TRBU Commander Keen FAQ Now on Steam!

[Flaose]

That's right ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages, I present to you The Really Big "Unofficial" Commander Keen FAQ - Steam Edition!

Be awed by the graphical item lists, feel chills as you see fully animated enemy lists, delight in the illustrated story sections that book-end complete walkthroughs for each game available in your Steam purchase! It's the definitive guide for slacker Keeners everywhere!


Ok, enough with the sales pitch. I've had this thing sitting on the back-burner for a year at about 70% complete, so in the last week I finally threw the rest of it together in the last week. I always wanted to do a fully illustrated version of the FAQ in HTML, and Steam made it fairly easy to do something similar (though I had to sacrifice some customization options in order to use it). What I'm most excited about is finally finding a use for all of those enemy gifs that I made for CC314 years and years ago! Brand-spanking-new animations made especially for this version of the guide include: The Grand Intellect, Sphereful, and Messie!

While I know the FAQ isn't something that anyone here would use, it'd be awesome if you could take a look at it, note any glaring errors that I've made, and (if you have a Steam account) rate it!

Thanks guys!

[Keening_Product]

That's really, really neat! The kind of documentation id should have produced when it started online

And wow, you first published this 15 years ago? How much has it changed since?

I'll dig up my Steam login later to rate it. Nice work.

[Levellass]

* Your Keen 2 items box is narrower than 1/3's

* Keen 4\5's boxes are also different widths.

* Is the lightening in the Keen 4 cloud enemy really at that position?


After that my brain began to fuzz over.

[Flaose]

That's really, really neat! The kind of documentation id should have produced when it started online

And wow, you first published this 15 years ago? How much has it changed since?

I'll dig up my Steam login later to rate it. Nice work.

Thanks! The main change in the most recent version was the inclusion of the walkthroughs. Most of the rest was written during the summer of '99 (if memory serves me correctly). For curiosity's sake, you can check out the 10-year-old version on the 3D Realms website: http://www.3drealms.com/faq/keenfaq199.txt

* Your Keen 2 items box is narrower than 1/3's

* Keen 4\5's boxes are also different widths.

Alas, this is what I was referring to when I talked about sacrificing customization options; I have no control over table widths...

* Is the lightening in the Keen 4 cloud enemy really at that position?

Your intuition leads you rightly, having booted up Keen 4 just now, I can tell you that it's in the wrong position, thanks for pointing it out! I'll fix it soon.

I also added a little shout-out to the PCKF in the acknowledgements section. Shame on me for not having done so earlier!

[MoffD]

Are you going to be adding keen 6 to the list at some point? I know technically you can't still purchase it, but some people who actually have it may be interested.

Also: I would upvote but steam says I have to actually buy something with my account first

[CapnClever]

For curiosity's sake, you can check out the 10-year-old version on the 3D Realms website: http://www.3drealms.com/faq/keenfaq199.txt

Ah, so you wrote that! I was wondering. The information from that original FAQ helped me out back before I'd found PCKF, so many thanks.

Given that, however, I'm wondering if you can explain the following:

Fly Without Cheating: It's possible to fly in the air without using a
cheat. Just press jump and then fire at almost the same time. You'll waste a
few bullets, but it's good for getting to tough places when you don't want to
cheat.

I realize that particular hint wasn't found by you (it's acknowledged in some version of the FAQ, not that one) but hopefully you at least tried to replicate it and, if so, I'm intensely curious about any details you could provide regarding it. If you don't remember (or didn't check it out) that's fine, I'm just trying to figure it out for myself. Could make the Keen3 run a whole lot simpler!

[chrissifniotis]

While I know the FAQ isn't something that anyone here would use, it'd be awesome if you could take a look at it,...

Don't be so sure about that. When my net is back up to speed I'll be sure to take a look.

[Flaose]

Ah, so you wrote that! I was wondering. The information from that original FAQ helped me out back before I'd found PCKF, so many thanks.

You're welcome!

Given that, however, I'm wondering if you can explain the following:

Fly Without Cheating: It's possible to fly in the air without using a
cheat. Just press jump and then fire at almost the same time. You'll waste a
few bullets, but it's good for getting to tough places when you don't want to
cheat.

I realize that particular hint wasn't found by you (it's acknowledged in some version of the FAQ, not that one) but hopefully you at least tried to replicate it and, if so, I'm intensely curious about any details you could provide regarding it. If you don't remember (or didn't check it out) that's fine, I'm just trying to figure it out for myself. Could make the Keen3 run a whole lot simpler!

Actually, I've never been able to get it to work. Maybe it's just I myth that I've unwittingly perpetuated..

Are you going to be adding keen 6 to the list at some point? I know technically you can't still purchase it, but some people who actually have it may be interested.

Since this version was made specifically for Steam, I won't be adding a Keen 6 section unless they (miraculously) include it in a future version of the pack. I do have information for Keen 6 in the full FAQ, though: http://cc314.shikadi.net/encyclopedia/keenfaq201.txt