Dummy Duck 3

Dummy Duck 3

Release type: Shareware
Release date: 1996
Levels: 13
Author: Alan Caudel
Website: Dummy Duck
Related games: Dummy Duck, Dummy Duck 2, Dummy Duck 4, Dummy Duck 5

Dummy Duck 3 is the centerpiece, and apparently the most popular, of Alan Caudel's flagship series. With the previous game, Dummy Duck! II, the franchise-to-be clicked into focus. It wasn't all quite there, but Caudel had roughed out the shape, the dynamics, the design and controls. From here on we're working from, and largely deviating from, a known blueprint.

Whereas DD2 was a shotgun blast of dadaist game and pop culture components, wrapped in a handsome and polished skin -- "Yes," it hemmed. "Sure, I know what I'm doing. You bet!" -- this next pass brings it all together with something like a coherent story and flow, smoother controls, more fair design, and much more clever gimmicks to carry the player's interest from scene to scene. Although you still don't know what on Earth may come next, here it's less due to the game shrugging at you and saying, hey, I dunno either. It's a matter of one wildly creative set-piece after another, each building and expanding the scope of the player's quest.

They bring the player from a bedroom with echoes of the Fantasia Genesis game and a tricky, anaglyphic 3D maze, through a hall of silhouettes and lightning strikes not unlike level 2 of Strider (arcade, Genesis), and into large, well-designed boss fights -- always a treat to see in this engine. Then we get to the city, around which Dummy toodles on a riding lawnmower, in search of secret meaning and secret entrances. It's inspired by Rare's Who Framed Roger Rabbit game, but also evokes the map segments of the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game. Figure out what's going on, and have a disorienting techno club throw all that back in your face. Then there's that level with the timer and the fire nozzles you need to plug. This game has variety.

As suggested by all of the homages and that strange lawnmower level, the game is littered with hidden sequences and games-within-games: an arcade machine starring Off the Page era Dummy, being played by current Dummy; the entirety of Caudel and Tyner's Star Avenger 4, transplanted as a possible preview.

On top of that, we get a more cohesive look and feel. Where DD2 went all Termite Terrace, with every action eliciting an extreme take from our... hero (?), Dummy Duck 3 hangs on a more wry, comic book style similar to Caudel's contemporary projects, Adam '97 and The Complete Bone Adventures. Or, perhaps, the more mod style of animation the major studios employed through the late 1950s and '60s. Curiously, DD3 does more than move forward; in its level intros and a certain later, recreated level, its cohesion extends backward, looping back to the first game that Dummy Duck! II largely ignores. In every sense that matters, this is the moment when the Dummy Duck saga fully takes shape.

Which is not to say that it's without its problems. Although Dummy's attack -- a flaming slice of toast, slung low -- is the best and somehow most sensible in the series, its targets are as erratic and infuriating as ever. The monsters here (including the return of Red and Foo-Foo) are again drawn to the character's position like moths to a flame. It's one of those standard Game-Maker problems. On a design level, monsters are hard to nail down, in part due to the less clear design interface and sparser documentation for Monster Maker and Character Maker, compared to the block and map tools. So, unless you're spending an inordinate amount of time working against the tools and writing your own documentation, you're probably going to go with the best-documented, most easily understood functions. Say, move all the baddies toward the character. That works well enough to allow you to move on with your life. In that respect Dummy Duck 3 is hardly unique; its issues are sort of a background radiation for this engine. Not inevitable, but foreseeable and, if you get why they're happening, easy enough to overlook.

Some other of Caudel's games may be even more ambitious, but none matches the balance of ambition and cohesion at display here -- especially for a completed project. At a stretch, if you need to single out one definitive achievement in Caudel's work with Game-Maker, you're probably looking at it right here.

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Dummy Duck series

Story

Level 1 of Dummy Duck 3

I see you're foolish enough to think you can beat this game. I must warn you, you can't beat this game by wits alone. You will come across seemingly impassible obstacles. Use your brain and remember, sometimes you will have to look at things a whole new way in order to beat them.

