Atroxian Realm (Version 1.2 Released)

[K1n9_Duk3]

He explains it at around 12:55. He says "just a strong jump to the left".

EDIT: I just remembered that easy difficulty uses slightly different gravity than medium and hard. But I just tried it and made the jump on the second try. All I had to do was to make running jump (holding down the jump key all the way) and that's it. Also worked on Hard mode.

[Snortimer]

I'm playing on normal. I've tried just "strong jumps" while holding the jump key all the way, they stop before reaching the 3rd-last sparkly thing. If I try a weird not-quite-full-height jump, go from the very edge, it sometimes seems to catch a particular spot of acceleration and reaches the 3rd-last or 2nd-last sparkly thing. I must have tried it over 200 times with all sorts of variations and have never gotten closer.

Edit: looking at that jump and at the others in that video (such as over the spikes, immediately following it), it appears that maybe the air zoom things don't give Keen the same speed in my version as in his. If I just jump into it from the right side as he does, rather than run to the very edge of the platform and jump up into the bottom, it doesn't seem to get me anywhere near the other side...

I'm really tempted to just use a flying cheat code for this jump, if that exists here.

[K1n9_Duk3]

Keen has to be running when you press the jump key. If you run towards the edge and start jumping as you get close to the edge, you should be fine. Just hold down the direction and jump keys until you land on the other side.

I'm really tempted to just use a flying cheat code for this jump, if that exists here.

Yep, it sure does exist. Otherwise I wouldn't have been able to test it so quickly on different skill levels. You don't even need to press A-2-Enter to activate debug keys, they're always active in Atroxian Realm.

[Nisaba]

At 11:50 there... How does he do it? I'm really at a loss, I've tried it countless times. I can never get closer than the 2nd-last white sparkly thing, and even that rarely. What's the theory behind making that jump?

I'm quoting Hairmonster12 from that very video:

[...] now I know that looked easy. first time I tried it, probably around 80 to 110s, to get over here [...]

but listen to what he has to say about those precision jumps at minute 12:43
https://youtu.be/Phia82iPXdI?t=763

I'm really tempted to just use a flying cheat code for this jump, if that exists here.

Yep, it sure does exist. Otherwise I wouldn't have been able to test it so quickly on different skill levels. You don't even need to press A-2-Enter to activate debug keys, they're always active in Atroxian Realm.

and just in case you have forgotten how use the jump cheat: hold down the F10 key and press the letter J on your keyboard.

[Snortimer]

I seem to be getting a bug leading to Cargo Transit B being unsolvable.

It's at the point which is at 6:30 in this video:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gh7ScIE3NtU

The red platform doesn't get carried where it should by the conveyor belts. Instead, it just falls down here and stays there (the first conveyor belt doesn't carry it far enough to get picked up by the second conveyor belt), so it's impossible to get the yellow gem:


This is probably related to my frustrations with Cargo Transit A detailed in this thread previously. The conveyor belts seem to be less effective than in the videos I see.

Something to do with my Dosbox version, maybe?
(DboxFE - frontend for Dosbox 0.7x - Linux version v0.1.4, on the Pandora)

[K1n9_Duk3]

These "Travelator" paths (conveyor belts) utilize a quirk of the engine's tile collision detection. It seems like this quirk requires rather high in-game frame rates to work correctly. It's fine for me when I run the game in DOSBox at 3000 cycles or more, but when I set it to some lower value (I tested it with 1000 cycles), the low frame rate completely breaks the intended behavior of the travelators.

All I can say is that you should check your DOSBox settings and try to increase the cycles settings for the game if you can. But perhaps this Pandora thing of yours simply isn't powerful enough to let the game run at a frame rate that doesn't cause issues like this.

As far as I know, the travelators only appear in Cargo Transit A and B, both of which are completely optional levels. You can just kill Keen and return to the world map if you're stuck in these levels. The secret level has something similar, but you can "finish" that level at any time without having to solve any of the puzzles.

[TheKeenCommander]

Finally got back around to this mod. I started it a few years back and didn't get very far.

All I can say is wow. Absolutely incredible. Well designed levels, puzzles that make you think, lots of secret passageways to find, and a secret level that I stumbled across almost accidentally but felt really smart for finding. The game's "cutscenes" were well done, and the story was really interesting.

