Why is Keen Dreams referred to as The Lost Episode?

[Paramultart]

Keen Dreams is widely known throughout the Keen community, and is a game I have held in my heart since early childhood.
It was created to fulfill id Software's contractual obligation to Softdisk, and received a small release in 1991.

After id Software released Goodbye Galaxy, and subsequently Aliens Ate My Babysitter, Softdisk gave Keen Dreams a broader release, and the game because known as "The Lost Episode".
But why? It's not like the game just fell out of the sky. Keen Dreams received a proper, although not very successful, public release. It was no secret, and certainly not the buried treasure a title like "Lost Episode" might imply. Along with all of the other Keen games, I used to play Keen Dreams in the early 90's, and it was among my favorites.

The Keen Wiki has this to say: "The episode was not widely released until some time after the Goodbye Galaxy series, often earning it the title of the 'Lost episode.' "
That's not to imply that the game didn't exist prior to Goodbye Galaxy, but that Softdisk gave the game a second release after id's success with the Goodbye Galaxy games. So why the title? Why is it known as "The Lost Episode"? There is nothing lost about it.

I feel that Keen Dreams does not get enough respect around here. I have noticed that a lot of members in this community have a general distaste for the game.
While it does feel unfinished and rushed at parts, it is still a worthy Keen title, and I think it should be recognized for that. This isn't Keen GBC we're talking about. This is an official Keen title, from the original Keen team.

On a somewhat unrelated subject, I would like to know why there's a fan version of The Universe is Toast trilogy, but not "Meet The Meats"? (The intended sequel to Keen Dreams) This should have been the mod community's priority years ago, and while it's not as exciting as The Universe is Toast, it came first chronologically, which should be taken into consideration.

[Commander Spleen]

I've never really looked down on Dreams. It's not my all-time favourite episode, but I definitely respect it as a canon episode.

Though it was kind of a troll to discover it long after playing its prequels and sequels, thinking maybe it was the mythical TUIT.

As it happens, this particular episode has been a particular influence on my modding style, closely following Keen 6.

[Nospike]

I like Dreams. It lacks some gameplay improving features like ledge-grabbing, pogo and such, but the levels are very nice. I think it's the only Keen game to have really open levels with lots of space.
Also, it was the second Keen game I played, with the first being the Keen 6 demo.
@Para: Maybe KMTM wasn't done before the UTUIT trilogy because...
1. The idea may have seemed boring to some players.
2. A lot of players didn't even know about KMTM.
3. The players may have wanted to make KMTM a mod of Dreams, which was technically pretty much impossible at the time.

[Keenfan]

Good question, why is it a "lost episode"?

Maybe because it's not part of one of the two trilogys?
(That would only count if Keen 6 wasn't released at the time KD became the "lost episode")

Maybe because you can't really put the game into a temporal order? When does KD play? Between IOTV and GG? After GG? Even earlier or later?

[Dynamo]

KD takes place between keen 3 and keen 4.

As for the "lost episode" part, who cares, really? Just play the game :|

[Keenfan]

KD takes place between keen 3 and keen 4.

Can you quote something official for this?

As for the "lost episode" part, who cares, really? Just play the game

Discussing is what most forums are about.

[Dynamo]

http://www.shikadi.net/keenwiki/Keen_Dreams_Story

The story mentions keen 3 elements, and keen has the keen 3 weapon, not the neural stunner. Engine wise it is also a bridge between keen vorticons and galaxy, so it makes sense.

Also, if I was to name games that deserved way more success than what they got the list would probably be endless (just as an example, Strife). That's why discussing THIS out of all the possible topics that can be discussed is kinda stupid. It wasn't as popular as the vorticons and galaxy trilogies were, so that's why it was also known as the lost episode. (My father used to think it was keen 7, tbh. so yeah.)

[tulip]

The title "lost episode" is pretty simple: It takes place earlier than Goodbye Galaxy, is techically on an earlier level, and wasn't released until after the others, also without being part of a trilogy, and not under the ID software label. 3 reasons why you could call it lost.

The numbering of the episode is also interesting if you look at different versions of the game. I don't remember which version it was, but one of the earlier ones had the exe titled KEEN7.EXE. Later versions generally have KEENDR.EXE which makes more sense because of the story.

[K1n9_Duk3]

I think the whole "Lost Episode" stuff was just part of a Softdisk marketing campaign in 1993. When id Software became a big name (after the release of Wolfenstein 3-D), Softdisk bundled all the games that the id guys had done for them as a "Lost Collection" in an effort to make some more money.

This is taken from the INSTRUCT.TXT file of Keen Dreams v1.93:

KEEN DREAMS is part of the 10-game "lost collection" written by ID Software for Softdisk Publishing.

KEEN DREAMS was written by ID during the interval between the release of their two popular Commander Keen trilogies, The Invasion of the Vorticons and Goodbye, Galaxy. The evolution of the Keen personality and storytelling method can be clearly seen in this exciting "lost episode."

The previous versions of Dreams don't seem to refer to themselves as "Lost Episode" in any of the files.

[ALMN]

I thought it was called the lost episode because i kept forgetting where it was on my computer

[VikingBoyBilly]

To me Keen 6 was the "lost episode", because it's so hard to obtain legally these days and I didn't play it until after all the others. I even played keen dreams before I did keens 4 and 5