@@Zoza15 There's a reason why Id and many fans call that build "Call of DOOM". ............But yeah, I'm curious about what it would've ended up as too.
@@fpspwny995 yea, that's because it used some more modern apocalyptic city style and not bases, the hell. Just apocalyptic buildings and stuff... ...and it eventually became Rage
The reason this game was doomed was that George Broussard saw what other devs were doing to enhance their FPS games, and would rewind development constantly to add those in to really make Duke Forever an exceptional game, which I really do respect. The 2001 build looks amazing but they thought they could o better, and that's why 3D Realms basically imploded when making this game. I wish someone would've just told George Broussard that we didn't want a perfect game, we just wanted a great Duke game.
EXACTLY. What they had was solid. Easily 8/10. once they decided to reboot after the 90% build it was a wrap. Tech wise the rest of the industry was making quantum leaps and duke was still stuck in 2004. That 90% build would have been a hit. While not a big as a game changer as half life or half life 2 it would have been a solid entry and they could have used what they learned to build another sequel and George Broussard could still have a job in the industry today.
Broussard only cared about the pretty graphics: every time a new engine would show up (which was an almost daily event in the late-90s\early 00s), showing it could pump more polygons and whatnot, he'd buy the license and force people to restart from scratch. That and superficial ideas like a "snow level" because he had seen the "The Thing" videogame and thought it would've been cool. Until quite late in development, people were afraid of just telling him "no, we won't do that: we have a game to ship". His problem was that 3D REALMS had too much money and he was burning it like it was endless (it wasn't - one reason he could afford his crazy antics was that the team was very small and they got paid very little with the promise of a share in the final product's revenues). Sorry, but he was no visionary artist shooting for the moon: he was a child loose in a candy store. Had he really cared about making a great game, he would've concentrated on the actual content: Duke Nukem 3D was not the most impressive-looking game of 1996, but it was loaded with ideas. According to several sources, he never even had a real idea of what the final game was supposed to be. He threw the 2001 version in the trash, despite it being 90% complete and people demanding it in force after that year's E3, because he saw newer games had dynamic lighting but that build of DNF wasn't built for that and the minute they tried to implement it, it fell apart.
@@thermonuclearcollider4418 I heard there was crap like Broussard played Half-Life and then suddenly decided DNF had to begin with Duke riding a train. I can't imagine how frustrating it must have been being a developer working under him.
The 2001 build was when the project peaked. Looked fun to play and kept the cartoonish Duke personality. From there on, they look like generic and tedious af to play.
they should have just kept polishing that version. Yeah it would have been outdated by the time it released but so was D3D. What made it special was the gameplay and all the crazy shit they put in the game.
@@fonebook Exactly the reason I was a happy child because not everyone has top of the line hardware when new stuff comes out. Catering to the poorer demographics means a wider appeal due to greater accessibility.
@@Gonken88 Not true. The 2001 version is like 70-80% done maybe more. There's a thread where one of the devs said he went and played through all the files years afterwards.
This game is one of the saddest game development cycles I've ever seen, from epic, monster sized adventure to a sad comedy. I am so glad that the 2001 version was leaked. It looks so incredible than what we got. The Doctor Who Cloned Me was nice though.
I’ve read that the person who leaked the 2001 does have builds from 2002 & 2003 that may get released someday. Those two & the 1998 prototype would make my life as a Duke fan complete.
Interesting that the 2007 trailer here ends with Duke saying, "What'd you expect? Forever's a long time, bitch." I distinctly remember him saying "I'm looking for an alien toilet to park my bricks. Who's first?"
It's so fascinating to me to go back and look at footage from the 2003 build. I'm SO thankful we got the leak we did, and especially that it included the entire source code for everything (a huge asset for people like mightyfoot productions, the team behind DNF 2001 Restoration Project) but it's kind of a shame we didn't get a build from late 2002 or so. As you can tell from the 2003 footage they implemented basically a all new renderer with support for full realtime lighting and shadows (even stencil shadows, just like Doom 3... which recently came out, damnit George), which is what lead to the 2001 version getting trashed. All the maps, and assets that were far along by late 2002 early 2003 had to be scrapped because of the huge lighting change. Crazy how many ideas survived to the 2011 version though. The talk show almost made it (it's in the 2001 leak so it survived a long time), the idea to ride a minecart was all the way back in the 98 trailer, and the ghost town. The menu at 10:49 (from ~2009 I think) is the same as in the 2001 leak lol. The part at 6:55 is in the 2001 leak but it's general graves driving the boat and you on a turret. Heck the fantastic dynamic glass breaking that was written by one person at 3D realms seem to have survived all the way till at least that 2006 build (9:04 the glass seem to shatter dynamically). No dark atmospheric las Vegas streets to explore, no drivable motorcycle (we did get that shitty monster truck part) etc. Funny how the fully real time lighting and shadows that the 2001 version got shit canned for ended up being almost completely un-used in the release version to create and optimize console versions at the last minute. The plot was def darker with the infected EDF etc. And many of the maps in the leak just have a creepy vibe like the Area 51 stuff. It just lost all the charm and the tone was a mess by the 2011 version.
To think of all the millions of US dollars that were spent on this, not to mention the sedimental value these builds had... Biggest tragedy in video game modern history.
