Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you the end of the longest running development of a game.  No, Duke Nukem Forever has not finally been finished.  Instead it appears that 3D Realms has shut down, closed their doors, and ceased to exist.  

After 13 years we finally got a screenshot or two of Duke Nukem Forever with the release of Duke Nukem 3D on Xbox Live Arcade; but even that game couldn't save the studio.  According to Shacknews 3D Realms employees have been let go, and Apogee may have been affected as well.  We did just receive the following statement though concerning the upcoming Duke Nukem Trilogy
 

Deep Silver and Apogee Software are not affected by the situation at 3D Realms. Development on the Duke Nukem Trilogy is continuing as planned.

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Classic Gaming download service Good Old Games (GOG) has announced the availability of several classic Apogee titles.  Apogee were the kings of PC gaming back in the mid 90s with such hits as Rise of the Triad, Blake Stone, and of course the co-op friendly Duke Nukem 3D.

The aforementioned Duke Nukem 3D is now available to download via the service.  For the low price of $5.99 you can be kicking ass and chewing bubble gum with your buddies.  Unfortunately playing it in co-op is going to be an exercise in what made PC Gaming great in the era of the 386 - setting up IPX networks!  That was sarcasm.

The game is certified to work on Vista and XP, and comes with SMS Ringtones, Hi-Res Wallpaper, the original manual in PDF form and more.  Of course if you don't want to set up a kick ass IPX/SPX network, you should be able to find a way to play the game via TCP/IP.  

If none of this entices you, and you still want to get in on the Duke 3D action, you could just drop $10 on the Xbox Live Arcade version.

Source: Link

A few weeks back, we had a contest, giving away three copies of Duke Nukem on XBLA.  A nice bonus for the winners was the promise of playing co-op Duke Nukem 3D with the Co-Optimus staff.  Last Saturday night, one of the winners got together with us for some old school, one-liner spoutin' action.  Since Duke Nukem is such a classic, and features co-op, it's only natural that our report on the action would be the topic of this week's Co-Op Classics.

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A week has come and gone, and it's time to announce the winners in our Duke Nukem 3D Caption Contest.  If you haven't had the chance, you can check out all the entries here in the original news post.  I'd be nice and say that all the entries were great, blah blah, but I ask you, What Would Duke Do?  Would he be nice?  Nope, he'd laugh at a few of them, and use a rocket launcher on all the rest.  So, without any further delay, here are your winners, in no particular order...

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This week has been a busy one for me. That's part of the reason why This Week in Co-Op is a day late. However, I hope that I can make it up to you all. I think I might be able to, because I've been spending the week playing a game that most all gamers can agree is either cool, or at least features a cool character. The game in question is Duke Nukem 3D on XBLA,.

I've played the single player part of Duke Nukem 3D, and it is super retro fun. Actually, for a game that originally came out in 1996, it holds up decently. Duke himself is the main draw of the game, but it also features great weapons, enemies, gameplay, and so forth. Also, the XBLA version has up to 8 player co-op. I've already stated that Duke is cool, since he's basically a one-liner machine. So, if one Duke makes the game great, eight Dukes must  be epic, correct? Yes, indeed this is the case.

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Duke Nukem 3D was the most downloaded XBLA game the week of its release, which is no surprise to us here at Co-Optimus.  It also managed to crack the top 10 games played over Xbox Live, which just goes to show you, you can't keep a good man, or a walking cliche, down.  The game features an 8 player co-op mode, which makes us very happy.  We're so happy, in fact, that we've decided to celebrate!

Co-Optimus has three codes to give away, which means three lucky winners get a free copy of Duke Nukem 3D.  To sweeten the deal, each of the three winners get to join Co-Optimus staff members for a Duke Nukem co-op session!  Can you imagine it?  8 Dukes running around, tipping strippers, spouting one liners... it's the stuff co-op dreams are made of!

So what do you have to do to enter the contest?  It's easy: see that screenshot above?  Come up with the coolest caption you can, and put it in a reply to this news post.  I tried to make it as easy as I could on you, with a huge gun, a sleazy girl, and a bar to use in your caption.  Just make sure you keep it more or less safe for work, and also for Japan (oops too late for that).

The deadline for entries is next Tuesday, October 14.  Then, our crack team of judges will consider each caption, and choose the top three.  Those three winners get a code for the game, and the chance to co-op with our staff at a later date.  So, who wants some free Duke Nukem?

If you are like us, then you've been re-living your earlier years replaying a great conversion of Duke Nukem 3D for the Xbox Live Arcade.  I've been playing co-op all the way through, and I believe we are just shy of the infamous Football Stadium level.  But if you go outside your cooperative comfort zone and play some Duke Match amassing 500 kills and finally earning all achievements in the game you'll be rewarded with something special.  There's a hidden gallery that is unlocked that reveals two hi resolution Duke Nukem Forever screenshots.  Yes...THAT Duke Nukem Forever. 

While it's not known if the latest iteration of the Duke franchise will support co-op, we can only hope 3DR hasn't taken out on of the things we loved so much about the original.  We have the screenshots posted after the Read More link...warning...one of them is sort of NSFW risky.

In similar D3D news, according to sales tracking site VGChartz the title has sold over 40,000 copies on Xbox Live Arcade in its first week alone!

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Bad news if you were planning on co-op-ing some Duke Nuke 3D on Xbox Live Arcade this Wednesday when it's released with your buddy over in Japan.  According to George Broussard's Twitter the game has been given an Adults Only rating equivalent there and therefore will not be released via Xbox Live Arcade in the Japanese region.

There's no word yet on whether or not they will appeal the rating.   We aren't sure if the original game was actually released in Japan, as their is no Amazon.jp listing for it.  The successive ports of the title on the Nintendo 64, PlayStation and SegaSaturn aren't listed as well, though these versions were all tamed down in some manner.

Quick.  Get out your little black book.  Time to find seven of your buddies to get together on Xbox Live for some 8 player co-op Duke Nukem action!  This MEGA Episode of GameTrailers TV broke the exclusive news that we'll be seeing the 3D Realms classic title on Xbox Live Arcade on September 24th.

The latest iteration of the game will feature the previously mentioned 8 player co-op mode as well as a build in rewind feature and replays.  The game includes the original Duke 3D release as well as the expansion pack for four total episodes of boobie shaking, gum chewing, pipe bomb exploding action.  Now if only 3D Realms could finish up the next generation Duke Nukem Forever that's been in development since last decade.  Perhaps it will have co-op?  We can only hope...

New trailer after the break.

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TeamXbox has posted their hands on preview with the XBLA version of Duke Nukem 3D, coming next month.  The most important information from the preview is the confirmation of 8 player co-op.  Yes, eight buff dudes with guns spouting awesome one-liners can play at the same time!  The wonders of modern technology!  However, there's much more than just that to keep your interest.  The Tivo-like replay system is particularly innovative, allowing players to rewind from a death and play back from any point on a level.  These replays can be saved and shared online, too.  I foresee lots of poring over the leaderboards for awsome playthroughs in my future.  Of course, the game also features the requisite huge guns, wacky enemies, and strippers.  Achievements for the game are listed, as well, and you can check them out here at Co-Optimus after the break.

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