Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Nostalgia - The Lost Episodes of Duke Nukem 3d

One of the first mods I found myself repeatedly playing was a Total Conversion for Duke Nukem 3D called "The Lost Episodes of Duke Nukem" back in the late 90's.  It was more a series of maps and some slight enemy sprite re-colorizations than a real TC.  Most of the level design was good, original and creative with levels revolving around a theme or some kind of wacky gimmick - ie a level revolving around a bottomless pit with a Buddha temple theme, or another level where Duke walks into a growth ray and the level takes place in a miniaturized city, and even a level that takes place in a Command and Conquer Nod base.

The one thing memorable that really stuck out about this mod was the awesome custom midi soundtrack created by the author, Mark Hadley.  If you were ever a fan of the soundtrack for Rise of the Triad you may enjoy this one, although most of the tracks are roughly 45-60 seconds long loops and could be slightly repetitive if you're lost on a level trying to figure out a puzzle.

The name Mark Hadley stuck with me and I always wondered if he ever created more music or got into videogame production - and yes - the Mark Hadley behind "Slenderman" games was the same guy that created this TC.

Hadley apparently worked on other mods which I never knew about until now including Mercs 2 and Murder: The EDF Conspiracy.  I never played these but I am interested in looking at them now after not having touched Duke 3d in over 15 years.

Detailed info on this TC at Duke 3d Wiki page.  Link to download here at ModDB (which, curiously, for the length of the campaign and content, it only weighs in at 419kB!)