Duke Nukem Forever features one of the most troubled, storied, and talked about development periods in the history of games. Which makes sense when you consider that development began at 3D Realms in the 1990s, with the final product finished and released by Gearbox in 2011. With reports of the game's E3 2001 era build surfacing in recent days, it's already found its way online.

Which comes with the build, source code, and the Unreal Editor used to create the maps. According to 3D Realms veteran and Duke creator George Broussard "there is no real game to play", adding "most of what's there are small level snippets, level designer tests, or some fake build out areas for an E3 demo". But, with the build and source code, no doubt this will spark a whole suite of mods and updates and even projects from fans to present this long-lost version of the game in a more playable and finished state.

Still, it's impressive for 2001 and features some cool ideas like an Ego meter for Duke and a UI that feels a lot more modern than what we saw at the time.

The full package is available to download right now via the Internet Archive.