[HN Gopher] EDuke32 - Duke Nukem 3D (Open-Source)
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EDuke32 - Duke Nukem 3D (Open-Source)
Author : reconnecting
Score : 197 points
Date : 2026-02-21 20:10 UTC (19 hours ago)
HTML web link (www.eduke32.com)
TEXT w3m dump (www.eduke32.com)
| holoduke wrote:
| Duke Nukems are still my favorite games ever. One of the first
| game I played multiplayer with two laptops. I was 12ish years
| old. First game was actually retaliator, but that aside. Level
| design, graphics, sounds and the atmosphere was groundbreaking
| those days. Wish I was that age again.
| planb wrote:
| Me too! I learnt a lot about how games ,,work" by using the
| level editor and using more and more of the advanced features.
| And playing your own worlds in 1vs1 serial linked multiplayer
| mode was a whole new experience.
| glenstein wrote:
| Agreed, amazingly fun multiplayer experience. Also love Ion
| Fury, built in the same engine and having a satisfyingly
| tactical feel to it. What's interesting is the deep
| satisfaction with games from the 90s being more "tactile" isn't
| just about isometric games, it's in the shooters too. When did
| games get clippy (as in clipping through walls), squishy and
| plastic diminishing their feel?
| iberator wrote:
| Hail to the king, baby!
|
| Duke nukem 3D is kinda the most adult shooter ever if you compute
| the ratio of age/controversy/sex/blood/possibilities.
| bitwize wrote:
| I used eduke32 to blaze through DN3D once more on a boomer
| shooter kick a few years back. Which arguably never ended, as
| Doom and Quake mods make up most of my gaming time now.
| everyone wrote:
| If you havent played the Ashes 2063 mod series for DOOM I
| highly recommend it. https://www.moddb.com/mods/ashes-2063
|
| Ive played a lot of excellent doom and quake mods...
|
| * brutal doom, hell on earth starter pack
|
| * blade of agony
|
| * Hedon
|
| * quake brutalist jams 1 to 3
|
| * Arcane Dimensions
|
| * alien armageddon (for duke3d)
|
| but that one really stand out.
| malux85 wrote:
| Ashes 2063 looks awesome thank you for sharing!
|
| I downloaded the AshesStandalone_V1_51.zip file, but it looks
| like it only contains the windows executable. For our linux
| friends, unzip it, install gzdoom, and then run this command
| inside the "Resources" folder to play it on linux:
|
| > gzdoom -config gzdoom-ashes.ini -iwad
| freedoom-0.12.1/freedoom2.wad -file AshesSAMenu.pk3
| lightmodepatch.pk3 Ashes2063Enriched2_23.pk3
| Ashes2063EnrichedFDPatch.pk3 +logfile log.txt
| throwatdem12311 wrote:
| Don't forgot to check out Ashes Hard Reset and Afterglow as
| well.
| doph wrote:
| I was into playing and modding Doom back in the 90s and just a
| few months ago rediscovered the community - I am just blown
| away by the effort and creativity that is going into these
| source ports and the indie games people are building on top of
| them. That passion and spirit of sharing is peak Internet/open-
| source.
| esseph wrote:
| doomhack and hex editors taught me a lot in that era
| esseph wrote:
| *DeHackEd
|
| https://doom.fandom.com/wiki/DeHackEd
| everyone wrote:
| This is the most fun I've had with Duke Nukem this century
| https://www.moddb.com/mods/duke-nukem-alien-armageddon
|
| It's a sort of duke roguelike with 100's of potential levels, you
| play through a a certain random number of them in a run. Also you
| unlock all sorts of power ups as you progress, enemies also get
| stronger and get random buffs. + Theyve added a load of
| mechanics, more weapons, enemies, more playable characters etc.
| npodbielski wrote:
| Looks great! Thanks!
| coopykins wrote:
| I gotta try this!
| vunderba wrote:
| Duke Nukem 3D was probably one of the earlier FPS games that
| really encouraged modding because of Ken Silverman's Build
| Engine.
|
| Even the enemy AI could be modified (albeit relatively limited)
| by editing the text CON files.
|
| Anyone else remember playing over LAN with friends, dropping a
| Duke hologram in an elevator along with a bunch of pipe bombs
| hidden at its feet?
| LanceH wrote:
| It was a wonderful collection of rage inducing weapons: pipe
| bombs, laser trip mines, shrink ray (then step on them for the
| kill), freeze gun (any hit shatters for the kill), and the BFG.
|
| We had LAN parties and would play for hours on end with custom
| maps we had built or downloaded.