The 2001 version must be released some day.. if they worked on it until 2002, there must be something. I've watched that 2001 trailer countless times as a kid
It exists. It's been played with. The Duke match portion mostly works. There are people that want to make things happen. Just check the current 3DR staff and the posts they've done.
That but especially, if only George Broussard of 3D Realms didn’t get quickly unsatisfied of the progress so far and hadn’t changed game engines constantly.
@@MondySpartan what I don't get is why didnt anyone on the team stop him or try and tell him how bad of an idea that was? Wasted resources and time for over 10 years. Honestly if it wasn't for gearbox the game probably would never had seen the light of day
@@stratocaster-dn7gt Wanna know what’s worse? The definitive era of Duke Nukem Forever, the 2001 version, was actually 90% finished. NINETY PERCENT. But then Broussard said “scratch that” anyways.
To be honest Duke 3D went through a similar development hell with Brousard changing his mind about enemies & weapons right up until release. That kind of iterative approach could work out in the mid-90's, but by the 2000's it was an incredibly sloppy, wasteful & irresponsible way to design a game.
90% of the quake 2 version is a techdemo and was made for the trailer itself. But the Unreal version is the most interesting, because most part of what was presented in the trailer are actually playable. Some people claim that the 2001 unreal version is 90% complete, the story has a darker tone, there are some RPG elements and it has an hub based open world, where you can travel using duke's bike.
@@viniciusmedeiros2867 I'll assume the 2001 version is an updated version after 1998 version. Also the engine had been changed from Quake Engine to Unreal Engine.
@@viniciusmedeiros2867 quake 2 version is more complete than people realize, they dont want to admit it, shows mother fucking gameplay come on not just scripted shit.
Hate to say it but what you see in the 98 trailer is all that was made of the id tech 2 / quake 2 engine version. They switched to unreal less than a year after getting the Quake II source code. And what's in that trailer is completely scripted etc.
The 2001 scrapped in favor of lighting effects. George Broussard is an idiot George: This 2001 build is almost done. Let's finish it up and then release- oh look! Doom 3 has beautiful lighting effects! Let's scrap this version of Duke Nukem Forever to work on the lighting engine. Forget gameplay! I need muh dynamic lighting!
@@tiefensucht George Broussard is the worst boss in the world! And he dosen't bother switching engines for other duke nukem games! He used to many drugs and he starts acting crazy!
Its incredible isnt it, years before some games did some of the things DNF was supposed to do before them. Crazy to think that we would finally be playing what couldve been, sure its in an unfinished state but the idea that this piece of history is now preserved and available to the public is insane, never thought Id see the day ya know?
@@mioda3109 Exciting times indeed. Maybe we'll get a game out of this and someone can finish/port Tomb Raider 1 Remake on the PSP and we'd be back in 2001.
@@trblemayker5157 Godspeed to the DNF Restoration Project team! And yeah DNF was pushing some cool tech in the 2001 leaked build. D3D 8 was new, and they had implemented a D3D 8 renderer into UE 1, the glass physics, the email terminals were going to be able to actually send and receive email (the source code is all there). Just so much cool stuff. Most of which got thrown in the trash.
I remember buying a new GeForce 2 xp for Duke coming out. Still 2001 was an awesome year. Wolfenstein, max payne, gta3. Avp. Solider of fortune. Had some great titles back then and lots of demos.
Probably because of the new renderer. Mainly the implementation of fully real time lighting and shadows. Which is what caused the 2001 version to be shit canned.
I knew Broussard inspire it, When he perceived doom 3 E3 showing off a demonstration of lightning & shadows, this is why they screwed up driving to the wrong path.
DNF release in 2001 could've easily rivaled or absolutely make the game like Return to castle Wolfenstein & Halo:CE (which are arguably the best FPS got released at the time) run out of their money for sure
It's truly amazing how fast the game started going downhill after the 2001 build. Constant changes in art style and engine, so the game never had an identity and was stuck in a constant technological limbo. So pathetic.
Why the HELL didn't they finish the 97 or 2001 version and released instead of the god awful 2011 joke? Older versions looks utterly badass. For the love of god, someone make developers release the first 2 versions into 1 sweet download deal on console. Retro graphics are the new black!
There's actually a December 2002 build out there somewhere, there's pictures of the root folder of the game along with in-game pictures, it has the same structure and files that the 2001 leak has, before that one even leaked giving it credibility, that's the one that I want to be leaked, apparently it's the rumored 90% complete build. The holy grail.
DNF is a textbook example of bad management and game design. They have a team of talented programmers but they couldn't complete the game because of their immoderate ambitions. That's almost happened to Bioshock 3, Ken Levin missed all deadlines and developer's team described him as a manchild with over the top idiotic ideas. When 2k games hired Rod Ferguson to finish Bioshock 3, he was surprised that they didn't even have a working beta. After six years of development! Rod removed Levine from the project and finished Bioshock 3 as we know it today.
1996(?) - Build 1997 - Quake 1 engine 1997-1998 - Quake II engine 1998-2003(?) - Unreal Engine 1 2003-2006 - id Tech 4 it looks like, or maaaaaybe Unreal Engine 2 2006-2011 - Unreal Engine 3 Wow they should have made up their minds on whether they wanted id or Unreal way earlier.
Even going from UE2 to UE3 could force them to scrap many elements and try again. I hear even sometimes using an updated version of the same engine can break the code
@@paradoxzee6834 I've heard since making this comment that DNF still technically runs on UE1... a freakishly deformed and heavily modified Frankenstein version of it.
