Vapourware: The tech that never was

Duke Nukem Forever
Duke Nukem Forever is the best-known bit of vapourware of all time. The follow-up to the massively successful first-person shooter Duke Nukem 3D was announced in 1997 and despite being in constant development since, you still can't play it. A release date -- vague or otherwise -- has never even been announced. Now 11 years into its production, several rewrites, redesigns and game-engine alterations have resulted in this FPS taking longer than any other to see the light of day, put its shades on and light a fat stogie.

We're all for developers taking their time with games. Let's not forget that one of the greatest shooters of all time, Half-Life 2, took an eye-watering five years to finish, but was as close to perfect as any game can be. Duke Nukem Forever, then, deserves to be twice as close to perfect, if such a thing was possible.

But 2009 could, possibly, be the year we see a release. We've heard it before, but we believe this could be the date, and in December 2007, an official trailer was made available online.

As a matter of fact...
In 2003, Duke Nukem Forever won the Vaporware Lifetime Achievement Award from Wired News -- an award created specifically for the game.