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Jonathan Lanza

"I've made a Gigantic mistake"
Member
Feb 8, 2019
6,812
duke4.net

Duke Nukem Forever 2001 Content 4Chan Leak

This is a developing story based on leaks occurring on 4Chan: The few of us left who still follow Duke will understand the nostalgia and sheer joy that is felt to see and read this stuff. If what …

This is coming from a /v/ leak so of course take with lots of salt, however this person and their group has shown a lot of very convincing footage. It is apparently in a near complete state. The info we have is as follows
Almost every chapter is present in some form. A huge chunk is playable, a huge chunk is block-outs with no enemies. All of the E3 content is there.
Not just the editor, we will be releasing the full source code too.
All weapons are functional with the exception of the chainsaw and the freezer.
Do you have any date on when you are gonna leak it then? June.
The editor works. We also have the engine and UnrealScript source code and have written instructions for compiling it.
Two builds, but only the content for one.
It is Unreal Engine 1, like the final game.
There is no complete game. It was never finished.
The E3 2001 iteration but not the E3 2001 build.
The shrink ray is in the game, it's the first weapon in slot 4.
The theme is just the Megadeth version. It starts playing as soon as you boot the game.
Bombshell is not visually present in the game at this point, there is a log file showing that her model was deleted.
The strippers can be seen and interacted with when you first enter the club. By the point in the game that was recorded, most of them are dead.


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Oct 28, 2017
5,800
Another notch on the bedpost of legit 4chan deliveries. People ought to stop immediately doubting it but happily giving credence to leaks from other sources.
 

AgonyRon

Member
Nov 27, 2017
688
Cool, thanks for posting! I really disliked the end product, but this would blow my mind in 2001.
 

MondoMega

One Winged Slayer
Member
Jan 10, 2018
47,474
A holy grail of lost media and a very infamous game, so fairly neat to see even if i'm not all that interested personally. Saw this earlier but didn't make a thread for that reason, glad someone else did.

We'll have to see if it actually does get publicly released in June like they say though.
 

Tokyo_Funk

Banned
Dec 10, 2018
10,053
This corpse keeps raising from the dead. That video in the bar was interesting. Wondering if it actually amounted to a good game though.
 

Kalor

Resettlement Advisor
Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,629
It'd be cool to have this available. And wouldn't be surprised if eventually people will take this work and try and flesh it out to a more complete game.
 

Schlomo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,133
Ooooh, very interesting. I hope the Duke community finishes it to a somewhat playable end product. Would be a dream come true after all these years, lol.
 

gabdeg

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,966
🐝
About time to have this build out there. Hope it actually gets leaked this time. Would love to run it on my retro PC.
 

LewieP

Member
Oct 26, 2017
18,099
I've actually wondered if this would ever get some kind of commercial release, given the various changes in ownership, and the distance from the 2011 release.
 

Tokyo_Funk

Banned
Dec 10, 2018
10,053
I've actually wondered if this would ever get some kind of commercial release, given the various changes in ownership, and the distance from the 2011 release.

Can of grease and perpetual wormhole of bad taste Randy Pitchford claimed he wanted to release it, but due to Take 2 and some other legal stuff it can't be given out without being sold attached to another game/ re-release. Wether that happens is apparently in the publishers court.
 

Patitoloco

Member
Oct 27, 2017
23,689
This is crazy.

But maybe not as much as to learn that the 2011 version runs in fucking Unreal Engine 1.
 
Dec 7, 2017
240
I like the fact that Ego(Health) is replenished by killing enemies, which makes a lot of sense as killing enemies makes Duke's ego bigger. Better than the regenerating Ego which to me always implied Duke was giving himself motivational advice whilst hiding behind a chest high wall in the final game.
 

GrrImAFridge

ONE THOUSAND DOLLARYDOOS
Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,675
Western Australia
On a related note, I've always loved Giant Bomb's idea that DNF should've been a self-parody that pokes fun at how poorly the character himself has aged by having him thrust himself into the situation because of course, and everyone he meets just rolls their eyes but puts up with his self-aggrandising crap because there is actually nobody better suited for the situation, but the fact this acceptance is of a begrudging nature is completely and utterly lost on Duke, who still firmly believes the world loves him and every word out of his mouth is destined for religious scripture.
 

