Short Speech About Commander Keen (Gief helps!)

Toomuchsparetime · Post by **Toomuchsparetime** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 5:53

Talk about the "real" aspects of the game (eg, the people who made it, how it affected the gaming world, how these people went on to dominate shareware and FPS PC gaming), without going into too much detail on the fictional side of the game. Otherwise you're basically being a commercial instead of the main show.

At any rate, make the game seem culturally if not historically relevant! Use the story of its development as a way to show how the industry was shaped at the time.
Otherwise people will be like "cool story bro. so wat?" Make 'em realise that when they go home and play Left 4 Dead, they're playing something that came out of a bunch of events influenced by the Commander Keen games.

But of course describe the fictional elements in general terms and mention the cultural effect of the game, which would mean referring to fan-stuff such as the Keen pixel-graffiti, fan art, and appearances of the curiously popular Dopefish in games (and real life). Don't feel bad if you describe Keen in terms of later similar characters with which people these days may be more familiar, eg Jimmy Neutron.

This is just my approach to such a speech, of course. :]

Henrock431 · Post by **Henrock431** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 5:56

Lava89 wrote:Well at least you took a stab at educating those on Keendom, PC Gaming history by itself is very underrated. We're lucky if kids remember what an Atari is.

I still have an old atari 2600 and like 60 some games for it!

StupidBunny · Post by **StupidBunny** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 6:20

I love vintage gaming. I recently acquired an NES (I've probably mentioned that in another thread but I'm not sure) and I think I might get an Atari 2600 at some point too.

jonnyspeight · Post by **jonnyspeight** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 12:03

why would you get those? i'm sure you can download an emulator from somewhere

ckguy · Post by **ckguy** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 12:24

jonnyspeight wrote:why would you get those? i'm sure you can download an emulator from somewhere

Probably for the same reason you want to buy boxed versions of all the Keen games, even though you can download them.

VikingBoyBilly · Post by **VikingBoyBilly** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 12:51

Yeah you just don't get the smell of the NES, feeling of the controller, or your TV displaying the image with an emulator (sound quality might be different too). Although for some reason Marathon has a certain smell every time I play it, while using my computer for any other purpose doesn't produce the smell. It's sort of like a mix of a metallic smell and the smell of a new magazine. It's so good

And for some reason, the smell sticks on my fingers. Hexen and Doom smell like old, dusty instruction booklets, which might not sound as good but for some reason is just as appealing.

Course, Aleph one doesn't have the same HUD the mac original had, which is sickening

StupidBunny · Post by **StupidBunny** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 16:19

Exactly. It's about the full experience of playing the game as it was originally meant to be played. It's the same reason I keep my Win95 laptop around just for Commander Keen, even though I can use DosBox: the laptop has a look, feel, and (yes) smell that newer computers can't reproduce that just makes it feel right.

jonnyspeight · Post by **jonnyspeight** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 16:42

CK Guy wrote:
jonnyspeight wrote:why would you get those? i'm sure you can download an emulator from somewhere
Probably for the same reason you want to buy boxed versions of all the Keen games, even though you can download them.

yeah

MortimerInBlack · Post by **MortimerInBlack** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 22:45

Jimmy Neutron and Dexter are awful. This is why I don't want a new Keen from ID, cuz it'd be a lot like that.

BTW Zidane, what was your grade?

KeenEmpire · Post by **KeenEmpire** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 5:32

The movie Jimmy Neutron was good, not so sure about the show.

jonnyspeight · Post by **jonnyspeight** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 12:04

oh yeah jimmy neutron was bad, cant understand why kids liked it

ZidaneA · Post by **ZidaneA** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 13:54

TmsT: Well, I actually spoke alot of the "real" aspects of the gaming. My teacher and some other students told me my speech was very interesting becouse of that. All of them had heard of Commander Keen before, becouse of me playing it school all the time. But they didn't know that CK was made by ID. Almost everyone thought that Doom was their first game! (For an example)

MortimerInBlack: I got a "VG". Uhm... Now how am I gonna explain what that is?
Well, we can say that the grades consist of 4 levels.
IG, G, VG and MVG. IG is the failing-grade, while G is approved but nothing more. VG is better and MVG is the best.
My teacher said that if I had prepared before doing the speech, she would have given me an MVG, even though my speech already satisfied the criterias for an MVG.

Toomuchsparetime · Post by **Toomuchsparetime** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 5:42

Congratulations! Sounds like it went smooooothly.

jonnyspeight · Post by **jonnyspeight** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 12:02

yeah now they all kno that there are obssessive keeners out there

Post by **Levellass** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 22:21

"And that concludes my speech on my favorite game, Commander Keen. However, there ARE still obsessive Keeners out there, they might even be here right now... watching, waiting... hiding in your closet."