The leaker is teasing that they’ll release the game and its source code in June
Before Gearbox unleashed the bland mess that is Duke Nukem Forever upon the world, 3D Realms had their own version of it. Shown off at E3 2001, neither Gearbox nor 3D realms has said much of this original version other than it was allegedly 90% complete.
However today, May 9th, a 4chan thread has cropped up with videos and screenshots of the cancelled DNF. The original poster of the thread, going by x0r_jmp has also divulged some details of what they have.
In the thread, they say “almost every chapter is present in some form. A huge chunk is playable, a huge chunk is block-outs with no enemies. All of the E3 content is there”. Later on in the thread, they say “there is no complete game, It was never finished.”
A screencap posted by x0r also shows off a level editor. When posters in the thread spotted it, x0r responded saying “not just the editor, we will be releasing the full source code too.”
The leaked videos and screenshots from the thread can be found below:
One poster asked for a high-res screenshot of this redneck, OP obliged 
It’s Duke Nukem, so of course it had a casino level 
Another poster wanted proof in the form of OP shooting a “V” into the wall 
This shot can be seen in the E3 trailer, although more pixel-y 
Apparently, this is a “fraction of the maps folder” 
The Duke’s development hell
Duke Nukem Forever spent over 14 years in development, starting at 3D Realms in 1997. What followed was years of switching engines and directions, as 3D Realms’ co-founder George Broussard didn’t want the game to look outdated. Eventually, in 2009, 3D Realms laid off all its staff and ceased development.
A year later, in 2010, Gearbox bought the Duke Nukem IP and continued Duke Nukem Forever’s development. The game then made it to release in 2011, seeing mainly middling-to-negative reviews when it launched.
The version that x0r leaked is one of the builds on an old engine that 3D Realms threw away. Specifically the Unreal Engine 1 build. As mentioned before, 3D Realms showed this version off at E3 2001 and it looked to have a wide variety of mechanics and locations. The only release date the trailer gave was “when it’s done”.
Are you excited to finally get your hands on the original Duke Nukem Forever? Or do you think this build won’t actually get released? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below! If you want to read more about pre-release game builds, check out our article on Half Life: Ravenholm!
You can also hop over to our Discord to chat with us about all things gaming and entertainment!
Leave a Reply