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Commander Keen: 13 Years Later
16977 writes "I just noticed that Id Software is now selling downloadable versions of its classic titles Commander Keen: Invasion of the Vorticons and Goodbye Galaxy. Although the game is over 10 years old by now, there is still a thriving community of Keen fans out there whose interest has not waned. We now have level editors for both Keen Vorticons and Goodbye Galaxy, unofficial Keen fan software, and of course the infamous Dopefish, which has by now made cameo appearances in well over a dozen computer games. However, we have yet to see Commander Keen: The Universe is Toast, the sequel to the previous Keen game that was planned but never made. With the original developers pursuing their own independent projects, it doesn't look like it will happen anytime soon. But in the meantime, die-hard Keen fans have been getting by, not unlike Farscape fans after their show was cancelled."
Too bad other game manufacturers won't follow suit and make their older titles available for (legit) download.
For someone to release updated versions of Master of Magic and another sequel to the Bard's Tale Series...Is that too much to ask?
I was going to make some seething response to the the Farscape comment and then continue on to propose an open source Commander Keen (if we can't do crappy EGA side scrolling graphics yet, we're screwed). You ruined it!
I'm glad that they are releasing some of the original work that Id and John Romero so great. It is also noticeable that they have also released Intergalactic Delivery Boy (no, not for free) for the PocketPC. It is really down to John Romero's and Hall's roots. After all, Id games are best when they are simple.
YOU SUCK BALLS!
There was a recent version of Keen for the Game Boy Color. I heard it sucked, even though I didn't play it. But it means that someone out there is indeed legally allowed to make Keen games, and is doing so.
I'll definitely be re-acquiring the Keen games however. Need something to do when not playing MOO3. All I need to do is find a working Gravis Gamepad. I don't think the USB version I have will work with the old school dos keen.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
Shouldn't he be promoted by now?
Well, the best Commander Keen reference IMHO was the secret Wolfenstein level in Doom II: They even had the secret WOLF level (within the secret D2 level) and behind the last door there was: Commander Keen hanging from the roof. You had to shoot the poor fellow to get to the next level...
Excellence: Moderate (mostly affected by comments on your karma)
Who here liked Captain Comic better? Nothing like a cheap knockoff of Commander Keen to keep us entertained for years...
Really looks like the exellent "Captain Goodnight" ....
--
http://homepage.mac.com/softkid
I run a small games programming community, and recently had this submition from one of my users. Those with win98/win95/dos should certainly give it a try, its full of parodies and general humour and the gameplay is excellent.
I agree, this is really great. I used to love to play the Keens as well as many other games. And there are many times I've slammed down a new graphically pretty peice of trash and wished I had a classic.
t -launcher-conveniently-located-at-chest-level. Not that all FPS are bad but look at the numbers... its like hitting a dust mite with a musket.
The problem is companies don't want to release most of their old games because times have changed and so have operating systems. With the terrible legacy DOS support in XP for things like games you are almost forced to run them emulated in linux (dosemu, etc..). Also, no matter how much companies say "we have no support line for this, use at your own risk" you'll always get contacts asking about this and that.
In reality, these games need to be released to a team of volunteer developers when they are no longer economically valuable to the Company. Then that team can update as the times change if there is still an underground following.
OR, the obvious choice which was discussed in an earlier topics is to start making games that are fun again as opposed to yet another graphically gorgeous First-person-run-through-the-hallway-with-a-rocke
-bart
Man...I used to suck at Commander Keen so bad. That was back when my dad put a pirated copy of Windows for Workgroups 3.11 on our computer. I used to run stuff from some DOS shell...I remember playing Night Raid, Commander Keed, and Rescue Rover. Those were the days. Back when I used to dial into the library BBS and reserve tons of books. I had no idea what I was doing. You can't imagine the fear that fills a 7 year-old when he tries to dial into the library and hears his mom talking on the phone. I thought I had broken the computer. So. That was irrelevant.
