Retro Gaming Australia

As Duke Nukem became more popular, he started to make cameo appearances in other Apogee and 3D Realms products.

Cosmo’s Cosmic Adventure
Duke Nukem can be found frozen in Episode 2, Level 7. Upon unfreezing him, he says “I’m Duke Nukum, green alien dude. Until you rescued me, I was stopped cold by an alien invasion force. Cosmo’s Cosmic Adventure was developed by Todd Replogle and Allen Blum, the creators of Duke Nukem.

Bio Menace
Duke’s portrait appears on a wall in a hidden room in the “Specimen’s Lab” level.

Death Rally
Duke Nukem is always one of the top 3 drivers in the league, and drives the Deliverator, the best car in the game. Duke also has extra protective armour, making him one of the toughest drivers in the game. You can also choose Duke as your avatar in the game, removing him as an opponent and giving samples of DukeSpeak upon selection and winning a race. Apogee published this game not long after Duke Nukem 3D was released.

Balls of Steel
The fourth table of this Apogee published pinball game is entirely based around Duke Nukem 3D. Duke comments on what’s happening on the field, and various enemies appear from the game appear on the table. Remixed music from Duke Nukem 3D plays in the background.

Blood
In Episode 1, Level 4 “Dark Carnival”, Duke’s mostly limbless corpse can be found hanging upside down in a secret area. Upon seeing the corpse, Caleb says “I have plenty of time to play with you,” in a rather sly voice. Blood was originally to be developed and published by 3D Realms, but the rights were sold to Monolith Productions late in development.

Shadow Warrior
Lo Wang utters the phrase “Wow! Look like-a Duke Nukem” when a large explosion is triggered. Shadow Warrior was the final Build game 3D Realms released.

Max Payne
One of the computers on the “Cold Steel” level has a Duke Nukem 3D mouse pad. These mouse pads were included in the game box if you ordered the game from Apogee directly.

Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition
In the reveal trailer, Duke Nukem quickly walks past the camera at about 2:38. Borderlands was the last game Gearbox released prior to working on Duke Nukem Forever.

However, as Duke Nukem Forever’s development ran beyond overtime, the character and 3D Realms started to become the source of mockery in other games.

Serious Sam: Second Encounter
In the opening level of the game, players can find a phone booth which Sam uses to call Las Vegas to find out why “Blondie” (the series’ colloquial name for Duke) hasn’t shown up yet.

Serious Sam (Xbox)
In the opening cinematic, after Sam runs away from the alien horde and hides behind some doors, the phrase “Duke is NOT dead!” can be seen as graffiti on the door.

Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
There is an argument between two cops named Miller and Broussard (who bear some resemblance to the two), about when the latter is going to finish solving the case that he is on. Broussard says it’ll be finished “when it’s done.” 3D Realms and Remedy worked together in the past on Death Rally and the original Max Payne.

Serious Sam II
Sam rescues a friendly character, who while thanking him mentions that he was “tired of waiting forever for that blondie guy to show up”

No More Heroes
Towards the rather eccentric ending of the game, one of the characters breaks the fourth wall and details a scenario which might have caused the game to be titled No More Heroes Forever.

Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard
The character Matt Hazard is a very thinly veiled pastiche of Duke. In one of the later levels of the game when Matt is fighting through a game developer office, players will come across a cardboard standee that looks a lot like the Duke Nukem 3D box art, which says “Nuke Winter: Coming Soon-ish.” QA, your operator, tells you not to worry about him because “they have been working on him forever.”