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Duke Nukem 3D is a FPS developed by 3D Realms and published by Apogee Software. It was released on January 29, 1996. LameDuke is an early beta version of Duke Nukem 3D, which was released by 3D Realms as a “bonus” one year after the release of the official version. It has been released as is, with no support, and is currently available to download from Fileplanet. LameDuke features four episodes: Mrr Caliber, Mission Cockroach, Suck Hole and Hard Landing. Some weapons and levels were removed and/or altered in the final game. [Infos from Wikipedia]

As we can read from the official 3D Realms website:

What most of the public does not know is that the game was several years in the making, and the development started almost immediately (to the day) after the release of Duke Nukem II (December 10, 1993).

On January 29, 1997, 3D Realms has decided that for the one year anniversary of Duke Nukem 3D, we’d release a sneak peek into the development of the game. Released now is LAMEDUKE. What’s LameDuke? LameDuke is a beta version of Duke Nukem 3D from December 1994.

In the galleries below you can see many images from different Duke Nukem beta builds. The “Older Gallery” contains images that appear to be from a build somewhere between Lameduke and what became the final Duke Nukem 3D, the “Newer Gallery” seems to be a build that can’t be too much earlier than the v0.99 beta that was leaked.

Treasons made a list of the main differences in these screens (check below):

Older Gallery:

These have a different hud, there is a Kill counter in the main hud and it is in what appears to be single player, this is not present in any build I have seen, there is also an orange shape either side of the hud which appears to light up, this may work like the skulls on the hud in Blood where the eyes light up sometimes. the weapons in the hud are 1 to 9 instead of 2 to 10, in some shots the hud has no “Keys” section.

The Silver-gray robotic enemy did not appear in the final game, his art occupies the same tiles as the Assault Trooper in the final game.

Duke1.png has an older version of the scuba gear.

When there is no Hud in the shot it appears duke has an old-fashioned army torch at the lower left, not seen in the final.

In some shots there is a colored dot in the ammo count.

Enforcer enemies have a strange red design that is not present in the final game.

Recon Patrol Vehicles appear different and also seem to be flown by enforcers rather than pig cops.

The overall palette seems marginally different.

The chaingun graphics in later builds are based upon the plasma gun in Duke2.png

Newer Gallery:

In the newer folder, the shots are not too far different to the v0.99 beta

More old scube gear graphics.

the space suit is on in one screen shot (24.png), code exists for it in v0.99 but no build I ever saw had the hud graphics for it that appear here.

The HUD is still a little different but closer to the final, the levels also closely resemble the final build, being marginally different from V0.99.

It is also worth mentioning that a code exists in v0.99 for a flamethrower weapon, dropped from the final game.

There are also some more beta shots on the box of the game, which are different from the actual game, you can find them with more info on Treason‘s website: www.freewebs.com/hctreason/duke3dstuff1.htm

More infos on LameDuke can be found at Planet Duke and GameFAQs! Thanks to SquarePulse for some of the videos and to Treason and JudgeDeadd for the contributions!

More Lameduke Images:

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