| vunderba wrote:
| Same! We used to host "Jetpack Freeze Ray" duels which ended
| when somebody was frozen causing them to plummet out of the
| sky and shatter when they hit the ground~~
| fragmede wrote:
| Hail to the king, baby!
| jayknight wrote:
| > then step on them for the kill
|
| I heard the sound effect of that when I read you're comment.
| nurettin wrote:
| Yeah it sounded like what I imagine pressing on a cardboard
| of eggs would.
| latchkey wrote:
| Back when I worked at the AG Group (famous for etherpeek) we'd
| play late at night we could hear each other screaming from our
| offices, and I'd walk out of my office terrified. The laser
| trips were the best. This game truly holds a special place in
| my heart.
|
| We also had a really good LAN there.
| vunderba wrote:
| Nice. The laser-trip alarm effect that would play right
| before it detonated in your face is forever emblazoned in my
| memory.
| Postosuchus wrote:
| Indeed, they made Level Editor available. In fact, there was
| even a friggin' book on level design:
| https://www.amazon.com/dp/0782118690
|
| Blast from the past indeed. Many many moons ago, I came up with
| a "bright" idea of designing a mod for Duke3D that modeled the
| office of my then-employer (large fintech company). At least I
| had enough sense not to boast about it - several months later a
| crazy guy brought a shotgun to HIS former employer and made
| national news, I don't think people would have taken my
| creation as lightly as I did back then. Still, working on it
| was fun.
| midzer wrote:
| Classic!
|
| Play the (only?) WASM demo at https://midzer.de/wasm/duke3d/
| (ported from https://github.com/GPSnoopy/BelgianChocolateDuke3D).
| Miserably only software rendering right now.
| AceJohnny2 wrote:
| Offtopic:
|
| > "Click here to load ~19mb"
|
| Oh, how sweet...
|
| The front page of reddit (not logged in) is 11 MB, logged in it
| is 17 MB for me (variable based on media-heavy subreddits and
| ads). Facebook's _login page_ is 8 MB. Hell, Google 's front,
| once a bastion of efficiency (long since fallen), is 9 MB.
|
| It's sad how 19 MB now doesn't even register for me in today's
| bloated web.
| esseph wrote:
| > It's sad how 19 MB now doesn't even register for me in
| today's bloated web.
|
| I have recently mentally registered that many people look at
| GB the same way in 2026
| omoikane wrote:
| I do appreciate that it puts up a warning instead of starting
| automatically, maybe not so much for the 19MB part, but for
| the fact that it plays sound.
| coreyburnsdev wrote:
| wow, first Linux crash in over a year trying to run that.
| artifacts and unresponsive 2nd monitor, had to hard reboot.
| derwiki wrote:
| I spent a lot of time in the Duke Nukem 3D level editor, even had
| a thick reference book. Really gave me a leg up for CAD in
| school.
| markus_zhang wrote:
| https://dukenukem.fandom.com/wiki/Duke_Nukem_3D_Level_Design...
|
| I think this perhaps to be the one?
| ctoth wrote:
| Am still looking for where I am supposed to type 'dnkroz' IRL
| shevy-java wrote:
| Hmmm. I do sometimes play old DOS games. And then the era of
| games that followed, say ... from 1995 to 2005 or so, give or
| take. Though quite rarely nowadays.
|
| I'd wish there could be an improvement of some of the old games.
| Not to change their character per se, but to make some small
| modest improvements to e. g. gameplay, usability, perhaps even
| the graphics - without killing the old flair it had. Anyone
| remember Alone in the Dark? I liked the polygons, even though
| nobody would use these today. So that can probably not be
| improved a lot without ruining the old feeling. But content-wise?
| Where is AI when you need it? Can't AI autogenerate more content
| for those games AND also improve them modestly?
| cjmcqueen wrote:
| There are a lot of remakes of old games. Nintendo has done this
| a lot, but one challenge is these old games all come with IP
| and copyright, so it's hard to remake a game even with the
| technology. You have to have ownership and a good reason to
| believe people will buy a slightly updated game.
| bombcar wrote:
| Some of the source ports (and some of the reimagining) does
| exactly what you want:
|
| Various DooM ports go beyond replicating "vanilla DooM" and
| even beyond updating graphics, to adding true 3D, etc.
|
| VMCI and HotA go way beyond "Heroes III on modern machines"
|
| Augustus expands on Julius until it's not just "Caesar 3" on
| current equipment.
| nine_k wrote:
| > _Can 't AI autogenerate more content_
|
| We have so many old books and movies. Can't AI autogenerate
| more content so that we had more Fellini movies or at least
| more Sherlock Holmes stories? Most worthy games have quite some
| work behind them.