Koukalaka

Member
Oct 28, 2017
9,290
Scotland
This is crazy.

But maybe not as much as to learn that the 2011 version runs in fucking Unreal Engine 1.

This would surprise me - I thought the final game came out of an effectively rebooted development process that started in 2007/8 but sputtered out before being picked up by Gearbox? Might be misremembering something I read.
 

Pikelet

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,401
This is cool, but woof that gameplay looks archaic even by 2001 standards. 3 years after Half Life and a year after Deus Ex and it looks like this hadn't evolved much past Doom.
 

GrantDaNasty

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,001
On a related note, I've always loved Giant Bomb's idea that DNF should've been a self-parody that pokes fun at how poorly the character himself has aged by having him thrust himself into the situation because of course, and everyone he meets just rolls their eyes but puts up with his self-aggrandising crap because there is actually nobody better suited for the situation, but the fact this acceptance is of a begrudging nature is completely and utterly lost on Duke, who still firmly believes the world loves him and every word out of his mouth is destined for religious scripture.

If they do ever end up making new Duke Nukem games - I kinda would like to see Duke be more like a Johnny Bravo figure - i.e he thinks very highly of himself but almost EVERYONE around him wants to get away from him.
 

Tokyo_Funk

Banned
Dec 10, 2018
10,053
This is crazy.

But maybe not as much as to learn that the 2011 version runs in fucking Unreal Engine 1.
I have to wonder if that's not a mistake.

I was under the assumption the released Forever runs on UE2.5 (same as Bioshock 1/2).

My understanding is that it is a heavily modified version of the Unreal Warfare engine (Not quite ready version of pre Gears of War Unreal Engine 3) with the lighting stripped out and replaced. I might be wrong though.
 
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Oct 25, 2017
4,841
I like the fact that Ego(Health) is replenished by killing enemies, which makes a lot of sense as killing enemies makes Duke's ego bigger. Better than the regenerating Ego which to me always implied Duke was giving himself motivational advice whilst hiding behind a chest high wall in the final game.
This mechanic exists in Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project. Seems to be directly taken from this old DNF version, because it even has the same red and green numbers for ego loss/gain.
 

JahIthBer

Member
Jan 27, 2018
10,382
It was known a few people have 2001 builds but are holding onto them and of course 3D realms have all the old builds still (yes 3DR still exists with new people) It's surprising to me Gearbox don't fix this up and release it as DNF Classic or something, it looks much much better than the shitty Halo/Half Life 2 clone we got. Seriously George was a complete fool for canning this version to chase trends.
 
Oct 25, 2017
4,841
It was known a few people have 2001 builds but are holding onto them and of course 3D realms have all the old builds still (yes 3DR still exists with new people). It's surprising to me Gearbox don't fix this up and release it as DNF Classic or something, it looks much much better than the shitty Halo/Half Life 2 clone we got.
Duke Nukem Forever is the only game that Gearbox and 3DR don't fully own. The publishing rights are with Take-Two (2K).
 

Wrexis

Member
Nov 4, 2017
21,247
This would surprise me - I thought the final game came out of an effectively rebooted development process that started in 2007/8 but sputtered out before being picked up by Gearbox? Might be misremembering something I read.

I think the game was essentially done when Gearbox picked it up. It was more like 3D Realms not willing to release it.
The rough timeline was

May 2009 - 3D Realms goes bust
May 2009-2010 - Ex employees work on the game from home
2010-June 2011 - Gearbox picks it up, polishes and releases it
 

JahIthBer

Member
Jan 27, 2018
10,382
Duke Nukem Forever is the only game that Gearbox and 3DR don't fully own. The publishing rights are with Take-Two (2K).
I think i have heard the publisher reason before which holds merit, but i think it's just Gearbox/3DR didn't want to really do it. Randy likes to pretend the 2011 version is actually good. Scott Miller also thought it was great pre-release, all Gearbox really did was make the console version, so it's not like ex-3DR guys can say Gearbox ruined it.
Now retro shooters are back in fashion so it seems like a good time to release it.
 

