Duke Nukem 3D prototypes

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Beta title screen (circa November 20–30, 1995)

The Duke Nukem 3D prototypes are builds of Duke Nukem 3D, Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition, or Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour that precede their commercial releases. Several of these builds have either been leaked or officially released as freeware. However, most are only known from screenshots or demo footage.

Current status

Available prototypes

Beta builds

• December 30, 1994 commercial prototype, officially released as LameDuke
• January 4, 1996 leaked shareware v0.99

Pre-release demos

• January 29, 1996 shareware v1.0
• February 20, 1996 shareware v1.1
• March 4, 1996 Computer Gaming World demo

Scrapped content

• Mid-1995 RGAME.H file
• September 1995 GAME.CON file
• November 20, 1995 beta preview notes
• Episode lists extracted from CON files dated to September, November, and December 1995
• Official releases of scrapped levels by Richard "Levelord" Gray: Chuckles, Cigam, Sewer, and Sweeney
• Numerous sprites, map schematics, in-game screenshots, and videos (see below in this article)

Forthcoming prototypes

In 2014, Frederik Schreiber of 3D Realms enlisted Richard "TerminX" Gobeille and Evan "Hendricks266" Ramos to salvage and package Duke Nukem 3D prototype assets for release, but a lawsuit with Gearbox Software halted the project for over a decade.

In 2025, Ramos stated that work had quietly resumed and that a sanctioned release seemed likely. Ramos and Gobeille are not at liberty to share any development files in the meantime.

December 1992 — December 1993

According to the game's lead director and executive producer George Broussard, Duke Nukem 3D began development in 1994. Timestamped materials from extant sources show that development could not have started prior to January 2, 1994 and yet development was well underway by March 19, 1994. However, plans for the game were announced significantly earlier, as far back as 1992.

Announcing "Duke Nukum 3D"

On December 18, 1992, George Broussard made the earliest known mention of Duke Nukem 3D in a Usenet forum post:

These are some other games in the works to look for by summer:
* Duke Nukum 2 - VGA / SoundBlaster/Adlib. Your favorite superhero is at it again, blasting everything in his way!
* Duke Nukum 3D - Yup, that's right. Duke will make his 3D appearance shortly after Duke 2 is finished. Both games are being developed concurrently, so you Duke fans will have plenty of summer blasting fun! 256 VGA, SB/Adlib.

However, Broussard's statement was followed 10 days later by one from Jay Wilbur, an executive at id Software:

Blake Stone will use [our] engine, but Duke 3d will not.

Despite saying "both games are being developed concurrently," there are several reasons to believe Broussard's original statement was merely an optimistic projection—based on the assumption that Wilbur's team would license their 3D game engine to Apogee—and that work on Duke Nukem 3D had not actually started.

Duke Nukem 3D was announced at the same time as Duke Nukem II

• The projected release date of Duke Nukem 3D—but not of Duke Nukem II—was delayed in a subsequent post by Joe Siegler on March 22, 1993, where "Duke3D" was now slated for "Xmas/93".
• Ken Silverman was hired around the same time to create a 3D game engine for Apogee Software because, he was told, he was Apogee's "next best option" after they were rejected by id Software.
• Todd Replogle and Allen Blum, who are credited as the co-creators of Duke Nukem 3D, were preoccupied with Duke Nukem II until its publication in December 1993. Duke Nukem II's release was several months behind schedule, so Replogle and Blum would not have had time to work on both games at once.
• The earliest known prototype of Duke Nukem 3D shows no evidence of having a backlog of game assets that were being ported to Silverman's new engine; development seems to have started from scratch in 1994.
• Broussard himself later stated that development of Duke Nukem 3D did not begin until 1994.

To date, there is no evidence of any concepting or prototypes for Duke Nukem 3D prior to 1994.

Hiring Ken Silverman

Build preceded the completion of Duke Nukem II (Pictured: 1993 Build demo logo)

The initial conception of Duke Nukem 3D was not only heavily influenced but directly inspired by Doom. As early as March 1993, Doom was one of the most highly anticipated games of the year. At that time, the first Doom demo would not be available for another 9 months, but fans were already excited by id Software’s pre-release screenshots, which were branded as the next project by the creators of the highly acclaimed Wolfenstein 3D. In fact, Ken Silverman compiled a computer program on March 6, 1993 that would allow him to view the pre-release screenshots on his computer. Having just recently published Ken’s Labyrinth through Apogee Software, Silverman casually mentioned to Scott Miller, the CEO of Apogee, that he wanted to adapt his 3D game engine from Ken’s Labyrinth to create a “Doom-style engine.” Miller, who wanted his studio at Apogee to develop a first-person shooter of their own, reached out to Id Software with a request to license their game engine, but Id Software declined. On March 30, 1993, Miller wrote a letter to Silverman, congratulating him on the commercial success of his new game and, in a sly reference to Silverman’s previously declared interest in developing a first-person shooter engine, noted that Id Software was not allowing anyone else to use their engine. Around this time, it was determined that hiring Silverman would be Apogee’s “next best option.” On April 13, 1993, Silverman created the file directory for a new game engine he titled “Build” because, in his own words, “I just needed to pick a name.” By August of that year, Silverman was receiving bug reports and feature requests from George Broussard, the creative director at Apogee Software who was monitoring Silverman’s progress on the new engine.

Earliest developments

Sequel hook at the end of Duke Nukem II

On December 3, 1993, Apogee Software published Duke Nukem II. One week later on December 10, Id Software published Doom. According to George Broussard, Duke Nukem 3D began development in 1994 as an attempt at merely copying features from Doom, a version of events partly corroborated by Ken Silverman. Taken at face value, Broussard’s statement would mean that development of Duke Nukem 3D could not have begun before January 1994. Broussard’s recollection of a 1994 start date is plausible given the December publication dates of Duke Nukem II and Doom, considering that the timing of American holidays likely would have delayed Todd Replogle and Allen Blum—who are credited as the co-creators of Duke Nukem II and Duke Nukem 3D—from starting an entirely new project. In addition, Silverman had not even incorporated sectors—the most basic unit of the game engine—into Build until January 2, 1994, so it is unlikely that the Build engine would have been available to Replogle and Blum to begin planning their 3D game any time before January.

January — March 1994

Duke Nukem 3D was started by Todd Replogle and Allen Blum around the beginning of 1994, shortly after publishing Duke Nukem II. The original development team, operating as an independent studio within Apogee Software, was known as "Core Software".

Nukeland

Main article: Nukeland (L9)

Nukeland is believed to be the first map, if not the first game asset, developed specifically for Duke Nukem 3D. In the change log packaged with the April 1994 Build demo, Ken Silverman describes Nukeland as "my board" and uses it to demonstrate new features of the Build engine described in his revision notes, some of which are specifically addressed to the "Duke Nukem III team". Although the first revision notes in the change log are dated February 6, 1994, there is not enough information to infer the start date of Duke Nukem 3D's development, since Apogee is known to have licensed the Build engine not only to the Duke Nukem team but to other teams working on their own 3D games in parallel. However, judging by the map's title, Nukeland was apparently a demo map that Silverman had designed specifically for the Duke Nukem team, making it very likely that the map was shown to the team as part of their first introduction to the engine. A fork of Nukeland with minimal changes would later appear in the December 1994 prototype, indicating that the developers clearly considered this a Duke Nukem map.

BUILD Engine (April 1994)

Duke Nukem 3D beta (Lame Duke) L9.MAP (with corrected textures)

In the footage above, the video on the left shows the fork of Nukeland that was packaged with the April 1994 Build demo, and the video on the right shows the fork that is included in the December 1994 prototype of Duke Nukem 3D. Neither version is "older" than the other; both are forks with unique modifications from an older iteration of the map.

Stadium

In the Duke4 forums, Richard "TerminX" Gobeille (see Forthcoming prototypes above) shared what he believes to be the oldest Duke Nukem 3D map to survive into the final game: Stadium. A screenshot was posted from the earliest archived iteration of the map. Because it features such a minimalist design and experimental shapes, it is possible this was one of the first maps Allen Blum created in order to familiarize himself with the Build engine.

Early build of Stadium, circa Q1 1994

Final 1996 build

City

In the change log packaged with the April 1994 Build demo, Ken Silverman wrote in his revision notes dated March 19, 1994:

For Duke Nukem III team:  CITY.MAP will not crash anymore with new version.  The  reason it crashed was because in your TILES.ART, you had  either ANMFD:0, ANMBK:0, or OSCI:0.  That caused a MOD 0  in my animation routine. I bullet-proofed that.  How about  fixing tiles #34, #112, or #114 in your TILES.ART.

Given that the developers apparently had a map resembling a city and at least 114 graphics, it can be inferred that development was well underway by this point. Although the identity of "CITY.MAP" cannot be known for certain, it very likely corresponds to L6, a sprawling cityscape that uses the maximum map size permitted by early versions of the Build engine. As confirmed in the 20th anniversary developer commentary, Hollywood Holocaust and Red Light District were derived from two subsections of L6. There are no known screenshots from L6 or any other contemporaneous map from this time period.

April 1994

In 2014, 3D Realms released footage from an early prototype of Duke Nukem 3D. In the video, the name "Duke Nukem IIID" appears at the top of the in-game menu. Richard "TerminX" Gobeille and Evan "Hendricks266" Ramos, both of whom signed non-disclosure agreements and were given an archive of Duke Nukem 3D development data (see Forthcoming prototypes above), have identified this prototype as the earliest archived build of the game. Ramos, who actually recorded the footage, affectionately nicknamed the prototype "LamerDuke" because it preceded the December 1994 prototype, officially known as LameDuke. Gobeille later disclosed that the prototype in the video dates to April 1994.

Duke Nukem IIID

April 1994 prototype footage featuring the Plasma Cannon and Drones on an early iteration of M1

Gobeille later shared these sprites and stated that these were the only enemies present at the time of the April 1994 build:

Early version of the Drone, facing forward

Early version of the Drone, facing at an angle

Bat corpse

Original version of the Bat, with more detail than in the December 1994 prototype

Other tiles from this build were shared as well:

Third-person sprite for the Plasma Cannon

First-person sprite for the Plasma Cannon

Explosive canister

Exploding barrel

Exploding barrel

Tile number 89, the same tile number as the L.A. sky in the final game

Alternate sky texture

Alternate sky texture

Sky texture that had the EditART interface captured inside the ART tile itself

Logo, which uses "Nukem 3D" rather than "Nukem IIID" from the title screen or "Nukum 3D" from the game's announcement

May 1994

Richard "TerminX" Gobeille has shared these sprites (see Forthcoming prototypes above) and dated them to May 1994:

Third-person sprite for the Plasma Cannon

First-person sprite for the Plasma Cannon

Alternate first-person sprite for the Plasma Cannon

New sprite that replaced the April Drone

New sprite that replaced the April Drone

New sprite that replaced the April Drone

New sprite that replaced the April Drone

New sprite that replaced the April Drone

Femanoid

Signpost

Earliest switch sprite

Earliest switch sprite

Fence

Tiles

Tiles that were needlessly shaded in the ART file (shading is handled in the Build engine mapping software)

Glass

Bricks

Wall

Highway median

Clay cobblestone

Dirt

This is the color palette that the game used in May 1994:

June — September 1994

There are no known publicly available materials from this period.

