Duke Nukem II [ BETA VERSION 1.4 ] - Episode 1 - Level 1 (1993) | 4K/60

This is my first playthough of the first episode of "DUKE NUKEM 2 : DISPOSABLE HERO - APOGEE - BETA VERSION 1.4". The oldest possible known build date in the files is September 1993. Really late build of the game almost to final version. This prototype got recovered from a Warez BBS (ibm-wgam-wbiz-collection - the BBS IBM #145 wares tape) and publushed on the 7th of July 2024. A fantastic find!
Download link: dosgamert.com/...
Here's a list of differences that I noticed between the final of the game:
- Animated cutscene at the beginning is made with an EGA palette and got replaced with VGA artwork in the final.
- Main menu is made out of blue shiney metal plates. The hole main menu got a slight overhaul.
- Dynamite Explosives have an extra explosion in the middle, have a wider range and doesn't damage enemies or open up other crates.
- Spinning turrets can only be destroyed with rockets, not with the laser nor flamethrower.
- Some pickups are different, now you have joysticks and RAM-modules to collect too.
- Teleport sound effects are different.
- Sound effect for collecing the last NUKEM letter is less noticable.
- Flying TV's have different texts on them.
- Color of the scoreboard numbers at the end of a level is blue, instead of green.
- Flamethrower power-up is present in the second level. It's removed from the fourth level.
- Small level design changes like the rock below the ladder in the top middle of level 2.
- Some enemies take less damage to be killed, like the spiders.
- Shooting enemies that are on the same tile will damage them both instead of only just one. This way you can kill two spiders with one bullet.
- The birds on level 2 behave a bit different and will fly down towards you one tile left from you, and won't hit you by their attack. Giving you a more fair chance not to get hit by them.
- On level 3 and level 5 there's a mid-level checkpoint. They're completely different, they burst into electric red flames, touching them will kill you, preventing you to go back.
- If you try to land on the air-fans in level 5 you'll fall through, causing you to die (falling through the bottom of the level).
- The large Rigelatin-enemy protecting the base you need to enter cloaked on level 6 is absent.
- Cloaking power-up is also present in level 7.
- On the level 8 boss-stage, you can jump over the gap to the other side and get more pickups.
- Not entirely sure, but I think the boss takes more hits to kill.
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#retrogaming #dosgames #dukenukem
00:00:00 Notice
00:00:20 Intro
00:03:32 Menu & Information
00:06:10 Episode 1 - Level 1

[@scimbrelo]

I played the shareware version of this a bit back in the day. This game was always a big standout for how different it became when it ended up first person

[@retrorobbyreviews]

I find it interesting how different Duke looks in the beta version of the into sequence.

[@lethal_guitar]

Wow it actually says "Oprah" in the story sequence! It just says "on TV" in the final game.

[@lethal_guitar]

The dialog with the Rigelatin commander is also slightly different.

[@Thatdarnraven]

@@lethal_guitar almost entirely in some places

[@retrorobbyreviews]

I noticed that, too, with the Oprha part.

[@Thatdarnraven]

@@retrorobbyreviews have you seen the postal beta found in the warez scene recently?

[@retrorobbyreviews]

@@Thatdarnraven no i haven't

[@Jenkinsmum]

The laser does not affecting the spinning turrets. Who would've expected that? I wonder if the flamethrower still holds up to its capabilities in the beta version.

[@Dosgamert]

@@Jenkinsmum you can see in the video that I was surprised by this too

[@the-lettere]

Doog Spoogem

[@intrinia2832]

I think the game runs a bit too fast in the intro sequence.

[@Sitharos]

Dude, I LOVE this game! Thank you for posting!