The Human Cow - bringing you scrumtrelescence since 1995
I remember downloading the shareware version (a massive 600K!) of Commander Keen in Goodbye Galaxy via FidoNet freq (file request). You could file request files from other BBSes, and they'd be sent to your BBS (I ran 2:252/204 at the time). I had endless fun playing Commander Keen in a DesqView DOS session whilst the BBS ran in the other DOS session on my amazing 16MHz 80386 computer with 2.5MB of RAM!
:-)
The Dopefish for some reason reminded me of Sir Les Patterson, the Australian minister of Culture
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
God, I hated that Dopefish. Probably the single most terrible creature in the Commander Keen universe, bar none. Not even the Vorticons had anything on this green aquatic moron. My very dreams were haunted by that fish as I paddled in vain to keep ahead of that buck-toothed mouth. I lost more lives on that damn overgrown fscking tuna than anywhere else in the game. *Shudder*.
All these years of trying, sitting in front of the screen and hitting refresh every few seconds. And I did it. w00t! It cost me whatever little social life I had but I did it finally. w00t w00t!
In other news, over 10.000 geeks were spotted comitting suicide as their favourite nerdnewssite went down. About 20.000 others were found protesting outside their homes carrying portables with the words "/. come back".
Bystanders were heard commenting: "Makes you wonder what would happen if google ever went down".
BTW, I think you should annoy more Farscape fans, by creating a poll: "What will you do after farscape?"
I noticed that Commander Keen was available a while back and I was actually going to buy it. But they wanted $15!!! for a download only game. The price point for a 13-year-old-download-only game should be about $5. I'm sure if I dug through the bargain bin at Toys R Us I could find a boxed version for $5.
I hold a patent on sigs...
Comment removed based on user account deletion
15$ seems a bit steep if you don't even get a box...
so you DON'T like the dopefish?
YOU SUCK BALLS!
If Keen could run on a 386, can't it run on my Palm? I want it on my Palm!
Whew this brings me back good ol memories, I used to play Commander Keen when I was young (5-6 yr. old) on my dad's 486. I think I still have the floppies lying around ! Now that I don't have a DOS env. anymore, anyone actually tried to play the game under FreeDOS/Wine or whatever that I could try on a *nix box ?
wtf? id is charging money for Commander Keen??
Carmack's going broke or something?
HELLO?
Maybe they haven't heard the news: Rockstar Games is giving Grand Theft Auto away. Selling these old games just won't cut it anymore.
Sure, I don't have a right to have the game for free. But it's my opinion it would be the proper thing to do. This will certainly sour some folks on id.
How are the Ferrari's driving these days, Jon?
"Please be aware the game you are purchasing will be delivered to you via electronic download. There WILL NOT be a hard copy of the game sent to you. Because of this, we STRONGLY recommend backing up the file after you download it.
NOTICE: Technical support is not available for this title.
"
So, they overcharge for software, don't provide any version upgrades, and no technical support unless you pay. Sounds like buying software from Microsoft.
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
"The original Keen series was a trilogy of games. Keens 1-3 were collectively called "Invasion of the Vorticons". As Tom talks about above, the sequel was also to be a trilogy of games, but the id guys were convinced to break Keen 6 off and make it into an independent retail item. To this, the sequel that was distributed through Apogee was only two games. Episodes 4 & 5 were collectively called "Goodbye Galaxy", and Keen 6 was called "Aliens Ate My Babysitter". Keen 6 was sold by FormGen in retail, and since it was in retail, FormGen convinced the id guys to put in some off disk copy protection for the game. The fact that Keen 6 was broken off into it's own game, and the addition of the copy protection kind of made the "vibe" not the same as the original, but Keens 4-6 are awesome games, even if it's not a trilogy.
One last note about Keen 6. At the moment, there is no legal way to obtain the game - it was a retail game by FormGen that Apogee merely resold the title. As FormGen doesn't exist anymore, the game has been discontinued, and for now, there is no legal way to obtain Keen 6 (save for the 3 level demo which was created to promote Keen 6)."
