Duke Nukem

Duke Nukem is a video game series named for its protagonist Duke Nukem. Created originally by the company Apogee Software Ltd. (now 3D Realms) as a series of video games for IBM-compatible personal computers, the franchise expanded to games released for various consoles by third party developers. During 2010 the rights of the franchise were acquired by the company Gearbox Software, who completed the development of Duke Nukem Forever and released it on 10 June 2011 in Europe and Australia and on 14 June 2011 in North America.

The voice actor for Duke Nukem is Jon St. John.

Games

Main series

The original game was released as Duke Nukem during 1991 as a two dimensional platform game, which was IBM PC compatible, and featured 320×200, 16-color EGA graphics with vertical and horizontal scrolling. The original game had three episodes, the first distributed as shareware. The first Duke Nukem game was titled Duke Nukem, but Apogee learned that this name might have already been trademarked for the Duke Nukem character of the television series Captain Planet and the Planeteers, so they changed it to Duke Nukum for the 2.0 revision. The name was later determined not to be trademarked, so the spelling Duke Nukem was restored for Duke Nukem II and all successive Duke games.

Duke Nukem Forever

Duke Nukem Forever is a first-person shooter video game for Microsoft Windows, OS X, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. It is a sequel to the 1996 game Duke Nukem 3D as part of the long-running Duke Nukem video game series. It started development at 3D Realms and Triptych Games, and was finished by Gearbox Software and Piranha Games.

The game stars the titular action hero who must come out of retirement and save the world from aliens when they begin kidnapping the women of Earth. Intended to be groundbreaking, Duke Nukem Forever became a notable example of vaporware due to its severely protracted development schedule; the game was released in 2011 after fifteen years of development. Reception to Duke Nukem Forever was generally average, with many critics singling out the game's second-rate graphics, dated humor, simplistic mechanics, and unpolished performance.

Gameplay

Duke Nukem Forever is an action-oriented first-person shooter. Players take control of Duke Nukem and navigate a series of levels which take place on Earth and beyond. The game allows players to interact with various in-game objects, including water coolers, urinals, and whiteboards, which allow players to draw their own images. The gameplay is similar in some respects to the first-person shooter games of the late 1990s and early 2000s, with each level culminating in a boss battle in which Duke has to fight and kill a large, significant alien.

Easter egg

Easter eggs, also called Paschal eggs, are decorated eggs that are often given to celebrate Easter or springtime. As such, Easter eggs are common during the season of Eastertide (Easter season). The oldest tradition is to use dyed and painted chicken eggs, but a modern custom is to substitute chocolate eggs, or plastic eggs filled with confectionery such as chocolate. Eggs, in general, were a traditional symbol of fertility, and rebirth.

History

The practice of decorating eggshells is ancient, predating Christian traditions. Ostrich eggs with engraved decoration that are 60,000 years old have been found in Africa. Decorated ostrich eggs, and representations of ostrich eggs in gold and silver, were commonly placed in graves of the ancient Sumerians and Egyptians as early as 5,000 years ago.

The Christian custom of the Easter egg, can be traced as far back as the early Christians of Mesopotamia, who stained eggs red in memory of the blood of Christ. The Christian Church officially adopted the custom, regarding the eggs as a symbol of the resurrection. The Roman Ritual, the first edition of which was published in 1610 but which contains texts of much older date, has among the Easter Blessings of Food, along with those for lamb, bread, and new produce, the following blessing for eggs:

Duke

A duke (male) (British English: /djuːk/ or American English: /duːk/) or duchess (female) can either be a monarch ruling over a duchy or a member of the nobility, historically of highest rank below the monarch. The title comes from French duc, itself from the Latin dux, 'leader', a term used in republican Rome to refer to a military commander without an official rank (particularly one of Germanic or Celtic origin), and later coming to mean the leading military commander of a province.

During the Middle Ages the title (as Herzog) signified first among the Germanic monarchies. Dukes were the rulers of the provinces and the superiors of the counts in the cities and later, in the feudal monarchies, the highest-ranking peers of the king. A duke may or may not be, ipso facto, a member of the nation's peerage: in the United Kingdom and Spain all dukes are/were also peers of the realm, in France some were and some were not, while the term is not applicable to dukedoms of other nations, even where an institution similar to the peerage (e.g., Grandeeship, Imperial Diet, Hungarian House of Magnates) existed.

Duke Nukem 3D

Duke Nukem 3D is a first-person shooter video game developed by 3D Realms and published by GT Interactive Software. The full version of the game was originally released for MS-DOS in May 1996 as version 1.3d, while the shareware version was released on January 29, 1996. It is a sequel to the platform games Duke Nukem and Duke Nukem II, published by 3D Realms. The Plutonium PAK, an expansion pack which updated the game to version 1.4 and added a fourth eleven-level episode, was released in November 1996. The Atomic Edition, a standalone version of the game that included the content from the Plutonium PAK and updated the game to version 1.5, was later released; the original version of Duke Nukem 3D has since been discontinued.

Duke Nukem 3D features the adventures of the titular macho Duke Nukem, voiced by Jon St. John, who fights against an alien invasion on Earth. Along with Wolfenstein 3D and Doom, Duke Nukem 3D is considered to be responsible for popularizing first-person shooters, and was released to major acclaim. Reviewers praised the interactivity of the environments, gameplay, level design, and unique risqué humor, a mix of pop-culture satire and lampooning of over-the-top Hollywood action heroes. The game's violent nature, erotic elements, and portrayal of women incited controversy.