|
| If all you need is more levels for old games, certainly there
| are competent level generators for Doom and Quake, but don't
| expect them to produce something like Arcane Dimensions.
| ctoth wrote:
| > Where is AI when you need it?
|
| Back in 2003 or so some wonderful smart folks added
| accessibility to the Quake engine. Since then, there have been
| very few accessible FPS games.
|
| I just took Claude, dropped it in the AudioQuake engine
| directory, asked it to write up a taxonomy of the accessibility
| solutions used to make quake accessible, waited, dropped the
| EDuke32 source next to it, and said "Let's plan for how we can
| make this accessible now using similar techniques."
|
| I now have the beginning of a _working_ accessibility mod[0],
| and am walking around replaying Hollywood Holocaust, something
| I haven 't been able to do since I played with my dad (him
| driving and me shooting). It's kind of amazing, actually.
|
| I am totally blind.
|
| [0]:
| https://gist.github.com/ctoth/f955884813dd0daa497914108c467c...
| bombcar wrote:
| Mac Source Ports has signed and notarized versions of this along
| with Raze and JFDuke3D -
| https://www.macsourceports.com/game/duke3d
|
| All ported and ready to go on Apple Silicon - they even have
| instructions on how to extract the needed data from Steam or GoG.
| internet2000 wrote:
| Does anyone here have any background on Mac Source Ports? It's
| where I get most of the games on my Macs, but it's a little
| weird how there's no "here's who we are and why we're doing
| this".
| dcrazy wrote:
| There's an email address on the About page which is a first
| name at macsourceports.com.
| bombcar wrote:
| And a GitHub that's not hard to figure who is contributing.
| deaddodo wrote:
| Each port is also tagged with the exact project they're
| coming from and the source.
|
| It's not exactly a secret, they just don't have a vanity
| page.
| blundergoat wrote:
| Duke Nukem 3D was my first experience urinating in a video game.
| Hail to the king, baby.
| wedog6 wrote:
| I experienced the mirror stage twice in my life: once in real
| life and once in Duke Nukem 3D.
|
| Took me ages to realise why I couldn't kill the enemy in blue
| uniform behind the weird portal.
| wvbdmp wrote:
| Peeing in video games appears to be alive and well:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sL-krAqUuD8
| Sarkie wrote:
| I pirated this as a kid.
|
| I've probably bought 10 different versions in the meantime to
| make up for it
| ant6n wrote:
| Make up for what? I don't get it.
| gloflo wrote:
| For illegally copying software.
| Joel_Mckay wrote:
| Prior to the DMCA, copyright violations were a grey area.
| In most countries, in order to seek damages a company had
| to show users were selling copies or using IP for
| promotional purposes.
|
| Now... people are using the same RIAA/DMCA laws to hijack
| youtube channel content from legitimate creators. The
| damage to publishers is done by the time it is sorted out.
|
| As a business, it has always been better to go after
| distribution channels rather than squeezing customers. =3
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2EdZvXwh0Y
| npodbielski wrote:
| I was playing demo dozens of times. I do not think it was even
| possible to buy it via legitimate sources at that time where I
| lived. Great memories when I was finally beat the first ep
| boss.
| eek2121 wrote:
| Duke Nukem/BUILD was the first level editor that sucked me into
| level editing/mods, it is also the place where I spent the most
| hours. I later pivoted to more professional pursuits, however i
| killed a ton of time building new levels, and exploiting the
| engine to an obscene level.
|
| I doubt I could get back into it these days, however, I hope the
| open source effort can inspire some awesome stuff!
| reconnecting wrote:
| Duke3D deathmatch over IPX was epic, especially to hide in secret
| places when others didn't know them.
| iancmceachern wrote:
| Yes! And Kali!
| brightball wrote:
| I was on Kali back in the day too. Got into the top 10 on
| Cases Ladder. One of my friends made #5 one time.
| dbacar wrote:
| From the website: "PC first person shooter Duke Nukem 3D-- Duke3D
| for short--to Windows, Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, several handhelds,
| your family toaster, and your girlfriend's vibrator. "
|
| Why they go this route is beyond me :)
| markus_zhang wrote:
| Ah. It must be the everything can run X thing.
| zer0zzz wrote:
| This game got me into so much trouble. What a mistake.
| hypercube33 wrote:
| Care to share the story? I have no idea how my parents let me
| play this but it was my first multiplayer online game and I was
| hooked.
| olivierestsage wrote:
| Duke3D is one of those weird games where I don't respect it as
| much as Doom or Quake, but I have to admit I've had a lot of fun
| playing it at different points in my life. Some seriously great
| memories deathmatching with friends on the opening map, and the
| combat in the single player is often really good.