I'm fortunate enough to have a copy (including the box!), but it's in 5 1/4 disk format and basically an item of nostalgia sitting on a shelf.
If you've never been modded as "flamebait" or "troll," you've never tried to argue a minority viewpoint here!
Here:
http://www.cafeshops.com/cp/store.aspx?s=dopefish
if slashdot.org is so low on news, that they're willing to advertise sites, and call it news, well then... someone please tell me where to sign up!
for Win/Lin/Mac/BSD. I would take my GamepadPro and play again. Schugy
I went through about 5 gravis gamepads on Goodbye Galaxy. The little screw on joystick was a terible idea. "No, no, left! *snap* Damnit!"
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
I'm sure tons of people here have seen the cult classic Better off Dead. The first time i saw it a few years back and heard the line "My little brother is building a space shuttle out of old vaccum cleaners" I immediatly had to go home and play Commander Keen. Anyone else notice this or want to speculate about all this? Is Badger Myer Commander Keen?
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
...I *bet* you'd like to handle Keen with your palm.
I don't remember what switch I made, Win3.1 -> Win95, 486 -> 586, etc, but the bottom half of the screen was covered in lines and shapes. If anyone ever had this problem and found a fix, I'd appreciate a response.
Yet another signature that refers to itself. The irony and humor is dead.
But then it was Civilization based, wasn't it?
If you loved Master of magic, you might love Age Of Magic when it is released. It is FreeCiv based. FreeCiv is an open sourced version of Civilization.
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
You misunderstood. I replied to my own FP post.
Anyone else ever play this one? IIRC it invovled Commander Keen in his jammie jams throwing cookies at flowers in a dream world. When you hit a flower with a cookie, it fell asleep. Pretty weak, and an embarrassment to the keen series.
However, Keen 4 is to date one of my favs of all time. 5 wasn't bad at all either.
My childhood. I can't believe it that I've been playing this game since it came out. Man, I feel old (Stop laughing, I'm only 17). I'm teaching kids to play doom over a lan. These kids were born _before_ doom came out. (10 years old, man ;) :)
Recently I found a copy of Commander Keen 6 at a garage sale, complete with the boxes and everything. I scanned every single thing I could in there. Its 13mbs if anyone has an idea of how I could get it to them!
Calling someone an idiot on slashdot uncalled for. That show's a lack of
maturity on your part, now go sit in a corner and think about what you just
said.
And if you think Id is sugar coated candy and spice that gives and gives, think
again. Read my post
here on this
very same article. Id is just as corporate and as greedy as any other
corporation. Just because they make the coolest games and contributes stuff to
open source, doesn't mean they're not in it for the money. Shame you got a +1 modifier.
I have the full set of Cosmo, on 3.5" disks. It's always been a favorite of mine. I'd love to see them re-release that. Smoother graphics and/or playable on a handheld would be swell :-)
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Bottom of the page. here.
The games in the Commander Keen series were some of the most thoroughly entertaining titles around at the time, certainly among platformers. They were creative, challenging, and full of secrets (especially the later ones).
Note that id is not making Keen 6 (Aliens Ate my Babysitter) or Keen Dreams available for purchase/download.
#include <sig.h>
..it was bundled with MSDOS 5.0. Who the hell still has MSDOS and plays games??? Of course, if there were a linux version...
If I seem short sighted, it is because I stand on the shoulders of midgets
What do you mean by "corporate and greedy"?
I read your post. If you don't like the terms of licensing a game, then don't license the game. Period. Better yet, try to negotiate more favorable terms. That's how business works.
The goal of running a business is to make a profit. You lamented how the "unfair" fees would cut into your profit. What's the difference between you wanting a profit and the company licensing the game wanting a profit?
Let me get this straight, you can call me a child,( "now go and sit in the corner....") and I can't call someone an idiot?
