Commander Keen in the Bobrick Tower

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Should I make an easy version of this thing?

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Nee
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StupidBunny
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Commander Keen in the Bobrick Tower

Post by StupidBunny »

Happy Keen day boys and girls! :christmas

This is a one-level mod that I started with the expectation that it would be finished in just a few months. Progress was sailing along and I figured, what with it being one level and all, I'd have something to show by the summer.

That was in early 2008. Since then, Keen 8 and 9 have been released, I've started (and in some cases finished) a whole variety of Doom and Keen projects, Pixar has made 4 films, Obama has nearly served out a full term of office, and...

...the point is, this has been sitting on my computer for an unreasonably long time, receiving an occasional burst of mapping or random creative fart but mostly not seeing much of the light of day until the last couple of months. What's especially surprising is that I had already done over half the work here by June of '08, and the mod just seemed cursed to never be finished.

Given how long it's been with me, I will say right now that this doesn't meet my hopes and expectations. It really never can. If I wanted to, I could keep tweaking, editing, patching, improving and remaking this thing until it dies with me, never to see the light of day. Since I finally have a more or less finished mod, I have decided that now is as good a time as any to reveal it to you all.

So enjoy everybody. This isn't the best work I've ever released, it probably shows its age in places, and, well, it is just one level. I may release an improved version someday, as well as maybe an easier version as I did with Clouds Unseen, but for now I think I can finally say this mod is done and releasable.

Click on the title screen to download the mod

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Outdated release of BTOWER
Last edited by StupidBunny on Fri Mar 16, 2012 20:59, edited 3 times in total.
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Fleexy
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Post by Fleexy »

(I know how much I hate it when I release something I worked hard on and everyone ignores it *cough*mythread*cough*)

Just judging by the title screen, it's awesome! I hope the one level isn't too big, because I'm never able to complete ginormous levels without eventually making a mistake and dying. Downloading now... will post experiences after playage...
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Post by Fleexy »

OK, downloaded and played. I had some issues getting it started (I used to have a C:\Games directory too!), namely the music player not being compatible with x86 processors. After I ripped out all of the stuff referencing that component, it started fine.

After taking a few minutes to actually find the level, I started in the really interesting part. It took me a while to find what hurt and what didn't, but after getting a few nice, unfair deaths in I got a good map of the first part of the level. Those are really nice graphics; also a really intertwined and well-thought-out map. Only one complaint: those X-shaped dividers look like death and I always expect to die when I jump past one to grab the first ammo. The dropdown into the Vorticon-replacements area (also right into a death barrel) probably should be moved over a tile to avoid people who hate unfairness more than I do from killing you.

Moving up the main corridor, that huge pit of death is epic. I got up to where there was a Vortimom-replacement (not the ones in the Armory), died, and gave up. I'll try again later.
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Post by StupidBunny »

Thanks for the feedback...since this level has not been tested by anyone else I'm going to try and iron out as much unfairness as possible. In the meantime I hope it's still fun enough to keep you going...

Also, there is a hint in the game as to the God mode cheat. I will be willing to post it if people want/need it.
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Post by Fleexy »

"Opposite of the Reverse of God"... O+R+G isn't it... must look at EZPATCH's table of keycodes...
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Post by Paramultart »

Whoohoo! Glad you decided to release this!

I know how you feel about never feeling satisfied with something, and coming to a point where you realize you'll probably never release it if you don't just release it as-is.

I have always enjoyed your mods. Clouds Unseen is one of my favorite mods, and is an artistic achievement for DOS games in general.

I shall give this a play and report back here with my thoughts. :dopefish
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Post by VikingBoyBilly »

Ok, here's my review:
This is absolutely stunning. Your artistic talent shines here. There's such a diversity of tiles. Did you cram the entire tileset into one map? It's GIGANTIC. Whenever I thought I was almost at the top, there was so much more to go. I couldn't beat it without catmoding it, and even then, it must have taken half an hour. I'd say I spent just as much time playing this as Keen 15. I love how the outdoor background slowly rises into space. And the ending was hilarious! :lol

I'm pretty sure I got every gem on the level. Is this the max score?
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Post by StupidBunny »

Well according to Mindbelt there are 131,000 points in the level total, which should be accurate since, even though I don't have the customized epis3dat anymore, the score/item tiles all line up with the ones in the Keen 3 tileset. (ALTHOUGH I don't remember if the points in the Keen 3 tileset originally line up in 100-200-500-etc. order or not, and can't be bothered to find out.)

Also, did you solve the Riddle of Ashtaroth yourself or decode the one in the patch file? ;)
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Post by VikingBoyBilly »

StupidBunny wrote:Also, did you solve the Riddle of Ashtaroth yourself or decode the one in the patch file? ;)
I just guessed. I wasn't about to dig through the patch file.
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Post by StupidBunny »

Well in any case, I'm glad you liked it as much as you did. Hopefully more than 3 people will end up trying all the stuff released yesterday at some point... :P
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Post by StupidBunny »

DOUBLE POST

I'm curious, has anybody else had the same problem Fleexy did with starting the mod/running it with TSRMusic? And @Fleexy, I'm not sure what you meant earlier with the "C:\Games" comment since I don't think there's any reference to it anywhere.
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Post by Fleexy »

Your DOSBox startup shortcut packaged with the mod references C:\Games\DOSBox-0.74, which will of course not open on everyone's file system. :P
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Post by StupidBunny »

Oh! I didn't mean to package that shortcut in there. :crazy Well just delete it or have it refer to your own copy of DOSBox or whatever.

EDIT: Not counting a few unreachable points, the overall score at the end should, I think, be 120,000 points. I bet I know exactly what you're missing VBB... ;)

And ON THAT NOTE, I have uploaded a slightly modified version of the mod. IT removes a couple things I thought were unfair, as well as some bugs, unnecessary things and those unreachable points I mentioned. This new version is downloadable by clicking the title screen; I've added a link for the original upload.
Last edited by StupidBunny on Fri Mar 16, 2012 20:56, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Bubbatom »

I really like the feel of this mod!

But, I'm stuck on that first floor :crazy I cant work out how to get higher than the second room, in which you have somehow get up there. It's probably something really obvious :p
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Post by StupidBunny »

You have to jump off at an angle from those little platforms at the edges of the main first-floor room onto the upper ones in the middle. It may be a bit tricky but (hopefully) not overly so.

If you can play AVIs you can watch this video of me doing the necessary manœuvre.
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