The Universe is Toast! A Commander Keen Thread

[Tiers in Rain]

With this week's release of Commander Keen in Keen Dreams: Definitive Edition, I felt inspired to start a thread to discuss Commander Keen, a game series that is near and dear to my heart and one that is oft undiscussed. My history with the series goes back to the Commander Keen in Invasion of the Vorticons, Episode 1: Marooned on Mars the day it arrived in the mail on a floppy disk that my family ordered from a shareware catalogue. I had already been playing Mario games and a hundred other NES platformers for years by this point so it didn't exactly surpass my expectations of a platformer per se. But I remember being really surprised by how competent it was as a platformer on a PC. And I genuinely enjoyed it. We immediately purchased the other two episodes, marking one of the few times we actually made purchases based on the free shareware disks we got.

As much as I liked the first 3 episodes, episodes 4, 5, and 6 were far more solid as platformers and I to this day still love them. And then there was Keen Dreams. A strange non-canon game in the series, but one I still played for many many hours and had a ton of fun with.

 

[Falselogic]

I think I have played every Keen game. I do not think I have ever beat a Keen game. (Unless Wolf 3d and Doom count)

 

[MCBanjoMike]

Man, I used to really love these games, especially 4 and 5. I even figured out how to translate the alien writing! The original trilogy must seem pretty rough these days, but the later games are probably playable to someone who is familiar with retro stuff from the era. Not nearly as tight as the controls on the best NES games, but a far cry better than most DOS games from those days. There were some decent tunes in the later games too, as I recall.

 

[Beowulf]

I even figured out how to translate the alien writing!

Somewhere in the early teens (while I still had a computer with a floppy drive, if for only slightly longer), I found a box of old floppies that included my disks for Commander Keen 1 - 4. I think the most disappointing thing (besides the fact that half the disks were corrupted by that point and couldn't be played) was that I hadn't saved my translation cipher for the alien language. I remember working really hard on that!

 

[madhair60]

I had the shareware of Keen 6, of all things, and I think it must have massively shaped my taste in platformers with all its ridiculously esoteric secrets that you can only find by doing dumb shit there's no reason to do.

 

[Tiers in Rain]

Has anyone played the definitive edition of Keen Dreams yet? I won't have a chance to get it any time soon and I was curious how the extra levels were. I have no idea who made them but I'm fairly certain it wasn't anyone currently or formerly at id.

 

[Ixo]

 

[Felicia]

My thoughts on the newest Commander Keen was that I got really excited when I saw the fun, cartoony announcement trailer:

...but I got really disappointed when I saw the actual gameplay:

 

[MCBanjoMike]

I don't even know how you make a video game that looks that boring in 2020.

 

[madhair60]

Honestly if I had free reign to make a game based on an existing franchise, I'd probably pick Keen.

I wish there was a Commander Keen Collection of some sort. Even GoG doesn't have it. I think some of it is on Steam, but not the one I really love (6).

 

[MCBanjoMike]

I was gonna say Steam has them but yeah, I think it's only 1-5.

 

[SabreCat]

There was some sort of IP battle over 6, as I recall, and it's buried in somebody's money bin of unused licenses.

 

[Beowulf]

...but I got really disappointed when I saw the actual gameplay:

Wait, seriously? That looks like they put Keen stickers on original Mario Brothers, and also slowed it down just in case you were tempted to have fun with it. Do Not Want.

 

[Tiers in Rain]

Honestly if I had free reign to make a game based on an existing franchise, I'd probably pick Keen.

I wish there was a Commander Keen Collection of some sort. Even GoG doesn't have it. I think some of it is on Steam, but not the one I really love (6).

6 was my favorite as well. I'd absolutely love a complete collection at some point. Until then, at least the Internet Archive has 6. I have added it to my Steam library and configured it to run via Dosbox.You can play it in-browser there too.

That Keen mobile game looks just awful.

 

[MCBanjoMike]

I always liked 5 best. I couldn't put my finger on it, but something about Babysitter always rubbed me the wrong way. It wasn't as obviously off as Keen Dreams was, but it didn't seem like a straight successor to the series the way 4 and 5 did. It's been decades since I played it, though, so my memories aren't fresh at all on the subject.

 

[DFalcon]

Back in the day I played all the Keen games, and think I eventually finished most of them. I remember 4&5 as the high points.

I probably didn't actually spend a ton of time playing Paddle War, but it remains one of the most memorable parts for me, along with "swim swim hungry".

 

[fanboymaster]

For the record by all appearances that mobile Commander Keen is cancelled anyway. They even privated the reveal trailer on the Bethsoft youtube channel.

 

[muteKi]

Doesn't surprise me. That game looking at it again makes absolutely no sense

 

[Tiers in Rain]

So I guess Microsoft owns Commander Keen now. That's a thing I never thought I'd say.

 

[Mightyblue]

 

[Tiers in Rain]

well that was really something

 

[LBD_Nytetrayn]

So I guess Microsoft owns Commander Keen now. That's a thing I never thought I'd say.

As a result, I'm kinda hoping it comes to Xbox now, maybe I can finally give it a swing.

It's probably the thing I'm most interested in from that entire acquisition, honestly.

 

[Tiers in Rain]

Had a completely insane, stress-filled day yesterday so I didn't get a chance to post about it but it was Keen's 30th anniversary. Here's a cool article from Benj Edwards about it.

30 Years of Vorticons: How Commander Keen Changed PC Gaming

On Dec. 14, 1990, Apogee Software released Commander Keen: Invasion of the Vorticons. It was the first in a series of PC shareware games that brought fluid, Mario-like platforming to the PC. It also launched legendary developer id Software. Here’s why it was special.

www.howtogeek.com

 

[Kalir]

I only ever had Keen 4, but if you only get to have one Commander Keen game, that's the one to get if you ask me.

 

[Tiers in Rain]

They're releasing Keen Dreams on Wii U for some reason.

The Wii U's Getting A New Game Today, Just In Time For Christmas

Although it's not exactly 'new'

www.nintendolife.com

 

[madhair60]

If you want a great game with Keen vibes pick up Bio Menace, I think it's freeware. Really a lot of fun!

 

[muteKi]

Yep it is.

 

[MCBanjoMike]

What the hell, on the Wii U? That's just bizarre. Anyway, here's something I'm pretty Keen on (heh heh):

 

[Tiers in Rain]

That is such a deep cut and I love it

 

[LBD_Nytetrayn]

I was just about to link that when I saw this thread had resurfaced.