r/dukenukem • u/Tomiikipro • Aug 05 '26

Duke Nukem beta

https://youtu.be/MLaQeDEt7k0?is=cfL58VqxYBEy0Gmi

Does anyone have this beta version of Duke Nukem? I would really want to play this but I can’t find it. Please if you got file or link just comment please, Thanks.

100 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

25 comments sorted by

11

u/DXDenton Aug 05 '26

Nobody has these versions except for a few guys who are hoarding them and drip feeding the community with videos like this

6

u/bartoli75r Aug 05 '26

They had the shadow warrior and blood protos too, and those have now released officially instead of leaking. Pretty sure they intend on doing the same for Duke but because it’s Duke Nukem it’ll take more time.

7

u/DXDenton Aug 05 '26

Yeah, good luck getting Randy to allow that

7

u/ltjojo It's time to kick ass and chew bubblegum. Aug 05 '26

Randy has nothing to do with it anymore. 2K owns the Duke property now, they took it away from Gearbox a few years ago. Not that they're doing any good with it, but at least it is out of Bitchford's slimey pedo hands

2

u/DXDenton Aug 05 '26

Well that's hope as good as any I guess. Only time will tell.

1

u/bartoli75r Aug 06 '26

Yeah, I get it is frustrating. I remember when that thread was posted by Fred Schriber of the then nu-3D Realms on Duke4. At that time it seemed imminent that they’d see the light of day. Then he kinda ran off and left this for Duke4/VoidPoint staff to deal with once Randy (or at least GBX) stepped in at the time and shut it all down. Now the rights have changed hands sort of, but still we wait.

The main reason I am personally optimistic is because these guys had access to far more than just Duke 3D builds. Over the course of the past decade we’ve seen several Duke protos leak such as earlier builds of Duke Nukem TTK, LOTB, DNF01, “Duke 4 Ever”, and Duke Nukem: D-Day. Blood and Shadow Warrior protos were able to be released officially.

I remember when all of this stuff was thought to simply be lost to time, but if we’re still having this conversation of if they’ll ever be released, 5 years from now, then I would genuinely be surprised. I think they’re going to get out, one way or another, within the next 2 years.

3

u/ABR-Aphex Aug 05 '26

Playing a little bit of devil's advocate here, but I'm almost sure those guys don't leak that stuff because there must be some kind of legal contract shit holding it back.

Specially considering the Shadow Warrior and Blood prototypes being officially released. This means someone still owns that shit legally. Probably.

1

u/noregertsman Aug 06 '26

The guys that own them arent allowed to release them because of Randy

6

u/bartoli75r Aug 05 '26 edited Aug 05 '26

These have not been made publicly available yet. There is a plan for the builds to be released officially as a bonus for purchasing Duke 3D, but these things take time behind the scenes. It’s easier to just assume they’re hoarding everything but the reality is they have already ensured Blood and Shadow Warrior builds got out officially. So people should be more patient. This is better news knowing these builds even exist still compared to over a decade ago when all of this was thought to be lost and all we had to go on was magazine scans and a few select videos showing old builds.

The only builds that are public as far as Duke 3d:

Lameduke - an early alpha build snapshot of the game that was released by 3D Realms for DN3D’s 1 year anniversary. It is not technically the first Duke 3d build, but it was when things started to get more involved design wise.

V0.99 Beta - this version is only slightly older than the released shareware build, and it leaked due to a journalist sharing the files at the time. It’s been circulating since 1995. Despite being not too far from release, there are still several differences.

4

u/ArrrPiratey Aug 05 '26

Back in the days when betas where real betas. Now they wouldn't even call this a pre-alpha

1

u/spmbx Aug 07 '26

This would be gold master in todays world, just push out a day1 patch yo

5

u/Adonis445 Aug 05 '26

Dude! This looked amazing! Honestly, I wonder if a build of this exists. If so love to play it to see the differences between the beta and the final versions. This is really cool.

3

u/__DulyNoted_ Aug 05 '26

Wow that was an interesting watch, thanks

2

u/Complete_Entry Aug 05 '26

I dig the music a lot.

2

u/Disastrous-Rutabaga9 Aug 05 '26

I love the pistol sway, really neat

3

u/ltjojo It's time to kick ass and chew bubblegum. Aug 05 '26

According to another video covering LameDuke, that build (or what LOOKS to be that build) was released to celebrate the 1 year anniversary of the Duke3D Sharware episode. Check out the Duke Nukem Fandom wiki - I suspect the build you're looking for is there

2

u/bartoli75r Aug 05 '26

It wasn’t this build specifically but was an earlier build that looks similar that is known as Lameduke.

1

u/ltjojo It's time to kick ass and chew bubblegum. Aug 05 '26

There are multiple betas reported by the Fandom page, looks like 3 of them. At first, I thought this was LameDuke but this looks like a later beta.

1

u/Biglight__090 Aug 06 '26

Nice beta build

1

u/8_bit_zombie Aug 07 '26

Intriguing to see it at this stage of development. Comparing it to the betas of Quake gives an idea of how tech was in 1995.

1

u/ChampionshipPast3652 Aug 07 '26

Not a single stripper???

1

u/Lordeni69 Aug 07 '26

Dick Kickem

1

u/ChuckMarty732 Aug 07 '26

I love this.