Before he came to chew gum and kick ass, Duke Nukem went to the moon 35 years ago

Writing about Duke Nukem in the big 2026 is an odd one. For millions of players across the world, the crass, flat-top, cigar-toting hero represents an era of shooters left almost entirely in the past. Some of you may have heard the name in passing. His legacy may be attributed to the understandable brilliance of Duke Nukem 3D, but before that, Apogee Software (3D Realms) laid the foundations for one hell of a good time in 1991. Yes, it really has been 35 years.

Now, look, I wasn’t born when Duke Nukem first launched on July 1, 1991, for MS-DOS. I’m just a few years shy of this landmark, but the good thing about having an older brother is having all manner of action games passed down to you. Despite well-intentioned warnings from my parents to avoid any kind of media perceived as violent above my age, I’m afraid (and happy) that those rules don’t exist between siblings. We didn’t have many floppy disks, but somehow Duke Nukem was one of them. It certainly beats playing Thomas the Tank Engine.

Before leaping into 3D graphics in 1996, the first Duke Nukem was a straightforward side-scroller. Set across three episodes, the goal is simple: find the exit at the end of the level. Along the way, you can destroy a limited array of objects, be it boxes or obstacles in your way. There are even a few cheeky power-ups and special items, too. Seeing your inventory and firepower tucked away into a black void on the right of the screen is charming, even if it’s eating up valuable display real estate. Apogee is borrowing a lot from Dark Ages, another title with the same approach released in the same year.

Plot-wise, the bombastic nature of any Duke Nukem adventure is the most prominent element here. Although Duke himself is nowhere near the over-the-top, lovable action hero cliché version we’re used to, Apogee embeds the series’ tropes for huge danger and silliness early on. Dr. Proton is eager to unleash an army of Techbots on the world. Stereotypical world domination stuff. Of course, there’s only one person who can stop them. Sent in by the CIA to draw Proton out of hiding, does it surprise you that we end up going to a secret base on the moon?

Dialogue in each episode is sparse at best, but when you’re taking the fight to space, it doesn’t really matter. It does highlight just how different Duke is, though. He’s a more stoic, straight-faced vessel for spectacle here. He doesn’t cuss or woo women. If he does speak, don’t expect any flavor to it beyond stating what you need to do. And well, his name was slightly different, adopting the surname ‘Nukum’ instead. Because the animated series Captain Planet already had a character called Duke Nukem, it left Apogee in a tough spot – but not for long.

Although Apogee went with ‘Nukum’ in the 2.0 version of the game, the studio later found out that ‘Nukem’ wasn’t copyrighted. Yes, Apogee didn’t hesitate to lock that down when it became aware of the situation. Speaking about the creation of the character, the studio’s co-founder, Scott Miller, said that “we wanted a hero who was just totally over-the-top, kind of a mix between John Wayne and Arnold Schwarzenegger.”

The circumstances of Duke Nukem’s release are a far cry from a forgotten era. Classified as shareware, like many Apogee games, it helped popularize this method of selling games. At the time, players could (slowly) download the first episode from bulletin board systems or borrow it on a floppy disk from a friend. If you wanted to play the rest, you could send off an order to Apogee to get the remaining episodes. There’s a whole scene of games that owes a lot to Apogee’s efforts, with notable examples including Wolfenstein 3D and the grandfather of FPS games, Doom.

Even at 35 years old, playing Duke Nukem is still a blast. It might lack the characterization we’re all used to seeing, but it isn’t without charm. Backed by a surprisingly modern-day touch, the inclusion of unlimited lives, diving back into its short and sweet episodes is a nice distraction from live-service grinds. It’s just a compact, well-packaged adventure whose core aim is to entertain you for a little while, nothing more. Of course, actually physically playing it is a little tricky.

I’m revisiting Duke Nukem through my own means, so to speak, but if you want to own it on a modern-day platform, you’ll need to get an Evercade handheld. It’s a little disappointing that there isn’t a nifty collection on the Nintendo Switch eShop or Steam. The original games were available in 2013 on Valve’s platform, but licensing issues seem to have gotten in the way. It’d be ace to see a repackage of Duke’s origins, but it seems unlikely. However, in its absence, Duke Nukem 3D is on the Nintendo Switch, with a few handy improvements aimed at resolution and framerate.

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