2001 DNF : Potential to be a killer against the top FPS that been released such as Deus Ex, NOLF, RtcW in early 2000s that never was. DNF could've had gave them run of its money
There is nothing to play. They switched from Quake II engine to unreal in less than a year. What you see in that trailer is all that was made on the quake II engine and its completely scripted.
The way the old man wisecracks at Duke makes me think he was either a partner character or a recurring character Duke would see the throughout the game. He would've added a unique dynamic, as he thought Duke was ridiculous and tryhard, unlike all the other human characters.
Now that a 2001 build leaked I agree. He appears in several maps in the ghost town chapter. Of course he has no dialog and no scripting but he was def going to be a re occurring char.
For anyone curious those first few screen shots of DNF (at 3:30) the first 4 at least are mockups done in the quake I engine while 3D Realms was still waiting on final source code for id tech 2 (the quake II engine). And what you see in the 98 trailer is the extent of what they did with that engine before switching to Unreal Engine. So glad we had a 2001 build leak (even if rumor suggest there are more complete builds of that version, not by much though I think). Mainly the fact the entire source code for everything was included in the leak. Source for all of UE1, everything 3DRealms was adding to it (lots of cool stuff, like the glass breaking effect was one guy at 3D Realms, they had basically written there own mesh support into UE1, and practically their own D3D 8 renderer for UE1 at that point in the 2001 build already (looking at the source code they had help from epic as well, TIm Sweeeny specifically, there are comments from him in the D3D8 source code).
There could be DNF in 2001 and then next DN in 2003-4 , and then next in 2006-7 and then another one in 2011. and we would have bunch of amazing games from big 3D Realms company. but well. broussard.
WOW the 2001 looks great, They had to launch it like that :( I like the idea of the girl helping Duke in 1998. Duke still has potential to make another game in this time, like Duke Nukem 5 or something.
the game looked fine up until 2006, that's when the color scheme got into the dust yellow-beige color, but it still looked managable. anything from that point onwards just looks like the 2011 retail one we got, which is sad that i can compare the 2006 version to a version that's literally 5 years older both graphically and gameplay-wise
If game look like 2001 and released it would be a probably a very good selling game even for 2021... it look amazing specially i do not care about graphics.
I hope that the 2003 build will be leaked one day, still very close to the 2001 one but with better graphics, cool monsters and the Doom 3 dynamic shadow/lighting, the best one imo. It started to go downhill with the 2006 build but they all looks better and more fun than the final game.
I wanna take a guess at the story in the 1998 version It seems Vegas or city gets attacked but Duke encounters that unnamed spy girl and follows her but she doesn't want you following her and you eventually meet up with her but Vegas or city gets Nuked with you escaping with her while she drives the flatbed truck with you fighting the USAF in the process but THAT grey monster knocks the truck off the road crashing the truck killing the spy girl and knocking you out ( the strip club part is a dream ) waking up in the canyon Duke probably makes his way towards some where of importance ( maybe a missle base like in part 1 ) This is just my theory based on the video just why do you shoot the helicopter down with the girl in it
I thought what little was seen when Jace hall played it back in 2007-08(?) looked great. Not sure what build it was but it looked sort of like the 2011 version but considerably better.
Those first few trailers were awesome, and as time dragged on it became disappointingly clear that this game would not happen. By the time the project was actually released, I had low expectations and even less interest -- I played the demo for about 30 seconds and I was good. Will always wonder about what could have been...
They did a great job with the released DNF, but it just doesn't have the vibe nor feel the 1998 & 2001 trailers had. Even the 2007 trailer looks better than the released game. It has more of that Sci-fi horror vibe to it like Duke Nukem 3D.
if only the people running the development of this game had any brains. this title would've been released far sooner, and with much more success. Unfortunately, what we got was a depressing pile of garbage, made rotten by the decade long wait period between the initial announcement of the game, and it's actual release. Seriously, get ID software to buy this IP, and i can almost garauntee that within a year or 3, we'd get the DNF that we fucking deserved this whole damn time.
it wasnt that short, atleast not if you played the DLC campaign called the Doctor Who Cloned Me...it basicly was the third act of the game which came out 6 months after release..You fight Doctor Proton in it and travel to the moon to kill the Alien Empress...It was always ment to be part of the main game but for some stupid reason Gearbox cut the game in half to make money on it as DLC but sadly by than most people had given up on the game and never played it...i still enjoyed the game myself tho.
I agree with most on here that the 1998 and 2001 versions would've been just fine. Also, I'd say most builds kept that "Duke feel" until 2009. Even the 2008 build from the Jace Hall show looked just like an modern update to DN3D. But once you get to 2009, the complete look and feel (down to the dweary color palette) looks very generic-- even the weapon designs started to lack anything memorable and they somehow put shaders on the weapons from the Jace Hall build that made them look worse. I even think that maybe Gearbox completely overhauled development in 2009. The fact that the 2009 footage is showing prototype animations for what should've been a nearly finished game, tells me that they most likely scrapped what came before and were almost starting from scratch (aside from the main beats of the story and some assets from previous builds). In the Jace Hall interview (which you can still find the whole interview to this day), he was talking to Scott Miller and George Broussard (AKA 3D Realms), and they were clearly knee deep in development. So the prototype footage shown in 2009 doesn't make sense if Gearbox was continuing where 3D Realms left off. Also, not only did the Jace Hall build show a weapon wheel (which got scrapped for 2 weapons in the Gearbox version), but the entire weapon interface looked way different-- albeit that might've been a "developer" interface to help testing, but still, I'm just pointing how different the game was, between the Jace Hall build and 2009. So, in summary, I'm guessing that what we see in 2009 is an early version of what we ended up getting in 2011 / the final game.
