In the year 1996, I got my first PC. I did not know about Duke Nukem 3D - I was too young for the likes of controversy. Duke Nukem 3D wasn't something I saw on local computer game store shelves, either.
There was plenty of computer shops around during that time, too. I spent most of the time at school, and I was more interested in playing games on my Nintendo, until I started to cotton onto the fact that my PC was something more than a machine I could type things on, and do glacially slow 3D modelling upon.
Then, at some stage, I grew up, reading and hearing about this fabled legend of gaming, Duke Nukem.
Then, as I grew up, my gaming tastes changed, as I got involved in Baldur's Gate, Heroes of Might and Magic, and a myriad of JPRGs and portable games on the Game Boy Advance.
Then, I grew up, and one day bought a pack on Steam that included Duke Nukem 3D.
If I had played this game in 1996 when I was an impressionable young man - I wouldn't have gotten very far. On the other hand, I would've had a completely different expectation of games.
Deus Ex, Half Life and other games that I thought were revolutionary would have seemed like linear progressions on the glory that was Duke Nukem 3D.
This game holds up remarkably well thats to the eduke 32 engine port, and with the polymer rendering plug in enabled, it looks fantastic, running at whatever resolution you want to throw at it.
The gun play is still great. The puzzles are good - the key cards (which Doom also used - are a dated game play mechanic, but the fact that this had voice acting, a sound track, and art... is brilliant.
Not to mention that 3D realms were clearly flexing when they made this game. There's pool in a bar, strippers, and lots of guns. There's flying enemies, multi-dimensional levels with an insane sense of verticality, and a soundtrack that compliments what you're doing, when you're doing it.
If you're like me, and you've never played Duke Nukem 3D - go get yourself anything that can run it, and go play it. What a phenomenal game, even today - and back in 1996, it would've been thoroughly, relentlessly mind blowing.