3D Realms acquired by Interceptor Entertainment

Post by **MrFlibble** » Sun Mar 09, 2014 8:31 am

The people behind the remake of Rise of the Triad have bought 3D Realms recently:
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2 ... -3d-realms
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014- ... ox-lawsuit

Post by **wardrich** » Sun Mar 09, 2014 9:08 am

I'm not sure how I feel about this... The company that bought them out doesn't have much of a product lineup, and there isn't a Duke II Android port, they only did one for iOS.

Post by **dosraider** » Sun Mar 09, 2014 9:50 am

Hmmmmm .... also mixed feelings here...

"With this acquisition, we aim to strengthen 3D Realms and protect the legend that it is,"

Translates as :
"We want to claim all commercial rights and we will try to milk that stuff as long as possible" ...
Ah well, nothing new I would say....

Post by **MrFlibble** » Sun Mar 09, 2014 10:12 am

dosraider wrote:Hmmmmm .... also mixed feelings here...
"With this acquisition, we aim to strengthen 3D Realms and protect the legend that it is,"
Translates as :
"We want to claim all commercial rights and we will try to milk that stuff as long as possible" ...
Ah well, nothing new I would say....

Frederik Schreiber at least makes an impression of a person who is genuinely interested in preserving the legacy of 3D Realms, and generally seems like a retro game fan (he posts at Duke4.net forums, and in particular has started The Future of 3D Realms - Fan Feedback! thread).

The fate of the Duke Nukem Reloaded project that was put on hold after quite serious hype seems to have antagonized some of the hardcore Duke Nukem fans, with Frederik Schreiber at the receiving end of much criticism. My personal impression from hist posts though is that he is a sensible person, although certainly the company doesn't have much to show on their record yet.

Post by **dosraider** » Sun Mar 09, 2014 10:45 am

MrFlibble wrote:Frederik Schreiber at least makes an impression of a person who is genuinely interested in preserving the legacy of 3D Realms, and generally seems like a retro game fan (he posts at Duke4.net forums, and in particular has started The Future of 3D Realms - Fan Feedback! thread).

Mayhaps, I certainly will give him benefit of the doubt, wait and see, I would say.

Post by **MrFlibble** » Sun Mar 09, 2014 1:18 pm

Well, I should also say that I don't know Mr. Schreiber personally so it's just my impression.

As for the copyrights, it is my understanding that there's a still unresolved legal dispute between 3D Realms and Gearbox concerning the ownership of the rights to the Duke Nukem franchise, which is undoubtedly the flagship product of 3DR. Dunno how this will turn out but if Interceptor/3DR wins they might be able to release the Duke NUkem Reloaded project which is allegedly in a nearly completed state.

Post by **Wally** » Wed Mar 12, 2014 5:50 am

Hopefully they give gog permission to host their old games

Post by **MrFlibble** » Wed Mar 12, 2014 11:39 am

Yes, that concern has already been expressed in the new 3DR discussion thread at Duke4.net.

Post by **MrFlibble** » Wed Apr 16, 2014 12:10 pm

Today Frederik Schreiber has started posting updates about what he has found in the 3D Realms archives. There's some high-res art as well as several pre-release builds of Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior. No actual game files have been shared yet, but hopefully this is not an implausible course of events.

Post by **dosraider** » Wed Apr 16, 2014 3:34 pm

Now yeah, those pre-release files are only interesting in a preservation scenario, guess they are filled with bugs...?
Not really useful.
Unreal (1) has also some pre-release files that were released afterwards, the 'ZM97' maps, they formed the base for the final maps, but with a lot of flaws, needed to be reworked to be able to run on the final Unreal engine.
Is it interesting from a players point of view? Nope, they are barely playable.
They are however interesting for those who want to know how a game 'grows'.
Will be the same for those D3D and SW pre-releases I suppose.

Post by **MrFlibble** » Wed Apr 23, 2014 11:39 am

Frederik Schreiber suggested that there may be plans to polish up the maps that were cut from the final game and release them as playable maps for the final version of game:

Frederik Schreiber wrote:We have plans in relation to releasing these things in Vanilla, and more Playable states,
as part of the re-lauch of the new 3D Realms website. [source]

Post by **MrFlibble** » Sat Apr 26, 2014 6:31 am

dosraider wrote:Now yeah, those pre-release files are only interesting in a preservation scenario, guess they are filled with bugs...?

Apparently there are several close-to-v1.0 beta builds of the shareware version (similar or close to the leaked old beta v0.99), which are hopefully eventually going to be released. They are quite playable but the level layout (as well as some other assets too) is rather different in places.

Post by **dosraider** » Sat Apr 26, 2014 9:52 am

Ah, as I guessed.
Same goes for unreal pre-releases.
Could be interesting to follow up.

Post by **MrFlibble** » Sat Apr 26, 2014 11:10 am

Here's some footage from a beta build of the shareware episode that has popped up a while ago:
http://youtu.be/Mx-B5VxLjP4

The guys from the Duke4.net community who are currently working with the archive have confirmed that this version is preserved and the plans are to eventually to make it public.

The layout of the levels in that version is noticeably different from the final release.

Post by **dosraider** » Sat Apr 26, 2014 12:55 pm

When you compare this

MrFlibble wrote:Here's some footage from a beta build of the shareware episode that has popped up a while ago:
http://youtu.be/Mx-B5VxLjP4

with
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7a4VfaT ... e=youtu.be

You see how much things can change .......