Whenever they decided to not release what they had, they should have released it as a $20 game, and would have made a lot of money. Just stupid that they threw out everything so many times.
I know the original trailer looks great and all but maybe it was already a sign of things to come? Did anyone notice that in the beta footage allone there are 4 vehicle sections where duke stands on an automatically moving plattform. Never a good sign.
They need to make a Duke nukem what could of been forever collection with a the older versions finished bet it would kill and have massive replay value
![BioShock Infinite - Original Prototype and Beta Versions Gameplay [Beta and Cut Content]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/rJHaP3Ovjcc/mqdefault.jpg)
Leaked prototype gameplay: ruclips.net/video/6Wbm1sjOWSA/видео.html
Honestly, the 2001 version looks way more fun than the 2011 released game.
I think so too!
Agreed.
and it exists in 90% complete form.
The released game had nothing to do with DN forever, it was pure heresy
Trailer 2001>1998>2003>2006 (that is a final game)
Scary to think, DooM 4 might have had similar fate.
That Doom 4 idea wasn't bad, it could have been a Doom Spin off without calling it Doom.
So thank Goodness we have Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal.
@@Zoza15 There's a reason why Id and many fans call that build "Call of DOOM".
............But yeah, I'm curious about what it would've ended up as too.
Doom 4 was the only game where beta version was much worse than what they released
@@fpspwny995 yea, that's because it used some more modern apocalyptic city style and not bases, the hell. Just apocalyptic buildings and stuff...
...and it eventually became Rage
@@Zoza15 Doom Eternal this is shit that looks like fantasy. Better some Brutal Doom than this
The reason this game was doomed was that George Broussard saw what other devs were doing to enhance their FPS games, and would rewind development constantly to add those in to really make Duke Forever an exceptional game, which I really do respect. The 2001 build looks amazing but they thought they could o better, and that's why 3D Realms basically imploded when making this game. I wish someone would've just told George Broussard that we didn't want a perfect game, we just wanted a great Duke game.
EXACTLY. What they had was solid. Easily 8/10. once they decided to reboot after the 90% build it was a wrap. Tech wise the rest of the industry was making quantum leaps and duke was still stuck in 2004. That 90% build would have been a hit. While not a big as a game changer as half life or half life 2 it would have been a solid entry and they could have used what they learned to build another sequel and George Broussard could still have a job in the industry today.
Broussard only cared about the pretty graphics: every time a new engine would show up (which was an almost daily event in the late-90s\early 00s), showing it could pump more polygons and whatnot, he'd buy the license and force people to restart from scratch. That and superficial ideas like a "snow level" because he had seen the "The Thing" videogame and thought it would've been cool. Until quite late in development, people were afraid of just telling him "no, we won't do that: we have a game to ship". His problem was that 3D REALMS had too much money and he was burning it like it was endless (it wasn't - one reason he could afford his crazy antics was that the team was very small and they got paid very little with the promise of a share in the final product's revenues). Sorry, but he was no visionary artist shooting for the moon: he was a child loose in a candy store. Had he really cared about making a great game, he would've concentrated on the actual content: Duke Nukem 3D was not the most impressive-looking game of 1996, but it was loaded with ideas. According to several sources, he never even had a real idea of what the final game was supposed to be. He threw the 2001 version in the trash, despite it being 90% complete and people demanding it in force after that year's E3, because he saw newer games had dynamic lighting but that build of DNF wasn't built for that and the minute they tried to implement it, it fell apart.
@@thermonuclearcollider4418 I heard there was crap like Broussard played Half-Life and then suddenly decided DNF had to begin with Duke riding a train. I can't imagine how frustrating it must have been being a developer working under him.
ive always said this story needs a documentary
Perfect example on how feature creep can ruin your entire video game development project or worse if you are a director, your career.
The 2001 build was when the project peaked. Looked fun to play and kept the cartoonish Duke personality. From there on, they look like generic and tedious af to play.
Hmm.. the 2001 graphic looks mind blowing for its time. Not really mean for being too cartoonish
they should have just kept polishing that version. Yeah it would have been outdated by the time it released but so was D3D. What made it special was the gameplay and all the crazy shit they put in the game.
2006 DNF has tiny duke pissing and those fucking over animated janitors but gameplay wise 2001 DNF does look better.
@@fonebook
Exactly the reason I was a happy child because not everyone has top of the line hardware when new stuff comes out. Catering to the poorer demographics means a wider appeal due to greater accessibility.
@@Gonken88 Not true. The 2001 version is like 70-80% done maybe more. There's a thread where one of the devs said he went and played through all the files years afterwards.
This game is one of the saddest game development cycles I've ever seen, from epic, monster sized adventure to a sad comedy. I am so glad that the 2001 version was leaked. It looks so incredible than what we got. The Doctor Who Cloned Me was nice though.
wish it was the 2002-2003 version that got leaked
I’ve read that the person who leaked the 2001 does have builds from 2002 & 2003 that may get released someday. Those two & the 1998 prototype would make my life as a Duke fan complete.