One day, Dummy Duck was having a picnic with his dog Foo-foo and his good friend Lil' Red the tomato. All of a sudden, they heard a loud crash. It was a spaceship landing! Out from the door came a shadowy creature... "MR. BAD"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mr. Bad captured Dummy's friends, and brought them into his ship. He made clones of Foo-foo & Lil' Red! That's not all! He shrunk the Foo-foo's, then made cyborgs out of the Lil' Red's! OH NO! Let's hope for their sake that you're not too much of a loser to beat this game!

• The first level is simple enough. First you'll have to get across the row of sharp spikes, then make your way to the right.

Level 3 of Dummy Duck 3

• Level two is easy. All you do is run, jump, and fend off a couple of bad guys.... Oh yeah, did I mention that it was PITCH BLACK?

• The third level is a test of skill, find the boss' pattern, and thwart away. This is a mockery of Dummy Duck part 1. You see, in part one Dummy Duck was half the size that he is now. In fact, the little Dummy you'll see between each level is the same guy from Dummy part one. Well anyway, in part one Foo-Foo was around four times as big as Dummy, and he's supposed to be around the same size. It's funny.

When you're done, walk to the right.

• Level four, let's see, oh yeah the lawn mower level! I love this one! Ride the lawn mower around the grass and pick up five keys, (if you lose a guy, you still keep all your keys). Then make your way to the city and go to the H.Q.

• I took out level five! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

• In level six, you're inside the H.Q. from level four. Run around... and...OH MY! It looks like "MR. BAD"!!!

• Level seven... OH, I DO like this level! It's a souped up "Level 1" from Dummy Duck PART 1!!!!

(Actually this is level 9 in the real version)

Hey! There's a LOT more to this game! But, you HAVE to REGISTER FIRST! Please register! It'll make me feel a lot better!

Instructions

Level 4 from Dummy Duck 3

HOW da HECKs DO I PLAY dis GAME?

Levels 1-3

Keyboard/Numeric keypad controls:

7 = up-left

8 = up

9 = up-right

4 = left

6 = right

1 = down-left

2 = down

Dummy Duck 3 interstitial screen

3 = down-right

space bar = fire toast (LITERALLY!!)

p = pick up items that are pick-uppable

d = drop items

Joystick controls: (Same basic rules apply)

up = up

down = down

left = left

etc.

An early cutscene from Dummy Duck 3

etc.

button "B" = fire toast

button "A" = pick up items

BOTH buttons = drop item (When you drop an item, you will have to select the item that you want to drop with the keyboard)

Level 4

Keyboard/Numeric keypad & Joystick controls:

All the same, but you can't shoot, pick up, or drop anything.

Levels 6-7

Keyboard/Numeric keypad & Joystick controls:

Same as Levels 1,2,&3

SAVE YOUR GAME- F5

START SAVED GAME- F6

OTHER HELP- F1

Credits

An early cutscene from Dummy Duck 3

"WOW! This game's so great, I'd love to know who made it!"

Soooooo......

Concept: Alan Caudel

Design: Alan Caudel

Programming: Alan Caudel

Character Art: Alan Caudel

Background Art: Alan Caudel

Monster Art: Alan Caudel

Sound Effects: Alan Caudel

Special Effects: Alan Caudel

NOFX: Alan Caudel

The BeeGees: Alan Caudel

Corn art: Alan Caudel

Refried Beans: Alan Caudel

Chair: Alan Caudel

Tree: Alan Caudel

Spoon: Alan Caudel

Flaming Toast Courtesy of: Flaming Toast Factory Outlet

Today's Secret Word: polioencephalitis

Nickname of Wisconsin: The Badger State

King of Atlanta: Ted Turner

Lame Duck: Dummy

Definition of polioencephalitis: Inflammation of the gray matter of the brain

Secret Levels: (shhhhh.... don't tell!)

Neato Guy: Nathan Lewis

PEOPLE WITHOUT WHOM THIS GAME WOULD HAVE REALLY SUCKED

(in alphabetical order)

Yurik Nestoly: Tekno Club, Level Design, Moral Support

Adam Tyner: Level Intro Screen, Game Distribution, Goodwill unto all (By the way, look for Adam in the game!)

