Duke Nukem: Zero Hour
Image: GT Interactive

Duke Nukem: Zero Hour, Eurocom and GT Interactive's 1999 third-person shooter based on Apogee's Duke Nukem character, has successfully been decompiled; it's currently being reported online.

Released in the aftermath of Apogee and 3D Realms' hugely popular 1996 first-person shooter, Duke Nukem 3D, and n-space's 1998 PS1 title Time to Kill, Zero Hour was a game that saw Duke fighting across history to stop a group of time-traveling aliens from killing his ancestors. This involved heading back in time to the Old West and Victorian London, where he would encounter historical figures like General Custer and Jack the Ripper.

At the time of its release, the game received mostly positive reviews from publications such as Game Informer, Nintendo Power, and IGN, who praised its variety of weapons and well-designed levels, but it was also the recipient of a rare 1/10 from Next Generation's Jeff Lundrigan, who called the "abysmal" and to be avoided like "radioactive bat droppings".

The decompilation project is the work of Gillou68310, who seems to have been quietly working on decompiling the game's code for the last three years.

It recently hit 100% code and byte match with the US version of the game, and has raised hopes that it could potentially be the foundation of a new PC port, with additional options such as Steam Deck support, additional display options, enhanced controller support, and more.

It should be highlighted, though, that Gillou68310 has said nothing publicly about plans of using the decompilation project to work on a port of a game, and, as always, it's worth pointing out that decompilation projects aren't always initiated with a PC port being the end goal.

We'll still have our fingers crossed, though, just in case someone does decide to take up the challenge.

[source github.com]