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Enjoy.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/077cxc69q587psx/K4R.zip

Edit: small update with some minor fixes

Plot twist: Opposite Day on the same day as April Fools

This is a sufficiently neat Thing.

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OMK! These are the deadliest slugs I've ever seen! I'm sorry, I rage quit it.

This is superb!
Already a mod from you! That's record timing!

Do you plan to keep working on this project?

the disappearing city entirely disappeared. besides those brutal slugging slugs, this is a really neat mod! I especially like the tileset for the pyramids!

I tried this out, and I thought it was fun and interesting. I liked the ideas (I would've never thought about making the Poison Slug as a Vorticon Elite and turning the shots into slime) and how the levels were converted into Vorticons style. I like how the new graphics look, especially the worldmap and pyramid tilesets.

The only problem I had with the mod was how the tree branches looked like they could be stood on (I tried to jump into their top for a bit). I think removing the outline in the branches should fix the problem.

I'm looking forward to seeing the final result of this promising mod. I'm interested in seeing how you'll convert some of the original stuff (such as the foot and wetsuit) into Keen 2.

Hey, thanks everyone!

@CommanderSpleen Cool, thanks for putting that up. This em-dosbox thing really sounds like the latest thing for mods. I guess I ought to get around to actually checking it out now.

Heh, sorry about the difficulty of the slugs. We were trying to invent a patch to make the slime stay still but we simply ran out of time (the closest we got was having the main menu freak out over the game while the slime was staying still).
We also tried to come up with a patch to make Scrubs jump around like Vortikids for the Bounders, but were completely stumped so we had to do a last-minute substitute and just made a tile for a sleeping Bounder.

troublesomekeen wrote: ↑Sat Apr 01, 2017 8:41 Do you plan to keep working on this project?

I was planning to if there's interest, which it looks like there is. Probably need to take a little break from this first, after all the work we've done over the last couple weeks on it.

My brother was the one who drew the pyramid tiles. He's so happy everyone likes them.

@Quillax Glad you like it, and thanks for the suggestion for the trees.

Quillax wrote: ↑Sat Apr 01, 2017 18:10 I'm interested in seeing how you'll convert some of the original stuff (such as the foot and wetsuit) into Keen 2.

Haha, I actually have no idea yet. All I know is I need to get a lot better at patching.

Oh nuts, I just noticed that in the setup batch files UNLZEXE is spelled wrong. I'm going to have to fix that.

Hey there,

It's great to see another newcomer already having something to show!
Then again, this is not necessary at all - Others newcomers shall be welcome as well (as long as they don't make too much mess, I guess).

This is a nice take on bringing Keen 4 to 2.

Just one minor comment:

proYorp wrote: ↑Sun Apr 02, 2017 3:58Oh nuts, I just noticed that in the setup batch files UNLZEXE is spelled wrong. I'm going to have to fix that.

This is correct, but in fact, there's no need for UNLZEXE at all. The last version of CK2PATCH can decompress a copy of KEEN2.EXE in memory on-the-fly, the same way it's done without patching at all.

Of course, UNLZEXE is (probably) still useful while you're modding. It's just for the players where it isn't necessary, though.

Thanks for the tip NY! That explains it. I was a bit confused when I found the typo because I was sure it worked when I tested it.
Good to know. That makes everything a lot simpler. (And the .zip file size is now less than a third of what it was.)

Download link has been updated.

Oh man, this perfect! Such an awesome idea and the way it's made real. I love this kind of stuff, the translation of something that uses more resources into something that uses so much less. And don't change the slugs, they're brutal but it's so funny how they literally shoot their poison across the level! Would be nice to see the entire game converted, one day. Nice to see you've already gotten a good start at modding.

Thanks for updating the download link! I couldn't for the life of me figure it out.

proYorp wrote: ↑Sun Apr 02, 2017 3:58 Heh, sorry about the difficulty of the slugs. We were trying to invent a patch to make the slime stay still but we simply ran out of time (the closest we got was having the main menu freak out over the game while the slime was staying still).
We also tried to come up with a patch to make Scrubs jump around like Vortikids for the Bounders, but were completely stumped so we had to do a last-minute substitute and just made a tile for a sleeping Bounder.

and here I though the slugs difficulty was on purpose for a the Aprils fool joke XD
But how did the Menu Freak out, was it also flying around? XD

if there only had been time a small animated Z above the bounder it would have been perfect ;p

and, F2 + Ctrl+C is your friend, to get the right filenames ^.~

It should be fun to see this properly patched, get a few things like actually bounding bounders in it. (Just duplicate the Mad Mushroom.) Was disappointed the switch tile wasn't a copy of the Keen 4 one, it'd fit fine.


And this is for April Fools? Pity I missed it, I actually had a mod with a similar parodic theme set to go.

Oh, hey Levellass! Glad you like it!

Levellass wrote: ↑Sat Apr 29, 2017 11:24 It should be fun to see this properly patched, get a few things like actually bounding bounders in it. (Just duplicate the Mad Mushroom.)

I suspected this was the way to do it, but when I tried to get one sprite to use another's behavior it instead turned into that sprite. Any tips, O Great Patchmaster?

Levellass wrote: ↑Sat Apr 29, 2017 11:24 Was disappointed the switch tile wasn't a copy of the Keen 4 one, it'd fit fine.

Keen4 switch? You mean this?

Didn't even think of using it... we were in a terrible rush just to get all the new graphics in (which helped a lot in imitating the Vorticons style ). I suppose I could edit the Keen 2 switch to look a bit more like that. I don't want to directly rip any tiles from Keen4, this is supposed to emulate the Vorticons style as close as possible without making any improvements that Galaxy may have.

By the way, I found a patch for the speed of the Vorticon Elite's shot on Keen:Modding. Setting it to zero makes it stay still, now we just need to get it to disappear after some time.

Ok, so first up, to get he Bounder to imitate the Mushroom you just have to copy the bouncing behavior. (One problem with Keen Vorticons is that all sprite stuff is controlled by the sprite code, instead of having neat actions like Galaxy.) The space $0B5F - $0CB4 is free. BUT, in the case of the Youths we can be a bit more tricky.

The Mushrooms don't move, so we don't need left AND right animations for them, two sprites can use the behaviors and look different, Bounder for one, Mushroom for the other.

In fact Keen 2's sprite spawning seems to have been neglected, if you are continuing this I can work everything out and expand the number of possible enemies and suchlike.

For the elite's shot what you want is simply to replace its behavior with that of the Zap\Zot, which sit still and vanish after a time: (It's even possible to have it dry up like in Keen 4 in two steps.)
The only side effect is that the Robot's shots are the same thing, though I don't know if you want the Robots to shoot. Certainly a more nuanced patch setup will eventually be needed.