Seems hypocritical....
nbfn
goatfucker
that it took until 1990 for the first game capable of side-scrolling! Dang, the Nintendo had that for 5 years before and was already on Mario 3! That is pretty bad and shows how far computer games were behind technology wise. Of course Id would put computer gaming on the forefront of technology with the Doom.
Which begs the question of whether computer gaming would be dead without John Carmack. I know not every game needs cutting edge 3d graphics (Europa Universalis) but many games would be greatly lessened without being able to create believable worlds (Jedi Knight II).
Brian Ellenberger
I told you to sit in a corner because name calling is a childish. The parent poster didn't personally sling mud at you, he just had an opinion that you didn't like so you went off base and called him an idiot.
And evidentally you didn't read my post that well. It's more than just cutting into the owners profits, the current licensing schemes by Id, Valve, EA, Blizzard and others is going to leave me with $500@mo if i'm lucky. Even my minimum wage employee's will be making more than me, but this is the burden I take as the owner.
Funny as this sounds, even MS has a better game house licensing than those formentioned companies. MS and Epic both only require you to purchase a copy of the game for each station, with no recurring licensing fee's. Isn't that funny? Here I am showcasing their games on dope ass hardware, even selling copies when I load demo games on my systems, and they still want a cut of that.
Carmack and the rest of Id needs to think about their pricing issues.
Oh and as far as What do you mean by "corporate and greedy"? goes, well yeah, I'm corporate now. CEO of my own corporation yay! In America though, we have laws (rules) that are there to keep things in fair play. Sometimes corporations go beyond the boundries of fair play, which is why MS, standard oil, enron and a host of other companies got bitchslapped by the DOJ.
I could never understand the big deal over this game. To me the controls were bad. Kind of like the Epic Pinball game, where the physics were really lame compared to others.
Does anyone else feel Commander Keen was over rated?
Southeastern Virginia REPRESENT!
At least cok1 runs fine under dosemu+freedos...
Keen was released in my pre-Geek days. I bought a used Hyundai PC Clone (8086) from my brother and he downloaded(!) a copy of "Keen: Attack of the Vorticons" so I'd have something to amuse my kids with. Long story short, it was me who ended up spending hours attempting to save the universe.
Come to think of it, I never DID save the universe. Holy smoke!!! That explains a lot!
Forgive the obvious question. What's stopping you from just not licensing it? How can id tell from a distance whether or not you have 30 licensed copies in your home or inside a business? I would agree that $10,000/year is ridiculous, but what are they going to do? When you buy the game, does the license you agree to clearly state that you will not use the software in a public place or for a business? And, as a completely curious question, how many employees do you need for this kind of operation? More than 2 part timers would be an overkill IMHO.
I remember going to the public library to play commander keen everyday back in elementary school with a bunch of friends... That was also when I bought the shareware version of wolfenstein 3d on a 5-1/4 inch disk! Damn, I'm beginning to feel old...
Public libraries these days really suck, even with their new computers and internet terminals.
Seems like id Software isn't alone in reviving their old games...
:-)
Blizzard Classic Arcade
And, much like id Software, Blizzard is offering visitors to play an on-line demo of their old puzzle game "The Lost Vikings".
Perhaps it's just a coincidence, or it might be a trend...
And I can't do anything else than smile at the fact that Commander Keen: The Universe is Toast was never made. I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that the same guys are responsible for that game as Duke Nukem Forever aka DNF aka Did Not Finish.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
Anyone else notice the Quake logo at the top of the page of the original Dopefish sketch?
Why are we seeing all these abaondware games (Keen, GTA, Lost Vikings) coming back? I personally think it doest with the nostalgia trend... you know how everyone is in love with Transformers again, or wearing Thundercats t-shirts... It's now progressed to the classic DOS games. I have mixed feelings about this movementâ"its nice to see the toys and games I grew up with coming back again, but at the same time itâ(TM)s must like seeing my past being whored out for a quick buck. I could probably go on with this prostitute analogy but this isnâ(TM)t the time or place for itâ¦
Getting back on topic:
Yes it would be nice to see Keen, Captain Comic and others of those type to come back and be available for the palm platform, or even as a free game for an X desktop (much like XBill and Xcivâ"think Keen as new FreeCell for your OS)-- but the age old adage stole holds - "If there is a buck to made... two bucks will be charged"
I also remember one day reinstalling Wing Commander 2 on my Pentium MMX, and losing very bad to the fact my computer was just to fast for the game⦠Would these games be recoded to account for the increase in processor speed since then?
