Duke Nukem's exclusive Nintendo 64 outing from 1999 just got a native PC port

Duke Nukem Zero Hour: Recompiled is an unofficial PC port of the 1999 N64 exclusive that saw Duke travel back in time to fight aliens and Jack the Ripper.

Duke Nukem's exclusive Nintendo 64 outing from 1999 just got a native PC port
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TL;DR: Duke Nukem Zero Hour: Recompiled is an unofficial PC port of the N64-exclusive third-person shooter, enhancing the classic game with widescreen support, higher frame rates, and customizable controls. It preserves the original game and runs smoothly on low-end GPUs, but requires the original game ROM for legal use.

Duke Nukem was massive in the 1990s, thanks to the success of Duke Nukem 3D on PC and consoles. In addition to starring in one of the defining first-person shooters of the decade, Duke's other outings were limited to the Nintendo 64 and the original PlayStation consoles. Yes, PC gamers missed out on what is widely considered to be one of the best Duke games from the era, the Nintendo 64-exclusive Duke Nukem: Zero Hour.

Duke Nukem Zero Hour: Recompiled is an unofficial PC port of the N64 exclusive.

The third-person shooter saw Duke travel back in time to the Old West and Victorian London to save the world from a new alien threat, with the game being best known for adding a more nuanced plot to the franchise's trademark over-the-top tone. This included a depiction of post-apocalyptic New York, ravaged by nuclear war, as well as taking down Jack the Ripper.

Duke Nukem Zero Hour: Recompiled is an unofficial PC port of the game that adds native support for widescreen displays, higher frame rates, and the ability to remap and configure controls. There are even plans to add ray tracing to the game, as seen in other N64 ports for PC (Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time) that decompile and recompile the game's source code to run on PC.

As an N64 game from 1999, Duke Nukem Zero Hour: Recompiled doesn't require much in the way of GPU horsepower to run, with the game compatible with ancient GPUs like the GeForce GT 630 and Radeon HD 7750. Also, as it uses N64: Recompiled to translate and create a native PC port of the game, you'll still need a copy or ROM of the US version of Duke Nukem: Zero Hour to run the game. The reason for this is copyright-related: recompiled N64 games only include the code; all assets, such as art and music, are not included.