Hello All.
DUKE DOES QUAKE -- THE BIG QUESTION ANSWERED: WHY?
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Garland, TX - April 28, 1997
Here's why we didn't use our more advanced Prey engine to make Duke Nukem
Forever...
Garland, TX -- The big announcement leaked Friday night, scooped by Jason
Bates of PC Gamer Online, and immediately caused a shockwave through Internet
gaming newsgroups and IRC channels for Duke Nukem and Quake. Today, GT
Interactive made public this big news: Duke Nukem Forever, the next all-new
game starring icy confident, attitude busting, Duke Nukem, will be created
using id Software's leading-edge Quake technology and tools.
3D Realms, at the same time, is developing Prey, a next-generation 3D game
using technology that skips over the technology seen in today's current and
soon-to-come 3D games.
This leads to the question being asked most about the Duke meets Quake
connection: Why is 3D Realms using the Quake technology rather than using
their own Prey technology?
Head of 3D Realms, George Broussard, responds: "It's a very good question, 
ut
we have a very good answer. Our Prey technology is predicated on 3D hardware,
such as the 3DFX card and the Rendition card. Prey will not work without the
current best 3D cards on the market. When Prey is released late in 1998 only
then do we believe there will be enough of an installed base to support sales
of a high-end 3D hardware game."
"Obviously, we considered developing Duke Nukem Forever with the Prey 
ngine,"
said Broussard, "but that would have put us in the position of releasing both
Prey and Duke at nearly the same time, and we didn't want both games 
ompeting
so close together and taking attention away from each other. Both games would
have been hurt under that scenario."
Scott Miller, head of Apogee, adds, "We want to give Prey as much space as
possible, so this meant getting Duke Forever done early in 1998, and to do
this we need a ready-to-go, track proven engine. I called Todd Hollenshead,
CEO of id Software, and got the ball rolling."
"We've actually been working on the game since January," said Miller,
"prototyping new effects, adding game features, models, weapons, etc. We'll 
e
showing Duke Forever in a back room at E3, at the GT Interactive booth, which
will be the press' first glimpse of the game. Our goal is to release Duke
Nukem Forever no later than mid-1998 and Prey late that year, making 1998 a
big year for us."
Broussard continues, "Duke Nukem Forever will have all of the functionality 
f
Quake and bring in the new Quake II functions, too, including support for 3D
hardware, colored lights, Internet multiplayer capability (including a
QuakeWorld similar setup) and other cool things too soon to mention. The 
uake
engine is a joy to work with and players have yet to see its full potential,
which we plan to exploit. As Duke would say: 'This is gonna rock!'."
Joe Siegler
Apogee Software
--- GoldED/386 2.50+ 424LM1 Fnord!
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