Under ID stuff on the Quake 1 shareware cd were one could pay and then be able to play them?
Ah i ruined my first keyboard playing that game at my grandads , happy happy days people :-)
Slashdot - The one stop shop for procrastination
I can remember playing those games all of the time. My dad was getting his PhD at VA Tech and I would go and visit him and play on the 386s in his lab - envious of those guys that got to get some time in on their amazing 486 that they had in there... it had some crazy about of RAM like 16MB - I remember just being blown away by it - and wonder how it would play games.
It seems now that the new phones that are coming out that are color and all - the commander keen series would port over to that relatively well - perhaps this has already been done since it seems to obvious.
There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
I think you guys were able to develop and release 5 or so games in during the time span Duke Nukem Forever has been in development. Teach those knuckleheads over there how to get a game out the door!
http://www.dopefish.com/.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Speaking of the Dopefish, I visited www.dopefish.com after reading this link, and found that they'd finally put up the Windows 95 Plus! Dopefish theme that I made and sent them 6 or 7 years ago when I was a big Apogee fan boy. Finally! Of course, they didn't acknowledge that it was mine, but the animated cursor files still have my name under the Author field; of course, I emailed the webmaster to get this rectified :-)
Are the old ones. For those seeking to play old DOS games in a modern environment, try dosbox (http://dosbox.zophar.net/) It does better than dosemu in a lot of games, especially with sound.
I just wish I could play Privateer with sound without actually having an ISA sounblaster card... Maybe one day....
Until then, Freelancer is surprisingly close in spirit to Privateer.
Also, to Star Control 2 fans, in case you didn't know (who doesn't by now?), check out http://sc2.sourceforge.net/. A full source release targeted at SDL... Very cool and cross platform.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
Id has a team of lawers to enforce the issue.. Here read a exerpt from
here
b. Royalties. Licensee agrees to pay Id Software a royalty ("Royalty") at the
rate of twelve and one-half (12.5%) of Net Income. The term "Net Income" shall
mean all revenue received by Licensee from the commercial use of the Authorized
Copy, less only Licensee's actual and documented costs relating directly to such
use. A Royalty shall only be due for those months in which Licensee's gross
revenue from the commercial use of the Authorized Copy exceeds U.S. Five
Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00) and in such months Licensee shall pay a full
Royalty on one hundred percent (100%) of the gross revenue received. For those
months where gross revenue is Five Thousand and No/100 Dollars ($5,000.00) or
less, Licensee shall not be obligated to pay a Royalty.
So in laymans terms, that basically complicates up the accounting system most
gamehouses have set up. I originally thought my per unit was based on hourly
consumption of the station. Now I have to break my units down even further and
store more accounting data. (I.e. when the process was run, for how long, ect)
Sure it's 12.5% now, but you add in the cost of having to account for it's use,
that number could jump as high as 15-16% depending on how much more data your
accountant has to chew on.
I'm planning a 12@day hour operation, some run 24, others 8. The amount of
employee's needed is totally dependant on that.
Vogons should be vogons.zetafleet.com, not .org!
Had to see what you meant, since I didn't recognize the name.
Here's the link that woulda made milk come out my nose...
http://abc.net.au/arts/fools/essay/img/fp667.jpg
I keep a copy of MSDOS 6.22 around just for games like Commander Keen. I have all of the demo versions of Commander Keen and they work well if you use dual boot. I keep the original MSDOS 6.22 images on my machine and keep the originals safe. Then I create a new set of disks everytime I install just so that I do not ruin the originals.
I didn't submit this, as suspicious as the coincidence may be. I remember when I was a kid I started a bbs (Fly By Night 1:3651/6) and wrote Mr. Sweeney asking him to be an official distributor of said software. Imagine my excitement when I got a letter back and 4 (?) floppies. Boy, with my TAG bbs, 200MB of harddrive space and every phrack to date I was the shiat. Well, that and I got to bear witness to the first 1 GIGABYTE SCSI harddrive ever installed in my local net. Holy crap, we had to get the local DuPont guy to install it. It sounded like a jet engine firing up.... Of course, it was promptly filled with a gig of porn. Yes, we called it porn back then kids.
Ahh, good times. Good times.
I ordered the CD-ROM version and would like to tell the people what to expect:
What is missing from the package:
Keens 1-3 run on PC speaker, but 4-5 require a legacy support for Adlib sound card, which is not available in all the newest sound cards, so feel free to try the VDMSound project - I did.
The package was definately worth buying! Only thing I would like to see is the source code, so that ports would be more successful..
Happy gaming! Don't forget to play today!
You also said "community". And "Linux". You must be "3R33T".
Just hit rewind or (re)play as appropriate...
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Not only they care about their fanbase but by what you say they know how to seduce the modders and give them incentives to mod their game, which will probably contribute to the success of the game.
1. Invite best modders of previous game for a superb visit.
2. Let them do their magic on the graciously offered new games.
3. Let the word spread of how cool the reception was (like you just did) and make other want to go there.
4. To go there they need to make high quality mods so their number is more likely to grow (competition oblige).
5. big mod community increases the value of the game for the players, thus selling more of them.
6. Profit (at last)
An excellent way to take care of your fans and of yourself, a win-win situation.
"The obvious mathematical breakthrough would be development of an easy way to factor large prime numbers." Bill Gates,
Heh. The baddies in Keen 4+ looked kinda cute. Those Vorticons however looked so much like butt-ugly dogs that I was only too happy to shoot them.
der Joachim
Geek runner, motorcyclist and professional know-it-all
no, they're not. at least not on mine.
wolf3d, all the dooms and official addons are though.
Keen was fun, yes, but it has gotten misappropriated status as one of the landmarks in PC gaming. At the time, similarly styled platform games had been beaten into the ground for 4 years already. Games running on the much slower SEGA Genesis were more impressive than Keen. To me, Keen is a wash in terms of concept and design, but it's the first PC platform game to have a legitimate console feel. Had Keen been released on the Genesis, it would have been completely forgotten, as 98% of all platformers were.
I haven't written in the past couple of years because I'm retiring.
Karma: Undead.
Hmmm, that's news to me.
Karma: Undead.
The Guy on the Right Doesn't Stand a Chance
The guy on the right has the Osborne 1, a fully functional computer system
in a portable package the size of a briefcase. The guy on the left has an
Uzi submachine gun concealed in his attache case. Also in the case are four
fully loaded, 32-round clips of 125-grain 9mm ammunition. The owner of the
Uzi is going to get more tactical firepower delivered -- and delivered on
target -- in less time, and with less effort. All for $795. It's inevitable.
If you're going up against some guy with an Osborne 1 -- or any personal
computer -- he's the one who's in trouble. One round from an Uzi can zip
through ten inches of solid pine wood, so you can imagine what it will do
to structural foam acrylic and sheet aluminum. In fact, detachable magazines
for the Uzi are available in 25-, 32-, and 40-round capacities, so you can
take out an entire office full of Apple II or IBM Personal Computers tied
into Ethernet or other local-area networks. What about the new 16-bit
computers, like the Lisa and Fortune? Even with the Winchester backup,
they're no match for the Uzi. One quick burst and they'll find out what
Unix means. Make your commanding officer proud. Get an Uzi -- and come home
a winner in the fight for office automatic weapons.
-- "InfoWorld", June, 1984
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