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Commander Keen: 13 Years Later

Posted by timothy on from the a-game-hits-puberty dept.

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."

31 of 190 comments (clear)

  1. Other Games by hoagieslapper · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Too bad other game manufacturers won't follow suit and make their older titles available for (legit) download.

    1. Re:Other Games by jweatherley · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm guessing that the Commander Keen source will be x86 assembly. Might be interesting to those in the know but a lot less useful than C source - no porting to other platforms. Does anyone know for sure what it was written in? Come on JohnC - get away from the rocketry for a few minutes and talk about some important stuff!

      --

      --
      Reverse outsourcing: it's the future
    2. Re:Other Games by MisterFancypants · · Score: 4, Informative
      Quake 2 is open source. Commander Keen isn't. Both from ID.

      Can someone exlpain this to me?

      Practicality? Keen came out in a different era. One of hitting the hardware directly, using mainly assembly language. The code is of virtually no use today. You could as easily rewrite the code from scratch in C/C++ than port it up.

    3. Re:Other Games by AlternateSyndicate · · Score: 5, Informative
      I can speak somewhat authoritatively on this issue.

      A long long time ago, I emailed John Carmack about releasing the Commander Keen 4 source code. He replied saying he did not know what happened to it.

      Later a friend of mine and I attempted to clone Commander Keen 4 from a disassembly. It turns out that the codebase is very very *very* similar to the released Wolfenstein 3D source, which made things a little easier. We eventually gave up, but our work provided the information and impetus to help the community in making original Keen 4 maps, which has now been refined into a fairly easy process, I am told.

      While all this was happening, John Romero made a post on the 3D Realms forums indicating that he had all of the source code to the Commander Keen games. I promptly emailed Romero asking him if he would release the source. He stated that he would love to release the source, but he would not do so without Carmack's blessing. I periodically prodded him about it, but with starting his own company and things, apparently the idea got lost in the shuffle.

      As far as id offering these games on their website, this is no big deal. All the Keen games (except for Aliens ate my Babysitter and maybe Keen Dreams) have been available on the 3D Realms webstore for a very long time.

  2. I'm still waiting patiently... by craenor · · Score: 3, Funny

    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?

  3. GBC by Apreche · · Score: 3, Informative

    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!
  4. And he's still only a commander... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Shouldn't he be promoted by now?

  5. Doom II by Knacklappen · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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)
  6. Another Keen fangame.. by MikeDX · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

  7. Good, But... by menasius · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    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-rocket -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.

    -bart

    1. Re:Good, But... by Ndr_Amigo · · Score: 3, Informative

      That's why there are several different groups around dedicated to reverse engineering old games and rewriting them so people can actually -play- them... and usually on a stupid number of platforms, from PCs to Consoles and PDAs.

      Not to mention places like VOGONs (Very Old Games On New Systems) which itself exists just to help people find ways to run said older games on newer OS's (mostly w2k mind you).

      I just wish more companies would support efforts like this and release some source to older games OTHER than FPSes. I really appretiate the release of source from ID and everyone else, it's great learning material. But it would be nice if other genre developers also were intrested in preserving their 'art'.

      ScummVM, my project, recently obtained the Beneath a Steel Sky source-code from the authors and we're now working off support for that. The difference in this case is that the engine -is- almost pure x86 assembly, so it would be rather a waste of time to GPL... for anything useful to be done, it would need to be mostly reverse engineered anyway. So this just makes it easier for us to do so dirty-room with commented assembly. Releasing it to a small dedicated group may be more appropriate in cases like this, to prevent splintering and stagnation, until the reimplementation is truely started.

      Anyway.

      - Ender
      Boss Monkey: ScummVM
      Founder: QuakeSrc

      Standard Disclaimer: It's 8:45am, I havn't had any coffee yet. Any spelling or grammatical errors are henceforth claimed as artistic license. It's art, damn it!

  8. Heh... by The+Human+Cow · · Score: 3, Funny

    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
  9. Fido Freq by Alioth · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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
    1. Re:Fido Freq by Alioth · · Score: 5, Funny

      Remember this was 12 or 13 years ago. At that point, that 386 was the proverbial dog's bollocks - sort of the equivalent of my current 2GHz Pentium machine. And it was reasonable for its day when running DesqView as a multitasker.

