Frede Posted October 25, 2014 Report Share Posted October 25, 2014 It's been a couple of days, but considering many (all?) of us are into retro gaming in general, this may interest you: http://3drealms.com/news/3d_realms-is-back/. Yes, like Sierra, 3D Realms is officially back in business. But unlike the former re-branding, the new 3DR has a few of the old alumni on-board. Plus, they're owned by the Danish company Interceptor Entertainment, which I obviously think is insanely cool, and I'm not a patriot in the slightest. Many of the games published or developed by Apogee/3D Realms were main fixtures of my childhood, so it's nice to see the company going back into business with a bang. Many of these games are obviously available elsewhere, but to my knowledge, this is the only DRM-free download of games like Wolfenstein 3D and Commander Keen 1-5 out there. I also think the $19.99 they're currently selling this pack for is a very reasonable price. You even get a cool little album of "re-rockestrated" music from a few of the games. So, there you have it. If you know these games, you already know why this is likely gonna be the best way you can spend 20 bucks. If you don't, you owe yourself to find out! MusicallyInspired 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suejak Posted October 25, 2014 Report Share Posted October 25, 2014 I think it's amazing how I went my entire childhood without especially enjoying these games, and now they have such amazing nostalgic punch! Goofing around in Secret Agent for 10 minutes really took me back... No need for more than 10 minutes though, lol. Frede 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomimt Posted October 25, 2014 Report Share Posted October 25, 2014 Some of those have been in GOG for ages. There's only a couple of titles there that haven't been for sale in othet digital stores.http://www.gog.com/games##sort=bestselling&devpub=apogee_software&page=1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frede Posted October 25, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 25, 2014 Indeed. You'd have to wait for a pretty spectacular GOG sale to mnatch 3D Realms' price tag, though. That said, I did own some of these games, and am aware I could've bought them on GOG or Steam, but DRM-free Keen and Wolfenstein kinda sealed the deal for me. It's always nice when the studios actually care, instead of just slapping a semi-working port onto Steam. Seems appropriate to add a little heads-up: if you buy this and you've already got Duke Nukem II via GOG, though, you may want to keep that version installed; the version 3D Realms are offering is, sadly, the edited one where Duke wears sunglasses... Dat Engineer 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomimt Posted October 25, 2014 Report Share Posted October 25, 2014 Sure, as a collection that is dirt cheap, so as a collection that is a must buy for anyone who likes Apogee and doesn't already got those titles. And Keen games haven't been in sale anywhere for a good while now, so it is great to see them surface again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MusicallyInspired Posted October 25, 2014 Report Share Posted October 25, 2014 As a regular at Duke4.net, I've known about this for a long time. Fresch, the CEO of Interplay, has been coming to that community (as it's the largest Duke Nukem/3DR fan community on the web) for input and feedback. This website was orginally supposed to launch back in July. So glad it's now finally out and they've done a good job! I also had a bit of an in on it and was attempting to get a track of my own on the re-rockestrated album. Didn't happen, but my track will be used for something else in an official capacity which I'm excited about but can't talk about yet. Also, Frede, if you're near them, Fresch has no problem with fans stopping by the offices and giving them a tour. Something you might be interested to check out, or anybody else who lives over there close. Frede and suejak 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frede Posted October 25, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 25, 2014 That sounds really cool! I'll consider that; Interceptor's offices are about an hour and a half away from the city I live in. Thanks for the tip :) Dat Engineer and MusicallyInspired 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fronzel Neekburm Posted November 8, 2014 Report Share Posted November 8, 2014 Is Broussard part of the new 3D Realms as well? The guy may have had his moment of fame, but he fell from grace with Duke Forever the only thing he‘s good for now are the comments he leaves on Hardcore Gamer about how point&clicks are totally "gay" (his words, not mine) and tweeting gems like "lol can‘t raise my arm and my speech‘s slurred haha I mighta had a stroke lol" (I wish I was kidding about that one, but sadly I‘m not.)I‘m tempted about getting the Anthology though. Too bad it‘s $40 now and they don‘t make physical copies, the cover artwork looks absolutely awesome and I‘d gladly cough up some dough for a proper, DRM-free physical copy.Oh well, I‘ll definitely