Interview with Todd Replogle
Todd Replogle is an underappreciated legend in the video game industry.
He was an early pioneer in the rise of shareware (the online marketing of games) and he co-created one of the most beloved action heroes in gaming: Duke Nukem.
I first met Todd when he sent me a demo of a text-based game he was working on, Caves of Thor. I honestly didn't think much of the game but I was just getting started with building Apogee. I desperately needed games to release and after a long call with Todd, I saw a lot of potential in working with him on several projects beyond this initial one, so I agreed to publish his game. It tanked.
But Todd proved himself as one of the most prolific coders I've known even to this day. He went on a run for Apogee that's yet to be matched: Caves of Thor, Monuments of Mars, Dark Ages, and then the big one, Duke Nukem. And after the huge success of the first Duke Nukem platformer, Todd charged ahead not on a Duke sequel, but a new game, Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure. Then Duke Nukem 2, followed by Todd's masterpiece, Duke Nukem 3D.
Todd was also around the first several months of working on Duke Nukem Forever when we had licensed the Quake engine, but then decided he needed a break from the game industry and left to fulfill the next chapters of his life, like getting married and having a family in another state.
Onto the questions! First some questions I asked Todd, then later some fan questions.
Scott's questions:
Q: How did you first make contact with Scott and Apogee?
Caves of Thor
Todd: I downloaded Scott's game "Kingdom of Kroz" from a local bulletin board service and enjoyed it (this was in 1990). I thought I could do better and mailed him a demo of my first scrolling ASCII-based adventure game. He seemed interested, then called me and told me that he wanted Apogee to publish it. My first game, Caves of Thor, was a flop. But Scott had faith in me and asked me to move to Dallas and work closely with the company on more new games.
When we started working together on your first Apogee game, Caves of Thor, did you really believe that the new Apogee shareware model would work out as well as it did in the 90's?
I thought it was a good idea. Many players were honest and wanted Apogee to succeed in producing more entertainment, so I think that helped. And you were the first to have the idea of splitting games into episodes, and that seems to be the magic formula… give away the first episode and sell the rest. Genius.
Out of all the games you made, which was your personal favorite?
Duke Nukem 3D. It was made by such a great team of creative guys. Everyone seemed to have fun working on the project and I'm glad that we made a game that didn't take itself too seriously.
In your opinion, what was the most impressive thing about Duke Nukem 3D that you coded/created?
I don't think I did such a great job coding it. I was (and still am) a weak programmer. I wasn't familiar with trigonometry or how to make C code portable. I slapped script together in a nervous way without any thought to readability. I didn't use a debugger either. The most impressive thing was that it was a game of a 1000 hacks and all somehow worked.
Do you remember when I came up with the Bombshell character? What did you think about adding her to DNF?
Yes! I thought she'd be the perfect companion for Duke, and as his equal would also tame Duke's ego a little. The name was absolutely perfect, especially for a military explosives expert. We got her working in the Quake engine version of DNF but George didn't like your idea of her having a cybernetic arm so she has two real arms in the Quake demo.
Do you ever regret that you left during the development of DNF?
I was so burned out after Duke Nukem 3D. I wanted to implement a crafting system in a first-person shooter but didn't know how to program it. I was bored, out of shape and didn't want to sit all day. I sold most of my possessions and traveled. Wound up in Thailand and married a woman, moved back to the States, and we're still happily married. No regrets.
To be clear, you had almost nothing to do with the final version of Duke Nukem Forever released by Gearbox. But was there anything in the recently leaked build from 2001 that you recognized as something you worked on?
I didn't recognize anything. I left after dabbling with the original Quake 1 engine. So nothing in the Unreal engine version of the game had anything to do with me. But the leak did show that the developers at Apogee had a lot of great ideas for the game, like the motorcycle!
What's your fave few games from the last 5-10 years?
ZZT and Roblox. My son took a liking to these starting in 2014 and developed for both in his early childhood, so naturally I like them too.
Dark Ages
The Monuments of Mars
Some fan questions we collected on Apogee's Twitter:
What do you think of the Broussard-Miller cluster-f!ck on Twitter over DNF?
Didn't know anything about it so nothing to add to this.
I am curious about [Duke’s] original character design, the TV show and movies which influenced it?
Duke's appearance was just a basic compilation of popular muscular, heroic super dudes from the 80's and early 90's. We weren't exactly being too original when Scott and I first came up with the character idea, lol.
Did any police officers ever complain about their pixel pigcop counterparts in the game?
No complaints that I know of. It was all in good humor. Hopefully cops understand humor.
With how much the style and tone of pop culture has shifted since even 2011, do you think a new Duke Nukem game would even be feasible in today’s gaming industry?
Cosmo’s Cosmic Adventure
Yes. There is so much to do with the character but it must be done right. Duke wasn't portrayed correctly in DNF, like he was in Duke 3D. So, go back to the Duke 3D version and he'd still work in modern games I'm sure.
Is the level layout for Level 9 of Shrapnel City intentional, or is the shortcut - use the glove, grab the key and return, rather than going through the whole level above -- a mistake?
I don't remember. The majority of those maps in Episode 1 were brilliantly designed by Scott Miller. [Scott: All these years later I don't remember if I purposely designed it this way lol.]
From a personal perspective, how important are Easter eggs, hidden passages and secrets to the vibe of a game?
Oh they're good obviously. The idea is to reward players who make the extra effort to explore off the beaten path or try to reach crazy places. We definitely had a lot of them in Duke 3D.
Did it feel daunting to see Duke grow from a more "child friendly" character (lack of a better term) to the more mature one we see today?
The character naturally matured thanks to the technology getting better, and in Duke 3D his personality took a major leap because we could add Duke's voice throughout the game. We did this to add humor to the game, and to make Duke a more interesting character compared to Doom's space marine.
Why did Duke Nukem make it big and not Cosmo?
Cosmo was a game designed for kids. But I also think the game failed because of bad level design. I constructed all the maps. Also, we should have made Cosmo 3D, then he'd be famous too!
That's it. Thank you Todd for taking the time to answer all of these!
Guess what! More interviews are in-the-works, including an interview with the original developer of Apogee's little-known, never-released, side-scrolling Duke Nukem Forever game, and an interview with the original Project Leader of Prey when we were developing the game internally, including how portals were originally created for that game.
