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Library of Congress discovers unreleased Duke Nukem game, chews bubblegum
Hail to the king of unlikely archival discoveries, baby. David Gibson, a moving image technician with the Library of Congress, stumbled upon a diamond in the rough while scouring through hundreds of games and game-related media artifacts submitted to the library by game publishers: a complete, playable, but never-released game. Duke Nukem: Critical Mass for PSP, a wholly different game than a version released on Nintendo DS in 2011, was discovered on an innocuous DVD-R. Far from a piece of random archival material, Gibson found the actual source disc that would have been used for writing the game onto UMDs, the ill-fated proprietary media Sony used for retail PSP games. This led to further complications, though, as he had to find ways to access information locked inside of Sony's proprietary files. While Gibson hasn't found way to make the game fully playable at this point, he was able to access game code and view 3D models for not just the series' iconic Pig Cops but also Duke himself. Duke riding a jetpack, no less. Gibson's complete report on the discovery is fascinating as both a document of a lost piece of lore in one of gaming's most infamous series, but also as a view inside the challenge of archiving gaming's history. Even with the discovery of the game, sharing the data hidden on that DVD-R remains a challenge due to the proprietary files within. [Images: 3D Realms]
Duke Nukem: Critical Mass trailer skips the PSP version for good reason
After a mysterious quiet period (which is totally uncharacteristic for a Duke Nukem game), Deep Silver and Apogee are planning to release Duke Nukem: Critical Mass for DS this week in Europe and next month in North America. You can see it in action in the trailer after the break, and, well ... it looks like a thoroughly humiliating experience, narrated by Jon St. John. Surprisingly, the press release accompanying the trailer says that the PSP version is coming out at the same time -- but Deep Silver informs us that it was actually canceled. So if you're in Europe and in line for Critical Mass on PSP ... go home.
Duke Nukem: Critical Mass for DS is apparently still happening
You may remember Duke Nukem Trilogy as a trailer and nothing else, but allow us to refresh your memory about this particular illusory Duke Nukem game: it was a set of three Duke adventures announced by Deep Silver and Apogee for PSP and DS. But then the games lost their Duke license ... or something, and the first one, Duke Nukem: Critical Mass, was being developed as "Extraction Point: Alien Shootout." And now it's back as Duke Nukem: Critical Mass, and coming out in Europe on April 8. Publisher Deep Silver tells Joystiq that it is still slated for release in North America, with a release window around May. In addition, Apogee tweeted that "The Duke Nukem License was never yanked. Apogee owns the agreement for the license, not some third party work for hire developer." Faced with that curveball, we've asked Apogee and Deep Silver exactly what happened, and exactly what is happening. All we can say -- and this is advice that's backed up by recent events -- is don't trust anything Duke-related until you see a game in a store.
GDC09: Actual Duke Nukem games on PSP/DS
Apogee's Duke Nukem Trilogy already eclipsed Duke Nukem Forever with its mindblowingly awesome, yet content-free, trailer. But now it has surpassed Forever even more, by existing! And, as if to show off, it's six games. Sort of. As OhGizmo! explains, Duke Nukem Trilogy features three games, which have the same stories, but are presented in a different style on DS than on PSP. The PSP versions are M-rated, with content that will be "tasteful, but it'll still be Duke." The DS versions will be T-rated, and thus toned down a bit in terms of dialogue and gratuitous strippers.The best part? The first game, Duke Nukem: Critical Mass, was actually there! There was a demonstration on both PSP and DS. Try that, Duke Nukem Forever. Try being playable on a game system.
