Keen Dreams somehow makes it to Nintendo Switch

Here, you can get help with anything or just chat about the original Commander Keen games.
User avatar
RoboBlue
It's that one guy.
Posts: 941
Joined: Wed Apr 23, 2008 10:26
Contact:

Re: Keen Dreams somehow makes it to Nintendo Switch

Post by RoboBlue »

Lower IQ than 314 wrote: Mon Aug 17, 2020 18:48 Image
We need a version of that where the star is a dick.
Image
Lower IQ than 314
Vortininja
Posts: 85
Joined: Wed Mar 04, 2020 3:13

Re: Keen Dreams somehow makes it to Nintendo Switch

Post by Lower IQ than 314 »

Brought to you by Harvey Weinstein.






...too soon?
User avatar
Lunick
Vortininja
Posts: 283
Joined: Tue Jun 01, 2010 10:37
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Contact:

Re: Keen Dreams somehow makes it to Nintendo Switch

Post by Lunick »

Found some gameplay footage, things just seem... wrong

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNjM3FvL64k
Lunick is Here
User avatar
Roobar
Vorticon Elite
Posts: 3267
Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2008 16:12
Contact:

Re: Keen Dreams somehow makes it to Nintendo Switch

Post by Roobar »

Yeah, it looks like it's running on a different engine.
User avatar
RoboBlue
It's that one guy.
Posts: 941
Joined: Wed Apr 23, 2008 10:26
Contact:

Re: Keen Dreams somehow makes it to Nintendo Switch

Post by RoboBlue »

I bought it and it's really bad, heh.

Where are the extra levels?
Image
User avatar
Roobar
Vorticon Elite
Posts: 3267
Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2008 16:12
Contact:

Re: Keen Dreams somehow makes it to Nintendo Switch

Post by Roobar »

By bad what do you mean? Does the gameplay feel the same way as the original Keen Dreams or is it a completely different experience?
User avatar
RoboBlue
It's that one guy.
Posts: 941
Joined: Wed Apr 23, 2008 10:26
Contact:

Re: Keen Dreams somehow makes it to Nintendo Switch

Post by RoboBlue »

Roobar wrote: Thu Aug 27, 2020 15:54 By bad what do you mean? Does the gameplay feel the same way as the original Keen Dreams or is it a completely different experience?
The jumping feels like you're on the moon, and if you hold the "run" button the physics stay the same but Keen flies all over the place faster than the flower pellets.

The Melon Lips are still there but they're "white" now. That's the only change.

The Bobus Bombs are locked behind achievements: if you collect every point item in a level you get one, and I assume you also get one for beating the level in under a certain time.

You can no longer enter Castle Tuberia until you've beaten the first ten levels.

After beating any level you get the message "Keen finished the first course" implying that the additional levels are postgame content and use the same level map.

There are infinite lives now.

The secret passages are no longer secret, they're clearly marked.
Image
Lower IQ than 314
Vortininja
Posts: 85
Joined: Wed Mar 04, 2020 3:13

Re: Keen Dreams somehow makes it to Nintendo Switch

Post by Lower IQ than 314 »

Image

My reaction to that footage in a nutshell. It moves so ponderously. I played the video at double speed and it was still slow.

And then there's the music. At first it was just background noise, but then the player entered Rhubarb Rapids... :dead

...and then Spud City. :bloody

And judging by RoboBlue's experience, it's yet another no-no on the Commander Keen IP.

It's so weird that, of all the entries in the Keen series, somehow Keen Dreams would resurface and be making real money after all this time when, for so long, it was freeware that even its creators disliked.
Benvolio
Vorticon Elite
Posts: 976
Joined: Sun May 29, 2011 12:43
Location: Ireland
Contact:

Re: Keen Dreams somehow makes it to Nintendo Switch

Post by Benvolio »

Lower IQ than 314 wrote:was freeware
Can software cease to be freeware?

