About
Duke Nukem II is a 1993 DOS game by Apogee Software. Duke 2 Reconstructed is a from-scratch reconstruction of Duke Nukem II's source code, built from disassembly of the original executable. Per the readme, it compiles with era-appropriate toolchains (Borland C++ 3.0/3.1 and Turbo C++ 3.0) and produces a binary that is byte-for-byte identical to the original after LZEXE compression. It's meant for documentation, preservation, and as a base for DOS source mods — not for playing the game on modern systems, for which the author points to their separate RigelEngine project.
How it differs from the original
The readme is explicit that only the code's semantics (and to a large extent syntax) are confirmed accurate, since the compiled output matches the original binary exactly; code organization, formatting, comments, and identifier names are the author's own reconstruction, not the original source.
Getting started
Building requires either a real DOS environment or an emulator like DOSBox, era-appropriate compilers (Borland C++ / Turbo C++), and a legally owned copy of the Duke Nukem II game data placed alongside the compiled executable. The readme offers a 'batch file' build that reproduces the original binary exactly, or a more flexible incremental Makefile build for modding.
History
The author states this project followed their earlier reverse-engineering work on RigelEngine, and credits Scott Smitelli's Cosmore project — a similar reconstruction of the related Cosmo engine — for giving them a head start, since Duke Nukem II's engine is an evolution of Cosmo's.
Additional notes
- Trivia
- The readme documents SHA-256 hashes for three known original binary releases: the shareware version, and two registered-version variants compressed with LZEXE or PKLITE.