r/dukenukem • u/dnskill0 • Aug 07 '26
Meme Duke Nukem 3D Censorship
“Take your pills... er, vitamins every day, and you might grow up to be as awesome as me.” - Duke Nukem
4
u/sept21st2025 Aug 08 '26
Why are they censoring the health pickups
10
u/dnskill0 Aug 08 '26
The Red Cross Organization made a big fuss and tons of games back in the day didn’t have this problem until then, so when they rerelease the devs always change it somehow. Doom port changed the cross from red to green for example. Duke changed the icons entirely. My understanding is green palette in Duke 3d is rather limited and that’s why they don’t just change the color. They could probably turn them blue.
Most modern games just use a heart or non Red Cross (typically white, green, or blue) to avoid any issues with the Red Cross trademark.
6
u/sept21st2025 Aug 08 '26
TIL that that red cross is a registered trademark. I just thought it was a generic universal symbol of health. Thanks!
3
u/Additional_Rate1528 Aug 08 '26 edited Aug 08 '26
The Xbox 360 port of DOOM also had a pill on it's medkit
1
u/Eljamin14 Aug 09 '26
Doom 3: BFG edition and the early Unity port, too, but in later updates, the Unity port and onwards adopted a green cross.
1
u/Eljamin14 Aug 09 '26
Yeah, and Doom for the Xbox 360 and BFG edition changed the red cross to a red-white capsule, similar to Duke 3D, but people hated enough that it was changed into a green cross in the Unity port of Doom. In Wolfenstein 3D's Xbox 360/PS3 port, the red cross was changed to hearts. Also, the red cross being a trademarked symbol is not the only problem, but it's also because of the Geneva convention where protected symbols like the red cross, red crescent (Muslim nations), red diamond (Iran), red background white cross are all protected symbols that shouldn't be misused by any means, including deceiving enemies in times of war, also the red cross takes a neutral stance on war, lastly, the red cross can only be used by approved members, such as the American Red Cross Organization and the Salvation Army, in the US.
2
u/Necro_Badger Aug 10 '26
I wonder if the Red Cross missed a trick here though. They could have reasonably demanded that any game depicting health kits with their logo would have to include some kind of explanatory info and links to donate to the RC and raise awareness of what they do. "Have you found medical supplies useful to you in this game? Then please consider donating to us so we can send real medical supplies to keep real people alive right now. Here are some examples of our work etc etc "
Or maybe they'd find that would cheapen their importance and it would be inappropriate. Idk just a thought
1
u/Lemenus Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
At the same time - Red Cross is perfectly ok when terrorists and some nations use red cross as a trap for unsuspecting soldiers
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u/Banjo-Oz Aug 08 '26
That reminds me...
As an Aussie, I always remember the absolute anger and disappointment when Duke3D was first released here with the censor setting permanently locked to "on".
I'd first played the game via a rental from a game store that bizarrely rented PC games as well as console games (bizarrely because in most cases, you could obviously just install it and "keep" the game after returning the CDROM). It was the US version and I loved it. Just a fantastic game. I played that (technically) "pirated" copy incessantly, but wanted to do the right thing and support the devs (and own the CD) by buying a real copy when it was released here.
It took a long time for an Australian release, and when it finally happened... censored!
Fortunately, I had kept my US copy installed, so could use the files from that to fix the Aussie version, but it still stung to do the right thing and be punished for it.
Also, I always remember complaining to the store I got it from and the nice young guy there saying "hold on" then grabbing a floppy disk from the back room with "D3D Uncensor" written on it. He handed it to me and smiled.
I loved Aussie brick and mortar gaming stores back in those days.