Duke Nukem Forever 6 - Game over

quote:

Hey gang..

While I don't work at 3DR anymore, I did participate in what I'm about to talk about before I walked out the door. The project will be finished by Bryan Turner (who is still at 3DR for the time being), but I was given the OK to talk about this.

As I've kind of hinted at in other forum posts, there is a big update coming for the 3D Realms Online Store. For the last two days I worked at 3DR, I did nothing more than one final major remaster of the product line. I took all the files that we were selling as downloadable items and remastered them. I put DOSBox wrappers around them. This is probably less of an issue for folks on these forums, but the majority of tech queries we got were from people who had zero idea on how to install a DOS program, much less run it. So they all got DOSBox wrappers.

But it didn't stop there. I took all the games that we sold as CD media only, and created downloadable installs for them, too. That includes Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior, Death Rally, & Terminal Velocity. So these games will be available in our store.

But it didn't stop there, either. I also hit some other games. We will be selling Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project as a download for the first time, and we will also be selling something we have not sold in several years now. BALLS OF STEEL! This is basically every game that we can still sell that hasn't been released as freeware. They'll all be available in the new store update that is coming.

But I saved the best for last. Long time 3DR forum members will remember me talking about a ROTT CD master that never got made. It was to combine the Site License ROTT CD with the EROTT CD, as well as a pile of user created things. Well, that CD never got pressed, and the version we've sold in the store for awhile was a lesser version. NOT NOW! This new ROTT download (which is 48.3Mb) has everything you can think of. It's every single stinkin thing that Apogee ever released for ROTT back in the day. It also includes a pile of user created things. Also, given my personal love for ROTT, I tossed in a few surprises for people who buy that.

Redoing the product line with a DOSBox wrapper, as well as bringing back and/or adding several things to the online store was my final act as an actual employee of 3DR. I saved ROTT for last. It was mastered between about 6:40PM and 8:15PM Central time on Friday May 22nd.

Now the part I have to say I don't know is when. It's supposed to be this week, but I can't tell you exactly when - and I won't be involved with the actual launch, either. My part in all this was to remaster the product line. That was quite a challenge, as I had to learn a new install program, go over the whole product line, make sure everything was there, build the installs, test them - it was QUITE the whirlwind, I tell you.

These downloads come with those PDF manuals and the hint sheets (where available), as well as with Windows icons, it's all quite nice. It was a freakin whirlwind for me to get 26 game files remastered. I did one and a half on Thursday (mostly to get the structure right, and to learn the install program), and did the remaining 23 and a half on Friday. Man, that was one long day. But it was my last, and I've always considered game installs my baby, so I'm glad I got to do this one final time, and make the installs something nice.

The complete list of stuff that will be available for sale through the new 3D Realms store site update is:

Balls of Steel
Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold
Commander Keen Galaxy
Commander Keen Vorticons
Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure
Crystal Caves
Death Rally
Duke Nukum
Duke Nukem II
Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition
Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project
Hocus Pocus
Math Rescue
Monster Bash
Mystic Towers
Paganitzu
Planet Strike
Raptor: Call of the Shadows
Realms of Chaos
Rise of the Triad (or as I call it, Ultimate ROTT)
Secret Agent
Shadow Warrior
Terminal Velocity
Wacky Wheels
Wolfenstein 3D
Word Rescue

I have no idea what the pricing on this stuff will be, so don't ask. That was all stuff handled this week, after I've left. I was just given permission to talk about the remastering stuff and that it will be available shortly.

This will be in a new store - Yahoo store won't be active anymore for new sales once the new stuff goes up. But at this point, you're probably better off waiting for the new store downloads.

From a technical standpoint, I used the Inno Install program, which uses LZMA compression routines, so things are packed more efficiently. This is an in issue as I'm including DOSBox with every install, too.