Red Light District is the second level of L.A. Meltdown in Duke Nukem 3D.
Secrets
Secret 1: Behind the shelves
Upon entering the pornography store, tall shelves can be found along the right-hand wall. One of the shelves near the middle of this row of shelves can be opened, revealing Pipe Bombs and some Armor inside.
Secret 2: Holoduke in the ceiling corner
Atop the book shelves behind the cash register in the pornography store, an Atomic Health can be found in the far corner. Using the section of wall behind the Atomic Health will open the ceiling corner and reveal a secret compartment containing a Holoduke.
Secret 3: Inside the dark hallway
Unlocking the red door behind the pornography store counter reveals a dark hallway leading to an elevator. To the right of the elevator, a hidden passage leads to the left, around the back of the elevator. At the end of this passage is a secret area containing an Atomic Health.
Secret 4: Sewer tunnel
There are two ways to reach this secret:
- After using the Blue Access Card and demolishing the building on the main street, a manhole covering can be found in the rubble. Using a Pipe Bomb or RPG to blow through the manhole covering will reveal an opening into the sewer. It is safe to drop down into the hole. Find the Jetpack inside the tunnel in order to fly back out through the manhole.
- After using the Yellow Access Card to enter the strip club, go into the bathroom. The wall behind the toilet seat can be opened for easy access to the secret sewer tunnel, without using the manhole.
Secret 5: Behind the strippers
Upon entering the showroom with the strippers, turn 90 degrees to the left. Walking atop the row of chairs straight ahead will trigger the wall behind the strippers to open on the opposite side of the room. Inside is a secret compartment with a Chaingun Cannon.
Secret 6: Ventilation shaft in the showroom
In the showroom with the strippers, a ventilation shaft can be found in the wall above the tables. Entering the air vent will count as a secret, even though this ventilation shaft is part of the normal route for completing the level.
Secret 7: Night Vision Goggles behind the curtains
After going through the ventilation shaft to the backstage portion of the main showroom, flip the switch to open the stage curtains. Jump from the newly raised platform on the stage to the ledge with Pig Cops. Above the switch controlling the curtains, there is another ledge with Night Vision Goggles. Though difficult, it is possible to jump over to this ledge, or it can be reached using the Jetpack. Landing on the ledge with the Night Vision Goggles is counted as a secret.
Secret 8: Portable Medkit in the attic
In the attic at the very end of the level, there is a stack of boxes. A section of the wall between the boxes appears lighter than the rest of the wall. This part of the wall can be opened to reveal a secret compartment with a Portable Medkit inside.
Walkthrough
See Also: Written/Pictorial Walkthrough by 3D Realms
Speedrunning
- To complete this level as quickly as possible, take the route to the redundant exit button, explained here.
- It is possible to demolish the building on the main street without collecting the Blue Access Card. This can be done by crouching outside the area with the demolition button and pressing the "use" key on the outer wall behind the button.
- At the end of the level, using the Jetpack will allow you to skip over the intended level-end trigger and reach the exit button. It is possible to hit this exit button only from certain angles. However, if you allow the intended level-end trigger to activate and then press the key to open the "Help" menu, it is possible to close the menu just before the level ends, hit the exit button, and skip Death Row.
See the Speedrunning page for more information.
Easter eggs
- In the back of the bar with the Red Access Card, a television monitor mounted on the ceiling is playing a real scene from the OJ Simpson police chase.
- In the Duke Nukem 3D v0.99 Beta, there are two additional "Easter Eggs" that were removed from the final version of the level:
Development history
See Also: Duke Nukem 3D prototypes
May 1995 prototype
This level and Hollywood Holocaust were created from subsections of E1L6 of the December 1994 prototype. Footage exists of this map from a build dated May 9, 1995.
November 1995 prototype
There is footage of this level from one of the November 1995 prototypes.
January 1996 prototype
In Duke Nukem 3D v0.99 Beta, this level is called "Mean Streets" instead of "Red Light District." Perhaps the most notable difference from the final version of the level is the area where the blue key card is used to detonate the building. This area sits much closer to the detonated building in the beta version of the game. Also, when the "Duke Nukem Must Die" sign is revealed, Duke Nukem will say, "I don't think so!"
The sewer also exhibits several interesting differences from the final version. The manhole covering that leads to the sewer is positioned outside of the detonated building in the beta version. Unlike the final version, there are also explosives on the inside of the sewer that can be detonated to open a pathway into the bathroom of the strip club. In the final version, this pathway can only be opened from the bathroom side. However, accessing the sewer does not allow you to skip the blue and yellow keys; a prison cell door in the sewer - which does not exist in the final version - prevents the player from entering the strip club early. When the player uses the yellow key to open the door in the streets above, this prison cell door disappears, allowing the player to travel back-and-forth between the bathroom and the sewer.
Using the no-clip cheat reveals that beta version of the game does not contain the second exit button or hidden room beneath the "Duke Nukem Must Die" sign, as discussed in the Trivia section below. This suggests these features were added very late in development.
Trivia
- This level contains two exit buttons. The first exit button is a trap that triggers the player's capture when approached. However, a second exit button is hidden inside the wall to the left of the first exit button and is intended only for multiplayer, but it can be accessed during solo playthroughs, even without using cheats. (See here for a complete explanation.)
- The "Enemies Remaining" statistic on the level-end screen is incorrectly offset by one more than the actual number of enemies on this level. This is because the map data contains an extra RPV that is programmed to spawn when the player enters the second floor of the pornography store with the Blue Access Card. However, the RPV never spawns due to a known programming error that prevents RPVs from being spawned into levels.
- This glitch can be artificially corrected by exploiting a second glitch; killing an enemy in a doorway and then closing the door to squish the corpse is incorrectly counted as killing two enemies instead of one.
- Apart from boss levels, this is the only level of the game that can be completed without hitting an exit button.
- The Duke: Nuclear Winter expansion features a modified version of this level known as "Deja Vu."
- In the v0.99 Beta, the ending to the level used the unused PIGWRN.VOC with the message "YOUR COMING WITH US!" as seen here: