Duke Nukem (character)
From Duke Nukem Wiki
Duke Nukem is an action hero created by Todd Replogle, George Broussard, Allen H Blum III and Scott Miller of 3D Realms. From Duke Nukem 3D onwards, Duke is voiced by Jon St. John.
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[edit] History
Duke Nukem was introduced to the world as the title character of the Apogee platform game Duke Nukem, which was published in 1991. This game is a side-scrolling platform game, and contained three episodes, the first of which was distributed as shareware. Many staples of a Duke Nukem game were established here, such as Duke's general appearance, the necessity of collecting keys/keycards, various pick-up items (although the types of items were fairly generic, and some have never been seen since) and many destructible objects. It also introduced a wide variety of enemies to fight against, although most if not all of these enemies would be absent/heavily redesigned in the sequels.
Duke Nukem is set in the "near future" of 1997, and depicts Duke's attempts to thwart the evil megalomaniac Dr. Proton and his army of Techbots. The first episode shows Duke's journey through the devastated city of Los Angeles, before the second episode takes him to Dr. Proton's secret moonbase. Finally, Duke follows Dr. Proton to the future and puts a permanent end to his plans to take over the world.
The first sequel, Duke Nukem II was released in 1993, and featured many improvements on the original, such as sloped surfaces, more colours and multiple weapons to use (although only one could be carried at a time). It is still a side-scrolling platform game, like the original.
In this game, Duke faces off against the alien race known as the Rigelatins, who are attempting to enslave Earth. They kidnap Duke during an interview for his new autobiography Why I'm So Great, in an attempt to use his brain to help direct the attack on Earth. Duke escapes, and proceeds to defeat the aliens, before finally escaping back to Earth.
The third instalment of the Duke Nukem franchise is perhaps the most notable, and has built up a large following and inspired many spin-off games. Duke Nukem 3D is a first-person 3D shooter game, and was released in 1996. It revolutionised the Duke Nukem franchise, and introduced most, if not all, of what Duke fans love. Duke now has a distinct personality, which is shown through his many soundclips and the few cutscenes in the game. A whole host of weapons, some of which are still unique to this day, and a variety of pick-ups including Night Vision Goggles and a Portable Medikit all debuted here, although it can be argued that the Jetpack is the favourite.
The game picks up where Duke Nukem II ends, with Duke being shot down by unknown assailants and being forced to eject onto a rooftop while his escape pod crashes into a nearby building. He then proceeds to "kick ass and chew bubblegum", but quickly finds that he is "all out of gum".
[edit] Appearance
Duke is a large, muscled man with a blond flat-top and sunglasses. He wears a red wifebeater, blue jeans and black boots, and black fingerless leather gloves. He also wears a bandolier which, amongst other things, contains his Portable Medikit, keycards, Steroids, Pipe Bombs and the ammo for his Ripper Chaingun, as well as all the ammo for all his other weapons.
He enjoys a cigar, and occasionally is seen smoking one.
[edit] Personality
Duke didn't show much of his personality during the first two games, but it was shown that Duke was initially provoked into fighting Dr. Proton because he interrupted Duke's soap operas.
Duke Nukem 3D revealed Duke as a hyper-masculine, egotistical, machismo-filled womanizer. His goal was to kill the aliens that had kidnapped and enslaved Earth's women. He is a confident, aggressive, and frequently politically incorrect muscle-man who, although not technically superhuman, nonetheless manages to achieve incredible physical feats of violence and conquest through sheer machismo and expertise with automatic weapons. Like the characters played by Bruce Campbell, Nukem is also a smart-mouth (although Duke's humor is somewhat less sarcastic and more straightforwardly aggressive; a few of Duke Nukem 3D's phrases are taken directly from the Campbell film Army of Darkness), and his sneering visage is often found speaking one-liners while slaughtering his enemies.
He is also apparently extremely sexually adept and irresistible to women, and circumstances generally find him surrounded by many buxom women (though certain signs in the games seem to indicate a girlfriend - current or ex - named Lani, a possible reference to sound engineer and voice actress Lani Minella). There is also an inside joke that circulated on the internet that compares Duke's looks to that of former NFL player Howie Long.
Duke Nukem's character is a pastiche of a number of Hollywood-action heroes, such as those played by Charles Bronson, Clint Eastwood, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Sylvester Stallone, as well as Kurt Russell's character from Big Trouble In Little China, Roddy Piper's character from They Live, and Ash Williams from the Evil Dead series. Sam Stone, the main character of Serious Sam is a homage to Duke Nukem.
[edit] Games Starring Duke
Main series
Spin-offs