October 1994

Ken Silverman has shared with Richard "Terminx" Gobeille and Evan "Hendricks266" Ramos a backup of a build dated October 7, 1994. Using Silverman's prototype, Ramos and Gobeille proceeded to create the video footage below. Subsequently, 3D Realms privately informed the duo that not even their own official archives had retained copies of these assets. The assets remain protected under non-disclosure agreements and have not yet been made publicly available.

Ramos and Gobeille also provided a large section of notes in the video description (saved here), including a clarification that the EXE file is dated October 7th though the maps come from December. Maps shown in the video include, in order of appearance: L5, M4, L5 again, L6, L6 again, N4, what appears to be an early version of Zoo or a Zoo-like test map, and WAR1/O1.

Duke3D 9410 (.exe dated Oct 7)

October 7, 1994 prototype, with maps from December 1994

At this point in development, the developers were planning to release the first episode of the game as shareware. As seen in an advertisement that was created for an anticipated Christmas release, the first episode would have been titled "Inner City", and the game would have been marketed as "Duke 3-D". The development team also briefly used the name "Ironcore Software", rather than the "Core Software" name seen in LameDuke and mentioned in interviews. The December 1994 prototype, later officially released as LameDuke, is likely the build that the team was preparing to publish.

Advertisement for December 1994 shareware

The Pistol firing animation in the October 7, 1994 build included two additional frames at the end:

Water surface tiles had two more frames than the later December 1994 prototype:

This build also had alternate water tiles that seem to be electrified:

Other sprites from this build have also been shared:

Updated Drone

RPG

Pipe Bomb

Third-person sprite for the Pistol

HUD sprite for the Pistol

Battery ammo for the Plasma Cannon

Switch

Switch

Cinema sign

Bookshelf

Bookshelf

November — Early December 1994

3D Realms. Concept art for the Jellyfish, signed and dated November 7, 1994	3D Realms. Concept art for the Sonic Resonator, signed and dated November 29, 1994. According to 3D Realms, the Sonic Resonator was later reimagined as the Expander.
3D Realms. Concept art for the Jetpack, signed and dated December 2, 1994	3D Realms. Concept art for the Recon Patrol Vehicle (RPV), signed and dated December 4, 1994. According to 3D Realms, this concept directly evolved into the Pig Cop-piloted vehicle in the final game.
3D Realms. Concept art for the Pig Cop is signed and dated to "1994", but this can be dated to mid-to-late December based on comparison to other concept art that is dated to January 1995 and includes notes from Chuck Jones stating he had gone through some recent designs for the enemy. According to 3D Realms, this enemy was initially conceived only as a mutant police officer who had been transformed by alien technology; the team had not yet proposed making it a pig, though this drawing may have spurred the idea.

Late December 1994

Main article: LameDuke

The December 1994 prototype, officially known as LameDuke, was finished and compiled on December 30, 1994.

LameDuke Playthrough by Max Ylitalo

The table below summarizes the suspected relationships between maps in LameDuke and later maps from the Duke Nukem 3D development team.

	Relationship*	Later Map	Status†
L1	iterated	AHB-Space	confirmed
	iterated	Spaceport	confirmed
	absorbed	Fusion Station	confirmed
	absorbed	Occupied Territory	confirmed
	absorbed	Tiberius Station	confirmed
	absorbed	Lunar Reactor	confirmed
	absorbed	It's Impossible	weakly supported
	not split	Tiberius Station	strongly supported
	not split	Lunar Reactor	strongly supported
L2	iterated	Dark Side	confirmed
	absorbed	Fusion Station	weakly supported
L3	absorbed	AHB-Space	strongly supported
	absorbed	Spaceport	strongly supported
	absorbed	Fusion Station	strongly supported
	absorbed	Tiberius Station	weakly supported
	absorbed	Dark Side	strongly supported
	absorbed	Duke-Burger	weakly supported
L4	iterated	Fusion Station	weakly supported
	absorbed	Lunar Reactor	confirmed
L5	forked	Incubator	strongly supported
	forked	Rabid Transit	confirmed
	forked	Babe Land	strongly supported
L6	split	Hollywood Holocaust	confirmed
	split	Red Light District	confirmed
	split	Bonaventure test map	confirmed
	absorbed	Freeway	confirmed
	not split	Freeway	strongly supported
L7	iterated	Warp Factor	strongly supported
	absorbed	It's Impossible	strongly supported
L8	scrapped
L9	iterated	Faces of Death	weakly supported
	not forked	Zoo	strongly supported
M1	iterated	Freeway	strongly supported
	forked	M2	confirmed
	absorbed	Toxic Dump	weakly supported
	absorbed	Launch Facility	strongly supported
M2	forked	M3	confirmed
M3	recreated	Launch Facility	weakly supported
M4	scrapped
	not iterated	Duke-Burger	strongly supported
M5	iterated	Critical Mass	confirmed
	absorbed	Occupied Territory	weakly supported
M6	iterated	Hotel Hell	confirmed
M7	absorbed	Fusion Station	strongly supported
	not absorbed	Critical Mass	strongly supported
M8	iterated	N8	confirmed
N1	iterated	Death Row	confirmed
N2	iterated	Derelict	confirmed
	forked	N3	confirmed
N3	absorbed	Dark Side	strongly supported
N4	scrapped
N5	scrapped
N6	iterated	Toxic Dump	strongly supported
	absorbed	Death Row	strongly supported
N7	absorbed	Freeway	strongly supported
	absorbed	Bonaventure test map	weakly supported
N8	absorbed	Overlord	confirmed
	not iterated	Overlord	strongly supported
O1	absorbed	Babe Land	weakly supported
	absorbed	Sweeney	weakly supported
O2	scrapped
O3	recreated	L3	weakly supported
O4	iterated	O2	confirmed
WAR1	iterated	O1	confirmed
WAR2	scrapped

^{*"Iterated" means the later map was directly developed from the earlier map. "Split" means the earlier map was divided into subsections, each of which was directly iterated into a later map. "Forked" means multiple maps were directly iterated from different versions of the earlier map. "Absorbed" means parts of the earlier map were copied-and-pasted into an already existing version of the later map. "Recreated" means the later map was started as a second draft of the earlier map, possibly to correct for design limitations or performance issues.
†See the corresponding LameDuke map pages for more information. "Confirmed" means either that the relationship has been acknowledged by individuals with privileged access to development files or that the relationship can be easily verified due to perfect alignment across large-scale geometric spaces. "Strongly supported" means there are multiple lines of concrete evidence, such as sector chronology, geometric measurements, matching z-coordinates, matching textures, or beta screenshots, with little or no known evidence to the contrary. "Weakly supported" means there may be significant contradictory evidence, or the relationship may be primarily based on thematic similarities and abstract arguments, rather than concrete evidence.}

January — April 1995

More concept art from Chuck Jones is dated to early 1995.

3D Realms. Concept art for the Pig Cop, signed and dated "1995", but it can be dated to early January based on comparison to other concept art from this period, which includes notes from Chuck Jones explaining he had gone through a few iterations of the design

Chuck Jones. Later colorization by Chuck Jones himself

3D Realms. Concept art for the Pig Cop, signed and dated January 24, 1995

3D Realms. Concept art for the Pig Cop, signed and dated January 24, 1995

3D Realms. Concept art for the Skycar, signed and dated February 27, 1995

3D Realms and Computer Gaming World, Issue 132. Early concept art for the Enforcer

Screenshots from this period can be dated based on the fact that Duke still has a scar on the back of his left hand, the Pistol uses the washed-out sprites from LameDuke, the Tazer has not yet been replaced with the Mighty Foot, and in-game signage uses a red font. In addition, Enforcers and Pig Cops are shown in locations where Troopers are seen in later footage, suggesting the updated Trooper sprites had not yet been developed.

AHB-Space. This is the only screenshot of the blue HUD. The Enforcers fire blue projectiles. Details in the background are less developed than in later footage, where the Enforcers have been replaced with Troopers.

Beneath the "Central Command" door on AHB-Space. This was likely meant to show that doors could be kicked open, which is a poorly documented feature that actually survived into the final game.

AHB-Space, in the room that would be forked to create the scrapped middle floor of Spaceport and the ending room of Fusion Station. The RPG sprite has been updated since LameDuke. Details in the background are less developed than in later footage, where the Enforcers have been replaced with Troopers. Because this comes from the same source as the first screenshot, it is presumed to date to the same period of development.

Warp Factor as seen in this video. This is the first instance of the Pig Cop.

Outside the central control tower on Dark Side. zoomed in

Outside the central control tower on Dark Side, zoomed out

Inside a structure at the center of the crater on Dark Side, as seen in later map schematics*

Duke Nukem II checkpoint on Dark Side. The white horizontal line is actually a ledge in the distance. [Compare]*

Far corner after dropping down the elevation near the end of Dark Side, facing the elevation with a box on the left*

*There is reason to think this may have been developed separately on N3 before later being absorbed into Dark Side.

Sometime after the screenshots above, Chuck Jones began concepting the Laser Chainsaw, which quickly evolved into the Flamethrower.

3D Realms. Concept art for the Laser Chainsaw, signed and dated April 4, 1995. It was nicknamed the "Caterkillar" as a pun on Caterpillar, a company known for manufacturing yellow construction equipment. This nickname was used in the game's internal files, where it was misspelled (as seen here).

It is around this time that the first screenshots with the Flashlight appear. Based on a Fulton MX991/U Tactical Flashlight, the Flashlight worked by simply causing all rooms and sprites to display with maximum lighting, as though no shading were present. Because no third-person sprites are ever seen and because the Flashlight is present in screenshots from the beginnings of levels (see here and here), it can be inferred that the developers were probably using the Flashlight only in Debug Mode or via cheat code.

Reference photo for the Flashlight

Reference photo for the Flashlight

Sprite artwork for the Flashlight

Additional screenshots can be dated to this period via comparison with maps from LameDuke and the May 9 demo reel:

• Screenshots from O1, which is never seen again, show it has barely changed from LameDuke and is being used merely as a staging map for new enemy sprites. Because the updated Trooper sprites are not seen in any of the preceding screenshots with dateable features, the screenshots from O1 are tentatively assumed to date slightly later.
• Screenshots from L6 depict a version of the map that is less developed than in May 9 footage. Although these screenshots have May or June timestamps (from the September 1995 issue of Score Magazine), the timestamps must be from copying-and-pasting or from post-production edits.
• One of the screenshots shows the exterior of a strip club that does not appear on Red Light District; this screenshot is also believed to pre-date May because Richard "Terminx" Gobeille (see Forthcoming prototypes above) has stated that L6 was cut into Hollywood Holocaust and Red Light District sometime in May, making the late May timestamp highly implausible.