grab a copy of Bio Menace for free. That one‘s by far my favourite from the old Apogee catalogue. I mean, the protagonist‘s name is Snake Logan.SNAKE LOGAN. Let that sink in for a while. He has a mullet and a mustache and he wears a garish green shirt.It also features the most over-the-top gore of all the old 3D Realms sidescrollers, with badly mutilated bodies strewn all over the place. And still the monsters in the game look like something straight out of a Pixar movie. It‘s one of the most apeshit insane things I ever played (and also one of the most unduly forgotten games) and it has a rockin‘ soundtrack. Do yourselves a favour and go play Bio Menace! Capn_Ascii and Frede 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frede Posted November 8, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 8, 2014 No, I don't think he is. The team roster on the website seems to indicate that Scott Miller, Bryan Turner and Joe Siegler are the only returning veterans for now. They may well be better off without Broussard; I remember having seen similar comments from him in the past, though I think they were on another site. The company's community is in the right hands with Siegler, though. I'm with you as far as a physical copy goes. At the very least, they should offer that cover art as a poster. Heck, I'd gladly pay money for a nice, big coffee mug with that on it too. Their merchandise-section is still "Coming soon", though. Also, like all the other Apogee games from that era that, Bio Menace rocks. Apogee really knew what to do with EGA graphics and AdLib music. Haven't really sat down and (re-)played it much yet, though. Right now, I'm sticking with Duke Nukem, but I've been stuck on the last level in Episode I for weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MusicallyInspired Posted November 10, 2014 Report Share Posted November 10, 2014 Frederik (CEO of Interceptor) has said that Broussard will be involved in some capacity, but I haven't heard anything else since that mention. This was back when it was first announced that Interceptor's investors would be acquiring 3DR. And yes, Bio Menace was ace. Goriest game, though? I don't know. Monster Bash was pretty gruesome. And that was a kids game, which makes it even darker! Almost all of Apogee's back catalogue is just sheer fantastic-ness. So much fun I had on those old shareware episodes... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capn_Ascii Posted November 25, 2014 Report Share Posted November 25, 2014 Do yourselves a favour and go play Bio Menace! I loved Bio Menace. I also liked some of their other games along those lines. There was one that had you playing a guy with a jetpack and a flamethrower for a default weapon...Alien something-or-other. And Duke 2 was quite fun as well. Did anyone ever play Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project? It was a 2.5D1 platformer starring Duke that was made back when Duke Nukem Forever wasn't *quite* a Development Hell running gag yet. It was pretty obviously made as a connection to Duke's 2D roots, and by extention the whole 2D Apogee platformer epoch. A pretty awesome game, as far as platformers go. Part of me misses those old-school games like that. Just good old-fashioned running, jumping, and shooting. Exploring to find hidden stuff, most of which does nothing but increase your score, which is itself mostly pointless (pun intended). No worries over 100% completion, just good old-fashioned run-jump-and-shoot arcade action. 1) That's old-school gamer code for 'two dimensional playing field with three-dimentional graphics'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MusicallyInspired Posted November 25, 2014 Report Share Posted November 25, 2014 It was Alien Carnage (formerly Halloween Harry). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fronzel Neekburm Posted November 25, 2014 Report Share Posted November 25, 2014 Did anyone ever play Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project?. *raises hand* I remember this one well. It was released in that sweet spot during DNF‘s development after they had switched from the Quake to the Unreal-engine, released an awesome (and as it would later turn out completely staged) trailer and still had the benefit of John Romero stealing the show as far as vapourware anti-street cred was concerned. When Manhattan Project came out, I remember playing the demo, but stayed well away from the game proper. "What a cheap PR-stunt/cash grab!", I thought at the time. "I‘ll spend my money on the real thing instead!" Of course, I was completely oblivious to the fact that it would take another 10 years for the latter to be released. To say nothing about the fact that the perceived zero-effort 2.5D platformer was in fact a much more enjoyable (dare I say better) game then DNF ultimately turned out to be. But I must admit it‘s one of those games that, while fun, I completely lost interest in after about 1.5 hours of playing and never felt the need to finish it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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