A remake of perhaps the blond macho’s most popular game has leaked onto the internet.

In 2022, Duke Nukem came back, albeit not in an official way (but that could still happen since both Gearbox and 3D Realms are under Embracer Group, so there simply can’t be any more debate about who owns the IP…), as a build of Duke Nukem Forever, put together for E3 2001, has leaked. The fans began to mod the game to completion, as the 2011 final game is nowhere near what was previously shown of Duke’s adventures.

That game was leaked by a group called x0r_jmp. At the end of the year, they had a big hit, releasing Duke Nukem 3D: Reloaded! In 2010, Interceptor Entertainment announced that they would be remaking the game, but instead of using the Build engine, they used Unreal Engine 3. It started as a fan project, and then Gearbox gave it their blessing (and that’s when it took the name Reloaded, as it was previously Duke Nukem: Next Gen). In 2011, the project was put on the back burner, with its leader Fredrik Schreiber writing in a blog post that Gearbox’s product manager and legal counsel said it had received too much attention from the wind and press and should be left behind…

Gearbox then saw a lukewarm reception to Duke Nukem Forever, which they tried to fix by making DLC for it, and Schreiber asked the company if they could release Duke Nukem 3D: Reloaded later, to which he was told they couldn’t tell him if they could allow it. Interceptor Entertainment then put the matter behind them. In 2013, they released Rise of the Triad Remake, which helped to popularise retro-style shooters, and then renamed themselves Slipgate Ironworks. They released Ghostrunner under that name and are now making Phantom Fury, the sequel to Ion Maiden, or Ion Fury, to be precise. Schreiber has since become CEO of 3D Realms.

Duke Nukem 3D: Reloaded can be downloaded here. The “test-version 0.001” version has several maps (e.g., Hollywood Holocaust), and you can try some pretty Unreal Tournament-like multiplayer with the bots. We should also mention three other leaks from the group that we have not yet discussed: a canceled 2D platformer, Duke Nukem 4Ever from 1996, can be played on the Internet Archive, and there is a project focusing on hunting, Duke Nukem: Endangered Species, and there’s a pitch of a movie adaptation. According to the group, they planned a lot of new leaks coming out later this year…

We can’t wait!

Source: PCGamer