Public Commander Keen Forum

Some nice progress indeed.

A feature suggestion: It would be classy if you can implement a way of managing multiple games and mods with ease, like a menu system on bootup that displays all the games contained in the data directory, or any other specified location.

Thank you for the Suggestion!

I will think about it!

I'm not sure about Mods, and how to implement them.

Are MODs already modified graphics, sounds, levels, or do they have to get patched first? Which type of those are legal?

My idea would be a boot up menu like Commander Spleen said, in which there are the games and mods which will be read by directories.

Are mods already patched graphics, or are they only patch, which have to be applied?

What do you think about the idea of using directories, like ScummVM does?

since clonekeen uses the original .ck* files, one can already use the modded files and graphics of any mod, i've tried that already.
The only problems are: the tileinfo .tli and connected with it the .pat patchfile which changes things like enemy behaviour or winning conditions and is therefore vital for the modded gameplay.
So if clonekeen read these .pat files and somehow translate the patches, that's all that is needed i suppose.

Indeed, mods that don't require CKPatch to run correctly (only a few in the great scheme of things) will already work in CloneKeen. The rest will need their patches translated into a form CloneKeen can use.

Of course, as K1n9_Duk3 wrote:From what I've seen, the patch files will only change some constants in the game (like jump height, string messages and stuff). It shouldn't be that much of a problem reading the patch files and changing the apropriate values in CloneKeen.

In that light a good number of mods can be made to work without much effort, but there are many other patches that do particularly nifty things. Some, such as the 32 levels patch, will of course be obsolete, but there are still a good few that will require specialised work.

I tried CloneKeen earlier and it seemed like a decent port except for the sound being distorted sometimes. I'll try out KeenPlus.

In my new version, I think that you will not have that problem, because I changed from 4 channel to 8 channel sound. I think, that this was the problem. The game sometimes needs more channels and in this case some sounds are incorrectly mixed.

Furthermore, there are some OGG files included, which improve some sounds (not all of them). You can change and add some more of them. Have fun with it!

You have also now stereo sound, which means that, when, for example, you shoot at an enemy which is walking at the right edge of your screen, you will only hear the sound from the right speaker, and so on.


I'm working on the next version and I want to do it like in ScummVM, one game or mod per directory. When you open CKP, you first will see a menu, in which you can choose the game or mod, and then start it.

This will be my last update for some days, because my next plan is to clean the source code and change it to something better. There are a lot of memory lacks left from the original author and if I don't fix them, there will be further problems with the implementation of new features.

This will take some time.

After that, here are my future plans:
- improve physics. There are still some illogical behaviours
- implement OpenGL, for true lighting(cartoonish, of course) for smoother scrolling, etc. Maybe for some new effects, too.
- implement music (The old game did not have that, obviously)
- More joystick and keyboard mappings (Until now, only buttons can be remapped)
- Change the name of the Project (Because a Clone does the same thing, and this won't be anymore)

And now my far future plans:
- Graphics of CK4-6 in CK1-3 (I use OpenGL to get isometric floors from CK1-3 Levels).
- Support of CK 4-6 + Dreams

What do you think? Does it sound great, or do you have any other suggestions?

The most recent version can be downloaded from this link:

http://clonekeenplus.sourceforge.net/

Have much fun!

It would be nice if one could download a compiled version also, not only the source code.
I don't know how to compile, so I can't test it.

gerstrong wrote:What do you think? Does it sound great, or do you have any other suggestions?

Support for higher resolutions (and in turn, high res graphics packs). And if it hasn't been done already, increasing the old level and tileset size limitations would be nice as well.

It's great to see someone finally trying to modernize the engine, so keep it up!

Support for higher resolutions will be implemented with the implementation of OpenGL. High-Res packs is also a good idea.

@tulip: What operating do you use? 32-bit, 64? Windows, MacOS X, Linux? Maybe I can send you a binary file.

However, compilation instructions are well explained in the README file, I think. I've made special instructions for Ubuntu users as I use that.

I released another version of CKP, this time with the Support of different Mods being able to put in one Menu.

I was testing one mod, and it worked without problems.

Check out my screenshots at:

http://clonekeenplus.sourceforge.net/

and have fun testing!

Any tip on compiling this on Windows? I'd really like to check this out, but am unfortunately afflicted with Not Having Linux

I should really get a real Linux VM going or something and learn stuff.

I second the request for binaries. If you can pull off a static link scenario where you don't need to worry about installing extra libraries, at least for Windows, 32-bit Linux and MacOS it would broaden the potential audience nicely.

I've got a mac machine, so if there are any mac users out here i'll try compiling it later on today.

I get this error when compiling: