactor2	Reactor

Lavabubble (sprite 4340)

Tile 4340 is an unused graphic of a purple bubble rising up, then exploding. It's colors match the purple glop the player must run though in The Queen (E4L10).

• 

  Lavabubble in-game.

Unused Laser Tripbomb functions

The Laser Tripbomb has a setting in USER.CON that controls how the beams emitted by the weapon are rendered.

The default is 0, which renders the beam normally.

1 gives the beam some translucency.

2 makes is so that the beam can only be found if the Night Vision Goggles are active.

3 has no beam rendered at all.

In a default installation, 0 is used. The only way to use the other ones is by editing USER.CON.

• 

  Mode 0.

• 

  Mode 1.

• 

  Mode 3 and mode 2 without Night Vision Goggles.

• 

  Mode 2 with Night Vision Goggles.

Unused Graphics

Art	Art ID(s)	Description
	32	Unused third person sprite for the Expander. Unlike other weapon third person sprites in the game, it cannot be picked up.
	94	Unused oceanscape
	511	In the final game, there's only one chapel picture of the Battlelord in Death Row. It's likely that this would have been in the same level. There's no definition for this inside defs.con.
	604, 605, 1385 - 1388	This was used as the Plasma Rifle firing animation in Lameduke. However, with the weapon's removal, only these sprites were left behind
	730 - 733	Futuristic vehicle
	1043	Unused sign for scrapped Sweeney level.
	1336	A rather graphic sprite of an impaled woman.
	1394	Two "I"s next to each other. In the 0.99 prototype, this was a part of a larger set of graphics meant to represent numbers 1 through 5 for an unknown purpose.
	1644 - 1645	"Firelaser" moving upward. Probably related to Lameduke early Troop enemy firing up sprites.
	1660 - 1669	Unused projectiles.
	1700 - 1704	Unused Assault Trooper frames.
	1705, 1845, 2061, 2686	In the final game, enemies aren't visible when the player is viewing a level through the 2D map mode. In spite of this, graphics for a few of these enemies' top-down sprites still exist in the .art files.
	2155 - 2156, 2160 - 2161	Unused "LIZMANFEEDING" sprites.
	2333 - 2348	Unused "FLOORFLAME" sprites. Was used in v0.99 BETA during the boss battle at the end of The Abyss level.
	2380 - 2388	Water drip splash.
	2440	Leftover from the shareware version of the game.
	2441	Variant of 2441. Not used in either the final game nor shareware.
	2452 - 2455	Unused map icons for player, enemies, health and ammo as seen in early screenshots.
	2464	Unused part of the HUD visible in early screenshots.
	2466	Space suit inventory icon.
	2486	A preliminary title screen of sorts. The transparency present indicates it would have been an overlay.
	2487	Unused radiation warning sign. A similar graphic appears in LameDuke when the player is close to certain reactors in Episode 2.
	2527	Unused alternate crosshair.
	2589 - 2591	Unused "FORCESPHERE" sprites. The unfinished code generates some sort of spherical force field made of several sprites.
	2809	Last frame of the Overlord dying animation.
	3290	Leftover from the shareware version of the game.
	3291	Leftover from the shareware version of the game.
	3341-3346	A futuristic looking screen. These tiles are located right next to the animation of a woman doing an erotic dance that appears in Faces of Death (E1L7) and fit over said sprites, suggesting a connection between the two.
	3409	This is an alternate KTIT sign. In the actual game, the KTIT sign is rendered using an in-game font.

Unused messages

The following unused messages and definitions are in USER.CON.

String 25

TYPE THE CHEAT CODE:

Appeared in the leaked shareware when user typed "DN".

String 28

WILL ALWAYS HAVE NO FUTURE

Purpose unknown.

String 42

BODY SUIT

This message was meant to be displayed when the player got the scrapped Space Suit inventory item.

String 46

CHEAT CODE: UNRECOGNIZED

Appeared in the leaked shareware when it didn't recognize anything you typed afterwards.