O1, apparently repurposed as a staging map to showcase new enemies

O1, unchanged except that plants and new enemies have been added. Sector effector sprites can be seen in the doorway and near the ceiling above the elevator.

Score, May 27, 1995 @ 15:12:46.* Smaller bar on L6 that did not become the bar on Red Light District. The dance floor from this bar was briefly merged with (as seen here)—and later fully replaced—the dance floor in the main club. This is the first instance of the Flashlight. Because concept art for the Laser Chainsaw is dated April 4th, it is not known whether this is the Laser Chainsaw or Flamethrower, which evolved from the Laser Chainsaw (the flame in the background is part of the environment).

Score, June 4, 1995 @ 19:17:24.* L6, facing the building that would become the adult-themed store on Red Light District with the club on the left. This is the first instance of the Shrinker.

Score, June 4, 1995 @ 19:19:32.* L6, inside a scrapped hotel building seen in LameDuke

Score, June 4, 1995 @ 19:18:40.* L6 in a room that likely became the Blue Access Card room on Red Light District. Outside the window, a street with yellow dashed lines down the middle and a streetlight can be seen past the edge of a building corner, indicating the room is probably not in the same location as the final version. There is also something resembling a lavafall outside the window. Despite similarities with the previous screenshot, this is a completely different room—note the solid wall beside the bed—that may have been forked from the room in the other screenshot and placed in a different location.

*These timestamps are not considered reliable, though they provide a meaningful upper bound.

Another screenshot from L6 can be dated to sometime around the last week of April or first week of May 1995. Compared with previous screenshots, the adult-themed store in the background has had its textures updated to match the May 9, 1995 demo reel, but the sandbag barricades and overturned police car have not yet been added.

L6, facing the building that would become the club on Red Light District. The adult-themed store in the background has not yet been expanded to subsume the street. The woman is an updated Femanoid, as confirmed in the first couple frames of this video.

May 1995

A beta map known as AHB-Space appeared on season 4, episode 8 of Bad Influence! and on season 5, episode 14 of GamesMaster. These were both British TV shows that aired in November 1995 and December 1995, respectively, but there are several clues that the prototype shown in these episodes comes from late April or early May. As a lower bound, concept art for the Laser Chainsaw is dated April 4, 1995, which means the prototype's Flamethrower—which evolved from the Laser Chainsaw—could not have existed until sometime later in April. As an upper bound, screenshots dated May 18, 1995 (such as this one) show that the blue HUD seen in this prototype had been replaced with a green HUD. Crucially, this version of AHB-Space is perfectly identical to the one seen in the May 9 demo reel, suggesting the prototype more likely comes from May than from April.

Duke 3D Prototype (Spring 1995)- AHB-Space on Bad Influence! The man in the video, who is only ever shown playing AHB-Space, says he liked that you can get into vehicles. Although he is never shown driving any vehicles in the video, this is believed to be a reference to the "Virtual Hawg" room (discussed below).

GamesMaster Series 5 Episode 14 At a couple points in the video, a hole is blasted in the side of the space station, exposing the interior to outer space. When this happens, enemies begin to lift off the ground and appear to be sucked towards the opening. A less sophisticated version of this effect could also be seen on L1—which was an earlier iteration of AHB-Space—where enemies could be sucked through bay doors that opened in the floor.

Screenshots shared by Richard "TerminX" Gobeille match the version of AHB-Space seen in the videos above.

AHB-Space map schematics

AHB-Space map schematics, left half magnified

AHB-Space map schematics, right half magnified

Assault Commander that Gobeille inserted into the first room on AHB-Space for demonstration purposes only. The Assault Commander may be anachronistic for this map.

In the Bad Influence! video above, the man in the video says he likes that "you can get into vehicles and stuff and drive around." This statement is completely unexplained by the video itself, since the man is never shown driving any vehicles. Because he is only ever shown playing AHB-Space, it can be inferred that he is likely referring to a vehicle somewhere on that map. Although no vehicles have ever been documented on AHB-Space, Gobeille has shared the sprites below from a virtual reality room with a motorcycle, probably somewhere on the space station. Gobeille has confirmed that an experimental motorcycle once existed in the game as part of a "holodeck" experience, and it worked by rotating the camera sideways and driving on the walls, which were somehow able to create the illusion of a flat road interspersed with vertical loops. The prototype file RGAME.H, which dates to around this time period, contains a flag for "harley_mode", likely referring to the motorcycle.

Collection of sprites associated with the "Virtual Hawg" room. The black and yellow grid texture matches the Holodeck from Star Trek: The Next Generation, which inspired the map design of Warp Factor and the level title for Tiberius Station in the final game.

First-person motorcycle sprite that was repurposed in the karaoke video on Raw Meat in the final game

When Ramos and Gobeille were first given access to an archive of Duke Nukem 3D development data in early 2014 (see Forthcoming prototypes above), one of their first discoveries was a demo reel dated May 9, 1995. In order of appearance, the video shows AHB-Space (L1), L6, L5, early Dark Side (L2), the Bonaventure test map, and early Warp Factor (L7).

Duke Nukem 3D Beta 1995-05-09

Demo footage recorded by the original developers on May 9, 1995 and later rediscovered by Ramos and Gobeille. From 10:02-10:06 in the video, the player can be seen switching between alternate firing modes with the Plasma Cannon; this is the earliest known evidence of alternate firing modes, which would later be denoted with a colored light on the player's weapon (as first seen in this screenshot dated May 18).

Part of the video above shows spinning yellow cylindrical gears on the Bonaventure test map. This area was incorporated into Death Row in the final game. Gobeille has shared a few more screenshots from this version of the map.

Map schematics from the Bonaventure test map

View from the gears

Another view from the gears

Third view from the gears

Gobeille is showing that the tile indices in the ART files have shifted since the map was developed

The June 1995 issue (#61) of Joystick contains five screenshots. Because these come from a common source, they are presumed to date to a similar timeframe. However, two of the images (already shown above) come from AHB-Space and can be definitely dated earlier than the other three below. These three do not yet show colored dots on the player's weapon, so they must pre-date screenshots timestamped May 18 which show the colored dots. The maps contain details not seen in screenshots from the January — April period (e.g., the Mighty Foot and the underpass on L6); they actually appear identical to those from the May 9 demo footage, including the traffic light in the background on L6. However, the ceiling in the Warp Factor screenshot no longer uses the scrapped tile from the demo footage and instead uses a tile that has existed since LameDuke but which also exists in the final game. Because this is the only discernible difference from the May 9 footage, these images likely date very close to May 9, but the removal of a scrapped tile might be an indication that they slightly post-date the May 9 reel.

L6, standing between what would become the adult-themed store (left) and dance club (right) on Red Light District, as seen in this video

End of Warp Factor as seen in this video

Unidentified. The textures are a close match to the mess hall kitchen on It's Impossible, which is known to have borrowed heavily from the May 1995 iteration of Warp Factor, but there is also a sign for a "Mess Hall" on AHB-Space, though no screenshots of the interior are available

Numerous promotional screenshots were packaged on a CD with the September 1995 issue of Score Magazine. These screenshots are unusual in that the files on the CD contain precise timestamps, down to the minute. These timestamps concord with other known facts about the Duke Nukem 3D development timeline and are considered reliable. However, there is evidence some of these images were subject to post-processing (e.g., with text inserted across the top) or were copied-and-pasted in post-production, so their timestamps should be viewed merely as an upper bound on their dating, rather than the actual date itself.

Score, May 10, 1995 @ 2:12:54. Starting location on L6, as seen in this video

Score, May 10, 1995 @ 2:20:00. Near the start of Warp Factor, as seen in this video

Score, May 10, 1995 @ 2:20:32. Unidentified. Most likely Warp Factor, since the layout of the room cannot be matched to contemporaneous map schematics from AHB-Space

Score, May 10, 1995 @ 2:23:06. Area on Warp Factor (seen in this video) that was repurposed on It's Impossible

Score, May 10, 1995 @ 2:24:02. Warp Factor, as seen in this video

Score, May 10, 1995 @ 2:30:10. Two rooms near the beginning of AHB-Space that were repurposed to create the ending of Tiberius Station

Score, May 10, 1995 @ 2:32:24. AHB-Space, later incorporated into Lunar Reactor [Compare]

Score, May 18, 1995 @ 20:31:48. AHB-Space, as seen in this map and later incorporated into Lunar Reactor. This is the first instance of the green HUD and first instance of a colored light on the player's weapon, used to denote alternate ammo types.

Score, May 18, 1995 @ 20:36:24. Dark Side. The inside of this structure can be seen here.*

Score, May 21, 1995 @ 21:32:02. Beneath the central control tower on Dark Side

Score, May 21, 1995 @ 21:33:32. Dark Side with control panels and a chair added since previous footage

Score, May 21, 1995 @ 22:43:44. RPV piloted by an Enforcer and firing explosives on L6, between the building that would become the club (right) and adult-themed store (behind the camera) on Red Light District

Score, May 21, 1995 @ 22:50:26. Alpha Transport on Dark Side

Score, May 21, 1995 @ 22:52:06. Beginning of L3 (possibly corresponding to "Science Station" in 1995 episode lists) that was later copied-and-pasted onto Dark Side to create the vivisection lab. The player is facing the expected direction on L3 but is facing backwards on Dark Side, suggesting the maps may still be separate.

Score, May 21, 1995 @ 22:57:04. First instance of the Flamethrower with a blue light, firing at a LameDuke Drone on Dark Side

Score, May 21, 1995 @ 23:00:50. Dark Side in an area believed to have been inherited from L2. Later map schematics (seen here) suggest this area was scrapped and replaced with the starting area in the final game. There is evidence this room may have been repurposed to create the spinning water turbines on Fusion Station (see L2 for more information).

Score, May 21, 1995 @ 23:11:00. Dark Side near the Beta Transport doorway

Score, May 27, 1995 @ 14:09:32. Area from the Bonaventure test map later incorporated into Death Row, where the railing was turned into a ledge. This is the first instance where the Enforcer no longer fires blue projectiles.

Score, May 27, 1995 @ 14:15:10. Starting area of L6 that was subsumed when the adult-themed store (building in the center) was expanded into the street. Gobeille has confirmed this police car was directly copied-and-pasted onto Freeway.

*There is reason to think this may have been developed separately on N3 before later being absorbed into Dark Side.

Several beta screenshots appear in the September 1995 issue of Edge Magazine (UK). Because they appear together, they are presumed to have a similar dating. Three images in the magazine are identical to timestamped screenshots from the September 1995 issue of Score (discussed above). Those timestamps range from May 21 through June 1. Therefore, the two remaining images are believed to date to late May as well. This timing is consistent with the observation that the Warp Factor screenshot contains details that post-date the May 9 demo reel, and the Dark Side screenshot shows an area that was cut from later map schematics, circa mid-summer.

