Loss of a Legend

[Vlad]

Looks like 3DRealms has finally gone. :(

Due to budget constraints they had to shutdown. Man, never thought I'd see someone like them go. I gotta go dig up Duke Nukem now just for some tribute gaming. It's a shame to see companies from the early days like that go under, they were always one of my favorite developers.

1987 - 2009 They had a good run.

[barythrin]

::quivering lip:: b..but.. ...what about my reserved copy of Duke Nukem Forever?..

[Unknown_K]

I am sure they will blame the economy for their failure to get DNF out the door in over a decade.

[VintageComputerman]

I still have Duke Nukem Plutonium Pack I haven't got the unlock code for yet. They want 25 bucks to unlock it.

[Terry Yager]

RIP <shedding tear>.:cry:

--T

[NeXT]

Great, now where will I go to get the complete versions of Halloween Harry and BioMenace? :(

[Vlad]

I think everyone gave up hope on DNF a long time ago. I think it's safe to say we're not going to ever see it. Rise of the Triad was another good one from the Apogee days.

[barythrin]

Yeah ok.. I just couldn't resist the Duke Nukem Whenever cry. Yeah, kidding aside they were a nice company and had some classics that I spent hours playing. ROTT was great, one of the first games I actually played the demo, beat, and bought to play the full game. The other (probably the first game I remember being "addicted to") was Terminal Velocity. I loved that game, and it amazed me at the time with the realism and graphics (on a 486).

[Vlad]

I remember playing the demo to Terminal Velocity, that was a great one too. Those tunnels used to make me rage because I always hit the sides too much. They were a pain but made it a good challenge.

I remember loving the ROTT demo because of how long it was. To compare I grabbed the Red Faction 3 demo off Xbox live and got though it in like 10 minutes. the ROTT demo took me a few solid days to get though.

[Bungo Pony]

Wow, didn't see that coming (although I should have.) I wonder who's going to make #1 on WIRED's Vaporware list (http://www.wired.com/culture/culturereviews/news/2008/12/YE8_vaporware) this Christmas? DNF topped the list for the last 10 years or so.

[Yzzerdd]

ROTT?

RIP. They did make some REALLY good games, my favourite being Duke Nukem.

--Ryan
PS: Who knew favourite had a U in it? Geez. I always thought it was "favorite" but Linux calls shenanigans on that, insisting I include a "U."

[Vlad]

ROTT = Rise of the Triad, one of the games from the Apogee days abbreviated.

Favourite is just an alt. spelling like colour.

[patscc]

The extra U tends to be the British English spelling version. When I type fast, it tends to slip in without me even thinking about.
patscc

[pontus]

RIP indeed.

ROTT, Terminal Velocity, Duke Nukem were all great games.

[Jorg]

I would expect that at least the character will be taken over- desperate as all companies are for proven cash cows.

[barythrin]

I'm curious to see what happens. Actually I was a bit more curious to find out what they're doing with all their equipment. It'd be kinda cool to grab something from them. When Origin here in town sold most of their stuff I grabbed a few games from Goodwill from their game library. Just kind of something semi-historical, I can't remember what I did buy (they had tons of stuff they gave to goodwill) but I was looking for Wing Commander or something else significant. I honestly don't recall if I got that or just some other cheap grabs just to have their library checkout slip in them.

Duke Nukem would be interesting and I'm sure the rumors will quickly speculate that it'll get continued, however not sure who wants to pick up the vaporware band wagon. Although googling around to find out if this post was true I did see some dude's first attempt at a little tv show that he had an interview with the developers and showed a clip of the game from mid 2008. One would think if it's nearing the end of development like some say it may be an asset to be sold.

[chuckcmagee]

I even recently found some kind of emulator to play ROTT on. Sigh, the screen on the emulation was like 320x200 pixels. Lasted about 7 minutes. I still fire up ROTT and set the gravity real low. Love that flying around.

" HERE! CATCH! " (That was always a mean weapon on the other side).

[barythrin]

I think that (ROTT) was the first game (due to age) that I ever played multiplayer on. A friend and I finally got both our systems on the phone line and dialed up to play it vs. I know I did bbsing before that but this was the first graphical game for me to ever try doing over any time of network. Certainly adds to the historic memories on my part.

With Terminal Velocity and an adlib card it was the first time I had really heard a PC be able to compete with an Amiga for sound quality and graphics. The music on that game was excellent and for a change not just mid files in the background.

[chuckcmagee]

Was Terminal Velocity the one where you pilot a ship thru tunnels to rescue the guys in the room, battling mining robots?

If so, yep, another great game. I still have the CD here somewhere.

Edit: ok, I went to the website. Wrong game. But I have that one too. Also a great game. Like Stellar 7 but much improved.

[barythrin]

You know.. chatting with another geek/gamer friend he's still unsure about the announcement and I started wondering about the validity as well. When you posted it, the main site was down and the forums say they're overloaded (I figure generic/incorrect error for db being down) but now the main website for 3drealms is up and there still isn't any formal news announcement on the site. The most credible link I've found is foreign (bbc news) and doesn't state any factual references outside of the forum comment and twitter post.

Could this actually be a huge false announcement? I haven't but I'm tempted to call them just for kicks and just ask lol. At least I could ask if they're planning on getting rid of any equipment that I could remove for them heh.

[Vlad]

Could this actually be a huge false announcement?

Sadly no. Joe Siegler himself confirmed it in the forums.

http://forums.3drealms.com/vb/showpost.php?p=867590&postcount=129

[Dreamcast270mhz]

So, does this mean apogee software is gone as well?

[Vlad]

Apogee Software LTD. was the legal name of 3DRealms, technically they were the same company. They started out as Apogee and 3DRelams was a brand label used by Apogee but they eventually used it full time. The legal business entity was the Apogee name.

Edit:

A farewell pic of the crew is up on the main site now. If anyone wanted to download something from the site best do it now before the web server goes offline.