I want to play the 2001 build of DNF.
Hope It gets released soon.
I WANNA PLAY ALL PROTOTYPES FUCK JUST THE 2001....1998 is the real original vision for duke nukem forever so fuck the 2001 tho.
@@billybobbob3003 90% of the 1998 version is techdemo that was made for the trailer itself. The 2001 version is more complete.
@@viniciusmedeiros2867 id take 98 techdemo over the 2001 trash then
Dude, the 2001 is the perfection of the 1997-1998 game project and should be finished already
@@aaadj2744 Yeah, the 2001 build is almost done for all I know, it just needs some polishing. Hope gearbox releases this version soon.
Interesting that the 2007 trailer here ends with Duke saying, "What'd you expect? Forever's a long time, bitch." I distinctly remember him saying "I'm looking for an alien toilet to park my bricks. Who's first?"
Same.
@@GuyOnAChair True, I still has this trailer on my hard drive.
It's so fascinating to me to go back and look at footage from the 2003 build. I'm SO thankful we got the leak we did, and especially that it included the entire source code for everything (a huge asset for people like mightyfoot productions, the team behind DNF 2001 Restoration Project) but it's kind of a shame we didn't get a build from late 2002 or so. As you can tell from the 2003 footage they implemented basically a all new renderer with support for full realtime lighting and shadows (even stencil shadows, just like Doom 3... which recently came out, damnit George), which is what lead to the 2001 version getting trashed. All the maps, and assets that were far along by late 2002 early 2003 had to be scrapped because of the huge lighting change. Crazy how many ideas survived to the 2011 version though. The talk show almost made it (it's in the 2001 leak so it survived a long time), the idea to ride a minecart was all the way back in the 98 trailer, and the ghost town. The menu at 10:49 (from ~2009 I think) is the same as in the 2001 leak lol. The part at 6:55 is in the 2001 leak but it's general graves driving the boat and you on a turret. Heck the fantastic dynamic glass breaking that was written by one person at 3D realms seem to have survived all the way till at least that 2006 build (9:04 the glass seem to shatter dynamically). No dark atmospheric las Vegas streets to explore, no drivable motorcycle (we did get that shitty monster truck part) etc. Funny how the fully real time lighting and shadows that the 2001 version got shit canned for ended up being almost completely un-used in the release version to create and optimize console versions at the last minute. The plot was def darker with the infected EDF etc. And many of the maps in the leak just have a creepy vibe like the Area 51 stuff. It just lost all the charm and the tone was a mess by the 2011 version.
I remember that 2001 trailer on my Manhattan Project disc...damn
Same here, mate :) I watched it countless times as a 10-year-old schoolboy. Damn nostalgia...
I'm still hoping that every build of DNF will be leaked onto the Internet one day.
Me too.
jojotard
We almost had it happen a few years ago. :/
@@GuyOnAChair maybe itll happen soon, i believe gearbox was bought by THQ nordic's owners
@@babbygremlin That true? That doesn't sound right, I thought Gearbox was doing better financially than the rebranded THQ Nordic.
They really shit the bed for not going with the 2001 version, it looks much better than the final game.
To think of all the millions of US dollars that were spent on this, not to mention the sedimental value these builds had... Biggest tragedy in video game modern history.
The 2001 trailer looks so cool. :D
Yup, should be finished and released in 2001 or 02 already
The 2001 version must be released some day.. if they worked on it until 2002, there must be something. I've watched that 2001 trailer countless times as a kid
You're not alone, Hiczok
It exists. It's been played with. The Duke match portion mostly works. There are people that want to make things happen. Just check the current 3DR staff and the posts they've done.
"Good news everyone!!"
@@NoExplosionsMcgee omg I've seen the news !!!! There is hope!
@@vicvos3766 it actually is !!!
Damn i wish we could get a polished 2002ish build of this all completed.
3D realms want to do it for free but gearbox vp Randy shitford wont let them.
That but especially, if only George Broussard of 3D Realms didn’t get quickly unsatisfied of the progress so far and hadn’t changed game engines constantly.
Oh randy
@@MondySpartan what I don't get is why didnt anyone on the team stop him or try and tell him how bad of an idea that was? Wasted resources and time for over 10 years. Honestly if it wasn't for gearbox the game probably would never had seen the light of day
@@stratocaster-dn7gt Wanna know what’s worse? The definitive era of Duke Nukem Forever, the 2001 version, was actually 90% finished. NINETY PERCENT. But then Broussard said “scratch that” anyways.
@@MondySpartan they should've just released that version. It looked like the best one.
To be honest Duke 3D went through a similar development hell with Brousard changing his mind about enemies & weapons right up until release. That kind of iterative approach could work out in the mid-90's, but by the 2000's it was an incredibly sloppy, wasteful & irresponsible way to design a game.
I'd love to play around with the Quake 2 and Unreal versions. Both looked 100x better than what ended up getting released to me.
90% of the quake 2 version is a techdemo and was made for the trailer itself. But the Unreal version is the most interesting, because most part of what was presented in the trailer are actually playable. Some people claim that the 2001 unreal version is 90% complete, the story has a darker tone, there are some RPG elements and it has an hub based open world, where you can travel using duke's bike.