Warp Factor, showing the first instance of the Enforcer's slime attack. The floor textures match a later iteration, post-dating the May 9 demo reel.

Dark Side, as identified by Gobeille. It is not known how this area was connected to the rest of the map. It may have been replaced by the vivisection lab (L3) or massive outdoor crater (N3), or it may have been part of the Gamma Transport area that was replaced by the starting area in the final game.

Gobeille has shared a screenshot from the theater on Hollywood Holocaust that is difficult to date. However, Gobeille has stated that L6 was cut into Hollywood Holocaust and Red Light District sometime around May. Based on sector chronology, the theater is one of the oldest areas of the map, so the theater was probably created around the time the two maps were split, if not earlier.

Hollywood Holocaust with stairs in the aisles and more seats than in the final version. This wall texture was also seen in April (see screenshot). The Duke character sprite at the front of the theater pre-dates September (as seen in this video).

Lee Jackson, the musician who composed roughly half of the soundtrack for Duke Nukem 3D, released the following two unused music tracks. The first is an early version of "Plasma," the track that appears on Dark Side in the final game. The second is "Beehive," which is a later version of the track heard during this section of the May 9, 1995 demo footage.

Original Plasma

Beehive

June — July 1995

A few more screenshots from the September 1995 issue of Score (discussed above) have timestamps. Many images on the disc have versions with and without text along the top, but these two screenshots only have versions with the text. Duplicates without the text are generally much older than those with the text, but because the image from Dark Side is staged, the lack of a text-free version may not be so confounding. On the other hand, the in-game screenshot from Tiberius Station is harder to date. The red light on the Pistol means the image must come after May 18, giving a possible time range of May 18 through June 30 (the image's timestamp). Because there is no evidence to suggest that work on Tiberius Station had started by May, a June timeframe seems plausible.

Score, June 1, 1995. Staged image of Dark Side with the "Polaris Outpost" sign taken from AHB-Space. The Polaris signage might make sense if this level immediately followed AHB-Space, like it did in LameDuke (L1 and L2, respectively). It is known that this area was once the beginning of Dark Side (as seen in this video), suggesting this central control tower may have been somehow connected with the previous level. "Control Center" is the name of an unidentified level following AHB-Space in a 1995 episode list.

Score, June 30, 1995. Tiberius Station with most features from the final build, including an indent in the left wall with a secret compartment. The player is facing the opposite direction one would expect in the final build. It is possible the starting area did not yet exist; sector chronology suggests the map was developed mostly in reverse-order, such that the room full of toxic waste and the hallways were created prior to the starting area.

Given that the Score screenshot from Tiberius Station is the first datable image of the map, other images showing early work on Tiberius Station can be tentatively dated to the same period.

First hall on Tiberius Station, facing a mirror onto the door to the beginning of the level. The Plasma Cannon has a blue light, which dates this image to sometime after May 18.

More concept art from Chuck Jones shows that the Snake Head was being concepted on July 8, 1995.

3D Realms. Concept art for the Snake Head, signed and dated July 8, 1995. According to 3D Realms, the team later voted that the enemy looked "too silly," so it was replaced with the Sentry Drone.

An image of map schematics from Dark Side can be dated to mid-summer. Because of the extent of changes from previous timestamped images, the map schematics can be tentatively dated closer to August than to May. These changes include the complete removal of a massive outdoor landing pad (seen here), the complete overhaul of a room filled with toxic waste (seen here), and the introduction of teleportation checkpoints that bring the player back to the central control tower; doors for those teleportation checkpoints are missing from an image timestamped June 1 (seen here). However, the map schematics also show that the central control tower has red stripes, which must pre-date a later screenshot that is timestamped August 11 (seen here). Note that the person who shared this image, Richard "Terminx" Gobeille, has stated he has very few iterations of maps by Allen Blum (such as Dark Side), so if the timestamped screenshots above are much older than believed, it is possible this image instead comes from May, when Gobeille is known to have other maps by Blum.

Dark Side, with changes from previous footage

The image below is from a staging map that was kept separate from the main branch of Dark Side. This is known because the stripes on the building are red, which would date it before timestamped August screenshots (see screenshot), yet this image also contains the newer character sprites for Duke, which would date it after timestamped August screenshots (see screenshot). Ignoring the sprite artwork, the map itself can be dated to approximately the same time as the map schematics discussed above. This is because it still has the red stripes along the central column that are seen in the map schematics screenshot, and more importantly, a door for one of the teleportation rooms can be seen just above Duke's gun in the lower-left corner. This shape in the background corresponds exactly to the location of the door shown in the map schematics, and it is clearly missing from an earlier screenshot dated June 1.

Staging map derived from a mid-summer iteration of Dark Side. Because the sprite artwork is provably anachronistic (discussed above), this image cannot be used to date the Assault Commander.

August 1995

According to an FAQ on the 3D Realms website, the Blood development team hired a replacement for Richard "Levelord" Gray in August 1995, indicating that the Duke Nukem team must have poached Gray around the same time. When Gray joined the team, several maps that had been started by Allen Blum were reassigned to him. This is well established for Incubator (see L5), Warp Factor (see L7), Rabid Transit (see L5 again), Hotel Hell (see M6), and Critical Mass (see M5). A few other maps are also speculated to have been started by Blum but lack conclusive evidence (see here, here, and here). Because Blum is credited as the "Lead Level Designer" and "Assistant Director," he likely would have been responsible for providing creative feedback on all of Gray's work and may have even contributed to some of his maps. However, Gray would not have needed much time to onboard to his new role; given that Blood used the same mapping software as Duke Nukem 3D, he would have already been highly proficient when he joined the team. Screenshots of Gray's work show that he was making extensive contributions even in his first month (e.g., as seen here).

Richard "Levelord" Gray had joined the team by August 1995

Allen Blum was the only level designer prior to Gray and oversaw Gray's work when he joined the team

New enemy artwork was being developed in early August. In addition to dated sprites for the Jellyfish, concept art for the Lizard Trooper is believed to date to this period because later footage (seen here) shows that the humanoid Trooper was replaced with the Lizard Trooper by the end of August.

Updated "Octo-Attack" artwork for the Jellyfish, dated August 6, 1995

3D Realms. Concept art, seemingly depicting the relationship between the gray-helmeted Trooper seen in April and May screenshots and the reptilian Assault Trooper from later builds. The artwork is notable for closely resembling the scrapped sprites that were later repurposed to create the Firefly Trooper.

Chuck Jones. Concept art for a female lizard trooper. There is no evidence that corresponding sprites were ever developed.

Another seven images were shared on the 3D Realms CompuServe forums on August 11, 1995. Because these screenshots were directly posted to the Internet without the delays associated with traditional printing or publishing, these screenshots are likely representative of the build at that time. These screenshots depict an updated HUD, and the colored lights that appear on the player's weapon now appear beside the ammo in the HUD.

3D Realms, August 11, 1995. Red Light District, between the buildings that would become the adult-themed store (left) and the club (right). According to Gobeille, L6 was cut into Hollywood Holocaust and Red Light District sometime around May, indicating this must be after the split.

3D Realms, August 11, 1995. Underwater area on Spaceport. This is the first instance of the Scuba Gear.

3D Realms, August 11, 1995. Top floor of Spaceport. The unusual ceiling pattern matches the hallway past the drinking fountain near the beginning of the map, which suggests the different floors were created by copying-and-pasting.

3D Realms, August 11, 1995. Lunar Reactor. A scrapped room that connects to the ventilation shaft in the ceiling can be seen across the hall from the Red Access Card door, and the room past the Yellow Access Card door is shaped differently. The sector chronology of Lunar Reactor shows the bathroom, barracks, stairwell before the reactor (but not the sector with the Battlelord Sentries), room overlooking the reactor room, reactor room itself, and exploding hallway past the reactor are all older than the yellow gear in this image, indicating they all would have been present at this time.

3D Realms, August 11, 1995. End of Lunar Reactor

3D Realms, August 11, 1995. Dark Side with the first appearance of blue stripes instead of red. A Laser Tripbomb can be seen in the bottom-left corner.

3D Realms, August 11, 1995. Starting area on Sweeney with much greater detail than in the final version, including the first instance of the palm trees visible on the left

Map schematics from a version of Warp Factor show that it has been dramatically reorganized since the May 9 demo reel. This is probably because Allen Blum had reassigned the map to Richard "Levelord" Gray, who wanted to make the map his own. Because the image shows LameDuke Troopers on the map, this must pre-date video footage from August 31, when the humanoid Trooper had been replaced by the Lizard Trooper.

Warp Factor showing significant changes from previous footage, consistent with the map having changed ownership from Allen Blum to Richard "Levelord" Gray (see L7 for more information)

According to Ken Silverman's website and the change log packaged with historical versions of the Build engine, slopes were added to the game on August 29, 1995.

Early first-person shooters did not have slopes (Pictured: Doom II, published September 1994)

Duke Nukem 3D was one of the first 3D games to have slopes, which were added August 29, 1995 (Pictured: Death Row, as seen in the 1996 commercial release)

Composer Lee Jackson has shared a 1995 iteration of "Stalker", which would become the theme for Hollywood Holocaust in the final game. The track is nearly identical to the final version except for the segment from 1:52-2:00. The Duke Nukem 3D Screen Saver & Entertainment Pack not only includes sprites that are easily dateable to August 1995, it also includes MIDI soundtrack files that pre-date the final versions. However, "Stalker" is one of the only two tracks in the pack to match the final version. Given that the Screen Saver & Entertainment Pack uses assets from August 1995 and given that the 1995 iteration of "Stalker" so closely resembles the final version, this track can be roughly dated to sometime around August as well.

Stalker - Unused 1995 Beta

Several screenshots can be narrowly dated to sometime between August 29 and the first week of September. These screenshots must post-date August 29 because they depict sloped sectors, yet they must pre-date the first week of September due to the presence of Pig Cop artwork that was scrapped that week. This latter fact is known from video footage from a build dated August 31. The August 31 footage was reconstructed by Richard "Terminx" Gobeille using ART files from nearby builds, since the August 31 ART files have not been preserved (see Forthcoming prototypes above). However, Gobeille used the nearest ART files that he could find, so it is presumed that the Pig Cop artwork was replaced very close to that time. In fact, the screenshot from Hotel Hell must pre-date the August 31 footage because it is perfectly identical to the map shown in that footage, except that the entrance has a sloped ceiling and a different texture or shadows in the front hallway; these features are missing from the August 31 footage and from all subsequent versions of Hotel Hell, as documented in this video.

Police cruiser on Hollywood Holocaust. Gobeille believes this was a separate fork used solely for staging screenshots. However, Gobeille reports that very few iterations of Blum's maps were saved.

Red Light District, standing near the bar entrance and looking up at the building in the next screenshot. The corpse of a newly updated Lizard Trooper can be seen in the background, where it is already using a green palette.

