Public Commander Keen Forum

Hello. Thanks to help from the community, I am now able to play commander keen mods! I am insane with gratitude. Truly. I’m having trouble getting the Marooned on Mars mod that uses the keen 4 engine to run on my computer. I’m downloading the latest version, but when I put it in dosbox it won’t open like the others. It stays in dos and says something about an error. Can someone help?
I’d be stoked to play this. Keen was my childhood.

I'll be happy to help you if you can tell me which is the error. Please can you make a screenshot?

P. S. This is the release forum, where you can only release your projects. This topic must be moved in the Unofficial Keen Games

Mods usually need to be run via the included batch file (PLAY.BAT in this case). Just running KEEN5E.EXE will not work.

You will also need to provide your own copy of KEEN5E.EXE and copy it into the mod's folder. The version of KEEN5E.EXE must be v1.4, which should be the version you get when you buy the Keen games on the 3D Realms store or on Steam.

Since episodes 2, 3, 5 and 6 of Commander Keen are not shareware, it would be illegal to include the executables in the mod download. That's why (most of) the mod downloads from the KeenWiki don't come with these files.

If you still can't get it to run, post the error message (either as text or as a screenshot) here.

Sorry-- Yes, Dark Ale. You're absolutely right. I have trouble seeing what im doing when on the iphone. thanks for pointing out for me.

when I put into the file containing keen marooned on mars mod the keen5exe file from steam, i then move the entire file on window over my dosbox ap, drop it in, and dos opens. I get this message:
"drive C is mounted as local directory C:\OneDrive\Desktop\keen 1\
z:\>C:
C:\>"

I am not sure what I am doing wrong.

I am not familiar with drag and dropping in Dosbox but it sounds like you might be making things more complex than they need to be.

What is the path location for your mod folder?
Keen mods are seldom more than a megabyte or two so I would encourage you to find a location on your C: drive for it rather than needlessly trying to run it from the cloud.

Let me give an example in the meantime.
Let's assume for example you have saved the mod in C:\dos\Keen1, and that you also put the correct game executable in the folder.

I would suggest you open dosbox.
You start on drive Z:
Then type: mount c c:\dos (and press enter)
Then type: C: (and press enter)
You will now be on drive C according to dosbox: (which will have its root in the location C:\dos - Dosbox prefers this when mounting a drive)
Then type: cd Keen1 (and press enter)
You will now be in C:\keen1
Now you can just type the batch file name and press enter. This would be the file with .bat as its extension. I'm not familiar with the mod you're trying to play so I don't know what the batch file is called. Let me give an example.

If there is a "play.bat" in the folder, then all you would have to do in Dosbox once you've navigated to the correct folder as I described above, is type "play" and press enter.

Thank you. That is good information and I’ll continue to learn. I made the mod work this morning, but I admit that I’m still quite confused and wanting to better understand all of it

Webster.Pastapali wrote: ↑Wed Nov 18, 2020 13:11 when I put into the file containing keen marooned on mars mod the keen5exe file from steam, i then move the entire file on window over my dosbox ap, drop it in, and dos opens. I get this message:
"drive C is mounted as local directory C:\OneDrive\Desktop\keen 1\
z:\>C:
C:\>"

I am not sure what I am doing wrong.

you did everything right except for one thing. don't drag&drop the KEEN5.EXE file but instead the play.bat file. this should do the trick for (nearly) all mods!

looks a little like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NyflZT2LZs

(however, if you are about to play the originals then of course you need to drag&drop your KEEN*.EXE files)

Webster.Pastapali wrote: ↑Wed Nov 18, 2020 13:11I get this message:
"drive C is mounted as local directory C:\OneDrive\Desktop\keen 1\
z:\>C:
C:\>"

From what I gather, you dragged and dropped the folder onto DOSBox. Doing that will just mount the folder as the C drive in DOSBox and that's all. You can absolutely do this, but that means you'll havbe to type in the command to actually start the game (or whatever program you're trying to run) manually each time you do this.

You obviously never used a real DOS system, or at least not the command line interface. The "C:\>" prompt with a flashing cursor is the default behavior after booting up a DOS machine. It is waiting for you to type in a command to make it actually do something.

Dragging and dropping the file you want to run (i.e. KEEN*.EXE or PLAY.BAT) onto the DOSBox icon would be faster and easier for you. You just have to make sure to use the correct file (usually the .BAT file for Keen mods).

Awesome. Thank you, everybody. I will get the hang of it. I am able to play some mods now. One problem I am having is that when I play a mod, I am unable to maximize the screen. Hence, my screen is a tiny fraction of my full computer screen-- enough to enjoy but not enough to feel disgustingly immersed which is what I am going for. Could someone help me? The maximize screen tab simply does not work on my mods, but works on my steam Keens.
Thanks!

To use DOSBox in full screen, press the ALT key and, while pressing the ALT key, press the Enter key. Do this again, and you return to the DOSBox window.

in short: [Alt]+[Enter]

Awesome. I’ll give it a go!