@@viniciusmedeiros2867
I'll assume the 2001 version is an updated version after 1998 version. Also the engine had been changed from Quake Engine to Unreal Engine.
Incase you're unaware: The 2001 version is out now.
@@viniciusmedeiros2867 quake 2 version is more complete than people realize, they dont want to admit it, shows mother fucking gameplay come on not just scripted shit.
Hate to say it but what you see in the 98 trailer is all that was made of the id tech 2 / quake 2 engine version. They switched to unreal less than a year after getting the Quake II source code. And what's in that trailer is completely scripted etc.
The 2001 scrapped in favor of lighting effects. George Broussard is an idiot
George: This 2001 build is almost done. Let's finish it up and then release- oh look! Doom 3 has beautiful lighting effects! Let's scrap this version of Duke Nukem Forever to work on the lighting engine. Forget gameplay! I need muh dynamic lighting!
Hehe. He might regret it now ;-)
@@tiefensucht George Broussard is the worst boss in the world!
And he dosen't bother switching engines for other duke nukem games!
He used to many drugs and he starts acting crazy!
The worst part is, with the 2001 build actually released now, it's clear how fundamental this game could have been.
@@Tamamo-no-Bae It's released?!
@@tiefensucht He probably does, though he'll never admit it.
Having played the leaked DNF2001 build, I can say that the stuff in it is advanced for the time. Lightyears better than the final release version
Its incredible isnt it, years before some games did some of the things DNF was supposed to do before them. Crazy to think that we would finally be playing what couldve been, sure its in an unfinished state but the idea that this piece of history is now preserved and available to the public is insane, never thought Id see the day ya know?
@@mioda3109 Exciting times indeed. Maybe we'll get a game out of this and someone can finish/port Tomb Raider 1 Remake on the PSP and we'd be back in 2001.
@@trblemayker5157 Godspeed to the DNF Restoration Project team! And yeah DNF was pushing some cool tech in the 2001 leaked build. D3D 8 was new, and they had implemented a D3D 8 renderer into UE 1, the glass physics, the email terminals were going to be able to actually send and receive email (the source code is all there). Just so much cool stuff. Most of which got thrown in the trash.
I remember buying a new GeForce 2 xp for Duke coming out. Still 2001 was an awesome year. Wolfenstein, max payne, gta3. Avp. Solider of fortune. Had some great titles back then and lots of demos.
A group of Croatian fans got tired of waiting for him and made their own Duke Nukem: Serious Sam.
Serious Sam was actually in development before Duke Nukem Forever.
There's lots of jokes in TSE about Serious Sam 2 about Duke Nukem still being in development at the time and they're fucking awesome.
The Serious Duke 3D mod?
@@fadhilahzaidan4946 he's talking about The OG Serious Sam,not Serious Duke 3D
And they followed the footsteps of Forever and made an "outstanding" spin-off: Serious Sam 4.
2003 Version had a huge Doom 3 vibe to it
Probably because of the new renderer. Mainly the implementation of fully real time lighting and shadows. Which is what caused the 2001 version to be shit canned.
I knew Broussard inspire it, When he perceived doom 3 E3 showing off a demonstration of lightning & shadows, this is why they screwed up driving to the wrong path.
wtf after finally playing the 2001 one ,our suspicions have been confirmed,2001 version was the game we wanted!But never got.
If they finished each build and released them, they could have had 5 solid fucking Duke Nukem games.
6:01 "when it's done" wow didn't know duke nukem forever and cyberpunk 2077 handle the same fate
DNF release in 2001 could've easily rivaled or absolutely make the game like Return to castle Wolfenstein & Halo:CE (which are arguably the best FPS got released at the time) run out of their money for sure
I bet if they somehow finished and released the 2001 version it would make a killing.
It's truly amazing how fast the game started going downhill after the 2001 build. Constant changes in art style and engine, so the game never had an identity and was stuck in a constant technological limbo. So pathetic.
Damm the 2001 built looks great.
Why the HELL didn't they finish the 97 or 2001 version and released instead of the god awful 2011 joke? Older versions looks utterly badass. For the love of god, someone make developers release the first 2 versions into 1 sweet download deal on console. Retro graphics are the new black!
@DannyDX Afaik Duke Nukem Forever never switched to/used GoldSource.
By george broussard
2001 was probably their moment, but I understand the pressure from the rapid pace of game engine development. Doom 3, for instance.
Duke Forever 2001 has leaked
now we have Duke Nuke, Forever 2001 build next is the September 2002 build☢☢
So we missing like a full year of work , hope that one gets leaked, it would be much easier to polish and then have a fully playable game
There's actually a December 2002 build out there somewhere, there's pictures of the root folder of the game along with in-game pictures, it has the same structure and files that the 2001 leak has, before that one even leaked giving it credibility, that's the one that I want to be leaked, apparently it's the rumored 90% complete build. The holy grail.
@@AJ-po6up sources please? I wanna check it out myself
You could release the 2001 version in an unfinished buggy state at full price and it'll still sell like hot cakes for the historical value alone.
Lucky for u it’s free
DNF is a textbook example of bad management and game design. They have a team of talented programmers but they couldn't complete the game because of their immoderate ambitions. That's almost happened to Bioshock 3, Ken Levin missed all deadlines and developer's team described him as a manchild with over the top idiotic ideas. When 2k games hired Rod Ferguson to finish Bioshock 3, he was surprised that they didn't even have a working beta. After six years of development! Rod removed Levine from the project and finished Bioshock 3 as we know it today.