Red Light District, on top of a scrapped building and looking down onto the street containing the same explosion from the previous screenshot, which indicates they were staged simultaneously

Front entrance of the hotel on Hotel Hell, with visible features from M6. This version is identical to the August 31 footage, except for a sloped ceiling above the entrance and what looks like a different texture or shadows in the front hallway.

There is video footage from an August 31 iteration of Hotel Hell recorded by Gobeille. Although it is uncertain whether the map had been reassigned to Gray by this point, Gobeille has stated he has very few map iterations by Blum, whereas he has almost "daily snapshots" of maps by Gray. Therefore, the map has most likely been backed-up by Gray, though it is unclear if any of the modifications were made by Blum before the reassignment. Note that Gobeille misspeaks in the video when he says slopes were "added a few weeks back"; according to Ken Silverman, slopes were added merely two days earlier.

Duke 3D Prototype- Hotel Hell in August 1995

Hotel Hell from August 31, 1995. The code and enemy AI are from September 22, 1995, which is why a Pig Cop emerges from a crashed RPV that is piloted by an Enforcer. The graphics are reassembled from multiple nearby builds but are believed to be "very close" to August 31. It is unclear how much confidence to have in the artwork for the Pig Cop and Assault Trooper. The HUD is a custom hack.

September 1995

Two videos were recorded by Richard "Terminx" Gobeille using prototype assets that were cobbled together from September, October, and November 1995 (see Forthcoming prototypes above).

Duke3D 0.909 (.exe dated sept 10) spaceport Walkthrough of the September 1995 iteration of Spaceport. The HUD is a custom hack.

Duke3D 0.909 (.exe dated sept 10) weapons-2 Demonstration of the weapons and alternate ammo types from the September build. The map and other elements are anachronistic.

However, the video descriptions (saved here and here) may be difficult to decipher:

• Both video descriptions say the engine is from October, but the titles say the EXE is from September. It is unclear how the engine could be dated separately from the EXE (elsewhere, Gobeille gives separate dates for Todd Replogle's game code versus Ken Silverman's engine, but that is presumably before the EXE is compiled). The mention of "October" may have been a typo that was copied-and-pasted into both descriptions.
• The title of the Spaceport video strongly implies that this version of Spaceport corresponds to the September build. The video description even says "Custom build using 09/22 sources", but it also says "shareware game data (sounds/maps/etc.) from a beta 2 months later". When Gobeille says "shareware game data", he probably is referring to maps from L.A. Meltdown (as seen in the other video), since that is the only episode included in the shareware releases. Therefore, his statement would exclude Spaceport. In fact, there is independent evidence in the video that this map almost certainly comes from September and not November; the Spaceport video shows ammo pick-ups of multiple colors within the first 50 seconds of footage. Later screenshots show that the alternate ammo types were removed no later than October, so the map must have been developed before then. However, it is not known whether this version of the map dates to September 10 (per the title) or September 22 (per the description).
• In contrast with the Spaceport video, the version of Hollywood Holocaust shown in the weapons video likely comes from November, per the video description (i.e., "2 months later"). This version of the map is consistent with datable screenshots from around November, though it is less certain how the map looked in September or October for comparison. The inclusion of differently colored ammo pick-ups is merely a custom modification intended to demonstrate the various ammo types from the September build, which were removed prior to November.

Work on the Assault Commander is believed to have started no later than September 1995. This is because the earliest dateable instance of an Assault Commander is a screenshot that not only shows Duke Nukem sprites which post-date the August 11 screenshots (as seen here) but also shows a colored light on the player's weapon, which must pre-date the removal of alternate firing modes (as seen in this October 18 footage). The version of Sweeney shown in the screenshot is identical to the one seen in a screenshot from August 11, but minimal changes were made in a subsequent screenshot from November. Although this screenshot shows the final design of the Assault Commander, Gobeille has stated that the two designs were developed only a week apart. The final version of the Assault Commander also appears in the October 18 footage from Hotel Hell but not in the August 31 footage from the same map.

Early version of the Assault Commander, artificially inserted into the May 1995 iteration of AHB-Space

Starting area on Sweeney. This is the first confirmed instance of the Assault Commander; previous appearances may be anachronistic.

Work on the Battlelord is also believed to have started no later than September. This is because the Battlelord's face is seen on a door in a screenshot (seen here) with the Expander, which was removed prior to October 18 (as seen in this video). Presumably, this means that the art director considered the Battlelord fully finished by early-to-mid-October, since the team had moved onto designing complementary tiles for doors.

PC Gamer, Issue 25. Concept art by Chuck Jones of a Battlelord without a gun, standing in front of a massive drill. Beta storylines for the game consistently mention that the aliens came to Earth to harvest energy and cause environmental catastrophe.

The Expander aimed at a weaponless Battlelord. The map is difficult to identify, but it is most likely an early version of Occupied Territory, which screenshots from early November show was the original location of the Battlelord boss battle.

Because it shows the Expander—which was cut no later than October—another image from Occupied Territory is believed to date to sometime shortly after the Battlelord's conception. Based on sector chronology, a second image from Occupied Territory shows what is believed to be the oldest part of the level, so it likely also dates to this period.

Occupied Territory in the large light-filled hallway, before section dividers were added to the hallway. The gaps between sloped support beams are shorter than the gaps seen in later screenshots from early November (as seen here). Sector chronology suggests this may be the oldest part of the map.

Occupied Territory. This is the last instance of the Expander (the Shrinker's crystal does not turn red in this room).

Rejected box art—with screenshots ranging from August through October or November—contains a lone screenshot that has not been conclusively identified. In a poll of the Duke4 Discord, 27 users were presented with multiple competing theories about this image, and they were shown recreated mockups for each theory. According to the results, 74% voted that the most likely explanation is that this shows the beginning of the conveyor belts on Occupied Territory, facing backwards towards the central arena. A recreated mockup can be seen here. Mockups for Incubator and Overlord can be seen here and here. Because the layout seems odd, it is possible this comes from a very early iteration of the map, believed to have been started sometime around September.

Voted most likely to be Occupied Territory (discussed above). If true, this would be at an elevated area where the conveyor belts are found in the final game, looking through a window onto an older version of the central column. The blue/white shapes on the left and right are believed to be the Earth in the skybox, visible on either side of the column. This matches the orientation of the skybox in the final game. Even the jagged ceiling matches the final version of Occupied Territory.

October 1995

A video dated September 22, 1995 shows that the game still had alternate firing modes, yet a video dated October 18, 1995 shows that alternate firing modes had been removed from the game. Therefore, alternate ammo types are believed to have been removed sometime in early-to-mid-October.

The Jellyfish was still being updated with new sprites as late as August (e.g., see dated artwork). Because images from late October show that the Jellyfish had been replaced with the Octabrain, the redesign may have taken place a few weeks earlier that same month.

3D Realms. Concept art depicting an intermediate design stage between the Jellyfish and Octabrain. The Octabrain's sprite artwork uses the same tile indices in the ART files as the Jellyfish.

One screenshot shows a scrapped area from Hotel Hell that is identical to the version in the October 18 video below, except that the ceiling is slanted. Richard "Terminx" Gobeille believes the ceiling was temporarily made slanted solely for the purposes of staging the screenshot, as the modification seems to have misaligned textures on the ceiling. This may have been done because sloped surfaces were considered technologically impressive at the time. However, because the image depicts the Plasma Cannon with a colored light on it, this image must pre-date the October 18 footage.

Hotel Hell, looking into a scrapped lounge at the center of the lobby. This is the last instance of the Plasma Cannon and the last instance of a colored light on the player's weapon.

Gobeille recorded footage from another iteration of Hotel Hell dating to October 18, 1995 (see Forthcoming prototypes above).

Duke 3D Prototype- Hotel Hell in October 1995

Hotel Hell from October 18, 1995. The Build engine is from October 19, and the game-specific code is from October 15. CON scripts are from November, which mainly affects enemy AI. The graphics are reassembled from September but are believed to be accurate. The HUD is a custom hack. Note that the Assault Troopers' palette, which the CON files changed to green when left as 0 in the August iteration, must have been manually set to the red-blue palette seen here.

Three screenshots show an updated HUD without alternate ammo types, and the number "1" corresponding to the Mighty Foot has been removed from the HUD. Because the video from October 18 (which used a custom HUD) shows that the Chaingun Cannon had not yet been incorporated, these images can be dated to sometime after October 18. However, they are believed to pre-date early November, when screenshots with a completely different HUD can be dated.

Toxic Dump

Sweeney. This is the first instance of the Octabrain and first instance of the Enforcer firing a flamethrower.

Sweeney, facing away from the prison-like door on the middle floor

Three more screenshots come from later in October. In these screenshots, the weapon #9 slot has been removed from the HUD. The prototype file RGAME.H that was accidentally published with the game's source code suggests that weapon #9 was probably just a placeholder that corresponded to the "Hand Remote" detonator for the Pipe Bombs.

Main street on Red Light District. This is the first instance of the RPVs piloted by Pig Cops.

Death Row. This is the first instance of the updated Pig Cop sprites.

Early Toxic Dump (N6) in the room that was forked to create both the sunken submarine on this map and the working submarine on Death Row (See N6 for more information)

Because a later map schematic of Red Light District shows that the building with a slanted roof was removed by early November, this screenshot is believed to date to October. It cannot date to September because the colored light on the player's weapon has been removed.

Red Light District. This is an updated version of the staged screenshot seen here.

One screenshot shows the room with spinning yellow cylindrical gears from the Bonaventure test map, which is believed to have been relocated to Death Row by early November (based on this video). However, the player's weapon no longer has a colored light on it, indicating this must post-date the removal of alternate firing modes in early-to-mid-October.

Recreation of this image from the Bonaventure test map, later incorporated into Death Row

Early November 1995

Richard "TerminX" Gobeille has shared map schematics from an early November iteration of Red Light District (see Forthcoming prototypes above). He said this November iteration of the map is from two weeks earlier than a version he showcased from late November (see Late November 1995 below). There are only 30 days in November, so two weeks earlier would necessarily pre-date the developers' official slideshow from November 19 (see Mid-November 1995 below).

Map schematics of Red Light District

Several screenshots from Red Light District exhibit features that match the schematics above. In addition, they show a version of the HUD with a font that pre-dates the HUD from November 19. Therefore, these screenshots can be dated to the same time as the schematics. However, the same HUD can also be seen in numerous screenshots from maps across the game. Even more screenshots can be dated either based on features that they share with screenshots showing the HUD (e.g., a red skybox) or based on the presumption that they probably share a similar dating as other screenshots from the same source.

Starting garage on Hollywood Holocaust

Starting garage on Hollywood Holocaust

Hollywood Holocaust, as shown in this video. This is the first instance of the Shotgun. According to Gobeille, this is the same Shotgun model as in the final build but from a different photographic angle and different coloration.