GrrImAFridge

ONE THOUSAND DOLLARYDOOS
Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,675
Western Australia
I believe Gearbox also bought the copyright to DNF when it sought to acquire the Duke IP. The DNF physical discs say the game itself is owned by Take-Two, but the game's Steam page says it's owned by Gearbox (though 2K is still the publisher, for now).
 

ciddative

Member
Apr 5, 2018
4,631
This is rad.

The first DNF footage I ever saw (off a PC gamer cd iirc) was when it was in the Quake 2 engine I think? I wonder if we'll ever see that build.
 

AYZON

Member
Oct 29, 2017
901
Germany
As someone who has never played any duke nukem game, is it worth giving the game a shot or is it not playable anymore due to it being so old or whatever?
 

PaulloDEC

Visited by Knack
Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,422
Australia
Fucking finally. I've been waiting for this to happen ever since we learned years back how complete some of those 2001 builds were.

Here's hoping the fan community can take the pieces and turn them into something cool. Or at least cooler than the actual Duke Nukem Forever, which wouldn't be difficult.
 

Patison

Member
Oct 27, 2017
575
This is the holy grail of video game preservation and I want this to leak publicly, but I'm not holding my breath just yet, the fact that it wasn't released immediately and we only get the June date is a huge red flag - there's no doubt that those people have the game, but I've seen cases like that too many times where we though something was going to be released but it did not end up happening, either due to some petty drama and internal conflicts or the leakers holding the game hostage, making ridiculous demands. Sadly, more often than not, people who have hands on unreleased games have kid mentality.

This is rad.

The first DNF footage I ever saw (off a PC gamer cd iirc) was when it was in the Quake 2 engine I think? I wonder if we'll ever see that build.

I would love for that to happen, but as of right now, there's no proof that anyone (well, anyone who would be willing to brag about it) actually has that build, while we've been getting leaks from the Unreal one for about 2 years now.
 
Oct 25, 2017
4,841
As someone who has never played any duke nukem game, is it worth giving the game a shot or is it not playable anymore due to it being so old or whatever?
If you're interested, you'll want Duke Nukem 3D. That's the most well known game in the series and the reason people were looking forward to Forever over 20 years ago.

It's available on PC, PS4 and Xbox One (backwards compatible for PS5 and Series S/X) as "Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour". And whenever it goes on sale it'll be 5 bucks or less. 20 dollars at full price.
 

Santar

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,004
Norway
Wow, this looks great!
It's such a shame the Gearbox/take2 haven't just made a full working game out of it and actually commercially released it.
Hopefully the fans will get on it if this releases as planned.
Would love to play this. Already looks more fun than what we got.
Love the vending machine :D
 

Gabbo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,567
I believe Gearbox also bought the copyright to DNF when it sought to acquire the Duke IP. The DNF physical discs say the game itself is owned by Take-Two, but the game's Steam page says it's owned by Gearbox (though 2K is still the publisher, for now).
Gearbox basically bought everything but the publishing rights, so the IP belongs to Embracer Group now, as does whatever 3DRealms is calling itself, so really, if Take-Two okayed it, we might one day see it. It depends on how much of that 2001 E3 trailer was smoke and mirrors. The stuff shown here makes it seem about 75ish% real?

I wonder what Broussard and Miller are up to these days?

Still use the DNF2001 theme as my ringtone, so i will never not be down to try it in some form.
 

GrrImAFridge

ONE THOUSAND DOLLARYDOOS
Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,675
Western Australia
Gearbox basically bought everything but the publishing rights, so the IP belongs to Embracer Group now, as does whatever 3DRealms is calling itself, so really, if Take-Two okayed it, we might one day see it. It depends on how much of that 2001 E3 trailer was smoke and mirrors. The stuff shown here makes it seem about 75ish% real?

I wonder what Broussard and Miller are up to these days?

Still use the DNF2001 theme as my ringtone, so i will never not be down to try it in some form.

Oh, yeah, Duke is technically an Embracer property by way of its acquisition of Gearbox (which is likely why this build has leaked). But since Gearbox is operationally independent, it just was easier to say Gearbox owns the IP outright (minus 2K's existent publishing contract) versus getting into the nitty-gritty of the extent to which Embracer's gaming businesses cascade, haha.
 
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