String 42

BODY SUIT

This message was meant to be displayed when the player got the scrapped Space Suit inventory item.

String 77

SPACE SUIT ON (Activating the above)

Line meant to be used when the removed Space Suit item was activated.

String 108

YOU'RE BURNING!

A message very similar to this one is used when set on fire by an Enforcer in the v0.99 prototype.

Unused level names

USER.CON contains three extra levels listed for Episode 1 that don't appear in the game's files.

definelevelname 0 8 E1L9.map 12:48 16:32 VOID ZONE
definelevelname 0 9 E1L10.map 0T:HX 11:38 ROACH CONDO
definelevelname 0 10 E1L11.map 08:67 53:09 ANTIPROFIT

The level times are actually references. Void Zone refers to bit/byte types (16/32/etc.), Roach Condo refers to the movie THX-1138, and Antiprofit refers to the song Jenny (867-5309). Void Zone is displayed when the player finishes a User Map, referring to the fact that there is no map afterwards. It's likely these are meant as placeholders.

Unused Audio

With Labels, Lacking Definitions

define DUKE_PASSWIND 32
define DUKE_GLAD 44
define DUKE_HEHE 46
define DUKE_SHUCKS 47
define LIZTROOP_GROWL 52
define LIZTROOP_TALK1 53
define LIZTROOP_TALK2 54
define LIZTROOP_TALK3 55
define LIZCAPT_GROWL 57
define LIZCAPT_TALK1 58
define LIZCAPT_TALK2 59
define LIZCAPT_TALK3 60
define LIZARD_PAIN 62
define LIZARD_DEATH 63
define DRONE1_HISSRATTLE 65
define DRONE1_HISSSCREECH 66
define THEATER_BREATH 94

With Definitions, Lacking Sound Files

definesound TURR_ROAM turrrm.voc 0 0 3 0 0
definesound TURR_RECOG turrrg.voc 0 0 3 0 0
definesound TURR_ATTACK turrat.voc 0 0 3 0 0
definesound TURR_PAIN turrpn.voc 0 0 3 0 0
definesound TURR_DYING turrdy.voc 0 0 3 0 0
// definesound SLIM_PAIN slimpn.voc -256 256 3 0 0 // note: this is commented and does not have a label
definesound BOS3_ATTACK1 b3atk01.voc 0 0 3 0 0
definesound BOS3_ATTACK2 b3atk01.voc 0 0 3 0 0
definesound DUKE_BREATHING hlminhal.voc 0 0 255 4 0
definesound DUKE_EXHALING hlmexhal.voc 0 0 255 4 0
definesound DUKE_YES yes.voc 0 0 255 4 0
definesound FAN fan.voc 0 0 0 0 0
definesound HOVER_CRAFT hover.voc 0 0 0 0 0
definesound GENERIC_AMBIENCE22 vpiss2.voc 0 0 255 4 0
// definesound ENDSEQVOL3SND1 KICKHEAD.VOC 0 0 254 0 0 // KICKHEAD.VOC was present in v1.3D but oddly removed in v1.4/v1.5
definesound VOL4_1 jacuzzi2.voc 0 0 0 1 0
definesound JOKE joke.voc 0 0 128 0 0

Unreferenced Sound Files

Sound Clip	File Name	Description
N/A	BLANK.VOC	A 34 byte file containing nothing but silence.
	DSCREAM38.VOC	Might have been used when Duke got caught on fire.
	PAIN13.VOC	Unused voice clip of Duke Nukem in pain.
	PAIN28.VOC	Unused voice clip of Duke Nukem in pain.
	PISSIN01.VOC	"You're pissin' me off." Possibly an alternate version of "This really pisses me off."
	PIGWRN.VOC	Early take on the voice clip played at the end of Red Light District. This is used in the leaked shareware, but a different voice clip is used in the final version.

