Public Commander Keen Forum

Meant to post this last week, but I forgot... PSA:Keen 4 is now on Apple's App Store, courtesy of an emulator called Aemula Oldies from the dev of iDOS (any of you remember that one?). It's one of about a dozen freeware titles packaged with the app. 



I don't know about you guys, but iPhone and iPad have long been the only hardware I play Keen on, using either iDOS or DOSpad. Well, iDOS was long ago pulled, and DOSpad is only available if you jailbreak, so this at least bring the Keen experience to a wider audience. 

I won't tell you it's the best way to Keen, but this way it can go with you in your pocket, and if nothing else, it's awfully fun to show people. The impossible pogo is a little tougher than it is on a keyboard or physical gamepad, but I've nearly got it down. I expect even Keen ninjas will die a lot more, and Keen purists will probably get huffy, or whatever. 

App Store links (or search for Aemula Oldies)--
iPhone: 
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/aemula-o ... ?ls=1&mt=8
iPad: 
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/aemula-o ... 55283?mt=8

mrjr84 wrote:I don't know about you guys, but iPhone and iPad have long been the only hardware I play Keen on

You are a miserably deprived man. I still have my early 90s keyboards to keep that authentic Keening feel.

But that's a neat app nonetheless! If I had any crapple products I'd be at that in a flash!

kuliwil wrote:

mrjr84 wrote:I don't know about you guys, but iPhone and iPad have long been the only hardware I play Keen on

You are a miserably deprived man. I still have my early 90s keyboards to keep that authentic Keening feel.

But that's a neat app nonetheless! If I had any crapple products I'd be at that in a flash!

Deprived? Haha, I guess. I loved Keen on my various hand-me-down 486s back in the day, and I love it on my I-live-in-the-21st-century devices now. =)

This clearly isn't for you. But I just have to think that Keen has a bigger audience... including people who use Apple's sweet mobile devices. If this app can bring back the joy of the best of 90s platforming for them (like it has for me), then this was worth posting.

Cheers.

Thanks. I plan to give it a shot. Maybe set it next to Duke3D. Hopefully it won't control as bad as Duke.

guynietoren wrote:Thanks. I plan to give it a shot. Maybe set it next to Duke3D. Hopefully it won't control as bad as Duke.

Duke3D is awful. Wolfenstein 3D, on the other hand, is very good. Have you played that? I think it's on sale right now, too.

I got Duke3D for free, rightly so at least.

I think my iPhone 3GS is just slow.
Frame rates on the game ranged from 3 to 15 fps.
Didn't mess with it much. Saw it had Monster Bash included.

Hopefully they'll update it to run more smoothly, and not get pulled from the store like similar apps have.

Neat, but as far as I'm concerned, touch screen gamepads control like garg.

Still neat, though.

mrjr84 wrote:
Deprived? Haha, I guess. I loved Keen on my various hand-me-down 486s back in the day, and I love it on my I-like-to-waste-money devices now. =)

Fixed.

This clearly isn't for you. But I just have to think that Keen has a bigger audience... including people who use Apple's sweet mobile devices. If this app can bring back the joy of the best of 90s platforming for them (like it has for me), then this was worth posting.

Cheers.

You are a traitor to DOS gamers everywhere.

I've played DOS games on an iPhone before, as I used to have one. It felt... cheap... to say the least. Evoked none of the warm fluffy emotions I used to feel back in the early 90's playing those games.

Oh yeah, and I used to have two iPhone 3GS devices. Took care of them, they messed up, Apple refused to fix them. Am I bitter? Fucl yes. Am I biased? Probably, but I'm fine with that. Fucl Apple.

Thanks heaps for the links! I missed out on iDOS by a couple of hours last time so I immediately grabbed this one. The controls aren't nearly as bad as Duke3d for iphone.

I've had Dosbox on my Android phone for a while now and it's fun to bust out some Commander Keen or Jazz Jackrabbit on the phone occasionally, but I still find the touch screen controls a bit too difficult to use to have a 'serious' play through yet.

This is really cool.

Just tried this. It's neat that it exists, even if the controls are kind of crap.

StupidBunny wrote:Just tried this. It's neat that it exists, even if the controls are kind of crap.

The problem is that all these new people are going to find it and think it's a good approximation of Keen, won't like it and will write the greatest game ever off their to-play lists.

That's true. And I'd intended to add before my computer died, why can't they at least have Soundblaster support emulated? >:

No kidding, the music is essential.

DaVince wrote:Neat, but as far as I'm concerned, touch screen gamepads control like garg.

I agree, oldschool gaming without buttons is a shallow and depressing experience; that's why I play Keen on my DS!