Lets begin with a download link to the level pack. Note that this requires Bio Menace 1, freeware release (and no, it's incompatible with shareware releases).
Mangle is back from the dead, v0.99, May 1st 2012: http://ny.duke4.net/files/bmenace/mbd_20120501_0.99.zip
See the bundled MBD_READ.TXT (aka readme) file for more details, including ways to obtain the freeware release as of now.
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Alright, now I think it's time to discuss about it a bit more.
1. To begin with, as a few of you may recognize, this is basically what I began with an early snapshot sometime back on 2011. I gave it the codename of "Snake is back to the city". See the following forum thread for the earlier snapshot: viewtopic.php?t=1888
2. This point is intended for the ones who originally replied to the above thread (regarding the snapshot):
Apologizes that I haven't replied to you earlier. Thanks for your replies! I knew there may not be a lot of interest in this, yet it's nice to see there is a little interest.
3. As implied from the description, this is a Bio Menace level pack. I know that these are Commander Keen forums, but I also realize that Bio Menace is related in a few ways. At least, some who are used to playing Keen may consider this level pack a "Keen MOD"; Although, by then, the original Bio Menace game is a "Keen MOD" as well.
4. OK, there are technically some more modifications than plain level editing. Not so much on the graphics side, although some more on the patching. As the graphics are mostly unmodified, there aren't major gameplay modifications (as done in Mink's Puzzle Pack), and all sounds and music tracks haven't been touched for this, I still consider it to be a level pack.
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Some known issues/bugs are described in MBD_READ.TXT.
There may be a few more of these, like, say, things getting out of ceilings' edges in a way that may look a bit glitchy...
However, ignoring these, I've thought that the pack is basically completed, and shall be released now.
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Some credits: (Apologizes if I miss anybody!)
- ID Software LLC, for bringing the Commander Keen games and engines; Especially as Bio Menace takes advantage of the same engine used by episodes 4-6 of Commander Keen.
- Jim Norwood, for bringing out Bio Menace, taking advantage of the Keen 4-6 engine.
- Apogee Software, Ltd. (Commonly known as 3D Realms nowadays.)
That was the developer and publisher of the game, with Jim working on it, taking advantage of the Keen 4-6 engine.
- John Romero, for the TED5 level editor, used for constructing the levels in this pack.
- Admiral Bob, for CKPATCH, a set of tools letting one apply patches to Commander Keen.
- Shadow Master, for adding support for a few other games to CKPATCH, Bio Menace being one of them.
- Andrew Durdin for ModLatch and ModKeen, later used as inspirations for KeenGraph. All of these are tools for importing and exporting contents like graphics, story text and recorded gameplay demos.
- Levellass for KeenGraph.
- Ian E. Davis and TheSoft Programming Services for TheDraw, used for editing the textual screen appearing right after quitting the game.
- Anybody who's contributed useful patches, letting ones modify Commander Keen behaviors. At the moment I can think of Levellord, Levellass and Lemm. In case there are any more individuals, I send you the credits as well!
- Anybody involved in figuring out how to extract and import contents like graphics and sounds for Commander Keen (thus useful for Bio Menace). I may not refer to specific tools, but simply to finding how to technically do these.
- Paramultart, Ceilick, Mink and more for their Bio Menace related support, even if indirect.
- Malvineous, for hosting the ModdingWiki and the KeenWiki. Links to the two Wikis (available as of May 1st, 2012):
http://www.shikadi.net/moddingwiki/
http://www.shikadi.net/keenwiki/
Oh yeah, as one may encounter the terms "Gamma testing" somewhere... here is the source of it straight from keenmodding.org
(And if you wonder, yes, it's from another thread started by me...)
Well, at least, I've given it a random version number of... 0.99. Because, well, anything can change...levellass wrote:I hereby propose a new step in mod testing.
Gamma testing:
It is obvious that every time a new mod (Especially Keen 4-6) is released, there are minor bugs. I suggest the final step of beta testing should involve uploading a mod somewhere and letting a tester download it.
What could be a following version number (if any), you're asking? Well, maybe 0.999
Alright,
Hope that anybody who tries this out gets some fun!
P.S.
There are reasons for renaming the difficulty names. Don't be surprised if "Tough" does feel quite tough. And yes, I did consider this at some point for one Keen level pack I released a couple of years ago...