Sad that egotistical machildren with no self-control can not only ruin games and franchises but whole companies, like it happened with 3D Realms.
Even the Quake 2 Engine version looks more fun than the 2011 retail release
The 1998 and 2001 versions could have been good games, they had that feeling like Half Life 1 or Halo
They all look better than the finished game
The 2001 trailer is like a MOVIE
we fucking need that 2001 demo released
It's out :3
Had that initial quake 2 engine trailer on a demo disk. Must have watched it a hundred times. I still want that game.
Randy should allow 3D Realms to work on and release the old version. What would be the worst case? The same situation we have now.
1996(?) - Build
1997 - Quake 1 engine
1997-1998 - Quake II engine
1998-2003(?) - Unreal Engine 1
2003-2006 - id Tech 4 it looks like, or maaaaaybe Unreal Engine 2
2006-2011 - Unreal Engine 3
Wow they should have made up their minds on whether they wanted id or Unreal way earlier.
Even going from UE2 to UE3 could force them to scrap many elements and try again.
I hear even sometimes using an updated version of the same engine can break the code
@@paradoxzee6834 I've heard since making this comment that DNF still technically runs on UE1... a freakishly deformed and heavily modified Frankenstein version of it.
@@chemergency It's true, the modern DNF can run the 2001 maps from the leaked build. So it still runs on UE1.
@@Tamamo-no-Bae Really!? That's fucking wild lol I'm gonna need to look into that now.
9:26 Nice nod to SW A New Hope's detention cells room.
2001 DNF : Potential to be a killer against the top FPS that been released such as Deus Ex, NOLF, RtcW in early 2000s that never was. DNF could've had gave them run of its money
I really want to play the 98 version
The one level where you're on the back of the truck looks so fun
There is nothing to play. They switched from Quake II engine to unreal in less than a year. What you see in that trailer is all that was made on the quake II engine and its completely scripted.
@@sean8102 ah unfortunate
The way the old man wisecracks at Duke makes me think he was either a partner character or a recurring character Duke would see the throughout the game. He would've added a unique dynamic, as he thought Duke was ridiculous and tryhard, unlike all the other human characters.
Now that a 2001 build leaked I agree. He appears in several maps in the ghost town chapter. Of course he has no dialog and no scripting but he was def going to be a re occurring char.
For anyone curious those first few screen shots of DNF (at 3:30) the first 4 at least are mockups done in the quake I engine while 3D Realms was still waiting on final source code for id tech 2 (the quake II engine). And what you see in the 98 trailer is the extent of what they did with that engine before switching to Unreal Engine. So glad we had a 2001 build leak (even if rumor suggest there are more complete builds of that version, not by much though I think). Mainly the fact the entire source code for everything was included in the leak. Source for all of UE1, everything 3DRealms was adding to it (lots of cool stuff, like the glass breaking effect was one guy at 3D Realms, they had basically written there own mesh support into UE1, and practically their own D3D 8 renderer for UE1 at that point in the 2001 build already (looking at the source code they had help from epic as well, TIm Sweeeny specifically, there are comments from him in the D3D8 source code).
There could be DNF in 2001 and then next DN in 2003-4 , and then next in 2006-7 and then another one in 2011. and we would have bunch of amazing games from big 3D Realms company. but well. broussard.
9:26 Wait, Duke would've been on the Death Star!?
2:29 good to see that "lense flare = good graphics" was around back then
The quake 2 engine version even tho pre rendered I would've loved to play has that quake 2 feeling
This makes me even more mad at the current DNF
that 2003 version looks incredible... indeed, looks like they used recent techniques like normal maps.. that is insane!
RANDY HAS THE 2001 BUILD
Honestly even the 1998 version looks better than what we got in 2011.
WOW the 2001 looks great, They had to launch it like that :(
I like the idea of the girl helping Duke in 1998.
Duke still has potential to make another game in this time, like Duke Nukem 5 or something.
I thought I'd kept up with this game, but don't remember ever seeing the 2003 or 2006 versions!
I hope Duke 2001 gets leaked online somehow..
You got your wish :p
I watched these Trailers so often. It was a beautiful time. "Always bet on Duke"
Duke Nukem needs a good reboot.
the game looked fine up until 2006, that's when the color scheme got into the dust yellow-beige color, but it still looked managable. anything from that point onwards just looks like the 2011 retail one we got, which is sad that i can compare the 2006 version to a version that's literally 5 years older both graphically and gameplay-wise
I WANT A NEW FUCKIN DUKE NUKEM GAME!
The only ones we ever got was the 2011 version and just recently the 2001 version
I just wanna play the 1998 and 2001 builds...
They should release all versions as is. The community would fix the bugs
If game look like 2001 and released it would be a probably a very good selling game even for 2021... it look amazing specially i do not care about graphics.
Oh Duke, I miss you so much...
I hope that the 2003 build will be leaked one day, still very close to the 2001 one but with better graphics, cool monsters and the Doom 3 dynamic shadow/lighting, the best one imo. It started to go downhill with the 2006 build but they all looks better and more fun than the final game.
