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Commander Keen series

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The Commander Keen series is a series of video games developed by id Software in the early 1990s, which was successful at replicating the side-scrolling action of the NES Super Mario Bros. games in MS-DOS. The cartoon-style platformers are notable for their pioneering use of EGA graphics and shareware distribution, and because they were the first games by id Software. Id went on to develop blockbusters like Doom and Quake. The games were also exciting to the PC gaming community of the time because of John Carmack's revolutionary smooth-scrolling graphics engine. Although developed by id, most of the Commander Keen games were published by Apogee Software, an already established PC shareware game publisher.

Contents

History

John Carmack, a game programmer at Softdisk, found a trick that would allow smooth-scrolling graphics in PC games, but only with the 16-color EGA graphics card. Softdisk rejected the technology because they wanted to continue to support customers who only had 4-color CGA cards.

Carmack and his Softdisk colleague Tom Hall used their own time to put together a clone of the first level of Super Mario Bros. 3, except for the hero, which they replaced with Dangerous Dave, a character from John Romero's games for Softdisk. They called it Dangerous Dave in Copyright Infringement and approached Nintendo with the demo, who declined to enter the PC market at that time.

John Romero recognized their game technology had huge potential. He contacted Scott Miller of Apogee, who advanced the team $2,000 for the development of Commander Keen, starting a profitable business relationship that would last until id Software self-published Doom. After developing the first Commander Keen trilogy they left to form id Software. However, the developers of id had a contract with Softdisk requiring them to write several more games, one of which became Keen Dreams. Keen Dreams is sometimes referred to as "Keen 3.5", or the "Lost Episode" as it was never distributed by Apogee. [link]

The story

Billy Blaze is an eight-year-old boy genius (purported to have an IQ of 314, a reference to π) who has constructed a spaceship in his backyard from old soup cans and other household objects, called The Bean-with-Bacon Megarocket. When his parents are out and the baby sitter falls asleep, he dons his brother's Packers helmet and becomes Commander Keen, Defender of Earth. In the first game, he is exploring on Mars when Martians steal four spaceship components that he must get back.

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details follow.

At the end of the third game, his rival Mortimer McMire is revealed as the Grand Intellect, the mastermind behind the original game's Vorticon attempted attack on Earth. Mortimer is purported to have an IQ of 315, one point more than Billy's 314, and considers it his duty to kill and destroy all beings of lesser intelligence (i.e. the entire galaxy). He goes on to lead the Shikadi, a race of energy beings who name him the Gannalech. In episodes 4 and 5, he attempts to destroy the galaxy with the Shikadi Quantum Explosion Dynamo, but is yet again foiled by Keen. However, his true intentions are made clear - to destroy the universe, as he had his sister (Billy's babysitter) kidnapped by the Bloogs in order to distract him.

It is later revealed that Billy's full name is William Joseph Blazkowicz II, and that he is the grandson of William Joseph "B.J." Blazkowicz, the Allied war hero of Wolfenstein 3D. His father had changed his last name to Blaze for show biz.

Tom Hall mentioned that Keen is based on himself at age eight. [link]

The Keen games

Seven official Commander Keen games were released for the PC under DOS. Many are considered "episodes" that were available separately. Under the shareware model, usually the first episode was available at no charge.

Commander Keen in Invasion of the Vorticons

1. "Marooned on Mars" (first released as shareware on December 14 1990)
:While Commander Keen is exploring Mars, the Vorticons steal four vital components of his ship and hide them in Martian cities, each guarded by a Vorticon soldier. In this episode, Keen acquires his trademark pogo stick and meets a variety of Martian aliens and robots. One such alien, a green critter with an eye on a stalk (called a Yorp) sneaks into his spaceship and comes along home.
2. "The Earth Explodes"
:Keen returns to Earth only to find the Vorticon mothership hovering above, with its ray cannons locked on to eight of Earth's greatest wonders, including the Egyptian pyramids and the Sydney Opera House. Unlike the first game which had a happy and friendly atmosphere, almost everything in this game is hostile towards Keen, from the floating machine gun robots to the electrified floors. The engine has a couple of extra features such as light switches and moving platforms, making this game the hardest of the trilogy.
3. "Keen Must Die!"
:Keen travels to the Vorticon homeworld in search of the mysterious Grand Intellect that has directed the Vorticons toward Earth. The game features the cities, parks and suburbs of the Vorticons, and their women, children, pets and mechanical toys make up the enemies. The Vorticon alphabet is also decoded in a school house, allowing for the player to travel to the other in-game locations and read the Vorticon signs. In the final level, Keen has to disable the "mangling machine", a large apparatus with many crushing parts controlled by the Grand Intellect. The Grand Intellect proves to be Keen's mortal enemy, Mortimer McMire.

Interlude

3.5. "Keen Dreams" aka The "Lost Episode" (published by Softdisk, not Apogee)
:After refusing to eat his vegetables, Keen is sent to bed by his parents. He falls asleep, only to awaken in a strange vegetable kingdom led by the evil potato king Boobus Tuber, who has imprisoned other sleeping children there. This game uses an early version of the "slanted 3D" graphics engine used in the following three games. In the dream world, Keen does not have his trademark raygun and pogo stick, but has to defend himself with 'flower power' seeds that temporarily turn enemies into flowers. All enemies are nutritious vegetables, such as the Tomatooth, Broccolash, and Frenchy; whereas the collectable score items are sweets.

Commander Keen in Goodbye Galaxy!

