Public Commander Keen Forum

So, K1n9_Duk3 is absolutely right that a traditional DOS mod would probably be most compatible (at least for Keeners who already have DOSBox set up), and it's definitely possible to fit a few more sprites in with a bit of work. That being said, Omnispeak-based mods should be reasonably easy to port,...

I found this digging through some files today, and don't recall it having ever been posted anywhere. I think it was one of the things unearthed when that source code backup was found a few years ago — a quick search doesn't find a copy anywhere online, despite it being billed as an "open letter...

Wow! This brings back some memories!

I really love the "curated museum" feel it has, with all the cross-referenced notes and context for everything.

I've just uploaded version 1.1 of the Keen 1 Randomiser. The big change is that the spaceship parts (and the pogo stick), as well as keycards, are now spread throughout each level. This is based on the technique that KeenRush mentioned above: there are custom maps which have several joysticks (or ke...

Exactly how you set up djgpp will depend on what OS you're running (and how many development tools you want to install). I'm running Linux and using djgpp as a cross-compiler. There used to be djgpp packages in the debian/ubuntu repositories, but I think they've gone now. The build-djgpp project has...

I have a copy of this, though I confess to never having actually played it. It seems to be based on this C# port of Hovertank 3d, based on these strings in the 'abramstank.exe' executable: 1993-2014 Flat Rock Software, 2014 Andy Stewart. Hovertank3DdotNet_WinForms $C# port of Hovertank 3-D (WinForms...

One improvement which might be fairly easy to do would be hard-coded random placements for keycards. Here's how I would do it (the simplest way I can think right now): For every keycard color assign a value not used by another tile (such as 650, 651 etc -- although I'm too lazy to check those speci...

Glad people have found it interesting. I was largely inspired by the A Link to the Past Randomizer , which shuffles the contents of the various chests in the game. Keen is somewhat less complicated, fortunately, though I'm sure there's a lot more you could do. I've uploaded a new version (v1.0a) of ...

It's been 30 years :birthday since Keen 1 came out, so most of us have worked out where all of those pesky spaceship parts are hiding on Mars. So to shake things up a bit, here's the Keen 1 Randomiser : a program which shuffles various items, levels, etc. in Keen 1 around. Hopefully this'll give peo...

I just read about this, and couldn't find anyone mentioning it here, but apparently the original Publishing Contract for Keen (& Wolf3D) finally expired in July this year. The 3D Realms Legacy history page states: 2020 Jul 9: Wolfenstein 3D, Keen Vorticons, & Keen Galaxy no longer sold by Ap...

A fix for a bug in the original code where it could crash if the game was saved while things were flower-powered. There's a similar problem with the "Zzz" sprites if the game was saved while Keen was sleeping. Did you fix that as well? I don't recall fixing an issue with the "Zzz&quo...

I wondered if anyone would notice that appearing! Yup — I've been going through backups and uploading a few things, and since the rest of the Keen Dreams source is available, this seemed worthwhile. There's nothing enormously exciting in it (mostly bugs), but here are a few highlights for those who ...

I think I might've found this on a backup disk. I don't have the original zip, so I just zipped up what was in the directory I had: https://davidgow.net/stuff/isisiia-2012.zip It crashes on startup for me (under wine on Linux, though), but maybe it'll work for someone else and/or with more poking ar...

Hmm… I'm not sure which version of the 3D Realms installer I was checking (I think it was 1.0 of the 3D Realms complete pack installer), but I downloaded the "Commander Keen Galaxy 1.1" installer from the 3D Realms store, and the files all match. (I checked the contents as well as the size...

All of the currently sold releases (Steam, 3D Realm's website, as well as the now-defunct id Software store) are selling the Apogee 1.4 versions. 3D Realms 4/5 version: -rw-rw-r-- 1 david users 33325 1 Feb 1992 AUDIO.CK4 -rw-rw-r-- 1 david users 101990 1 Feb 1992 AUDIO.CK5 -rw-rw-r-- 1 david users 5...