I wanna take a guess at the story in the 1998 version
It seems Vegas or city gets attacked but Duke encounters that unnamed spy girl and follows her but she doesn't want you following her and you eventually meet up with her but Vegas or city gets Nuked with you escaping with her while she drives the flatbed truck with you fighting the USAF in the process but THAT grey monster knocks the truck off the road crashing the truck killing the spy girl and knocking you out ( the strip club part is a dream ) waking up in the canyon Duke probably makes his way towards some where of importance ( maybe a missle base like in part 1 )
This is just my theory based on the video just why do you shoot the helicopter down with the girl in it
Maybe she was infected with an alien parasite or something like in D3D.
her name is Bombshell and she was going to be the 2nd protagonist of Duke Nukem Vengeance too
I thought what little was seen when Jace hall played it back in 2007-08(?) looked great. Not sure what build it was but it looked sort of like the 2011 version but considerably better.
2007, last version before the game started getting heavily cut down for consoles
2001 Build had so many technologies back then. Especially facial expressions , if they just released this version of game back then.
The 2001 build one, looked like it would've gonna be a big competitor to Return To Castle Wolfenstein(Best FPS in 2001 imo) if they'd release that
This game looks so good it hurts
I only played duke nukem 3d in 2019 and boy i wish there was more of duke nukem games
Honestly the 1998 still looks great and in terms of gameplay it was the closes to the original. Also metal was metal.
They should really release these so we can decide the best and they can learn from mistakes.
Those first few trailers were awesome, and as time dragged on it became disappointingly clear that this game would not happen. By the time the project was actually released, I had low expectations and even less interest -- I played the demo for about 30 seconds and I was good. Will always wonder about what could have been...
You no longer have to imagine. The 2001 build was leaked recently with full source code + editor
2001 version was the best!
Unpopular opinion, 1998 build is the best.
1998-2001 more like it
They did a great job with the released DNF, but it just doesn't have the vibe nor feel the 1998 & 2001 trailers had. Even the 2007 trailer looks better than the released game. It has more of that Sci-fi horror vibe to it like Duke Nukem 3D.
Thank you George Broussard :') (sarcasm)
if only the people running the development of this game had any brains. this title would've been released far sooner, and with much more success. Unfortunately, what we got was a depressing pile of garbage, made rotten by the decade long wait period between the initial announcement of the game, and it's actual release.
Seriously, get ID software to buy this IP, and i can almost garauntee that within a year or 3, we'd get the DNF that we fucking deserved this whole damn time.
2007 trailer brought back some memories
i wondered why the released version felt so short. the beta was bigger. i knew it.
it wasnt that short, atleast not if you played the DLC campaign called the Doctor Who Cloned Me...it basicly was the third act of the game which came out 6 months after release..You fight Doctor Proton in it and travel to the moon to kill the Alien Empress...It was always ment to be part of the main game but for some stupid reason Gearbox cut the game in half to make money on it as DLC but sadly by than most people had given up on the game and never played it...i still enjoyed the game myself tho.
Because the motto before it finally released was "cutting is shipping".
7:57 these texture will be used in Doom 3
The general from the 2001 trailer his voice reminds me of snake
And to think we can now finally play the 2001 build
the first trailer is so crazy
Imagine this game launching in 98 and competing with Half life 1
Imagine making a game and blowing past 3 consoles
I agree with most on here that the 1998 and 2001 versions would've been just fine.
Also, I'd say most builds kept that "Duke feel" until 2009. Even the 2008 build from the Jace Hall show looked just like an modern update to DN3D. But once you get to 2009, the complete look and feel (down to the dweary color palette) looks very generic-- even the weapon designs started to lack anything memorable and they somehow put shaders on the weapons from the Jace Hall build that made them look worse.
I even think that maybe Gearbox completely overhauled development in 2009. The fact that the 2009 footage is showing prototype animations for what should've been a nearly finished game, tells me that they most likely scrapped what came before and were almost starting from scratch (aside from the main beats of the story and some assets from previous builds).
In the Jace Hall interview (which you can still find the whole interview to this day), he was talking to Scott Miller and George Broussard (AKA 3D Realms), and they were clearly knee deep in development. So the prototype footage shown in 2009 doesn't make sense if Gearbox was continuing where 3D Realms left off.
Also, not only did the Jace Hall build show a weapon wheel (which got scrapped for 2 weapons in the Gearbox version), but the entire weapon interface looked way different-- albeit that might've been a "developer" interface to help testing, but still, I'm just pointing how different the game was, between the Jace Hall build and 2009.
So, in summary, I'm guessing that what we see in 2009 is an early version of what we ended up getting in 2011 / the final game.
It's been confirmed the version of DNF we got began development in 2006. Which was the 3rd time the games development was completely rebooted.
The game was originally going to be titled "come get some"
1998 trailer are actually good one better then 2011 version of Duke Nukem Forever
Such wasted potential.
even though I know game development is very difficult and long but this game delayed its release for too long until it was finally abandoned
Whenever they decided to not release what they had, they should have released it as a $20 game, and would have made a lot of money. Just stupid that they threw out everything so many times.
I know the original trailer looks great and all but maybe it was already a sign of things to come? Did anyone notice that in the beta footage allone there are 4 vehicle sections where duke stands on an automatically moving plattform. Never a good sign.
C'mon!! Leak the 2001 build!!!
That's already been done.
@@AlphaZeroX96 Yes yes. I know. Thank You hahaha
They need to make a Duke nukem what could of been forever collection with a the older versions finished bet it would kill and have massive replay value