30 Years of Kicking Ass (and a yearly update)

Duke Nukem 3D came out thirty years ago today. Well, technically, the shareware episode released; the full game wouldn't drop for another couple months. Nonetheless, by any real metric, Duke Nukem 3D's birthday (and Duke as a cultural phenomenon) is today. I'd been wanting to write up a quick something to mark two years since I started this blog and I guess this is as good an excuse as any. While this is not a formal review of Duke 3D (that won't be for a while) I did want to talk a little about the game and its impact on me.

When I was a kid, I would sometimes talk my dad (sometimes my mom) into taking me to the bookstore the next neighborhood over. They had a whole cardboard display full of shareware games you could buy for a small fee, usually a couple of dollars. It was from here that I acquired copies of the shareware versions of Duke Nukem and Duke Nukem II; I greatly enjoyed these games, so when I heard that there was a new game in 3D I was instantly excited. I had played Wolfenstein 3D and Doom, and they had shown me a whole new dimension. I grew up on Mario, Sonic, and Mega Man; but first person shooters were a brand new experience for me, feeling more real. It seems silly now, and yet when you're just a kid in a religiously restrictive household, you'll cling to any new experience you can. First person shooters felt subversive, rebellious even.

I don't remember exactly where I got the Duke 3D shareware, just that it wasn't the bookstore. I'm reasonably certain it came on a CD somewhere, but I couldn't tell you how I got it. I do remember that it wasn't until 1997, after my parents initiated their likely-inevitable divorce. By that point I had a lot less supervision, and with the old family PC, originally in the living room, now stored in my bedroom, I could play the kinds of games I wanted to play (albeit with no internet) without my religious fundamentalist mother breathing down my neck. Among a range of titles including a full version of Quake (which a family friend had given me) was the shareware Duke Nukem 3D, and it was a life-changer for me. Here was a game that said, yes, the real-world locations you go to every day can be video game levels too. Movie theaters, grocery stores, fast food places, all are represented in some way, primitive by today's standards but nonetheless recognizable, by Duke Nukem 3D. There was something refreshing about it; Duke himself was an incredible character, all swagger and machismo. It gave me something to hold onto at a turbulent time in my life; most of my most formative experiences were in that six year period between my parents' divorce and my (belated) graduation from high school. Quake, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Final Fantasy VII, Metal Gear Solid, among others — but Duke was first.

It makes me sad, what Duke and his franchise have been through in the 30 years since 3D. After an early rush of console spinoffs to keep the lights on while 3D Realms worked on the sequel, things just kinda dried up as Duke Nukem Forever disappeared into development hell. Between all the legal issues around the game, as well as the current owners of the IP clearly just not giving a hot shit (they didn't even put the game on sale today!) it's just kind of depressing to see something that was once a big cultural touchstone suddenly disappear into obscurity. I grew up on Duke. It wouldn't be untrue to say that Duke 3D has had a huge influence on me. Somehow, I managed to not be a raging bigot frothing at the mouth over trans women. I just became one of those trans women instead. Why are we letting the likes of the Duke4 forums and other MAGA chud losers claim Duke? Duke is a hero, a beloved figure in his own universe. Sure, it's played for laughs, but you don't get there by being the kind of guy Duke4.net worships. Duke fights for all humans. That's literally his schtick. Be it aliens, Nazis or mad scientists, human liberty and dignity is his animating focus and he will kill anything that stands in the way of that. Maybe it's the "Duke hates Nazis" part that some of his fans pretend to ignore, I don't know, but it's really unfortunate that we've let the likes of Richard Gobeille and George Broussard control the conversion on who Duke is. No more. I will say it loud and proud: Duke belongs to the people.

Duke 3D has for thirty years defined what I look for in level design. Outside of the AAA realm, I'm always looking for realistic spaces in my 3D games, something that gives the impression that this is a place where real people might exist. One of my great frustrations with Doom mapping in the years since Hell Revealed II is that outside of specific intentions of "Doomcute" most maps purposefully avoid this particular design ethos. I guess you might call it the Build aesthetic, after the Build engine that Duke Nukem 3D (and Blood, and Ion Fury) run on. While there are many games made before and since that I greatly adore, I always find myself coming back to Duke 3D eventually. It really was the best to ever do it.

I may be biased, though. I mean, I named my boomer shooter blog after it.

Speaking of which, 2025 was productive but also kind of not. On the administrative side, I introduced not one but two new blogs: June Gloom 64, the new home for my media reviews (my old Medium blog is still available, and will remain the place to see my older reviews until I've successfully reposted them all — again — to Blogger); and Super June Gloom, a personal blog I use to write the kind of thoughts that kept me out of the good schools and on a government watchlist. I also vastly overhauled the look of June Gloom 3D; old heads may recognize the overall aesthetic of 2003-2005-era Steam, with its green vintage military chic (that you can still see in old Goldsrc games.) I always found that look charming and I strove to recreate it here. In terms of reviews, you were probably a bit disappointed: 2025 was dominated by classic World War II shooters and their sequels; Doom and other games didn't really factor into it much. That era is more or less over with, but don't expect a lot of Doom in the coming months. My plans for this year are to cover some more immersive sims, namely the Thief series and its spiritual successor, Dishonored; you can also expect Killing Time, They Hunger for Half-Life, and maybe a surprise or two. I do intend to cover Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, but I'm waiting to hear word on the third game before I dive into that.

2025 was a scary year and 2026 looks to be even worse; I hope that my writing brings some small amount of comfort to you, something to take your mind off things or even to help you take heart. You can always find me on Bluesky as well, though I go through periods where I try to dial down my social media usage for my own mental health.

Anyway, that's it. Hail to the queen, baby!

-june❤