Matt Wears: Lots of caffeine at just the right time, and his sheer nuttiness

THANX TO

Game-Maker!

MOM & DAD!

SANDY!

PROTY!

Everybody who registers!

BYE!

Background

More of Level 4 from Dummy Duck 3

The intro scene for Dummy Duck 3, where the spaceship floats down to Earth, was completely inspired by the introduction to Battletoads for the NES.

I had a goofy idea that I would try something with 3D glasses. In level one, there's a big mess of what looks like static. The original plan was that if you looked at that with 3D glasses you would be able to read the secret message hidden in the blocks. It was going to be a maze where some of the blocks killed you and some didn't, and you had to make your way through the maze. But later I realized that was a dumb idea because people might complain that I should provide 3D glasses with each copy of the game, (Yeah, I didn't always think everything through all the way) and so I ditched that idea at the last minute. However, the blocks still remain in the map, I just made it so that none of them kill you. But if you look at those blocks with 3D glasses, you can still see the hidden message!

Pro Tip for the lightning level. I made the sky a little darker than everything else, so if you turn your screen brightness all the way up, you can kinda make out the shapes of the character, monsters and the background! That way you can run through without having to wait for the lighting to strike!

The numbering of the streets in the lawnmower level was based on the Dick Tracy game for the NES. If you notice, a group of the logs out in the grass spell out G6 in big letters. Try going there in the city.

— Alan Caudel, email exchange

I think I mentioned to you before about the 3d Maze, originally there was no yellow tinting to the correct path. It was impossible to see the right path without 3d glasses. I got complaints from my friends, so I added the yellow tint to the correct path to make it slightly less impossible.

Then, in level 2, I had originally made everything completely black when there was no lighting. Again, after I got complaints, I made the solid blocks a very dark grey, so you didn't have to wait until the lighting flashed to move.

Umm... For some reason, I must have thought it would be great to make this game nearly impossible to play.

I hadn't figured out the concept of making a game easy at first, then it gets harder as you get farther along.

Also, something like the 3D Maze would be an interesting challenge to reach a bonus or something, but to put it smack in the middle of the first level?... What was I thinking?

Also, there were supposed to be voice files to go along with the first 2 shots where Mr. Bad meets Foo-foo and Lil' Red. Something about Mr. Bad laughing and making clones of Lil' Red and Foo-foo, and turning them into his henchmen (a story which would be repeated in part 4)

— Alan Caudel, email exchange, October 29, 2016

Availability

This game was published to the On Target Programming Web site.

It also seems to have been made available on several shareware compilation CD-ROMs. More precise details TBD.

Archive History

On October 20, 2010, Caudel posted a comment to a YouTube video of Peach the Lobster, under the name dummyduckrulz; following up the conversation, on June 29, 2011 he provided a link to a collection of games recently uncovered by Adam Tyner. This initial archive included:

Adam's Birthday Game The Adam's Birthday Saga Continues Adam's B-Day 3: The Saga Continues Adam 98 Big Fat Tank! Blip!

The Complete Bone Adventures Dummy Duck II Dummy Duck 3 FireAxe Lil' Choklit Donit Man in: Choklit Terror!! Mister Spiff I

Mister Spiff III: Freeze! Mother! Freeze! Raiden II Return of the Jedi Scurvy the Squirrel Star Avenger II Star Wars: Return of the Jedi

Links

• Play old 1990′s MS-DOS Dummy Duck games online! (DummyDuck.com)
• The Game-Maker Story: Infoboxes (Gamasutra)
• Play Dummy Duck 3 (unregistered) online

Downloads

• Dummy Duck 3 (454 kB)
• Dummy Duck 3 (unregistered) (314 kB)
• Level 1 map (32.3 kB)
• Level 2 map (11.4 kB)
• Level 3 map (5.5 kB)
• Level 4 map (62 kB)
• Level 5 map (36.8 kB)
• Level 6 map (27.3 kB)