[Hendricks266]

Jimmy, on 16 April 2014 - 08:47 PM, said:

There was a Duke Nukem sidescroller called Duke Nukem Forever that was completely unrelated to the infamous title. It was developed around 1996 and appears to use LameDuke's art style.

I believe Nacho also has this. He had to have gotten the screenshots on the DNF 2D Wikia page somewhere.

---

I'll add one:

Spoiler

Joe Siegler owns a CD with these contents:



I have no idea how much of what he has overlaps with 3DR's own archives, but I imagine a backup of a 10-year-old CD is in order. I know Joe is active on social media so this one might well be taken care of already.

[Frederik Schreiber]

Jimmy, on 16 April 2014 - 07:24 PM, said:

Fred, now this is cool. I'll tell you, the best PR move you guys could ever make is assembling a crack command unit from the community and allow them to extensively trawl through these betas and things for unique assets. Trust me, this community has more than enough of the capability to do all of this for you guys given you provide the opportunity, that's assuming you guys aren't as familiar with BUILD as the diehards in this community. I'm even going to cease shit talking you guys in an act of good faith, because it looks like you guys really want to nut up and do by 3DR and this community right, which is all I care about. Small personal blathering does not matter at such a juncture. This could be very beneficial for you guys and the community, and it looks like you guys are going in the right direction. I dig it. Thanks for what you've shared so far, and even if you guys want to dig through it yourself don't be afraid to ask questions. A lot of us really do know more about this stuff than anyone should.

Thanks for the Feedback Jimmy We already have Hendricks and TerminX working on some of the old builds with us, and are going to bring more of you along in the future

[Frederik Schreiber]

Hendricks, we have that CD. Unfortunately each folder is Password protected and has a built in "wipe" mechanism, which will delete/corrupt the data, if you try and crack the password.

I'll share it with you later today, so you guys can have a go at it.

[Lunick]

Our community is amazing.

[TheZombieKiller]

Frederik Schreiber, on 16 April 2014 - 10:27 PM, said:

Hendricks, we have that CD. Unfortunately each folder is Password protected and has a built in "wipe" mechanism, which will delete/corrupt the data, if you try and crack the password.

I'll share it with you later today, so you guys can have a go at it.

Would Joe have the passwords? He DID show screenshots of some of the games if I recall correctly

[Striker]

With my growing knowledge of disassembly, I may be able to at least disable the self-destruct/corruption subroutine of whatever program is used to decrypt the files, that way people can take brute-force attempts at the password without worrying about losing anything.

[Hendricks266]

StrikerMan780, on 17 April 2014 - 12:24 AM, said:

With my growing knowledge of disassembly, I may be able to at least disable the self-destruct/corruption subroutine of whatever program is used to decrypt the files, that way people can take brute-force attempts at the password without worrying about losing anything.

At that rate it might be easier to decouple the payload from the extractor and try to find out more about what kind of encryption it uses, then look for exploits. I personally have qualms with even executing any program that claims to corrupt or delete itself for fear of borking my entire HDD(s).

This is a quote from an email I sent to Joe, where I hypothesized that the archives were zips with passwords:

Quote

Beyond convincing you to release the betas per se, I have confidence I can crack the passwords on any betas which are password-protected. The PKZIP encryption, the only method available [for .zip files] before 2003, was the subject of a research paper. This paper concluded that the encryption could be broken if the user has at least 13 bytes of unencrypted "plaintext". ("Plaintext" is a technical term meaning any unencrypted data, as opposed to "ciphertext".) Following this, at least one tool was created to utilize this technique. http://www.unix-ag.u...to/pkcrack.html

Using Duke Nukem II as a sample, I successfully decrypted a .zip archive (with the password 33823300c218538c92037a14970a3164) in 40 minutes on a 2004 Pentium 4 using the FILE_ID.DIZ of old as my plaintext. Many Apogee betas have the potential to be cracked using the FILE_ID.DIZ, ORDER.FRM, CATALOG.EXE, and DEICE.EXE files present on so many releases. Beyond that, the betas should be handled on an individual basis. For example, games using the BUILD engine (Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior, Blood) could be cracked based on the plaintext "Creative Voice File", a heading present in every sound file in those games. Many betas could be cracked using one of the music files depending on the development timeline, such as the Apogee fanfare. Any piece of data at least 13 consecutive bytes long that has remained unchanged for the development cycle could be used.

Even if the plaintext attack fails or no suitable plaintext is found, releasing the archives will prevent permanent loss and allow collaboration to crack them using a brute force method.

[Hendricks266]

Had another thought:

Spoiler

At various times [1] [2] it was mentioned that Allen Blum may or may not have Amiga disks / floppy disks in his closet / attic containing old Apogee source. Perhaps you could convince him to get that to you? The pending Keen Galaxy source release was recovered from a NeXT-burned Syquest disk, so anything is possible.

[MYHOUSE.MAP]

Just as a heads up, this logo:



did appear in pre-release material. It can be seen in this video around the 9 minute mark.

[Lunick]

I sure hope that build is floating around somewhere.

