The Prehistoric DOS Method
Boot up a command prompt and type CD C:\DUKE3D
to get into the game directory. Type SETUP
. This menu will be displayed. Choose "User Level Selection".
Choose "Select User Level" and then press Enter
on your selected level:
Press Escape
to back up to the main menu. Choose "Save and Launch Duke Nukem 3D". The game will start and your level will run.
You can also play your level by entering DUKE3D -MAP <mapname>
at the C:\DUKE3D
prompt. Replace <mapname>
with the name of the map you wish to play (typing the file extension .MAP
is unnecessary).
The Modern EDuke32 Method
This is extremely simple. At the Main Menu, select "New Game".
Now select "User Map".
Select the map you wish to play, and enjoy!
Extracting the original levels
There is a pair of programs that come with the game called KGROUP
and KEXTRACT
. These can be used to handle the GRP
file format. Make sure the programs and the DUKE3D.GRP
file are in the game's root directory. Run a command prompt, switch to the game directory by typing CD C:\DUKE3D
, and type KEXTRACT DUKE3D.GRP *.MAP
. This will extract all of the original maps into the game's root directory. The map name format is E#L#
, where E#
is the episode number and L#
is the level number. For example, Episode 1 Level 1 would have a filename of E1L1.MAP
.
Mapster32 allows direct loading of the original maps from the DUKE3D.GRP
file. Simply load one and then save it to output the map to the game's root directory. This will not adversely affect the map in the DUKE3D.GRP
file, i.e. the original copy of the map is safe from being overwritten. Note that map files in the game's root directory have precedence over maps of the same name in the DUKE3D.GRP
file, so you will probably want to either rename the map or delete it before attempting to play the original map in the game again.
This concludes the basic knowledge you need to build maps. Have fun with it. Create and test all sorts of maps. Check out the "Advanced FX" section when you're ready to learn how to construct the game effects, and the "References" section for loads of useful information. Both can be accessed from the Main page.