(Source: Duke4.net)

Unused Sound Files

Sound Clip	File Name	Label	Description
	B2REC03.VOC	BOS2_RECOG	Unused sound for the Cycloid Emperor (spotting the player).
	B3PAIN04.VOC	BOS3_RECOG	Unused sound for the Overlord (spotting the player).
	SNAKDY.VOC	DRON_DYING	Unused sound for the Sentry Drone, or the early "Snake Head", being killed.
	BLREC4B.VOC	NEWBEAST_RECOG	Unused sound for the Protector Drone (spotting the player).
	BQREC2A.VOC	BOS4_RECOG	Unused sound for the Alien Queen (spotting the player).

The unused sight sounds for the Cycloid Emperor, Overlord, and Alien Queen are programmed to play whenever the appropriate enemy has its palette set to 1. This may have been a slight mistake; the game allows bosses to be designated as "minibosses" by giving them any palette other than the default, but palette 1 is not meant to be used for this purpose (the game itself uses palette 21 for mini Battlelords, which is visually identical to the default palette).

Regardless, these enemies are not meant to be used as minibosses regardless; among other buggy behavior, a mini Cycloid Emperor or Overlord will have only one hit point, while a mini Alien Queen will be mostly identical to the normal version apart from its smaller size.

Unused Force Fields

These are possibly just the result of bad cleanup on level objects. Use DNUNLOCK to see these.

Tiberius Station (E2L6)

At the very start, right at the end of the path on the left in the starting area's "control room".

Spin Cycle (E2L10)

Around the Beta and Alpha rooms on the outer perimeter.

• 

  Beta room's forcefield.

L.A. Rumble (E3L4)

At the very end of the level, nonsensically surrounding some ceiling lights.

Unused Areas

Incubator (E2L2)

From the beginning of the level, go through the first two rooms and into the room where you press the off/on switch to open the windows. In the little room in front of you that opens up after you walk in, walk up to it, but stand just outside of it. Turn left, and use the “No clipping” Gameshark code and slowly walk through the wall until you come to a tiny, tiny room with a grey and blue wall in front of you.

To your left is a switch. Activating the switch opens a panel with scuba gear. To your right is an odd door with the medical red cross on it. Open this up to find a Portable Medkit and Steroids.

(Source: Rick)

• 

  The Scuba Gear location.

• 

  The Scuba Gear location.

• 

  The Medkit and Steroids location.

• 

  The Medkit and Steroids location.

• 

  The unused room's location on the automap.

Movie Set (E3L5)

Right at the end of the level, while you’re going down the stairs to finish the level, stop at the next to last step on the stairs and turn right. Turn on the No Clipping cheat and go through the wall, going directly forward. You’ll end up walking through nothing for a while, but then you’ll end up in a room with a large health container, armor, and several porn mag vendors. Standing on the two red ones will make it lower, revealing a cubby hole with a Holoduke.

A similar setup is used for one of the secrets in the next level, Rabid Transit, but the two red porn mag vendors are seperated, the player has to stand on the leftmost one to reveal the secret, and the cubbyhole is much tighter.

(Source: Rick)

Unused room in Movie Set	Used Rabid Transit secret.

Unused room in Movie Set	Used Rabid Transit secret.

Hidden Messages

In various levels, there are hidden messages or easter eggs from the developer.

The Abyss (E1L5)

"You're not supposed to be here. -- Levelord" can be found if you use noclip to reach the shrinker. It was intended to be visible to only those that used the no-clip cheat. However, this can be reached if you obtained the jetpack on E1L6: Launch Facility.

Spaceport (E2L1)

If you activate no-clipping and god mode, you can head outside and see the name of the ship, U.S.S. Framerate.

This message is not reachable in version 1.3d. In that version, God mode doesn't protect against being killed by passing through a wall, nor does it protect against the vacuum of space.

Raw Meat (E3L1)

Found near the exit, when you no-clip through a crack in the wall and look around: "Noone should be here", signed Levelord.

L.A. Rumble (E3L4)

At the level exit, use noclip to walk through the window. The text is visible on a metal box.