[Frederik Schreiber]

Next Update - Duke Nukem: Endangered Species screenshots

[Lunick]

Not too different from the end product in Vivisector:

[Frederik Schreiber]

I uploaded the Zip from the "Old Betas" disc to dropbox.
There is one issue - The Zip includes a Prey version from 1996.
We already have that version at hand, but it cannot be released to the public, as 3D Realms no longer owns Prey.
By releasing the Zip here, there is a big risk that someone might crack it and release the Prey beta as well. I cannot let that happen.

I would like 1 or 2 members from this community to give cracking the Zip a try, after signing an NDA.

if you are successful in cracking it, we can release it without the Prey Beta included.

Who would be best suited for this?

[Lunick]

Isn't there a little more than Prey that might present a problem like Blood or Doom?

[Frederik Schreiber]

Lunick, on 17 April 2014 - 04:58 AM, said:

Isn't there a little more than Prey that might present a problem like Blood or Doom?

Yeah - You're right.
Prey was the first one that caught my eye.
We need to be very careful about what to release.

[Daedolon]

Assuming the zip is from 1996 as well, brute forcing it should be plausible (worked fine on the password protected rar files in the Blood alpha), though there is probably an easier way that I'm not familiar with.

[TheZombieKiller]

Hm, that is troubling. I would imagine buying back the Prey IP would be fruitless as well.
Strife wouldn't be a problem, the rights are not assigned to any party at the moment (although I do recall hearing that id Software had the rights now)
You could contact for permission to release the Blood, Doom, and Prey betas I guess, although the answer is most likely no.

EDIT: Is this a zip or rar? Afaik if you have a small amount of data from a zip you can crack it rather easily.

[Hool]

Isn't there a Duke Nukem PS2 game called Duke Nukem: D-Day/Man of Valor out there? It would be interesting to see what it was like considering we only have a few screenshots floating around the web to look at.

[MrFlibble]

Jimmy, on 16 April 2014 - 08:47 PM, said:

I understand 3D Realms did not produce Wanton Destruction, but they very may well have the assets used on the box packed away somewhere.

Well, at least some of the screenshots are certainly from the vanilla SW:

• The first one on the top left - shareware level 4, outside the "Dojo of the Serpent".
  
• The one at the bottom left - shareware level 1, in Wangbang mode.
  
• The first on the top right - shareware level 3, pool area with the silver key and the Anime lady.
  
• Right below it - shareware level 3, inside the room that is unlocked with the silver key, with the lava pool and the rotating column.
  
• The shot on the left that shows an area with a drivable tank may or may not be from a registered episode level, not sure.

[Daedolon]

^ That's because it was a prototype.

[Mike12]

Just stopped by to say: you guys are seriously doing god's work here! Good luck, and I hope everything works out so that we can finally see some of these forgotten relics.

[Frederik Schreiber]

TerminX are currently looking through the old betas of Duke3D
He found a lot of gold.

His exact words: "there's enough content here to make a whole extra game."

We're going to put something really cool together for you guys!

[Frederik Schreiber]

TerminX on Facebook:

[Hool]

Frederik Schreiber, on 17 April 2014 - 09:35 AM, said:

TerminX are currently looking through the old betas of Duke3D
He found a lot of gold.

His exact words: "there's enough content here to make a whole extra game."

We're going to put something really cool together for you guys!

It would be awesome for perhaps another fan made expansion called "Duke Nukem 3D: The Lost Levels" or something along those lines, then you could update the Steam version with the expansion. Just sayin'.

[N64]

It's possible to change the Prey name and release it without legal risks?

[Hendricks266]

It has begun.

---

From Joe's CD, not much of what I've unzipped so far even has a password, and what does is PKZIP, so I'll get them opened when I can. Maybe there's some self-deleting thing I haven't come across yet.

---

Remember this bit from the SW source code?

/*
Directory of C:\DEV\SW\MIDI
EXECUT11 MID
HROSHMA6 MID
HOSHIA02 MID
INTRO131 MID
KOTEC2   MID
KOTOKI12 MID
NIPPON34 MID
NOKI41   MID
SANAI    MID
SIANRA23 MID
TKYO2007 MID
TYTAIK16 MID
YOKOHA03 MID
*/

Well, .

[Frederik Schreiber]

angelo86, on 17 April 2014 - 09:47 AM, said:

It's possible to change the Prey name and release it without legal risks?

Unfortunately no - It's better to be safe than sorry.
Some day buddy.. Some day

[N64]

Frederik Schreiber, on 17 April 2014 - 09:49 AM, said:

Unfortunately no - It's better to be safe than sorry.
Some day buddy.. Some day

Thanks for the answer.

[MetHy]

What exactly is in there? Is there any unfinished map that never made it to the final game? Because if that's the case, I volunteer to try and make some of them playable if needed. I think my maps in Metropolitan Mayhem episode show that I have enough knowledge of the original games maps

[Mike12]

If I may ask, is this zip file going to be made publicly available ala Lameduke once it's sufficiently pruned for any material that might have copyright issues? Having a hands-on look at this stuff would be an experience to die for.

I certainly get that impression from the thread, but I find it always pays to clarify.