Public Commander Keen Forum

Syllypryde wrote: ↑Fri Dec 06, 2019 12:38 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.

On the double bridge section make sure to flip both switches up. The right switch activates the right bridge. Then use the "impossible" pogo trick to jump off the left switch in order to grab the ledge at the right hand bridge. It might take a few tries to get the jump right, but you can do it. I have faith in you.

Well what do you know, it is possible. I didn't even think of trying this because the distance from the switch to the bridge looked way too far, and I didn't realise there was enough time to do a full Impossible Pogo before you fall off (although I did use the switch to normal-pogo up to the bonus area to the left). It took several attempts, but I was able to pull it off, though this jump seems quite a bit more difficult than the rest of the mod. However, in Easy mode it can be done with much less effort. (Which seems to be a recurring theme here. I'm beginning to suspect the mod was only tested in Easy mode. )
I would still suggest to revise this area to bring it in line with the lower-mid difficulty of the rest of the levels. If the bridges are indeed working as intended, then maybe the distance from the jump switch to the platform could be reduced.

Syllypryde wrote: ↑Fri Dec 06, 2019 12:38 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.

Fair points, I mean that's what I did, just quickly copy-pasted it from "Dead in the Desert", and if you know what you're doing it's really easy. I was referencing problems I've seen other people report with supplying their own executable, so I was suggesting to simplify the user experience somehow.
Additionally, Kohntarkosz_ has voiced suspicion that varying versions of KEEN6.EXE are what is causing the teleport to crash (if you want to test this theory, Kohntarkosz_, as I said I'm using the executable from "Dead in the Desert", the latest download from KeenWiki).

ProYorp wrote: ... However, in Easy mode it can be done with much less effort. (Which seems to be a recurring theme here. I'm beginning to suspect the mod was only tested in Easy mode. )
I would still suggest to revise this area to bring it in line with the lower-mid difficulty of the rest of the levels. If the bridges are indeed working as intended, then maybe the distance from the jump switch to the platform could be reduced...

I am beginning to agree with you on this. By personal preference I like playing on easy mode first. Once I beat it at least once, then I turn on F10-Y cheat just to make sure I did in fact find all the hidden areas. I miss one or two, but mostly I do find them without the cheat. Depending on how my first easy run went then I decide whether I think I'm ready for normal. With most Galaxy mods I have completed most of them on all three skill levels.

But to go back to my agreement with you, I believe it was tested on easy only, because I am beginning to find problems I didn't encounter before now that I am playing on normal. The green gem in Level 2 Cell Block Beta has already been addressed and the mod creator has said he corrected this issue in the new beta. In that same level there is a switch being guarded by a Chillinder that activates a vertical goplat at the very beginning of the level. I can no longer flip this switch on normal because Keen and Rick can no longer jump high enough to flip it. But because the new beta centered predominately on fixing Level 2 issues, I would assume that issue is fixed as well.

I haven't downloaded the .03 Beta yet. I will soon.

What's the cliff level all about? I have used cheats to complete it but doing it normally I usually get stuck around the swing up pole sign and stairs sign. Rick completes the level without the item needed. I don't really enjoy blind guessing of what sequence of buttons to press. It's a silly idea imo.

stayfrosty wrote: ↑Sat Dec 14, 2019 2:59 What's the cliff level all about? I have used cheats to complete it but doing it normally I usually get stuck around the swing up pole sign and stairs sign. Rick completes the level without the item needed. I don't really enjoy blind guessing of what sequence of buttons to press. It's a silly idea imo.

There is a teleporter being guarded and only "authorized personnel" are allowed. The cop's uniform in A Cliff? allows you to get past them to go to the teleporter. However when Keen goes into the teleporter the game locks up. When Rick goes into the teleporter it takes him to a level called Planet Toronto. Obviously the level is still buggy. You shouldn't be able to exit the level like that.

Kohntarkosz_ wrote: ↑Thu Nov 28, 2019 14:17 As for k6loader.exe, I've got the code pretty much tuned-up and dialed-in, to the point where I don't believe I need any help with it, although I appreciate the offer. The problem is I wrote it in QBasic.

I was asking because I was thinking about rewriting the entire program in C (with some inline assembly here and there) to make the program faster and perhaps also a little smaller. I just don't want to also reverse-engineer the file formats that your loader is using.

But even if you don't want to do that, I would strongly recommend that you take a closer look at your own code. I ran the executable through a disassembler and found a ton of floating point operations in the executable. You could probably gain a significant amount of speed by using integer variables instead of floats in your code.

Was giving this game a run thru iron man on normal difficulty. The first 2 yellow Killinders in Old Rail Yard are very hard to pass. I know there's 3 lives hidden early so I'm not getting a Game Over. The first Killinder guarding the red gem is difficult but do-able but then you've gotta put it in the gem holder. Sorry for no screenshot. After 36 deaths I'm just going to cheat my way past it then turn cheats off. Does anyone else find this extremely hard to pass or have my Keen skills eroded since the 90's?

Choose Free Will

SigurdFireDragon

In the next days Ill try to play again the scenario CLEARING THE MINES, to see if the error message appear again; eventually I can try to post a game saved just before the Malifor defeat; can be useful?