3D Realms was the trade-name used by American shareware game developer and publisher Apogee Software starting in the mid-1990s. Following from the creation of popular platformer games such as Commander Keen, they directed id Software to create the first-person Wolfenstein 3D engine and then commissioned and licensed out the Build engine by Ken Silverman, with both notably used by Capstone Software.
Presently Apogee and 3D Realms have evolved into separate entities, with the former embodied by Apogee Entertainment run by original founder Scott Miller and Terry Nagy, and 3D Realms ran by Slipgate Ironworks' Frederik Schreiber as a subsidiary of Saber Interactive, formerly part of Embracer Group. Meanwhile, the iconic Duke Nukem intellectual property was also sold to Gearbox Software in 2010, although later subject to legal dispute.
Games[]
Apogee logo
- Wolfenstein 3D (1992, as Apogee)
- Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold (1993, as Apogee)
- Blake Stone: Planet Strike (1994, as Apogee)
- Rise of the Triad (1994-1995, as Apogee)
- Extreme Rise of the Triad (1995, as Apogee)
- Duke Nukem 3D (1996)
- Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition (1996, aka Plutonium Pak)
- Shadow Warrior (1997)
- Prey (original incarnation)
- Duke Nukem Forever (initial development)
3D Realms was also the initial publisher for Descent, PowerSlave, and Blood, before all three were changed to other distributors prior to release. Unlike with their releases for id Software games, 3D Realms actually authorized the WizardWorks products created by developers such as Simply Silly Software and Sunstorm Interactive.