Hollywood Holocaust. There is a Jetpack on the ledge ahead, which has been replaced with Shotgun ammo in a November 19 screenshot.

Recreation of this image from Hollywood Holocaust. There is a Jetpack on the ledge ahead, which has been replaced with Shotgun ammo in a November 19 screenshot. Gobeille believes this police cruiser never existed on the main version of the map and that this was used only in a fork for staging screenshots.

Hollywood Holocaust, with a sliver of red skybox on the right

Hollywood Holocaust

Hollywood Holocaust

Hollywood Holocaust

Hollywood Holocaust

Hollywood Holocaust

Scrapped men's bathroom on Hollywood Holocaust. The men's bathroom was dark and dingy, in contrast with the women's bathroom that had a red carpet and sofa.

Women's bathroom on Hollywood Holocaust. The ventilation shaft is missing in the background, suggesting the level was more linear.

Hollywood Holocaust

Hollywood Holocaust

Hollywood Holocaust

Behind the cinema screen on Hollywood Holocaust

Hollywood Holocaust

Hollywood Holocaust

Hollywood Holocaust

Scrapped second-floor arcade on Hollywood Holocaust, later replaced with the room where Pig Cops blast through the wall

Scrapped second-floor arcade on Hollywood Holocaust. This screenshot was captured just moments after the previous screenshot.

Starting garage on Red Light District, which is accessible using the no-clip cheat in the leaked beta v0.99. This is the first instance of the Space Suit.

Red Light District, showing the downward ramp into the garages that were replaced by the elevator at the start of the map

Entrance to the adult-themed store on Red Light District

Red Light District

Red Light District

Red Light District

Red Light District

Red Light District

Red Light District

Red Light District. The club entrance is past the ventilation shaft on the right.

Red Light District, showing the same ventilation shaft as the previous screenshot

Red Light District, climbing a ramp to the scrapped dance floor. The bar is on the left, as seen in these map schematics.

Old version of the ending hallway on Red Light District, as seen in these map schematics

Beginning of Death Row inside a gas chamber. The white door on the left is later seen in this image.

Death Row. This is the first turn of the hallway, such that the prison cell is on the left and the chapel is further behind on the left. A scrapped column can be seen behind the Pig Cop.

Death Row, showing the same column from the previous screenshot. The prison cell is directly behind the camera.

Death Row, presumably looking through the demolished floor in the prison block. However, the view through the hole does not even remotely approximate the lower hallway in the final build and is missing the doors to the central atrium; sector chronology shows that the atrium doors are the oldest part of the map. There also seems to be a "middle floor" with Pistol ammo, though this may just be a solitary compartment.

Death Row

Death Row, with fins on the submarine

Toxic Dump

Crane room on Toxic Dump

Toxic Dump

Launch Facility

Beginning of The Abyss, facing backwards

Early version of The Abyss with a very different layout. This is likely in the same location as the "San Andreas Fault" sign in the final build.

Occupied Territory, in the light-filled hallway facing the doors leading to the central ring. The section dividers have not yet been added to the hallway.

Occupied Territory, in the same location as the previous screenshot

Occupied Territory. This area would become the green hallway with a conveyor belt in the final game. That interpretation is supported by another screenshot showing these textures in the room at the end of the hallway.

Center of the main ring on Occupied Territory. This is where the boss battle with the Battlelord originally took place. Judging by the skybox, this is facing northeast, such that the beginning of the level is past the wall towards the right.

Occupied Territory, in the same location as the previous screenshot. Judging by the skybox, this is facing north, such that the previous screenshot was taken off-screen to the right.

Main ring on Occupied Territory, outside the central column. Judging by the skybox, this is facing northwest, such that the central column is to the left.

Early version of Critical Mass. The final version of Critical Mass is the only map in the game to have all these textures in the same room, which can be found in the box-filled room at the top of the elevator. In beta map schematics (seen here), a later iteration of this room can be seen in the top-center of the map. The orange shape in the top-left corner of this screenshot is a window onto the beach from the beginning of the level. There are lights around the edges of the window, just like windows in the final version. Although the map schematics show a small hallway on the left before reaching the beach, Critical Mass is known to have evolved from M5, which has an even earlier iteration of this room with a window that opens directly to the outside. Therefore, this screenshot probably pre-dates the schematics and might even pre-date the map's reassignment to Richard "Levelord" Gray. The map originally flowed in the opposite direction, so this area would have been replaced by the office found at the end of the level in the final version. The top of the screenshot reads: "Your Burning! Find Water Or Die" (sic).

Old Shotgun sprite on Zoo, which post-dates October

Zoo, showing the Shrinker firing a horizontal beam

Flamethrower on Zoo, with a red skybox that pre-dates November 19

Pig Cop signpost on Zoo

Protozoid Slimer signpost on Zoo

Snake Head signpost on Zoo

Assault Commander on Zoo. This screenshot contains the only in-game screenshot of the Snake Head sprite.

Enforcer firing a flamethrower on Zoo

Battlelord on Zoo

Battlelord on Zoo [Compare]

Recreation of this image from the starting area on Sweeney. Dirt has been added along the top of the white wall, consistent with the final version. Two lampposts—which were barely visible in previous screenshots here and here—seem to be marking a door or alley that is not present in the final version. Something bright red has been added beside the lampposts, possibly a fire hydrant. To the right of the dumpster, there is a Duke Nukem II poster that is barely in frame. On the far right wall beside Duke's head, there is an unidentified sprite that contains an orange shape resembling a fleur-de-lis, also seen here. The fact that the Plasma Cannon has been replaced with the Shrinker is an indication that this likely post-dates October, when the former weapon was removed, but the red skybox pre-dates November 19.

Player One, a defunct French gaming magazine, used to publish a special edition release each year with their "game of their year" awards. That special edition magazine, known as Player d'Or, was always packaged with a VHS tape of their awards ceremony. In December 1996, their 6th issue of the magazine was published with gameplay footage from a Duke Nukem 3D prototype, showing the HUD that can be dated to early November.

Duke Nukem 3D - Late 1995 Beta

Nearly all the screenshots dateable to early November come from L.A. Meltdown. This makes sense since the developers were probably focused on finishing the first episode in time for the shareware release. However, Occupied Territory makes several appearances as well, and it is the only space map with screenshots from this period. This may not be a coincidence; Gobeille says that Occupied Territory once followed The Abyss and was the final level of L.A. Meltdown. In fact, Gobeille has confirmed that the boss battle with the Battlelord originally took place on Occupied Territory. An image from a cutscene—which seems to show a defeated Battlelord on Occupied Territory—can be dated to this period. This is because the image still shows the Battlelord on Occupied Territory, whereas screenshots from later in November show the Battlelord on The Abyss. In addition, all previous screenshots—including those from early November—show Duke Nukem with black bands around his knees, which have been removed for the first time.

Cutscene intended for the end of a boss battle with the Battlelord on Occupied Territory.

Mid-November 1995

These screenshots were posted directly to the developers' website as part of a slideshow on November 19, 1995. Many of them depict a version of the HUD that uses a font which is closer to the final version than the font seen in screenshots from early November.

3D Realms, November 19, 1995. Garage at the start of Hollywood Holocaust

3D Realms, November 19, 1995. Hollywood Holocaust, with a second ticket window visible on the left

3D Realms, November 19, 1995. Hollywood Holocaust. This is the first instance of the updated Shotgun, When held steady, the Shotgun probably still looks unusual, as shown in this later screenshot.

3D Realms, November 19, 1995. Hollywood Holocaust

3D Realms, November 19, 1995. Red Light District

3D Realms, November 19, 1995. Red Light District, inside the windowed room with the Blue Access Card

3D Realms, November 19, 1995. Red Light District, standing on the ledge across from the window with the Blue Access Card inside

3D Realms, November 19, 1995. Red Light District, with a clear view of some details that were removed from the final version

3D Realms, November 19, 1995. Red Light District on the left-hand stage of the main showroom, as seen in these map schematics

3D Realms, November 19, 1995. White door on Death Row, as seen in this image, during a multiplayer match

3D Realms, November 19, 1995. Death Row during a multiplayer match

3D Realms, November 19, 1995. Death Row

3D Realms, November 19, 1995. Toxic Dump

3D Realms, November 19, 1995. Toxic Dump

3D Realms, November 19, 1995. Toxic Dump during a multiplayer match

3D Realms, November 19, 1995. Toxic Dump during a multiplayer match

3D Realms, November 19, 1995. Toxic Dump

3D Realms, November 19, 1995. Toxic Dump, with slightly different tunnel dimensions than the final version

3D Realms, November 19, 1995. Launch Facility, on a scrapped rampway wrapping around the other side of the starting room

3D Realms, November 19, 1995. Launch Facility

3D Realms, November 19, 1995. Launch Facility

3D Realms, November 19, 1995. Launch Facility

3D Realms, November 19, 1995. The Abyss with a very different layout, likely in the area with the train tracks in the final build

3D Realms, November 19, 1995. Early version of Incubator. Except for the ramp, all of these textures can be found on the final version of the map, though some are only in an out-of-bounds area. According to sector chronology, the out-of-bounds area is the oldest area of the map. There is strong evidence Incubator was forked from L5 and used to have a much larger circuit around the outside of the central alien nest (see L5 for more information). However, the outer circuit was shortened at the south end, where the waterfall pours into the nest. The shape and ceiling of the area in this screenshot are similar to the area with the waterfall. When every MAP file in v1.3d is run through a custom script that scans for the texture seen on the ramp, the only map of the game that has this texture is Lunatic Fringe, but it can only be seen using map editing software (In Mapster32, press ' + J, then press W, and then jump to wall #258 and #272).

3D Realms, November 19, 1995. Warp Factor. This is possibly an early version of the room near the start of the level, but the level was completely overhauled late in development in order to fit within the contours of the Starship Enterprise from Star Trek (as seen in the final map schematics). The textures outside the window are also seen in this screenshot.

3D Realms, November 19, 1995. Warp Factor

3D Realms, November 19, 1995. Warp Factor, with spaceships still visible out the window and a structure that is not visible in the final build

3D Realms, November 19, 1995. Tiberius Station, at the bottom of the left-hand ramp at the start of the level

A promotional slideshow released through 3D Realms' website on November 19, 1995 included a small collection of frequently asked questions (FAQs) with answers from developer George Broussard.

Common Duke Nukem 3D questions:

Q: When will it be out?
A: The offical responce is "When it's ready".  We are trying for a pre-XMAS
release, but will hold the game to early January if we don't think it's ready
to go out.  We will NOT rush the game to make some lame deadline.  We are
getting more and more optomistic as the days go by though.

Q: What are the system requirements?
A: 486 DX2/66 (local bus recommended). The basic answer is "What are you happy
playing on?"  We are "happy" with the above system.  8 MEGS of ram and CD will
be required.  Also, a CD-ROM is required for the registered version.

