Numbers of Keen copies sold?

Benvolio · Post by **Benvolio** » Fri Dec 23, 2011 14:53

Hmm i was suddenly struck with a bolt of curiosity, and wondered: has anyone any idea of how many copies of the various Commander Keen games were sold in total over the years? And furthermore how many people would have played Keen1 or Keen4 back in the day (harder to keep count of)?

I tried to look for game charts but i could only find Japanese ones for that era, and no PC games were featured.

Paramultart · Post by **Paramultart** » Fri Dec 23, 2011 16:25

Roobar · Post by **Roobar** » Fri Dec 23, 2011 17:46

I think keen sold so well it earned

But nonetheless I'll be interested to know too.

guynietoren · Post by **guynietoren** » Fri Dec 23, 2011 18:51

Outside of unknown documentation....
Decart might say that if he played Keen, he'd be the only one he can be sure to have experienced it (outside experience possibly being illusionary). As anyone one else who he might encounter could be lying or imaginary.
Sooo yes just one person that I know of has certainly played or experienced the Keen games.
I haven't counted all the dudes who said played it either by buying or stealing it, or only playing the demos.

DHeadshot · Post by **DHeadshot** » Sat Dec 24, 2011 0:20

guynietoren wrote:Outside of unknown documentation....
Decart might say that if he played Keen, he'd be the only one he can be sure to have experienced it (outside experience possibly being illusionary). As anyone one else who he might encounter could be lying or imaginary.
Sooo yes just one person that I know of has certainly played or experienced the Keen games.

Stop putting Descartes before De-Horse!

Scarlet · Post by **Scarlet** » Sun Dec 25, 2011 6:08

Question... did every computer gamer back then play keen? I would think they would have at least known about keen?

Sadly there were not many computer gamers. Most were on that inferior nintendo as they didn't feel that it was worthwhile to invest in a computer.

Paramultart · Post by **Paramultart** » Sun Dec 25, 2011 7:05

I would think that the majority of computer gamers from the early 90's have played Keen in some form or another. Most likely the shareware version.

mortimer · Post by **mortimer** » Sun Dec 25, 2011 9:48

kuliwil · Post by **kuliwil** » Sun Dec 25, 2011 13:59

Scarlet wrote:Question... did every computer gamer back then play keen? I would think they would have at least known about keen?

Remember that this preceded the days of widespread internet - it would've spread much slower.

Benvolio · Post by **Benvolio** » Mon Dec 26, 2011 1:22

That sounds like an interesting documentary, i'll give it a watch.
Kuliwil your point about internet being in its infancy is valid, but at the same time, think of all the LPs and books that sold in their millions before the internet - games can do likewise! One thing's for sure, Keen was heading in the direction of being massive but got swept under the carpet commercially

Scarlet · Post by **Scarlet** » Mon Dec 26, 2011 2:43

kuliwil wrote:
Scarlet wrote:Question... did every computer gamer back then play keen? I would think they would have at least known about keen?
Remember that this preceded the days of widespread internet - it would've spread much slower.

By the time internet became popular Keen was no longer something that would be popular in stores.

Do you even remember BUYING a keen game? I do. It was a different era. This was popular stuff, for us computer gamers at least.

StupidBunny · Post by **StupidBunny** » Mon Dec 26, 2011 5:57

It's funny, I have no memory of where our copies of Keen came from. We had Keen 4 from the earliest time I can remember anything, but it was sometime a few years later that my dad somehow acquired the other episodes. It was only a year or so ago that I asked him how he got them (I assumed he'd bought them) and it turns out he'd gotten them for free. This was probably in '97 or thereabouts, and I think he said he got them on a floppy disk. Even stranger, they came with all these icons for each episode, most of which were Keen-related except for Keen 3's icon which was Earthworm Jim for some reason.