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Happy 20th anniversary to 'Duke Nukem 3D,' the classic video game made in Garland

These days, first-person shooters are a dime a dozen. With all the Call of Duties and Halos and Battlefields and everything else on the market, it might be easy to forget where the genre came from. Twenty years ago, the Dallas area was at the forefront of creating action games for computers. When it came to shooters, three games in particular stood out: Doom, Wolfenstein 3D and Duke Nukem 3D.

Developed in Garland at 3D Realms (the publisher name Apogee Software used for its 3D/action titles at the time), Duke 3D made waves not just for its first-person action (a pretty big deal at the time), but because of its cocky, foul-mouthed protagonist that took a stereotypical action movie hero and turned him up to 11.

Duke seemed to have a one-liner ready for every situation, whether it was blowing up an enemy or offering money to, *ahem*, exotic dancers.

Understandably, this kind of content made Duke Nukem a controversial piece of software. As The Dallas Morning News put it back in the day,"Duke has a mouth that would put Roseanne to shame."

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(You can find more memories, including some with less safe for work language, on the Twitter page of 3D Realms co-founder George Broussard.)

How else did The DMN feel about the game when it was released? It's easy enough to find out. Our full review of the game, published May 17, 1996 and written by a then-18 year old student named Peter Bartholomew, is re-printed below:

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Doom is dead. Long live Duke.

Duke Nukem 3-D raises to a new level the experience id Software's Doom pioneered. It immerses players, not only in action, but in fantastic environments tied together with realism and personality, most notably Duke. Duke pulls players through the game, firing off one-liners as if they were yet another weapon.

This is the third of the Duke Nukem series, although the first two were nothing like this. Set in Los Angeles and on orbiting space stations, Duke embraces all the richness of the California icon.

There are levels set on subways, highways, hotels and arenas.

Finally a game comes along that lets us go on an urban rampage from the safety of home. Duke is also the first game to openly tout sexual content. Cartoonish women bare their chests, fight against alien bondage and dance in sleazy nightclubs. And Duke has a mouth that would put Roseanne to shame.

Fortunately, the game also comes with a solid parental lock that turns the R-rated adventure in a PG shoot-'em-up for the younger set.

Single-play mode is adequate, the monsters quickly become annoying, but the novelty of the levels is enough to capture your attention. Multiplayer mode, either by modem or network, is amazing.

If you buy the game, find someone to play against. The head-to-head setup is the easiest yet on this type of game, with few selections necessary and only a modest 9600 baud modem necessary.

You'll also want a chair that pivots, since you'll constantly be peering around the edge of the screen. Then you remember it's only a computer game. The realistic settings and movie-quality monologue assure that you'll be at the keyboard for hours. There's even a way to send prerecorded taunts to your nemesis.

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Setup is easy, entirely from CD, and the music is marginal. The game offers two video modes -- faster 486 machines and Pentium users will want the SVGA modes, which really enhance the experience. The firepower selection is a bit weak -- nice chain gun and rocket launcher -- and the laser trip bombs are innovative. But there is no earth-shaking, room-clearing mega weapon that we've come to expect from Doom and Descent.

Duke takes a few good-natured swipes at Doom -- a dead space Marine from the game can be found in one place. And a building that looks very much like id Software's Mesquite headquarters is leveled.

But then, that's what you'd expect from Duke.