Some of my favorite stuff:
The grittier elements of the game really worked for me, and the music was a good fit for a grittier story.
In the ruins levels, seeing smashed switches, gem holders, and key doors made it feel like an actual ruin.
Also in those levels, seeing the flames flickering in the background before you go through a door and end up next to them was a really cool effect.
The hive level was an absolute maze of dead ends and passageways. It actually felt like it was built by (and inhabited by) insects.
The method of progression in both levels with the Krile (sp?) was really, really fun. It actually felt like someone was in hiding.
The final boss fight was excellent.

All in all, great work. Just started the Alphamatic, and I'm enjoying that too, so far.

[Snortimer]

Thanks a lot, you've solved the mystery. My cycles were set to "max". When I set them to 3000 instead, the conveyor belts now work properly! Unfortunately, the game also begins to stutter, so I guess my Pandora (at least at 700mhz) isn't fast enough. It hasn't been a problem for the other Keen games... Ah well.

Are there any other quirky frame rate dependent things like this in other mods?

[keenmaster486]

I play a lot on real hardware, and I haven't had issues with the conveyor belts on anything from 286 to Pentium III.

DOSBox will be about the speed of a 386 on cycles=3000, and maybe a fast Pentium/MMX or Pentium II on cycles=max on an average modern PC.

Edit: actually, I'm not sure if I've tried it on my 286. I will have to attempt it later today; I'll report in on it.

[Hisymak]

I recently finished this, and I can pretty honestly say, it's the best Commander Keen mod I've ever played!
I was specifically the most interested in its soundtrack, and it is really great, well-made and perfectly fits the game. There are some tracks I really like and which I'm replaying just to hear them.
I decided to make an OPL Synth rendition of one of the tracks, in the same manner, I did it for various Doom tracks (I already made a post about this here: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4800). I picked up the music playing in the Great Ziggurat, as this is pretty nice one. I can see here the greatest improvement over the original sounding of the music, where the tubular bells did not really sound much like bells. I suppose this rendition might be how the music was originally intended to sound like.
Here you go, enjoy this piece: https://soundcloud.com/hisymak/atroxian ... t-ziggurat

[Gridlock]

Glad to hear the the new version is mostly working out for people. The keygem/zip pad puzzle in Cargo Transit A was slightly modified in this version since the old version basically resulted in you getting both keygems in the same attempt (at least on my system). It's unfortunate to hear that there have been some issues with the zip pads and cycles, though short of completely changing the levels I don't think I can do much about it.

I was specifically the most interested in its soundtrack, and it is really great, well-made and perfectly fits the game. There are some tracks I really like and which I'm replaying just to hear them.

You know, it's funny... even though I've probably heard all of these tracks loop hundreds if not thousands of times, I still sometimes listen to the soundtrack on the YouTube playlist I set up (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... MdKZHDfH-s). That's awesome to hear the OPL Synth rendition as well! I would definitely be interested in hearing more tracks given that treatment. Also, I'm happy to include YouTube remixes in the soundtrack playlist, so if you want to upload them to YouTube I can add them.

On a different subject, while I haven't had much energy to work on the Voyage to Veota Unity prototype, I do occasionally find the creative drive to work on the game's script. The current first draft is close to 50 pages and still far from done. It's pretty wild. If it doesn't turn into an actual game, I might at least make it available sometime in the not-so-near future for anyone interested.

[stayfrosty]

So there's a 3UP star in every level? What about the intro level with the crashed B&B ship? I'm assuming not.

Not that I've gotten much further. I can't even find one in the 2nd level Dark Swamp

[Nisaba]

So there's a 3UP star in every level? What about the intro level with the crashed B&B ship? I'm assuming not [...]

well, keep on searching! even in the BWB Crash Site level you can find a hidden 3UP... best of luck!

[stayfrosty]

So there's a 3UP star in every level? What about the intro level with the crashed B&B ship? I'm assuming not [...]

well, keep on searching! even in the BWB Crash Site level you can find a hidden 3UP... best of luck!

Whoah Nisaba! Mind is blown!!

I LOVE how the 1st (and 2nd to a lesser degree) level is so unassuming. You'd think to yourself, ok there's points and ammo and a chance to figure out the basics. You've played the level a gazillion times... and then you explore a few tricks you may have learned from a certain passage to a secret level you once found in keen 5 (without help btw )
That's why the secret stuff is so awesome... gives the game some replayability.
It's just like the keenISIS 1st level...

So now I'm at Larvae Lagoon tryna get to that 3UP...

Thanks for the tip mate!
I'd read that there were 24 levels and 23 x3UP. Just assumed the first level was the one without...

[Syllypryde]

As Nisaba said, and as Gridlock himself says in the endgame sequence, there is a 3up in all 24 levels. I have beaten the game and I can assure you all 24 3ups are reachable.