Now that 3D Realms has released a new teaser for Duke Nukem Forever, there are probably a lot of people out there that are going to try to play Duke Nukem 3D again, and I am one of them. The last time that I played this game was probably back in 1997. Computer hardware and software has changed a lot since then, and this is going to cause some problems. So I decided to go ahead and write up a real quick guide to getting Duke Nukem 3D working on Windows XP.
Steps:
- Download Duke3d_w32. This is a port of the Duke Nukem 3D Build Engine to Windows. Once it is download, extract the file to a folder.
- Because Duke3d_w32 is a port of the engine, it does not include the game files. So we need to copy a file off of the Duke Nukem 3D CD. Locate the file “DUKE3D.GRP” on the disc. Copy and paste the file into the “bin” directory that was created when you extracted Duke3d_w32.
- You are done! To run Duke Nukem 3D, click on “RUN-fullscreen” in the bin folder.
You can change the keyboard mapping and screen resolution by editing the “DUKE3D.CFG” file, however you might want to make a backup copy of it first. To edit the file you will need to open it in notepad.
Update: Now that the game is on Steam, I suggest picking up a copy. It is fully up to date, so it runs on modern PCs. It also includes a new 5th episode!