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| Commander Keen on Steam,; a partial review | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Aug 7 2007, 02:47 AM (1,890 Views) | |
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Aug 7 2007, 02:47 AM Post #1 |
Skulltula
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There's may people who don't remember Commander Keen. However, this series was what I played when I was a kid. My entire childhood consists of Mario, Zelda, Keen, and Jazz Jackrabbit. Commander Keen was the first series iD put together. Older than Wolfenstien 3D or DooM, Commander Keen is a classic PC platformer. The game engine was originally created by two of iD's co-founders while working at a different company. They decided not to give their employers the engine, and as a joke created "Dangerous Dave in Copyright Infringement," in which a character made by John Carmack was placed in the first level of Mario 3. After showing it to a co-worker, they decided to make a complete port of Mario 3 and show it to Nintendo with the intent of making a PC version of the NES game. Nintendo said no, but also said they should keep at it as they had talent. After Keen's series creator, Tom Hall, found out and Carmack, Romero, the lesser-known Carmack, and Hall left their current employer and spent their time to create Commander Keen. Commander Keen, originally published by Apogee (now known as 3D Realms) under their shareware model in which games were divided into several episodes (most often, into 3 episodes) and the first was a given away on BBSes for free, if you liked the game you would send Apogee money for either on episode or the other two. Keen on Steam has five of the seven episodes. Keen Dreams is omitted, likely due to the fact it's the worst in the series and is unrelated to the story and since it's not part of the continuity it's not even given a number, usually refered to as Keen Dreams or Keen 3.5; Aliens Ate My Babysitter being omitted likely because the sole purpose was to give iD time to finish the game which would finish the story from Keen 5 (sadly the continuation was never finished). Since those games are not included, I'll sum them up. In Keen Dreams, Billy is sent to bed early for not eating his vegetables. When he falls asleep he dreams he has to fight off vegetables. In this game Keen lacks his pogo stick and his traditional clothes (instead wearing pyjamas), however he can now duck (this would not be kept for the sequels). The main purpose of this episodes was to allow iD more time to finish Keen 4 and to show the new engine. In Aliens Ate My Babysitters Billy's babysitter is kidnapped (it being revealed his baby sitter is related to his arch-nemesis). Some consider it the best in the series, however in terms of story it does little but reveal that relation and it translated a note left at the end of Keen 5 (the note can be translated on your own, if you are willing to do so, as both Keen 3 and Keen 5 offer the users the means to translate the Standard Galactic Alphabet used in both games (or you can just look up the translation online). The collection is $5 on Steam, and is a mere 20 MB and uses DOSbox to emulate DOS. The game runs well. My PC had no hitches, obviously. My MacBook couldn't play it when I first got it yesterday, however a patch released today fixed that little issue, and it runs very well on it (which is worth noting as Keen is running on an emulater emulating DOS while I'm in emulating Windows while the Mac OS runs in the background with my Mac applications). In short, the series is old and runs as well as it should. For example, on my MacBook, as Keen is running in DOSbox, which is running in Paralells (which I used to Emulate Windows X-P (damn emoticons making me add dashes)), Mac OS X is running in the background along with an internet browser, Last.FM, and an instant messenging client. In short, I'm running 3 seperate OSes and three needless applications and there's no performance issues. I suspect iD did some tweaks to the engine to work better in DOSbox (as the last time I used DOSbox it was a stuttery mess), either that or DOSbox has greatly improved. In Commander Keen, young child genius Billy Blaze is saving the galaxy, even the universe, from destruction. In the first episode Billy Blaze (who is actually the grandson of the main character from Wolfenstein 3D, interesting, eh? Your life is that much more complete now) lands on Mars after his babysitter falls asleep. After he lands the Beans-With-Bacon (Keen's homemade spaceship) on the surface, aliens steal 4 main components (a joystick for control, a vaccum cleaner to propel the ship, alcohol to fuel it , and a car battery to provide power). Commander Keen has to find all 4 components to get back home. The game has an overview map, in which you can skip entire levels. The game offers freedom, for example, you can complete most the game without the pogo stick, if you are so inclined you can skip the level in which you aquire it completely and get it in the last level instead. Only about half the levels are required to be completed. The first episode ends, obviously, leaving room for a sequel. The series is more story based in some aspects compared to other iD games and other platformers at the time, as you see dialouge boxes explaining what's happening at times, The enemies in the series range from monsters who will kill you in one hit to enemies that can only push you around. Jumping isn't an effective weapons against monsters; at best it will just stun them or they can be used as a platform to reach a higher area or they will just result in an instant death. Due to the fact you don't know which monsters harm you and which are just annoyances, you need to be smart and find out yourself (as a rule the cuter the monster, the less likely it is to be able to kill you). In the game your weapon is a