Question about Official Releases

drfsupercenter · Post by **drfsupercenter** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 5:03

Hey guys,

So, I was looking into re-living my childhood... I got our old Compaq machine that ran Windows 95 out of storage and I'm working on re-formatting the thing again. I was only five years old when we got it (I'm almost 21 now!) and I remember playing Keen on a daily basis as it was the only real game we had... sound worked and everything.

I found our old floppy disks, and it was a 3-disk set that had Keen 6, with 4 as a "bonus game". Unfortunately, the original disks themselves have stopped working due to age (I tried to make .ima files in Winimage and disks 1 and 3 would give me sector errors... disk 2 is fine), but I did have a backup copy I made on regular 1.44MB disks a few years back.
The original ones are 720KB floppies. So I re-made disks 1 and 3 by reading the broken ones and just replacing those files with my backups. I now have a set of three .IMA floppy disk images of Keen 4 and 6, just like I grew up with. Sadly we never owned 5, it's a real shame, I love that game.

But it got me thinking - how many different releases of these games are there? I remember there being talk of a Keen 6 "1.5" as well as other various update patches (this forum having a sticky for them)... Was there a "regular" release of all six games (well, maybe not 4, as it was shareware anyway) and then special editions? What about Keen Dreams? I've always wanted that one too.
I managed to download all 7 games from Abandonware sites, but they are just ZIP archives of the already-installed EXE and other files.

Does anybody here own the original floppy disks of any of the 7 games? Even the set I do own, since mine are broken... The software WinImage (Shareware, works for 30 days without registering) can read the floppy disks and turn them into image files. And I figure, due to the age of these games and the fact that hardly anyone even has a floppy drive anymore, it wouldn't be against the rules to make images of them?

My other question pertains to Keen Dreams. I had read that there was music composed for that game (Eat Your Vegetables, which was in Keen 4?) Was it never released that way? I was only ever able to find the "shareware" version for years, not the "full" version... and had read on a site similar to this one that the full one featured music and sound effects while the shareware didn't. I then found what appears to be a full version, but still no music - and the sound effects are crappy "PC Speaker" ones and not SoundBlaster.

So any insight would be appreciated. And if anyone would be willing to share some floppy disk images with me (Maybe in private if the rules don't allow them to be shared here?) that would be great. I would love to get as close to possible to having the original installation disks, and since physical floppy disks hardly work anymore (my Keen 4 and 6 ones are official, store-bought and no longer work!), images are the way to go as you can just mount them in DOSBox and the like and be good to go.

Post by **Keening_Product** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 11:27

Hi drfsupercenter!

There is a comprehensive list of Keen distributions with download links at the Keen Collective, accessible via http://www.zapzot.net/

As for a full version of Keen Dreams? I always thought that was the Shareware version. I've never seen a version with music but I've not really played any of the rare releases.

My Keen 4 floppy is still working; Keen was the 'b side' game to something else on the floppy - can't remember what.

I can't answer the rest of your questions but I hope I've helped a bit

TerminILL · Post by **TerminILL** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 12:25

I don't think there ever was a Dreams release with music - it was cut due to time/space constraints, if I recall. The only major difference between the shareware and "full" versions that I know of is the lack of a Softdisk nag screen.

DHeadshot · Post by **DHeadshot** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 22:59

If you'd rather not register for winimage for Ã‚Â£40, I recommend Virtual Floppy Disk. It's completely free and can do far more as it can pose as an actual floppy drive. I love it personally...

jayo · Post by **jayo** » Tue Mar 06, 2012 16:44

I keep my games backed up on CD's. I prefer reliving my childhood on my new almost top-of-the-line computer (thank god for DosBox)!

I've got an original floppy disk of Keen 4 and 5, as well as 3D Realms's Keen 1-5 combo CD.

As for Keen Dreams, yes there was music composed, but it had to be cut due to space constraints. So yeah, it was never released that way. And that site is wrong, as neither the shareware nor the registered have music.

They do have the sound effects on both versions, but no music. The differences between the shareware and registered versions are minimal. Really, the only difference is that the registered version includes a walkthrough, that's about it!

Scarlet · Post by **Scarlet** » Tue Mar 06, 2012 19:07

Keening_Product wrote:Hi drfsupercenter!

There is a comprehensive list of Keen distributions with download links at the Keen Collective, accessible via http://www.zapzot.net/

As for a full version of Keen Dreams? I always thought that was the Shareware version. I've never seen a version with music but I've not really played any of the rare releases.

My Keen 4 floppy is still working; Keen was the 'b side' game to something else on the floppy - can't remember what.

I can't answer the rest of your questions but I hope I've helped a bit

Uh, you're not allowed to post that link.

Post by **Fleexy** » Tue Mar 06, 2012 22:43

It's not a direct warez link, so it's OK. Saying "don't link to any wikipedia article because some subsection of the whole site contains inappropriate content" is similar to this. Analogies win.

Scarlet · Post by **Scarlet** » Thu Mar 08, 2012 1:57

It has free downloads to keen games. It's a secret link for only certain people...

Post by **Keening_Product** » Thu Mar 08, 2012 9:27

Scarlet wrote:It has free downloads to keen games. It's a secret link for only certain people...

I googled and got it you dimwit.

Commander Spleen · Post by **Commander Spleen** » Thu Mar 08, 2012 10:53

It's on the Google? Guess I can't use that one any more.

StupidBunny · Post by **StupidBunny** » Thu Mar 08, 2012 11:04

Don't post links to Google here you guys, it provides access to illegal content!!1

Post by **tulip** » Thu Mar 08, 2012 21:24

While it's true that you shouldn't post warez ddl links here just to be on the safe side (we don't want to get shut down), the keen collective has been referenced numerous times, and I think it's not a problem.

Two things I have to say:

1. Please don't call other users names (dimwit), and try to not mock them.

2. Don't you dare to try to backseat mod again Scarlet. It's not your responsibility to see that the rules aren't broken by other members, so if I catch you again trying to do that, I'll come right over and punch you, or better even, I'll let Ceilick do it, I bet he punches harder.

ckguy · Post by **ckguy** » Fri Mar 09, 2012 16:20

'The Keen Collective' - The most controversial Commander Keen website on the internet since May 10, 2008.

Scarlet · Post by **Scarlet** » Fri Mar 09, 2012 17:59

tulip wrote:While it's true that you shouldn't post warez ddl links here just to be on the safe side (we don't want to get shut down), the keen collective has been referenced numerous times, and I think it's not a problem.

Two things I have to say:

1. Please don't call other users names (dimwit), and try to not mock them.

2. Don't you dare to try to backseat mod again Scarlet. It's not your responsibility to see that the rules aren't broken by other members, so if I catch you again trying to do that, I'll come right over and punch you, or better even, I'll let Ceilick do it, I bet he punches harder.

When people ask to get free keen games they are told go buy them. And now policy has changed I guess?

This is not backseat modding. It's being consistent.

DHeadshot · Post by **DHeadshot** » Fri Mar 09, 2012 18:43

tulip wrote:Don't you dare to try to backseat mod again Scarlet. It's not your responsibility to see that the rules aren't broken by other members, so if I catch you again trying to do that, I'll come right over and punch you, or better even, I'll let Ceilick do it, I bet he punches harder.

I don't think he's backseat modding. I got the impression he was giving Keening_Product a friendly nudge, such as you would to someone who's lit up in a No Smoking zone. He's not enforcing the rules, he's just reminding a newbie of them, hopefully soon enough that they can if needed remove the link and avoid a ban...