"You're not supposed to be here ... EITHER", signed Levelord.

1.3d to 1.4 differences

The game underwent some changes in its existing content between 1.3d and 1.4 (the Atomic Edition).

Double Mighty Boot

1.3d contains an infamous bug that lets the player kick with both legs. To activate it, select the Mighty Boot as a weapon, then start kicking with the primary fire key. While kicking, hit the dedicated Mighty Boot key and Duke will kick with his other leg. Duke can move around normally, even when both legs are in the air. Both Mighty Boots can either kick at once or alternate between each other, depending on how the keys are pressed.

This bug was fixed in 1.4.

• 

  Dual Mighty Boots.

• 

  Dual Mighty Boots.

Protozoid Slimers

In 1.3d, if a Protozoid Slimer has attached to the player, it cannot be killed with the Mighty Boot, no matter if the player selects it as a weapon or uses the quick kick button.

• 

  Trying to kill an attached slimer with the Mighty Boot found in weapon slot 1.

Pigcop palettes and extra health

In 1.3d, if a Pigcop has any palette besides zero, he will gain a lot of health. With the extra health, the Pigcop can survive a direct impact from the RPG.

This functionality was removed in 1.4.

E1L8 Expander ammo

In 1.4, ammo for the Expander was added in the hidden level E1L8.

1.3d	1.4

3D Realms logo

3D Realm's logo was completely changed between 1.3D and 1.4. Its much less colorful and uses a metal theme in 1.4.

1.3d	1.4

Title screen

The title screen lacks the "Atomic" logo in 1.3d.

1.3d	1.4

Menu

1.4 uses a completely new font for the menu compared to 1.3d.

An "atomic" logo was also added on the right side of the Duke Nukem 3D logo.

1.3d	1.4

Help graphic

The help graphic was altered in 1.4 to mention the newly-added Expander.

1.3d	1.4

Demos

The in-game demos are completely different between 1.3d and 1.4. 1.4 has one more demo compared 1.3d, but all of 1.4's demos are significantly shorter than 1.3d's.

A list of the levels shown in each demo reel is below.

1.3d	1.4
Dark Side (E2L8) Flood Zone (E3L3)	Freeway (E3L11) Area 51 (E4L11) Duke Burger (E4L2)

Assault Commander melee graphics

The graphics for the Assault Commander's melee attack was changed between 1.3d and 1.4. 1.3d's attack graphic has the Commander thigher . 1.4 changed it to a blurred version of the Commander's idle sprites to suggest movement better.

Interestingly, the 1.3d melee graphics show the Commander at a higher resolution than the rest of his sprites do.

1.3d	1.4

1.3d	1.4

1.3d	1.4

1.3d	1.4

1.3d	1.4

1.3d	1.4

Development team image

The image of the Duke Nukem 3D development team shown when defeating the final boss (Cycloid Emperor in 1.3d, Alien Queen in 1.4) is completely different because several members of the original Duke team leaving and new people joining.

Of note is that the background for the 1.3d image seems to be based on the bathroom in Lunar Reactor (E2L7), while the one used in 1.4 is from an unknown location using desert textures.

1.3d	1.4

1.3d	Lunar Reactor (E2L7)

Faces of Death faces

The staff faces in the multiplayer level Faces of Death (E1L7) were also changed to reflect the people that left and joined the Duke team between 1.3d and 1.4.

Note that Doug Wood was "upgraded" to having his head in a spacesuit in 1.4.

1.3d	1.4

1.3d	1.4

1.3d	1.4

1.3d	1.4

1.3d	1.4

Filler Episode 1 level names

The filler levels for Episode 1 found in User.con were changed between 1.3d and 1.4. 1.3d calls them multiplayer levels, while 1.4 gives them silly names and pun par times.