Q: What weapons are there?
A: Still tweaking and working on them, but the basic list is: Kick, High speed
pistol, shotgun, 3 barrel chain gun, rocket launcher, pipe bomb with remote
detonator, shrink ray (really fun), microwave assault cannon, wall mounted
laser trip bomb (plant and forget).  Obviously some will be held back from
the shareware version.  Which ones?  Dunno yet.

Q: How many levels are there and how big is the shareware version?
A: The shareware version will be 5 levels and a secret level.  4 of the levels
are going to be really fun for network play and the other two fairly large,
but slanted towards single play more.  The full game will have another 21
levels or so, depending on time.  At least 18 though.  The shareware version
will likely be between 4 and 5 megs in download size.

Q: Can I be a beta tester?
A: No.  Sorry, but we have all we need at the moment.  We'll post a message
if we need any more.  Please let us get back to work :)

Another screenshot can be dated to mid-November based on the fact that it post-dates these map schematics from early November yet pre-dates these map schematics from late November.

Staged screenshot on Red Light District. This is in the larger dance hall from L6 that was briefly connected to the smaller dance hall from the final game (as seen in older map schematics). This area was ultimately scrapped. The Enforcer and Flamethrower were likely never found on this map. The Enforcer, the Flamethrower, the plume of fire on the right, and the lack of projectiles from either the player's weapon or the Enforcer's weapon are all strong evidence this was staged.

Late November 1995

Richard "TerminX" Gobeille has shared numerous screenshots from a prototype that he said comes from November 1995 (see Forthcoming prototypes above). Gobeille's build must date very close to November 19 because there are no discernible difference between the maps. However, the reason to think it post-dates November 19 is the HUD; even though Gobeille often uses custom HUDs that are hacked together for compatibility, he still uses the corresponding CON files. In this case, his ammo capacities—which would be defined by the CON files—match those from the final game, whereas the November 19 screenshots show older ammo capacities. In his limited commentary on the prototype, Gobeille even mentioned features that would be defined by the CON files: prison bars are breakable, the RPV is broken, and the Assault Commander produces unexpected audio clips. Therefore, the prototype can be dated to sometime between November 20-30.

Men's bathroom on Hollywood Holocaust

Men's bathroom on Hollywood Holocaust. A crack leading to the garage from the start of the level is partially visible in the mirror.

Women's bathroom on Hollywood Holocaust. The vent has been added in the wall.

Bar on Red Light District

Destructible security monitor on Red Light District

Red Light District. These next few images demonstrate that the RPV is broken and rapidly flying in circles.

Red Light District with the broken RPV

Red Light District, again with the broken RPV

Red Light District, with the Pig Cops ambushing the player from behind a hidden door, rather than blasting through the ceiling

Scrapped changing room on Red Light District, with a hole in the wall leading outside the building

Old position of the Blue Access Card panel on Death Row

Old location of the Blue Access Card on Death Row. This is likely positioned at the end of the hallway with the explosive canisters in the final build. Note that the room with the Access Card uses the same textures as those in another screenshot.

Destructible bars on Death Row

Destructible bars on Death Row

Death Row

Death Row in a scrapped sewer likely running through the center of the map, beneath the control center with a hologram of the Battlelord. Women who use similar sprite artwork as the Femanoid are shown hanging in devices that are spraying them with slime.

Tunnel from the prison cell on Death Row that leads to the sewer with hanging women

Rather than leading to the end of the level, the tunnel from the prison cell only leads to the platform with Turrets on Death Row. The escape through the sewer to the submarine has not yet been added.

Death Row

Old location of the Red Access Card panel on Death Row. No Access Cards were needed to complete the level, according to Gobeille.

Toxic Dump, showing that the buttons opened a control panel

Toxic Dump, showing that the submarine hatch was present but did not open

Toxic Dump

Shrinker on Toxic Dump

Toxic Dump

Launch Facility

Launch Facility. Gobeille noted that this weapon behaved exactly as it does when using cheats in the leaked beta v0.99.

Launch Facility, showing the weapon firing like a hitscan weapon

Launch Facility with the Blue Access Card panel

Launch Facility with the Yellow Access Card panel

Launch Facility with the Red Access Card panel

Launch Facility, showing a glitch after the rocket has exploded

The Abyss

The Abyss

The Abyss

The Abyss

The Abyss

The Abyss

The Abyss

The Abyss, showing a map schematic in the "Automap" view

The Abyss

The Abyss

The Abyss

The Abyss

The Abyss, showing the room that appears in the final cutscene after killing the Battlelord in the final build. The cutscene artwork was kept, even though the room was overhauled.

The Abyss

The Abyss, showing an unused "teeth" effect sometimes found on user maps

The Abyss

On October 23, 2017, 3D Realms posted a video to their YouTube channel titled "3D Realms Beta Trailer". The video has since been de-listed but is archived here. Although most of the Duke Nukem 3D segments were directly lifted from the May 9 demo reel, one segment was recorded by Evan "Hendricks266" Ramos specifically for the trailer. That segment seems to show the same build as Gobeille's screenshots above.

Title screen from the beta compilation trailer

Late November 1995 Prototype - Hollywood Holocaust in Duke Nukem 3D Newly recorded prototype footage for the beta compilation trailer

Two map schematics have been photographed in an unusual printed format. These can both be matched to the maps shown in Gobeille's prototype from late November.

Hollywood Holocaust map schematics, with extensive annotations by Allen Blum

Red Light District map schematics for the club

The following map schematics are also believed to come from late November. This is because Gobeille has stated that Richard "Levelord" Gray worked extensively on Critical Mass before abandoning it. The December 1995 episode list shows that Critical Mass was no longer included, so it was probably abandoned before then. However, this version of Critical Mass post-dates a screenshot from early November, so it most likely dates to late November. Gobeille has proposed that "Power Plant" in the November 1995 episode list might correspond to this map, but he is uncertain.

Early build of Critical Mass. This map has a development history extending back to M5 and was briefly transformed into a space-themed level at one point.

Two screenshots from Hotel Hell are also believed to date to sometime around late November. This is because they post-date October 18 footage, yet they pre-date mid-January footage. However, they are somewhat closer to the version seen in the October 18 footage.

Front desk from Hotel Hell

Second floor hallway from Hotel Hell

December 1995

According to Richard "TerminX" Gobeille, voice recordings by Jon St. John and many of the in-game sound effects were first introduced in December 1995.

Several screenshots frequently appear together in promotional materials. Most of these screenshots show maps that are indistinguishable from those seen in the beta v0.99 from January 4 or the mid-January video of Hotel Hell, so they are believed to date to January. However, the images below contain features that seem to pre-date beta v0.99, so they are instead dated to December.

Red Light District, with an extra palm tree that is not seen in the v0.99 beta

Center stage of the showroom from Red Light District, facing the garage door. The dollar bills on the ground suggest this screenshot was staged, but assuming that the NPC in this image once stood on the center stage, it must date to December. This is because the octagonal platform did not exist in the late November schematics, yet this NPC was replaced with the final one in the beta v0.99 from January 4.

Map that appears on the bridge in the final version of Death Row. Details in the map suggest it slightly pre-dates v0.99 from January 4; the chapel has a second row of seats, the sewer tunnel is positioned differently, and there is no compartment for the Blue Access Card.

Gobeille has confirmed that early versions of Flood Zone were saved as "MONICA.MAP". This is significant because the December and January episode lists showed that a map titled "Santa Monica Pier" was the last level prior to the boss map in the third episode. Other users have pointed out that the building at the center of the map is clearly modeled after the Santa Monica Clock Tower. Although the clock tower is far from water in real-life, early versions of the game's storyline involved the aliens coming to Earth to harness energy and cause environmental catastrophe, which also explains why El Segundo was flooded. Because the map schematics below are relatively simple, they probably date close to the start of the map's development, which could be no later than December due to the inclusion in the December episode list.

Early build of Flood Zone, named "MONICA.MAP" in the development files. It was long believed that a map named "Santa Monica Pier" (listed in the CON files of early shareware) corresponded to an early version of Flood Zone.

January 1996

The Duke Nukem 3D v0.99 shareware beta was compiled on January 4, 1996. The prototype, which is publicly available to download, contains notable differences in the layouts on all maps of L.A. Meltdown, as well as a different roster of levels for the other two episodes. However, only L.A. Meltdown is accessible as part of the leaked shareware.

Work on the Cycloid Emperor is believed to have started in January 1996. The boss is missing from the CON files of the v0.99 beta from January 4, yet artwork is seen in advertisements packaged with shareware v1.0 from January 29.

Occupied Territory, with the first appearance of the Cycloid Emperor. The Cycloid Emperor briefly replaced the Battlelord as the boss of the space episode. CON files suggest Dummy Duke was still slated to be the final boss of the game.

Shareware v1.0 was compiled on January 29, 1996. It contains minor differences in weapon behavior, enemy health, and sprite graphics from the final version. Only L.A. Meltdown was finished and available to play. The screenshots below are packaged with the shareware.

Top floor of Spaceport

Warp Factor, showing "Tiberius Station" signage. Note that "Tiberius Station" is a reference to Star Trek, and the entire map schematics of Warp Factor are shaped like the starship from Star Trek, in addition to having a secret command center from Star Trek. This shows the first instance of the updated Protozoid Slimer artwork.

At the end of the hallway with the conveyor belts on Occupied Territory (see further explanation). This also shows the updated Protozoid Slimer artwork.

Map schematics from a level known as El Segundo include a Cycloid Sentry. This only makes sense if the map was planned to come after the boss battle with the Cycloid Emperor. In other words, this was only possible while the Cycloid Emperor was the boss of the space episode, which did not last for long. Therefore, this map can be dated sometime close to the original development of the Cycloid Emperor.

El Segundo, an early version of XXX-Stacy. A Cycloid Sentry is visible in the lower-right corner. Because later CON files list the Devastator as the "Cycloid", it is possible this enemy would have dropped the Devastator or Devastator ammo when killed.

Several screenshots frequently appear together in promotional materials. Most of these screenshots show maps that are indistinguishable from those seen in the beta v0.99 from January 4, so they are believed to date to January. Other screenshots that frequently appear alongside these are presumed to share a similar dating. However, it is well-documented that Shrapnel City was more rushed than L.A. Meltdown, and since some of the images from Shrapnel City provably post-date January, those are believed to be part of a second batch of screenshots that were captured in February.

Red Light District

Death Row, showing the sloped arches seen in the v0.99 beta. Because this is missing the second row of seats seen in these map schematics from late December and because those map schematics show almost no differences from the final version, this image more likely dates to January.

Death Row, with fins on the submarine from the v0.99 beta

Toxic Dump, facing away from the giant underwater gate

Staged screenshot from Launch Facility, showing the layout of the launch pad as seen in the v0.99 beta

Two screenshots from Hotel Hell are also believed to date to sometime around early January 1996. This is because they post-date October 18 footage, yet they pre-date mid-January footage. However, they are very close to the version seen in the mid-January footage.

