Re: Announcement 2 of 2: Beta testers required for a new Keen 6 mod
Posted: Fri Nov 29, 2019 21:22
This is neat.
https://pckf.com/
You are on Cell Block Beta right? Where exactly are you getting stuck on each level? Were you able to get the yellow and red gems for Keen? The green and red gems for Rick?
KeenGraph has a few interesting issues that are not fixed yet... >.>
It should be noted that while the only Shareware episode of Goodbye Galaxy is Episode 4, most people treat Episode 6 as abandonware, because no-one is really sure who owns the rights to it and it is no longer sold anywhere (it's not in the collection on Steam). Due to this, people aren't as strict about distributing the executable, and IIRC all Keen 6 mods I've played already contained it. Additionally, it's a lot harder to obtain a copy, and I know several people have said they don't even have Keen 6. (Plus not everyone has the technical know-how to decompress the .EXE, although there are ways to help with this: Ceilick's "Battle of the Brains" did so by supplying a copy of UNZLEXE to use and a batch file to prepare it, and I believe the latest version of CKPATCH does not require the executable to be decompressed.)Kohntarkosz_ wrote: ↑Tue Nov 26, 2019 15:58 1. Find an UNZLEXE'd copy of keen6.exe (if you don't have one handy, send your two bits to the Apogee Software distribution office on the outskirts of Dallas and they'll mail it to you on a floppy...at least I *assume* it still works like that.)
West Tundra Town is solvable without cheats. On the double bridge section you can do it without both bridges open. There is a trick unique to Keen 6 you cannot do in Keens 4-5. In Keens 4-5 you push up to flip a switch. In Keen 6 you have to jump in order to flip the switches. When you want to flip a switch down you jump on top of it. You can actually use a switch to jump off of to get extra height on your jump.proYorp wrote: ...but there was another one in West Tundra Town. There are two bridges next to each other, and two switches that affect both of them. It seems to be impossible to be able to both climb onto them and walk across the longer one on the right to where you need to go, as only one of them can be open at a time. I'm guessing one of the switches is supposed to only affect the one on the right, in which case it would be possible to synchronise them...
proYorp wrote: I've been able to bypass most of these problems with the help of cheats, except for one that I've just run into. I used no-clip to be able to access the secret level (I think the issue with the teleport crashing the game has already been reported) but upon trying to enter I see the default level entry text (for Bloog Control Center) and as soon as the level loads I just see a black screen and instantly hear the death tone, then the level appears for a brief moment before it does the same thing again.
I tried loading the level on a new game (my save file was transferred between versions, so I'm not sure if that affects anything) but then it just gives the black screen, dies, and just hangs.
My first guess is to check if the level has a player sprite actually set anywhere (I'd check myself but I don't currently have easy access to a level editor).
As the mod creator has said there "supposed to be" 3 levels specific for each character. West Tundra Mountains is specific to Keen. East Tundra Mountains is specific to Rick. The Courthouse (Level 13) is specific to Keen. The Courthouse (Level 14) is specific to Rick. Currently for this release of the Beta, Level 15 Planet Toronto is specific to Rick. When you try play this level as Keen, either from using the F10-N clip cheat to go to the level as you did, or using the F10-W warp cheat to go to Level 15, you get the Bloog Control Center entrance text and Keen immediately dies. Like I said, Planet Toronto is a Rick specific level right now, which makes no sense. Because if Keen cannot play this level anyway, it makes A Cliff? where Keen gets the cop uniform and having him go through the teleporter completely useless. My guess is the Keen part of the level may not have been designed yet.Kohntarkosz_ wrote: Levels: Every Keen6 level slot has been used. Three levels are only playable as Rick; another three are only playable as Keen; most of the others have separate rick-only and keen-only areas (or, e.g., areas which must be explored left-to-right as Keen and right-to-left as Rick.)
If already have any of the Keen6 mods such as Dead in the Desert, Aliens Ate My Babysiter... Again, The Rapid Pack, Keen10 Mirror Menace etc. then you should already have an Unlzexed version of Keen 6. Just go into the directory of either one of these mods and copy that version of Keen6 into the directory of The Prisoner's Dilemma. Besides, if you are a big enough fan of Commander Keen that you are actually playing mods, then you most likely already have copies of all 7 of the original games including Keen6.ProYorp wrote: It should be noted that while the only Shareware episode of Goodbye Galaxy is Episode 4, most people treat Episode 6 as abandonware, because no-one is really sure who owns the rights to it and it is no longer sold anywhere (it's not in the collection on Steam). Due to this, people aren't as strict about distributing the executable, and IIRC all Keen 6 mods I've played already contained it. Additionally, it's a lot harder to obtain a copy, and I know several people have said they don't even have Keen 6. (Plus not everyone has the technical know-how to decompress the .EXE, although there are ways to help with this: Ceilick's "Battle of the Brains" did so by supplying a copy of UNZLEXE to use and a batch file to prepare it, and I believe the latest version of CKPATCH does not require the executable to be decompressed.)
If there is a frequent difference in executables that is causing glitches to occur, it could be advisable to consider supplying the file yourself.