Duke Nukem (video game)
| Duke Nukem | |
|---|---|
| Part of the Duke Nukem series | |
 | |
| Genre(s) | Platform game |
| Year of Release | 1991 |
| Platform(s) | DOS |
| Developer(s) | Apogee Software |
| Publisher(s) | Apogee Software |
| Official Website | www.3drealms.com/duke1/index.html |
Duke Nukem a platform game developed and published by Apogee Software. It is the first a series of Duke Nukem games, and was released on 1st July 1991.
Name confusion
Whilst the correct original title for the game is Duke Nukem, it can often be seen credited as Duke Nukum. Some time after the original release Apogee became aware that in the TV series Captain Planet and the Planeteers one recurring villain was called Duke Nukem. Believing the name copyrighted they quickly changed the spelling of the title to Duke Nukum. Later they discovered that the original name was not copyrighted at all, so they copyrighted it for themselves and reverted to using the original name.
The original spelling for the name was "Duke Nukem"; however, during the code fix stage between v1.0 and v2.0 of the original game, Apogee found a character overseas named "Duke Nukem" that was thought to be copyrighted. So, for v2.0 of the original Duke game, the name was changed to "Duke Nukum." Then, during the programming of the next Duke Nukem game (Duke Nukem II), it was discovered that the character they found overseas was not copyrighted after all -- and so the original name was reinstated. "Duke Nukem" is also the spelling used in all successive games that featured the character.
Cheats
A number of cheats were included with the game. At any time, pressing the backspace and page down keys simultaneously would give the player a fully-powered weapon, full health and all of the keys. Also, the game could be started in cheat mode by passing the asp parameter when starting the game. If this was done then the player could at any point type 'GOD' in order to gain all the items, or 'GOW' in order to skip to the next level.