ray gun, which kills most enemies in one hit. As mentioned, some can't be harmed (this usually means they're mostly harmless or that there's another way to kill them). Finishing levels in the game is a matter of going from point A to point B, in later levels. The level design is one very well done, in the fact that at first it won't provide too much of a challenge, usually less maze-like, very linear with a higher area and lower level. This is too get you used to how the game moves and controls. Later levels are more maze-like, with more traps, more enemies, and colored doors which require colored keys to open. Going through every level will wean you onto this, however if you're no stranger to the platformer genre, you can easily skip most the levels once you get used to how the game handles (it controls differently than, say, Mario in numerous ways, so is wise to try a few levels first). The games are forgiving, but they aren't easy. You will get one-ups rather easily, however in later levels you will be harsh (but never too harsh). The controls work rather well. In the original three games you only use four buttons when in a level. Left, right, control, and alt. Left and right to move, control will make Keen jump, alt activates switches and activates your pogo stick (if you hold control after you get on your pogo stick you'll jump higher), and control and alt at the same time fires your gun (later games replace this with the space bar). In addition, in the first three titles, space bar shows you your score, how many shots your gun has, remaining lives, and all other essential information. In later games this information is shown in the top corner at all times. The controls are responsive, no missed jump will be because of the controls, but because of you. Map controls consist of the four directional buttons to move and alt to enter a level. Menu controls consister of up, down, and enter (and if you select Paddle Wars, a Pong clone, you will only use left and right). To save you use F5 and select a number from 1 to 9. In cases of overwriting files you'll press Y or N for yes or no respectively. In essense, the controls are not only responsive, but simple. The graphics are certainly dated by todays standards, as are the sounds. However the graphics still look good, despite their age, and every installment got progressively better in terms of the technical aspect. However the true beauty in the series is the animation, which was always amazingly well done. The sound is one department not everyone will like, for the most part I loved the sound, brought back nostelgia. However other will hate it. The first in the series especially has moments where the sound make you cringe, however even episode two would have improved sound and the episodes after (and including) Keen Dreams got a boost with the engine, which included improved sound, animation, and graphics (as well as introduced the ability to look up and down). The graphics are at the very least equal, if not superior, to what console at the time delivered while the sounds are probably a bit worse in some areas. In essense, if 8-bit or 16-bit graphics aren't turn-off, you can easily cope with the games dated engine. I'm a fan of Commander Keen, I'm hardly an unbiased source. As mentioned before, this is one of the games I played when I was a kid. I loved the game. However they've aged well, they're still great platformers, and still present a bit of a challenge. The length of one episode is short, I will say. However keep in mind one game is not one episode, one game is three episodes. Basically, for $5 you get 1 complete game, and 2 thirds of a game. The story is never finished, with Keen 5 ending in a cliffhanger. After the success of Wolf3D and Doom, iD cancelled plans of continuing the series (much to Tom Hall's disappointment, to this day he says he wants to get the rights to the series just to finish the storyline), even including a secret room in DooM where the only way exit is to kill Commander Keen (as there is four of them, all of them hung). These games are a neat little piece of iD history and worth all 500 pennies. If you aren't sure if you'll like the game, 3D Realms probably still has the first episode on their site (and while you're there, check out some of their old games, as some of their classic shareware titles are now freeware, so if you like platformers, you'll like what 3D Realms has). The shareware episode gives you a very clear idea of the general gameplay, while the later episodes improved in quality. __________ Screenshot I snapped in Paralells Screenshot of Aliens Ate My Babysitter (excluding from the Steam collection) for comparison Speedrun of Keen 1, to show the animation |
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| Joseppi | Aug 7 2007, 01:24 PM Post #2 |
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JoeStunna
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I've never heard of the game before. But it sounds pretty cool. If they ever make another one, they should port it to other systems with enhanced graphics.. I hate playing platformers using a keyboard. Hell, maybe one day they will be on Virtual Console. But I highly doubt it. The graphics are horrible though. They look like something made in GameMaker. |
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Aug 7 2007, 01:27 PM Post #3 |
Skulltula
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Well keep in mind these were made in the late NES and early SNES era of gaming. If you have a cheap joystick it will work. |
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| Link_of_animals | Aug 7 2007, 02:07 PM Post #4 |
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Master of Cows, MASTER..OF THE WORLD!
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Wow, looks awesome! I just hate the sounds. |
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