Duke Nukem 3D

About

This is 3D Realms' official GPL-licensed source code release, dated April 1, 2003, of Duke Nukem 3D version 1.5 (CD version). The game's data files remain separately copyrighted by 3D Realms and are not included — a legally obtained copy of the game, or its free shareware data, is needed to actually play a compiled build.

Getting started

Building requires the free Open Watcom (or Watcom 11.0c) C/C++ compiler targeting DOS 32-bit. The readme walks through both a command-line (`wmake`) build and an IDE-based build, producing a DUKE3D.EXE that must then be copied into a directory containing the game's data files (an owned copy, version 1.4/1.3d data, or the free shareware data) to run.

History

The readme credits Charlie Wiederhold with assembling the source archive and getting it compiling again from material Scott Miller had, leading to this release, and thanks Ken Silverman and Jim Dose for permission to include portions of their Build Engine and audio-library source.

Known issues & limitations

• audio: Sound will be sketchy on modern systems and only works as well as the original Duke 3D's does.
• compatibility: The original .DMO demo files do not work; recording new ones and playback sometimes works but has been disabled for stability.
• compatibility: Networking requires disabling sound to work properly on modern systems.
• The readme notes several rough edges in this release: sound can be unreliable on modern systems, the original .DMO demo files don't play back correctly (recording/playback of new demos works only sometimes and is disabled by default), and the source to the original SETUP.EXE/SETMAIN.EXE configuration utilities could not be located.