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The Origin of the Keen: Vorticons Death Animation

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2019 8:08
by proYorp
This thing: :dead2

It was never really clear to me what that was supposed to be. That is, until I watched this.

I'd heard that in the development of the Keen universe, Tom Hall took some inspiration from the old 1953 short film "Duck Dodgers in the 24th and a Half Century". So I watched it. You know, for nerd research. 8) I was not disappointed.


Check out this little segment, starting just after the 5 minute mark. :disguised
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1ym9b7?start=314


The world makes so much more sense now.

I've previously tried to rationalise everything in the Keen games to fit into the "lore". To absurd levels sometimes. Including the whole "extra lives" situation.

To that end, what seems to be going on with that is those "cartoon deaths" where, although being horribly injured, you're still perfectly fine. I guess Keen just gets whacked right back to the start of the level or something. :lol Commander Keen has always seemed so cartoony, it just fits so well. My best theory on this before was that Keen had his own android dummies or something, but this works a lot better.

It all makes sense. I am happy.

Re: The Origin of the Keen: Vorticons Death Animation

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2019 8:38
by troublesomekeen
Top shelf research. 8)

https://youtu.be/FR16jUX-3uE

Re: The Origin of the Keen: Vorticons Death Animation

Posted: Mon Apr 01, 2019 22:36
by Plasma Captain
I'd always assumed that he'd been reduced to a head and feet, but I had just thought it was because the first trilogy was a bit darker (lots of death)... I never would have imagined it could be a reference to a cartoon. I like this theory.

Re: The Origin of the Keen: Vorticons Death Animation

Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2019 18:00
by Keening_Product
Only just got around to watching this and wrote wow, yep, a few notables! Not least the death animation you mentioned (see also 1:40 for a lesser example), but also phaser design. Thank you for this post :)

I'm not sure I'm disappointed or glad that Keen never got a cartoon. I mean, it could have been fun, or it could have been like KeenGBC on TV. (By which I mean not quite right.)

On another note, that ending was very cold war/mutually assured destruction, hey haha

Re: The Origin of the Keen: Vorticons Death Animation

Posted: Mon Jun 03, 2019 10:16
by KeenRush
tried to rationalise everything in the Keen games
There's your problem right there. :dopekeen Anyway, it's a nice theory and I think it has credibility. For some reason I never made the connection with this type of cartoony 'damage' even if at the same time I did feel the sprite was sort of cartoony and exaggerated (like the Galaxy death sprite with the bulging eyes). Now that I try to remember, probably something similar happend to Wile E. Coyote in those cartoons -- being hit by a mallet or something?

Re: The Origin of the Keen: Vorticons Death Animation

Posted: Sat Jun 15, 2019 23:00
by Quillax
Oh wow, I would've never thought of making this kind of connection for the death sprite! :eek I too thought he was just reduced to a head and feet, but I like this theory more (in fact, I think it's very likely). When I was a kid, I thought he turned into a puppy head with bat wings. :dopekeen

Re: The Origin of the Keen: Vorticons Death Animation

Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2020 21:22
by DoomJedi
Is there a working link?

Re: The Origin of the Keen: Vorticons Death Animation

Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2020 5:03
by proYorp
DoomJedi wrote: Tue Mar 03, 2020 21:22 Is there a working link?
New Dailymotion link:
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6em216?start=314

It’s also available on the Internet Archive as it is a pretty old cartoon. Clip of interest starts at 5:13 (not sure how to time-stamp the link for this one).
https://archive.org/details/DuckDodgersInThe24thCentury

Re: The Origin of the Keen: Vorticons Death Animation

Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2020 8:03
by Hisymak
?start=314
Yo dawg I herd you like Commander Keen references so we put a Commander Keen reference into a Commander Keen reference :rasta

Re: The Origin of the Keen: Vorticons Death Animation

Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2020 2:57
by Bonevelous
proYorp wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2020 5:03
DoomJedi wrote: Tue Mar 03, 2020 21:22 Is there a working link?
New Dailymotion link:
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6em216?start=314

It’s also available on the Internet Archive as it is a pretty old cartoon. Clip of interest starts at 5:13 (not sure how to time-stamp the link for this one).
https://archive.org/details/DuckDodgersInThe24thCentury
Ah, this is an interesting source of inspiration. I always thought Keen's death animation in Vorticons was a very interesting and creative one- it's nice knowing where it was inspired from! :) :dead2

Re: The Origin of the Keen: Vorticons Death Animation

Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2020 6:30
by proYorp
Hisymak wrote: Sun Mar 08, 2020 8:03
?start=314
Yo dawg I herd you like Commander Keen references so we put a Commander Keen reference into a Commander Keen reference :rasta
:lol Finally somebody noticed.
I was initially going to timestamp the link a bit earlier and then I saw that it came out to ~300 (seconds) in the url so I thought "HMM, I wonder how much farther I can push this...." Ended up just barely being able to fit it in before the start of the clip. :D