Repackaged Duke Nukem 3D modifications ====================================== This directory covers old Duke3D modifications, repackaged as ready-to-use ZIP/PK3 archives for compatible source ports. There's no need to manually specify a CON file name or rename other files. Originally, the main purpose was playing these in multiplayer games using NetDuke32 via NukemNet, but other use-cases might also be covered. Unlike other examples of repackaging, these ones aim to be minimal in terms of modifications from the original files. In particular, for the mods originally compatible with the Atomic Edition, there should generally be no additional bug fix. The idea here was to get behaviors very close (if not identical) to the ones you'd get with the files as released. I did remove files (albeit not all such files) in cases I felt they had no practical well-defined impact on the mod's behaviors. However, I usually preserved at least one original txt file (if present) in the new archive as-is. Installation instructions, if existing, are probably not relevant here, since the new ZIP/PK3 archives should be usable with compatible source ports as-is. But for certain gameplay mods, like LithDuke, such a txt file might have important usage instructions. For each new archive, there's an additional txt file, residing outside of the archive in question and describing how it was prepared. As of early March 2024, there are two groups of archives here: 1. Mods originally compatible with the Atomic Edition (v1.4-1.5), and possibly also the original game (v1.3d). These currently have "repackaged" added to the file names of the new archives. Files specific to v1.3d, if originally existing in addition to ones for the Atomic Edition, were removed. Not necessarily all of them, but that was an approach selected for CON files. 2. Mods originally made for v1.3d and incompatible with the Atomic Edition. Here, the new files have "adapted" added to their names. This separation into subgroups might or might not change in the future, along with the list of mods. Remember that I'm not a sole authority over repackaging mods whose contents aren't exactly mine, and other people did the same. The main reason I even bothered here was that I found Duke3D mods to not really be played in multiplayer games, outside of a few specific ones as of 2023. I suspect that's mainly due to file management in Build Engine games (as released before 2000) in general. About mods originally made for v1.3d and incompatible with the Atomic Edition ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- These mods should be usable with source ports that support v1.3d's CON files. As of March 2024, NetDuke32 and JFDuke3D are multiplayer-compatible examples. However, you're still expected to experience problems if you try loading them with such source ports while using a DUKE3D.GRP file from the Atomic Edition or World Tour. What was done in each new archive was adding missing CON files from v1.3d when needed. For the sake of consistency, in case LOOKUP.DAT wasn't included but there was a title screen made with v1.3d's title screen palette in mind, v1.3d's LOOKUP.DAT was also added to the relevant archive. About the process of creating the archives ------------------------------------------ Each archive should have an accompanying txt file describing how it was made from data as originally released. In case kextract was used, that wasn't necessarily the original DOS program. It could be a source port, say a Linux executable built from the JFBuild repository. As for creating the archive file itself, that was done using multiple programs. At least for the first 10 archives, a helper script was used in order to make combined use of Info-ZIP, 7-Zip and Ken Silverman's KZIP, along with his ZIPMIX program.