| fluoridation wrote:
| I honestly think DUKE3D is better than either of them. The
| levels actually look like what they're supposed to be, instead
| of abstract corridors with nonsensical props strewn about, as
| in DOOM. It could also be my habits, but I also find the
| DUKE3D's movement is superior to QUAKE's. I always feel like I
| overshoot my target position in QUAKE.
| olivierestsage wrote:
| Agreed about Duke3D movement being superior to Quake's. Not
| Doom (at least not for me personally), but I agree about
| Quake, which feels "artificial" -- no momentum.
| user____name wrote:
| I usually set the sv_friction cvar in Quake to 6 or 8, by
| default it's 4 and it makes the movement feel slippery. It
| also has the instant airbrake when you hit the move backward
| button mid jump, which is useful but pretty strange.
| flykespice wrote:
| Lol I remember playing a slenderman fangame as a kid made in this
| engine back in 2012~. Good days
| QuiCasseRien wrote:
| Shake it baby, you wanna dance
| nness wrote:
| Blast from the past -- I made the EDuke32 logo when I was
| teenager back in 2004. (I still have the PSD sitting around
| somewhere...) Back then there was quite an active community on
| the now defunct 3drealm's forums and I spent a lot of time
| contributing icons, logos, or web dev help to different Duke
| Nukem projects.
|
| I don't think I ever properly played Duke 3D until recently,
| picking up the "Cursed Randy Version" version on Switch. But as a
| kid I was hooked on the level editor (and pixelated nudity.) Duke
| 3D's custom maps scene never eclipsed the popularity and duration
| of Doom or Quake, but there were some fantastic creations that
| really stirred the imagination and kept me in that editor for
| hours.
|
| (There is also a port of the Duke Nukem 64 version, which whilst
| almost identical, does have a few interesting variations which
| makes it worth the try for a series fan.)
| ciroduran wrote:
| That early 2000's web design style, love it!
| HumblyTossed wrote:
| I preferred the platform games.
| JamesLeonis wrote:
| Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, and Dark Forces are my triumvirate of that
| era. Of all of them, Duke Nukem felt the most interactive. There
| are times I would clear a level of enemies, then play with all
| the gizmos the level designers put inside like the jail cell
| block doors of Death Row. The security cameras were so advanced
| at the time too! They rendered their view, in real time, on a
| wall TV. I wouldn't see that effect again until the 2000s. The
| levels felt intuitive too, at least the Earth levels, that I felt
| like an urban explorer in a way that Deus Ex would later capture.
| markus_zhang wrote:
| Back then I got the game from a friend, who handled me a CD. It
| was apparently a pirated version because it has that sort of red
| color progress bar installer.
|
| I actually never made through E1L3 back in 1997, because it was
| very confusing for someone who only had about 15-20 mins of play
| every night -- and I had to dodge from my parents who absolutely
| thought and still think that games are bad things.
|
| But I was hooked with the end game screen which promised loads of
| goods (I still remember this phrase ) on the CD to make my own
| levels. Wow! I was instantly hooked! Alas, as I said it was a
| pirated version, and there was no map editor in the installer
| file. Back then people tend to strip any unnecessary contents off
| from the games and zip them into a compressed file.
|
| I didn't find the map editor until much later in my life. By then
| I have lost the interest of level design (I used to dab into
| Half-Life mapping because the pirated version was mercifully the
| full set of the original CD so it contained worldcraft.exe).
|
| Nevertheless, very good memory. I still play its mods from time
| to time. Doom, Quake, Duke3d and Blood all have long lasting
| communities that produce loads and loads of goods throughout the
| years. They also built better tools and ports for us to enjoy.
|
| Jeez. So many things to do, yet so little time.
| VimEscapeArtist wrote:
| I played a lot of Duke Nukem 3D multiplayer in the 90s. We
| connected PCs with a serial cable, and later the game was
| available in a local "internet cafe", except that cafe had no
| internet. Just games and a local network. I spent a lot of time
| there. Then, after several years, when I was studying IT in a
| different city, someone approached me and asked "hey, aren't you
| by any chance "Phantom" from that cafe? We used to play together
| Duke Nukem.
| brightball wrote:
| Man, I used to be in the top 10 on Cases Ladder for Duke Nukem
| when I was in high school. Good times.
| bsaul wrote:
| random fact : duke nukem had this weird configuration bug where
| maxing sensitivity on the microsoft sidewinder strafe axis could
| make you go much faster than possible by moving in diagonal ( the
| sum of strafe + forward combined to a larger vector). That lead
| to everyone in our cybercafe buying one :)))
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(page generated 2026-02-22 16:01 UTC)