4. "" (first released as shareware on December 15 1991)
:Keen's newly finished homemade faster-than-light radio picks up a plot by the Shikadi to destroy the galaxy. He rushes to the planet Gnosticus IV to consult the members of the High Council, or Keepers of the Oracle, but discovers that they have been taken captive by monsters. It features huge levels and a wide variety of enemies, such as rocks that only move when your back is turned.
5. "The Armageddon Machine"
:After getting information from the Oracle, Keen lands on a massive Shikadi space station, the Omegamatic, nicknamed the Armageddon Machine, and seeks out the mysterious Gannalech.

Commander Keen in Aliens Ate My Babysitter!

6. Aliens Ate My Babysitter! (published by FormGen, who resold it to Apogee; now discontinued)
:When Keen's baby sitter Molly is abducted by the Bloogs, Keen must come to her rescue by fighting his way through the inhabitants of the planet Fribbulus Xax.

Commander Keen (GBC)

Cancelled games

Gameplay

Invasion of the Vorticons

In Invasion of the Vorticons, the player can walk left and right on the screen, and jump to get on higher platforms. Some of these are semi-solid and can be jumped through from below. He soon finds a pogo stick which he can use to keep jumping, making Keen harder to control, but which allows the player to get twice as high he presses the jump button as well. The player will find an alien raygun as well, which he can use to fire slow moving projectiles straight left or right to kill enemies. Some enemies die after one shot, some after more, and others are impervious to the ray gun. The player will find new ray gun charges throughout the levels. He can also collect candy to add to his score, and collecting enough will get the player another life. The second episode introduces moving platforms which can transport Keen, and switches which usually extend bridges over gaps in the floor. Some switches are light switches which can be used to turn off the light, making some enemies afraid to jump. The third game includes a power-up which acts as a temporary god mode. While travelling between levels, Keen is viewed from above on a map; the only place the player can save the game. Some of the levels can be skipped.

Keen Dreams

Keen Dreams introduces a 3D look to the series, although this look does not bring anything new to the series except for hidden passages. Keen does not bring his pogo stick, so he cannot jump as high anymore. He can however duck, and drop down from the semi-solid platforms if the player presses the jump key while ducking. Instead of the ray gun, Keen is armed with "Flower Power", small pellets he can collect and throw left, right, straight up, or, when falling, straight down. The pellets are used up if they hit an enemy, but if Keen does not hit anything, he can retrieve and re-use the pellet if he is quick enough. Enemies that are hit are not killed, but turned into a big, stunned flower for a limited time. An addition to this game's levels is the firemen's pole, which the player can use like a ladder. In other words, the player can also climb to higher platforms using poles, and even jump up on them if he times the jumps and subsequent grabs right. Keen Dreams also introduced the three difficulty levels, and is the first game to let the player save his game anywhere in the regular levels.

Goodbye Galaxy! and Aliens Ate My Babysitter!

In Goodbye Galaxy! and Aliens Ate My Babysitter! the player can look up and down by pressing the corresponding movement keys for a short while. This effectively scrolls the screen up or down. Keen also has his pogo stick again. If Keen narrowly misses a jump, he can grab onto the edges of most platforms, and climb up. Keen uses a Neural Stunner as a weapon, which renders enemies unconscious in stead of killing them. This stun does not wear off for most enemies, and does not work on others at all. Keen can fire in 4 directions. There are enemies Keen can only get rid of through other means. The levels are filled with items, depending on the episode, which earn Keen a new life for every 100 collected. Episode 6 features very large switches Keen needs to either jump on, or headbutt to use. The level maps feature obstacles which can be overcome with items retrieved in the regular levels. The games also included a minigame called Paddle War, a clone of Pong, programmed into Keen's Wrist Computer, which functions as the main menu. (The minigame, although titled differently, can be found in Bio Menace and Catacomb 3D as well.)

Commander Keen

In Commander Keen on the Game Boy Color, gameplay is very different from the rest of the series. The levels are built in a more linear version compared to earlier games. There are no moving platforms. All enemies need to be both shot and pogo'd on to be killed. The familiar enemies' behaviour does not correspond with the earlier games, and perhaps partly due to the platform's limitation, some enemies do not resemble their original versions very much. Keen uses a Neural Ray Blaster with unlimited ammo, although the game only allows for one bullet on the screen. To achieve points, Keen collects candy as well as other items somewhat related to the level they are in.

Keen in other games

Fan-made Keen games

A number of fan-made Commander Keen games of varying quality have been created, mostly using Klik & Play, Click & Create, Game Maker and similar game construction software. The Public Commander Keen Forum has a forum devoted to the announcement and discussion of these unofficial Keen games.

[CloneKeen] is a game engine recreation that requires the original datafiles, and supports episodes 1 through 3. It was programmed on and off by Caitlin Shaw since 2003, and finally released on October 18 2005. It is available for Microsoft Windows, Linux, GP2X, and Sega Dreamcast. It has also been ported to the Sony PSP in February 2006.

In the years since the release in early 2002 of utilities to modify the levels and graphics in the original Keen series, more than fifty mods have been made. Most of these have Commander Keen as the protagonist, but some use the Commander Keen engine to develop an entirely new game.

While most of the fangames are of poor quality, having problems dealing with clipping interface and playability, several of the mods are of similar or higher quality to the original games. The tools and utilities used to modify the games, as well as a body of accumulated knowledge of the Keen code, are constantly being updated and improved.

Much of this work has been done by Andy Durdin, who has written utilities for the editing of Keen graphics and levels. He has also done much in determining the inner-workings of the Keen engine, allowing many mods to be even more unique than the Commander Keen episode they were created from.

Trivia

References

See also

External links

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