Yeah anyway I agree, game mechanics look a little suspect. Not that Keen Dreams mechanics were ever wonderful but this is egregious really. That said, I've never played a platformer on a console so I don't know maybe it's necessary to have these more low-gravity jump motions when using a controller compared with a keyboard.
User avatar
entropicdecay
Mad Mushroom
Posts: 576
Joined: Thu Nov 01, 2007 15:00
Contact:

Re: Keen Dreams somehow makes it to Nintendo Switch

Post by entropicdecay »

Benvolio wrote: Thu Aug 27, 2020 20:15 That said, I've never played a platformer on a console so I don't know maybe it's necessary to have these more low-gravity jump motions when using a controller compared with a keyboard.
Definitely not, there's nothing about using a controller rather than a keyboard that would necessitate a floatier jump feel.
User avatar
K1n9_Duk3
Vorticon Elite
Posts: 781
Joined: Mon Aug 25, 2008 9:30
Location: Germany
Contact:

Re: Keen Dreams somehow makes it to Nintendo Switch

Post by K1n9_Duk3 »

I think Bethesda should sue them. They stole the big font for the title of the level-done-window from Keen 4-6, where it's used for the text crawl. That font didn't exist in Keen Dreams. But maybe it's just a standard DeluxePaint font that id/Bethesda doesn't own, who knows...

Image
Lower IQ than 314 wrote: Thu Aug 27, 2020 19:01it was freeware
Nope. It was shareware, which means that even though you were allowed to distribute basically the whole game, you were still expected to register it if you enjoyed playing it. That's why the shareware model itself was not very profitable and people started to cripple the shareware version with annoying and unskippable text messages that told you to register, or they split the up games and only distributed a fraction of it as shareware and sold the rest to paying customers.

Keen Dreams was originally published on the Gamer's Edge disk magazine, so the only way to get it would have been to subscribe to that magazine or maybe order a "back isue" or something like that from Softdisk. It was basically commercial software, not shareware or freeware. This meant it had a rather limited audience, and therefore limited financial success. The "shareware" version of Keen Dreams only came out later, when Softdisk was using it to advertise for their "Lost Game Collection of ID Software" or whatever it was called. That was after the release of Wolfenstein 3D, so, naturally, Softdisk did everything they could to profit from id's success with Wolfenstein.
Hail to the K1n9, baby!
http://k1n9duk3.shikadi.net
NY00123
Vorticon Elite
Posts: 508
Joined: Sun Sep 06, 2009 19:36

Re: Keen Dreams somehow makes it to Nintendo Switch

Post by NY00123 »

I've just realized that the keendreams.com domain isn't pointing at Super Fighter Team's page about their Android port anymore, but rather at what looks like a different page related to the second Switch port.

https://www.superfighter.com/kdreams/index.html
https://www.keendreams.com/
K1n9_Duk3 wrote: Thu Aug 27, 2020 22:07They stole the big font for the title of the level-done-window from Keen 4-6, where it's used for the text crawl. That font didn't exist in Keen Dreams. But maybe it's just a standard DeluxePaint font that id/Bethesda doesn't own, who knows...
That's interesting. Something which is known (at least from the old IRC channel) is that the raw Keen Dreams image data, as originally sent from Flat Rock Software, also includes a background with the trees as appearing in Keen 4's first few levels. Didn't verify it's pixel-by-pixel perfect, but it at least looks more-or-less the same.

Unsure about the source of the additional font. I do know that, due to being unused, it isn't present in CGA versions of Keen 4-6, and it's also absent from Catacomb 3-D.
User avatar
keenmaster486
Vorticon Elite
Posts: 542
Joined: Sun Mar 20, 2016 18:29
Location: Tranquility Base
Contact:

Re: Keen Dreams somehow makes it to Nintendo Switch

Post by keenmaster486 »

This is so laughably bad. I could write better physics in 5 minutes.
I flermmed the plootash just like you asked.
Lower IQ than 314
Vortininja
Posts: 85
Joined: Wed Mar 04, 2020 3:13

Re: Keen Dreams somehow makes it to Nintendo Switch

Post by Lower IQ than 314 »

:foot Sorry about that. Got the old 'wares mixed up.

I still stand by my opinion that they shouldn't be selling this, especially when it's so amateurishly cobbled together.
NY00123
Vorticon Elite
Posts: 508
Joined: Sun Sep 06, 2009 19:36

Re: Keen Dreams somehow makes it to Nintendo Switch

Post by NY00123 »

I don't think that this had been brought up, but something which I've noticed is that the edited melon lips seem to use colors outside of the original 16-colors palette for the CGA/EGA/VGA (as used in EGA/VGA mode 0Dh for Keen Dreams).
Post Reply