Stadium is the ninth and final level of Shrapnel City in Duke Nukem 3D. The level entirely revolves around a boss fight with the Cycloid Emperor.
Description
The player begins on an elevator that rises to the center of a football stadium.
The stadium is a simple, rectangular arena, with a football field in the center and a flat set of bleachers around the perimeter. Weapons and items can be found in the bleachers.
Although the Cycloid Emperor is initially the only enemy present on the easiest difficulty, a group of cheerleaders can be killed, which will cause more enemies to spawn. On higher difficulty settings, four to eight Assault Troopers will also start the level on one end of the bleachers.
A "Duf Beer" blimp can be seen hovering above the stadium. Shooting the blimp with the RPG or Devastator will cause it to explode, showering the stadium with the following weapons and items:
- Jetpack
- Steroids x2
- Night Vision Goggles x3
- Holoduke
- Portable Medkit
- Large Medkit x2
- Atomic Health x4
- RPG
- Devastator Weapon
- Shrink Ray x2
- Freezethrower
- Pipebombs x4
- Chaingun Cannon
- Shotgun
Separate ammo containers for each of the weapons are also included.
Secrets
There are no secrets on this level.
Walkthrough
See Also: Written/Pictorial Walkthrough by 3D Realms
Speedrunning
Competitive full-game speedruns typically employ the following two tactics on this level:
- Collect the Jetpack on a previous level, and use it as soon as the level begins. The Jetpack can bring you face-to-face with the Emperor faster than the elevator.
- On previous levels, collect the Devastator and enough ammo to kill the Emperor. Because it deals damage at a faster rate than the RPG, the Devastator is the best weapon to use when speedrunning.
See the Speedrunning page for more information.
Easter eggs
- The "Duf Beer" blimp is a reference to The Simpsons, which features the drink Duff Beer.
Development history
See Also: Duke Nukem 3D prototypes
- Richard "TerminX" Gobeille, who signed a non-disclosure agreement and was given an archive of Duke Nukem 3D development data and prototypes, said in a forum post that Stadium was the oldest map to appear in Duke Nukem 3D and that it was designed even before Derelict, which appeared in the December 1994 prototype.
- Gobeille also said in a forum post that Stadium was very different in version 1.2 of Duke Nukem 3D and that it was reverted back to one of the earliest builds of the level for version 1.3, which was the commercial release.
- Leaked photos from early builds of Stadium reveal that the bleachers were originally sloped (see screenshots below).
Trivia
- This is the smallest and simplest level in the game.
- This is the only boss level on which there are no areas preceding the boss encounter.
- In Duke Nukem 64, this level was completely redesigned as an indoor stadium (see: Stadium (DN64)).
- This level is referenced a few times in Duke Nukem Forever. The game begins with a recreation of the stadium encounter with the Cycloid Emperor (see: Duke Lives), but it is soon revealed that Duke is merely playing a video game based on his past heroics. A photo from Stadium is later shown on the level "Damn! It's late...."
- On the level "Damn! It's late....." in Duke Nukem Forever, it is revealed that the Cycloid Emperor's eye was preserved in the Duke Museum; it can be seen in a display cabinet and says he was defeated in 1996, the same year Duke Nukem 3D was published.
Screenshots
.png "Stadium (Proto vs Final).png (1.63 MB)")