1.3d	1.4
definelevelname 0 8 E1L9.map 00:00 00:00 MULTIPLAYER 3 definelevelname 0 9 E1L10.map 00:00 00:00 MULTIPLAYER 4 definelevelname 0 10 E1L11.map 00:00 00:00 MULTIPLAYER 5	definelevelname 0 8 E1L9.map 12:48 16:32 VOID ZONE definelevelname 0 9 E1L10.map 0T:HX 11:38 ROACH CONDO definelevelname 0 10 E1L11.map 08:67 53:09 ANTIPROFIT

Mac OS Classic Differences

Mac-Exclusive Cheat-Codes

The Mac OS Classic port of the game had a few extra cheat codes added in by the team who ported it.

• DNMACS: Prints "Macs Rule!" to the screen, and replaces the security monitor textures with a screenshot of a Mac OS desktop.
• DNMONKEYMODE: Prints "The Monkey Lives!" to the screen, and wiggles Duke's movement controls while firing straight ahead. Typing "DN" turns it off.
• DN1984: When typed in E1L1, it turns off the music, prints "Big Brother is Watching!" to the screen, and replaces the short animated loop on the movie screen with the full Apple "1984" ad that introduced the Macintosh to the world, complete with audio. Typing it again turns off the audio and freezes the video.

DNMACS	DN1984

Level designer signatures

A vast majority of levels has a small signature made out of sectors of the person that made it placed somewhere that can only be seen with the noclip cheat or a level editor. Allen H. Blum III's signature is "AHB", Levelord's is "SUYT" (Show Us Your Tits), Keith Schuler's is a stylized "KS", and Randy Pitchford's is "RSP III DUVAL MAGIC" (Duval Magic was his stage name as a magician, and is used as his Twitter username).

These signatures show some interesting information for Critical Mass (E4L8). The readme that comes with the game states that Keith Schuler made Critical Mass, but both Keith's and Leverlord's signatures can be found on the level, showing that Levelord originally worked on it before it was taken over by Keith, as Levelord quit during the production of Atomic Edition.

• 

  Allen H. Blum III's signature.

• 

  Blum's signature in Hollywood Holocaust (E1L1).

• 

  Blum's signature in Overlord (E2L9).

• 

  Levelord's signature.

• 

  Levelord's signature in Spin Cycle (E2L10).

• 

  Levelord's signature in Hotel Hell (E3L8).

• 

  Keith Schuler's signature.

• 

  Randy Pitchford's signature.

• 

  Levelord's signature in Critical Mass (E4L8), a level he was officially not credited for working on.

Shareware sell screenshot differences

The images used to sell the game in the shareware version of the game contain earlier versions of levels seen in the final game.

Screen 1

The first screen contains two different levels.

The first level is an early version of the outside tram section in Warp Factor (E2L3). The middle area the player spawns in is closer to the center of the map in the screenshot than it is in the final game. The window and the part of the middle area that can be seen through it are completely different as well. The outside portions use a completely different texture. A "Tiberus Station" sign can be seen hanging above the tram dock, which was removed in the final game. The tram itself has yellow textures on it, while the final one has a lot more gray on it. The dock itself has a Protozoid Slimer, which doesn't exist in the final version of the level.

The second level, despite having a generic resemblance to several used levels, such as the large circular areas in E2L1, doesn't seem to actually match any of the levels in the final game.

Shareware sell slide	Final

Screen 2

Screen 2 appears to show an early version of the lit large room near the end of the final's Spaceport (E2L1) level.

The most noticable difference is that it uses the moon sky texture instead of the space sky texture. The central shaft can be accessed from any side, while the final only has part of it open. The shaft also has a different texture and is rounded instead of square. The crate to the right of the shaft is missing, but that might be because the screenshot was angled in a way to hide it. The right side looks completely different; it looks more like a ledge than the wall with windows the final Spaceport has.

Interestingly, a preview screenshot, dated August 1995, also shows a similar area to the one seen in the shareware sell screen. This shot gives a glimpse of right side of the room, showing it as a more open version of the final's right side area.

Shareware sell slide	Final

Shareware sell slide	August 1995 preview image