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Graphically Enhanced Fangames?

Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 1:14
by Lava89
Has there even been a Keen fangame released that is a recreation of the originals (1-3, Dreams or 4-6), but has enhanced graphics (Genesis \ SNES quality or better)?

Because that would be something cool to both see and play.

Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 5:12
by XkyRauh
There have been several which do upscaled graphics, which make everything look smoother and rounder...

The problem is that it is very rare for a Keen fangame to capture the "feel" of the gravity/physics of the official Keen games. Finding a fangame with a pogo that works correctly is nearly impossible.

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 21:19
by q 90
Yeah I tried that once with a fangame called Commander Keen Funkadelic. It was so God-awful that everyone who ran the EXE died instantly.

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 23:37
by memsys
and the few who did have good gravity/physics are dead

Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 9:01
by Zero X. Diamond
isis ii r.i.p. :[

Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 16:12
by Roobar
Keen: Next :dead :(

Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2008 16:22
by StupidBunny
Commander Keen: Codename 13...the SPECIAL EDITION!!!! Digitally remastered with new and exciting bugs!

Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 0:06
by bp
Zero X. Diamond wrote:isis ii r.i.p. :[
Yeah. Probably one of the best projects that just flopped. :dead

Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 0:12
by StupidBunny
Isis II...the Shadowlands series...and of course TUIT...I wonder which is most likely to be seen through one day?

Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 0:23
by Lava89
StupidBunny wrote:Isis II...the Shadowlands series...and of course TUIT...I wonder which is most likely to be seen through one day?
Shadowlands? Which one is that? I've never heard of it. :)

Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 0:55
by Genius314
Lava89 wrote:
StupidBunny wrote:Isis II...the Shadowlands series...and of course TUIT...I wonder which is most likely to be seen through one day?
Shadowlands? Which one is that? I've never heard of it. :)
Ilsoap's Flash animations.

Shadowlands seems to be the most likely to be continued one day. Ilsoap seemed like he wanted to finish it, even though he wasn't able to work on it anymore. As for Isis... I don't know too much about it, but it seems like the creator(s) just gave up and forgot about it. And we know Id isn't likely to give away the rights to TUIT any time soon.

Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 8:55
by KeenRush
TUIT for sure, even if it could take years more. Wasn't Isis II discontinued, anyways? And I don't think Ilsoap will be working any more on those series, either. So it's up to Tom to save the Keendom. :dopekeen

Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 17:54
by Galaxieretter
Why is it always "Tom Tom Tom?" I've always wondered, how much of Commander Keen did Tom specifically have to do with? I mean yes, I'm sure he made the character, and the text and all that but what about the programming or the (very terrible) art?

Without the code, the game never would have worked.

And I'm not sure, most of the games that had the, oh so awesome label of the name "Tom Hall" on it seem to be well... failures (Daikatana?) with exception of "Deus Ex" which I particularly enjoyed. (And didn't even know that he made until recently.)

I think Tom Hall would be an excellent person to consult when making the next Commander Keen game but I also belive that the game could be made and done just as good without him.

I don't think any one person would be able to make an awesome fangame. Or any one person can make decent animations more than a few times. Or any one person be able to make a comic... er... um...


My point is these things take a LOT of work. (Trust me I have done all of them, except the "Fan" game part.) And it's too much work for only one person to do. Unless we want things like Z-1's "Here is the best Commander Keen fangame ever made in the history of fangames. Now I'm going to stop and no you can't have my code, art or anything. Goodbye." I think we should all stop putting our efforts into say... community MODS and put our work into something more productive...

The only way The Universe is Toast will get made is if WE make it.

The first community fan game?
Anyone?

Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 23:33
by Commander Spleen
Gal wrote:Without the code, the game never would have worked.
Indeed. Certainly the game wouldn't have happened if not for Carmack and Romero (were they the only coders? I don't quite recall.) However, look at the games they went on to produce afterwards. Their interest in Keen was primarily the technology, not the story. Without creative input from someone like Tom, the content would have been something much more generic.
Gal wrote:Unless we want things like Z-1's "Here is the best Commander Keen fangame ever made in the history of fangames. Now I'm going to stop and no you can't have my code, art or anything. Goodbye."
I have the code, and the graphics, though it's a bit beyond my comprehension at the moment.
Gal wrote:The first community fan game?
I'd be in for that, but not anything that tries to be TUIT. At least not right away. Maybe we could start designing it, but it'll take a lot of planning before anyone touches the code or graphics. I'm going to think on this one while I'm AFK for the weekend...

Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 6:32
by Lava89
Galaxieretter, while I dislike it when people nitpick my examples in my posts and ignore the main point I am trying to make, I feel I have to address some things. But just so you know, I do agree with the larger point of your thread, that code is a large point of games, which is why id kept going without Hall, and similar to what Commander Spleen said, it's just that I think Hall would've added more depth to their projects (he's more of a "story" guy). :)
Galaxieretter wrote:or the (very terrible) art?
How is it terrible? This isn't the first time I've been hearing this. :)

So while it's all subjective, I would like to know some of the reasoning :)
Galaxieretter wrote: And I'm not sure, most of the games that had the, oh so awesome label of the name "Tom Hall" on it seem to be well... failures (Daikatana?) with exception of "Deus Ex" which I particularly enjoyed. (And didn't even know that he made until recently.)
While Ion Storm was co-created by Tom Hall, Daikatana was mostly made by Romero and alot of the flopped hype was about Romero. In fact I've read that it was Tom Hall's Ion Storm game that did well, Anachronox, at least review wise and compared to Romero's game.
Galaxieretter wrote: The first community fan game?
Anyone?
Well it depends, if it's 2D, 3D, what language it's in, etc...

And like what Commander Spleen said, I am for it as long as it doesn't try to be a game that I feel only Tom Hall could truly make, which is TUIT. After all, he had all the ideas for it, and I'm guessing it was probably his idea to even make TUIT or what it would be called, so how could a game get made without the *only* person who has the ideas of how it should be made and was probably his idea to begin with?

Unless what TUIT signifies is more of a symbol, the next Keen game, then what Tom hall has specifically planned. Then I could see that happening.

But aside from the TUIT part, I am also in favor of it, if it doesn't try to be pretentious or sets it's goals too high, like switching to C++ to be more "professional", I've seen that happen too many times and it just kills projects, it needs to be what the *community* as a whole can work on and get a game finished..

But if most people can work in C++ and it gets the game done? I say go for it, but not if it's for some honor based reason. :)