      I did ultimately end up running Linux on that machine (in summer 1992) and even then, it was fairly painful (partly due to the nature of Linux back then, but mostly due to the crappyness of the machine, it was an *early* 386 and the chip had bugs. I couldn't do kernel compiles on it (the compiler would segfault on any big files), but I could do enough compiling to learn C on that machine).

      In 1993, I upgraded that machine to a 486 with 16MB of RAM...and...a SOUNDCARD! That was enough to run X with olvwm very well. I always used to show off about how it didn't need to swap during kernel compiles. Heaven :-]

      --
      Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
  10. The Dopefish by arevos · · Score: 5, Funny

    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*.

  11. This just in by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny
    But in the meantime, die-hard Keen fans have been getting by, not unlike Farscape fans after their show was cancelled.

    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?"

    • Commit suicide
    • lock myself up in my room/basement
    • become a sheepherder
    • change the channel
    • ask cowboyneal
  12. The Price by moertle · · Score: 5, Insightful


    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...
    1. Re:The Price by t0qer · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I totally agree with this post, $15 is a lot for such an old game. Id's greed doesn't just end there though, and please folks, consider what i'm about to say.

      I'm in the process of opening up a game house / pc bang, whatever you want to call it. During my research I found out that some companies require gamehouses to pay licensing fee's for each title they carry. This isn't just a one time fee or even something reasonable, if you're running a 40 pc gamehouse you can expect to pay 10k + per year per title.

      Now my argument against this goes along these lines. Capcom, Atari, ect all provided more than just a cabinet when they sold you a game. You got a cabinet (physical security) Coin Mech (money validator) Access software (credits) Input Device (Joystick, buttons) Service contracts, monitor, and the game. Usually it was anywhere between a 50/50 to a 25/75 split for the quarters between the cabinet owner and the person that owned the property.

      Now with a gamehouse, I'm providing those first 6 items, while the game company only provides the game. After looking at paying off employee's, loans, and a lease, these fee's are going to be eating up enough of my profits to where me, the owner is going to be lucky to break even at the end of the month. On top of all that I have a machine that needs to be replaced every 2-3 years to stay current with the CPL standard so I can host CPL qualifyers at my place.

      Now I could see paying licensing fee's if there was some sort of value added service, like my cdkey's were bound to my subnet in their multiplayer authentication database, that way if some smart ass kid try's to steal it for use on their home computer it would just say "Hey you're not playing from toqers gamehouse, sorry" (Note, i'm doing my best to secure machines so it doesn't happen but you never know) At least that would take care of one of the 6 items I have to provide.

      I'm going to pay these fee's only because I have too. I wouldn't mind testing the legal waters of this, but as a startup gamehouse I am in no position to do so. In the future though, I want the game companies to understand that if they don't want me taking them to court and suing their asses under fair use laws, they better step up to the plate and at least make a better case for these fee's than "Well you're making money on it" Better CYA now and start adding features to the gamehouse versions of your games, because I'm a comin for you.

    2. Re:The Price by Vito · · Score: 3, Informative

      Incidentally, Epic Games' games, like Unreal Tournament and Unreal Tournament 2003 don't require additional fees for being used in a game house setting. All you need is a legal copy of the game for each PC it is running on:

      www.epicgames.com/faq.html

  13. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  14. Wait... by deadsaijinx* · · Score: 3, Funny

    so you DON'T like the dopefish?

    --
    YOU SUCK BALLS!
  15. Selling?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  16. No technical support! by saskboy · · Score: 4, Funny

    "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.
  17. What about Aliens Ate My Baby Sitter? by penguin_dance · · Score: 3, Informative
    Arguably the best of the series, it looks from this site that it's pretty much a no-go as far as ever being published.

    "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!
  18. Gravis Gamepad by Cyno01 · · Score: 3, Funny

    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."
  19. Inspiration for Commander Keen? by Cyno01 · · Score: 3, Funny

    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."
  20. The most amazing part of this story is.... by Brian_Ellenberger · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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

  21. Blizzard is also reviving their old games by Jugalator · · Score: 3, Informative

    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!
  22. It's the Nostaliga Kick... by MCS · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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?

  23. Some of the best games... by Junta · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.
  24. Re:Commander keen by jkovach · · Score: 3, Funny

    Except Commander Keen didn't have the @#%#%$!! code lookup copy protection in the middle of the game. That's right, the middle, not the beginning. So you'd be playing through, having a great time, then get asked for a code, and....

    "We finally caught you, F.O.E. spy! The real Captain Goodnight would have had the secret decoder ring!" AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!