Okay here's the Apogee stuff. I figured I would put it in this thread since it might not be a bad idea talking about these two companies together.
Like Epic Games, 3d Realms was a shareware company in their early years and eventually became a big name in first-person shooters. 3d Realms was founded under the name of Apogee. Let's take a look at the PC games developed and/or published by Apogee.
Supernova and Beyond the Titanic(1986)
These were both text adventures.
Kingdom of Kroz(1987)
Apogee founder Scott Miller had been programming Kroz action/puzzle games since the '70s but they never became widespread until this third game which convinced him that the shareware model could be successful. It had several sequels. http://www.mobygames.com/game_group/...meGroupId,116/
Apogee was impressed with the games Romero and Hall had been making for Softdisk. Scott Miller contacted John Romero in 1990 and offered the guys soon to be known as id Software some cash to create a game for them. The Commander Keen series was born. Apogee published most of the Keen games.
Dark Ages(1991)
Duke Nukem(1991)
The original Duke and its 2d sequel(1993) didn't impress me much back then.
Crystal Caves(1991)
Paganitzu(1991)
Wolfenstein 3d(1992)
Apogee published id Software's classic. As I'm sure most people know, this game began the FPS genre as we know it. It wasn't the first first-person perspective game where shot things, but it gave birth to the distinct feel of the FPS genre.
Secret Agent(1992)
Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure(1992)
Word Rescue(1992)
This edutainment game was followed by Math Rescue.
Major Stryker(1993)
A shooter.
Monster Bash(1993)
Halloween Harry(1993)
This was developed by Interactive Binary Illusions renamed Alien Carnage by Apogee. It's actually a sequel to the original 1985 HH game on the Microbee computer.
IBI changed their name to Gee Whiz! and made a sequel called Zombie Wars but it wasn't published by Apogee.
Blake Stone(1993)
This Wolfenstein-ish FPS had the misfortune of coming out around the same time as Doom. It had a sequel the following year called Planet Strike.
Raptor(1994)
Hocus Pocus(1994)
Mystic Towers(1994)
Wacky Wheels(1994)
Rise of the Triad(1994)
For some reason I never liked ROTT. Doom spoiled me I guess.
In 1994, Apogee created a new label called 3d Realms which would focus on 3d games. With the market shift to 3d, it wasn't long until the Apogee name was phased out. Personally, I'm a much bigger fan of the games released under the 3d Realms name. Aside from the id games, I wasn't a big fan of Apogee.
Terminal Velocity(1995)
Developed by Terminal Reality(known for their fairly recent multi-format action game BloodRayne), this was a very impressive flight action game.
Realms of Chaos(1995)
Xenophage(1995)
Duke Nukem 3d(1996)
With the possible exception of the GTA series, I don't think any series improved so much when jumping to 3d from 2d. Duke was such an amazing FPS for its time with lots of humour, great weapons and background interactivity. Some people complain that Duke himself is such another lame American action hero but they're missing the point. The game is a parody of the jock/tough guy thing which is why the character works so well.
The Duke 3d console ports are another story though. The Playstation version looked and played like shit. The N64 version was graphically updated but censored to the point of unplayability. Only Lobotomy's Saturn version turned out good. The Saturn version wasn't perfect either though. The controls weren't fully customizable; free-look with the analog stick required holding another button down. And one minor thing was censored, although the swearing and nudity were left in.
Duke was followed by Duke Nukem Atomic Edition which added new levels, and the first instance of "bots", computer controlled deathmatch opponents.
[b]Death Rally[/n](1996)
A cool racing game developed by Remedy. Speaking of Remedy, 3d Realms is credited with overseeing the development of the Max Payne games.
Stargunner(1996)
This was the last game released under the Apogee name. This has nothing to do with Telesys' Atari 2600 game of the same name.
Shadow Warrior(1997)
"Who wanta some Wang?". Shadow Warrior was 3d Realms second attempt at a humourous FPS. I thought it was great but apparently a lot of people took the game too seriously claiming it was full of racial stereotypes.
Balls of Steel(1997)
A pinball game which included a Duke Nukem table. It was developed by Wilfire Studios in conjunction with 3d Realms' new Pinball Wizards division. http://www.apogee1.com/balls/images/dukenukem.jpg
[b]Duke Nukem: Time to Kill(1998)
N-Space developed this third-person Duke game for the Playstation. It didn't get great reviews but I thought it was a solid action game. It was followed by Duke Nukem: Land of the Babes which I haven't played.
Duke Nukem(1999)
Torus made a GBC Duke game based on the 2d games. They later made a GBA port of Duke Nukem 3d.
Duke Nukem: Zero Hour(1999)
A third-person Duke game by Eurocom for the N64.
Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project(2002)
Developed by Arush, this "2.5d" action game for the PC turned out surprisingly well. It's one of the best console-ish games on PC in recent years.
As for the future of 3d Realms, well... Duke Nukem Forever has pretty much become a joke in the industry with years upon years of delays. Let's hope it finally comes out and is actually good.
Very nice. I loved apogee back in the day. In fact I've played every game made under the apogee label except Xenophage and StarGunner (never even heard of StarGunner, actually)
Some trivia odds and ends, and games not on the list
Paganitzu was the second game in the series. The first was Chagunitzu, but was published by SoftDisk. More or less the same thing, but Chagunitsu ran unplayably fast on anything above a 286.
Realms of Chaos actually began life as a sequel to Paganitsu around 1992 or 93 when it was to be called "Paganitzu II: the Bloodfire Pendant." and was referenced as such by Apogee, but suffered years of delays and was reworked to the point where it was no longer recognizable.
You forgot a game called Boppin which was the sequel to an incredibly obscure Amiga puzzle game by the same name, which legends say only ever had 300 units produced. The game was surreal and stylish, and with a nice Gravis Ultrasound or Roland sound card had some really great, very quirky muisc. It was a simple game, but I still loved it.
They did a few excellent early CGA platformers like Monuments on Mars, Pharaoh's Tomb, and Arctic Adventure. The latter 2 of these were made by George Broussard, who took something of a leadership role on Duke 3D, and the former was done by Todd Repolgee, who programmed the Duke Nukem series and Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure. Unfortunately, by the time fast 486s came around, these games stopped running, but they might work in emulators. Worth playing if you like classic single screen puzzle-platformers.
There was a game called Bio Menace that was made using the Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mansion engine, although id had little to do with the rest of the game's design. It was solid, with much bigger levels than DD. The game's main programmer/designer later worked on Shadow Warrior.
Well, Shadow Warrior WAS full of racial stereotypes, wasn't it? Regardless, I'd still like to try it. (I'm half Asian anyway and I'd doubt that I'd care :P )
Damn, I never realized that I liked so many Apogee/3D Realms games. I think Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure was the first game I've ever beaten. The Commander Keen series is excellent as well.
Halloween Harry is so much fun. God, thanks for all the memories Neozeed.
Yeah, Shadow Warrior was completely based around Asian stereotypes. I worded myself wrong. It was so blatantly full of stereotypes that I didn't think anyone would take it as anything but a joke.
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