Front desk from Hotel Hell

Second floor hallway from Hotel Hell

There is prototype footage available from a January 15 iteration of Hotel Hell:

Duke 3D Prototype- Hotel Hell in January 1996

Hotel Hell from January 15, 1996. Most code and assets are ported from shareware v1.0, which is believed to be historically accurate for this build. Sprite artwork was reassembled from the nearest builds.

Two more screenshots from Hotel Hell match the footage above:

Back alley. The player would have started in the garage.

Downstairs bar area, with the elevator behind the camera

It is very difficult to date this screenshot of two Battlelord sprites (presumably Battlelord Sentries) on an unidentified staging map, but there are several reasons to think it shows a version of Spaceport from sometime around January 1996.

PC Powerplay. Staged screenshot from an area that was clearly forked from the top floor of Spaceport (as seen in this video and this screenshot). It is very difficult to date this image or identify the map, but there are four potentially useful features: 1.) The presence of sloped sectors indicates this must post-date August 1995. 2.) It equally resembles the version of Spaceport seen in a video from September 1995 and in a screenshot from January 1996. 3.) Unlike early versions of Spaceport, this skybox is not set on the moon. 4.) There are two Battlelord sprites, so these are presumably Battlelord Sentries on a map that comes sometime after the boss battle with the Battlelord. Early November screenshots show that the confrontation with the Battlelord took place on a relatively well-developed iteration of Occupied Territory. Therefore, the map in this image cannot be an early version of Occupied Territory. The most likely candidate is Spaceport itself, possibly showing a new floor that the developer briefly considered but ultimately scrapped (or set aside specifically for staging screenshots). Assuming the map in this image is Spaceport, it must post-date the other January 1996 screenshot, since that version of Spaceport was still set on the moon. A January 1996 dating is consistent with a few other screenshots from the same magazine, though their dating ranges as early as August.

February 1996

Shareware v1.1 was compiled on February 20, 1996. This version is nearly identical to the final, except that the Freezethrower or Devastator had not yet been introduced. Also, a few sprites, such as switches and rocket projectiles, had not yet been updated.

The Overlord would appear for the first time in the CON files of the Computer Gaming World demo from March 4, so it likely began development around this time.

Chuck Jones. 1996 concept art, believed to show an early concept for the Overlord

3D Realms. Overlord with a gun in its crotch and a very different design than the final

Overlord sprite animation with a gun in its crotch

Several screenshots frequently appear together in promotional materials. A subset of these images come from Shrapnel City and show features that can be confidently dated to sometime around February 1996. Since it is well-documented that Shrapnel City was more rushed than L.A. Meltdown, these are believed to be part of a second batch of screenshots that were all captured together in February.

Unidentified. Gobeille has been unable to identify this. The most likely candidates are the beginning of Sewer or the beginning of Bank Roll (which originally followed Hotel Hell and may have had the "Motel" callback on the left replaced with the callback crack in the wall from Raw Meat). This is less likely to be Hotel Hell because Hotel Hell's development history has been so thoroughly documented (as seen in this video) and does not seem to have had anything that could correspond to this screenshot. The alley on the left is too narrow to be a street and is elevated relative to the far corner. The windows on the right are an exact match with those on Sewer, but Sewer shows evidence of having absorbed elements from an older iteration of Bank Roll.

Unidentified. Gobeille was not immediately able to identify this. The most likely candidates include Bank Roll (prior to adding the elevator), Hotel Hell (in a scrapped alley connected to the stairwell), and Sewer (where the exterior is a match but the interior was replaced with a copy-and-paste from Flood Zone).

L.A. Rumble, beside the sex worker. L.A. Rumble is not listed in the January 4 episode list, indicating it likely had not yet been started. [Compare]

Bathroom on Hotel Hell. This iteration has a mix of features that can definitively date it to sometime between this video from mid-January and this video from late March.

Hotel Hell with different details in the background, similar to this video from mid-January

March 1996

The Computer Gaming World demo, long known by the nickname "Shareware v1.1+" in online forums, was compiled on March 4, 1996. At this stage of development:

• The Overlord had a secondary hitscan attack, corresponding to the machine gun in its crotch from pre-release screenshots.
• The Devastator was referred to as the "Cycloid," likely in reference to the fact that it resembles the weapon wielded by the Cycloid Emperor.

There is footage available from an iteration of Hotel Hell that dates to late March 1996.

Duke 3D Prototype- Hotel Hell in March 1996

Hotel Hell from late March 1996. All code and assets are from version 1.2, which Gobeille says is dated exactly to March 26. This version of Hotel Hell slightly pre-dates March 26.

Several storyboards by Chuck Jones are dated March 26, 1996.

3D Realms. Storyboard for the cutscene after defeating the Overlord

3D Realms. Storyboard for the cutscene after defeating the Overlord

3D Realms. Storyboard for the cutscene after defeating the Overlord

According to a "readme" file packaged with the first registered version of the game (v1.3d), there was a leak of version 1.2. The existence of version 1.2 was independently confirmed many years later by Richard "TerminX" Gobeille (see Forthcoming prototypes above), who shared the following information and screenshots:

• Version 1.2 is dated March 26, 1996.
• Overall, version 1.2 is nearly identical to the final release.
• The "Quick Kick" function for the Mighty Foot works like in versions 1.4 and 1.5, without the double-kick glitch from version 1.3d.
• Battlelord Sentry sprites use palette 19 instead of palette 21.
• Stadium is significantly different. By comparison, the commercial release reverted to one of the earliest builds of the level, circa 1994.
• The Overlord uses its original design from pre-release screenshots, with a machine gun in its crotch.
• Hotel Hell includes a giant mirror along the wall beside the front desk of the hotel, allowing the player to see the Battlelord Sentries before coming around the corner.

Loading screen for version 1.2

Stadium in version 1.2

Richard "TerminX" Gobeille has stated that the following maps were not started until near the end of development and were "purely creations of crunch": Raw Meat, Flood Zone, Movie Set, Fahrenheit, and Tier Drops. Therefore, the following map schematics are believed to date very close to the game's release:

Movie Set. The scrapped area shown in the thumbnail is accessible in the final build using the no-clip cheat.

Another view of the same build of Movie Set but with more visible details

Later build of Movie Set

Early build of Fahrenheit. Gobeille noted that this map was started very close to the commercial release.

Later build of Fahrenheit dated one month before the commercial release

April 1996

Composer Lee Jackson released the following unused track titled "233.778C" that was dated April 4, 1996 and intended to accompany Fahrenheit.

233.778C 0406

The Official Duke Nukem 3D Strategies & Secrets book contains individual guides to the levels, which seem to be based on a build in between version 1.2 and version 1.3d:

• The secret exits on Occupied Territory and Movie Set do not exist, which suggests 1.2 may not have been fully functional.
• The secret exit on Dark Side is in a completely different area of the level, in the secret compartment near the ventilation shaft above the lava.
• The boss area on Overlord contains four elongated columns around the central arena.
• Bank Roll has an extra secret with an Atomic Health. In the final version, a leftover from this secret can be seen from Raw Meat, by peeking through the window at the end of the level and looking up towards the top of the inaccessible Bank Roll area.
• Stadium is very different. The guide suggests the player should get the boss close to the bleachers, a strategy that is not possible in the final version of the game. Screenshots show sloped bleachers, and a map schematic indicates that items and weapons were distributed differently.

Stadium with sloped bleachers, as shown in a guidebook in which all other levels match their final versions [Compare]

Another view of the sloped bleachers in the guidebook

Map from the guidebook [Compare]

According to Gobeille, the level Overlord was not completed until the final week before release. Two screenshots seem to show a version that dates close to release, based on the fact that they both show weapons that had not yet existed in the March demo.

First appearance of the Devastator, which was briefly called the "Pulverizer"

Close-up of the Overlord inside his command room. This image also shows the first instance of the Freezethrower and the first instance of the Protozoid Slimer Eggs.

The commercial version of Duke Nukem 3D was officially released on April 19, 1996.

May — November 1996

The following maps contain Richard "Levelord" Gray's signature. Although it is hard to be sure when they were started, none of them made the deadline for inclusion in the v1.3d release, so they more likely date to sometime after release. These were eventually included in the Atomic Edition.

Late build of El Segundo, which happens to be the last iteration with Richard "Levelord" Gray's signature

Early build of Shop-N-Bag

Later build of Shop-N-Bag

Early build of Pigsty

Later build of Pigsty

Last build of Pigsty with Gray's signature

The following two maps are signed "LEE" and are believed to have been authored by soundtrack composer Lee Jackson. Richard "TerminX" Gobeille stated that most of the level is "around average mid-90s usermap quality." Because the rest of the map is comparatively more "abstract," Gobeille is unsure whether the realistic mail truck that appears at the beginning of the level was designed by the same author or possibly by a different developer on the team. These maps correspond to two iterations of Going Postal, which was further developed by Allen Blum and packaged with the Atomic Edition.

Early build of Going Postal

Later build of Going Postal

The following promotional screenshots for the Atomic Edition show a blue-skinned Protector Drone.

Duke-Burger, showing the Protector Drone with a blue sprite

Shop-N-Bag

Pigsty

Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition was released November 27, 1996.

See also

• Duke Nukem 3D scrapped content

References

Duke Nukem 3D Episodes L.A. Meltdown • Lunar Apocalypse • Shrapnel City • The Birth • Alien World Order Weapons Mighty Foot • Pistol • Shotgun • Chaingun Cannon • RPG • Pipe Bomb • Shrinker • Expander • Devastator • Laser Tripbomb • Freezethrower • Incinerator Items Access Cards • Health Items • Holoduke • Jetpack • Night Vision Goggles • Portable Medkit • Protective Boots • Scuba Gear • Steroids Enemies Assault Captain • Assault Commander • Assault Trooper • Battlelord Sentry • Cycloid Sentry • Enforcer • Firefly Trooper • Octabrain • Overlord Sentry • Pig Cop • Pig Cop Tank • Protector Drone • Protozoid Slimer • Recon Patrol Vehicle • Sentry Drone • Shark • Turret Bosses Battlelord • Overlord • Cycloid Emperor • Alien Queen • Cycloid Incinerator Editions Classic • Shareware • Atomic Edition (Plutonium PAK) • Megaton Edition • World Tour Expansions Duke Assault • Duke Caribbean: Life's A Beach • Duke It Out In D.C. • Duke Nukem 3D Level Design Handbook • Duke Nukem's Penthouse Paradise • Duke Xtreme • Duke: Nuclear Winter • Duke!ZONE • Duke!ZONE 150 • Duke!ZONE II • Unofficial Expansions Community High Resolution Pack • Mods & Total Conversions • Source Ports • Speedrunning • User Maps Other Build Engine • Cheat Codes • Difficulty • Duke Nukem (character) • Multiplayer • Music • Ports • Prototypes • Quotes • Scrapped Content