Keen Dreams in CG

All discussion about the Commander Genius project (a Keen interpreter + more).
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gerstrong
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Keen Dreams in CG

Post by gerstrong »

I know this request is still minor but for sake of completion I'm trying to integrate RefKeen to CG the way it can be played with the other episodes together.

There is one catch. No SDL 1.2 support for what I saw, so I will try to integrate the code to the GsKit pipeline which supports both and hopefully get some nice eye candy results.

I also would like to fix the problem with that game in which you cannot beat it, you know, if you miss the bombs. Since we support level re-playability this shouldn't be hard.

There also have been some bug fixes lately, but these are minor. I hope to get Dreams support finished soon and you all will get this.

Happy keening!
Having fun developing stuff...
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Levellass
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Post by Levellass »

*Salutes*

I wish you luck.
What you really need, not what you think you ought to want.
gerstrong
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Post by gerstrong »

Levellass wrote:*Salutes*

I wish you luck.
Thanks, you are very cute :-)
Having fun developing stuff...
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Post by gerstrong »

Hey guys, I have some news for you:

Image

Thanks to RefKeen by NY00123 we have integrated Keen Dreams and it runs pretty nice and smooth.

Still there's need to adjust some stuff, but it's getting there. The best thing is that the original Dreams code mostly left untouched and still in C, which again bases on the original published Keen Dreams code.

I think there is a lot we can learn for better physics for other galaxy episodes and mods.

Now, what do you think? Should we add some newer graphics and nice music? Or should we fix the flaw that might make the game unbeatable. Let me know what you think about.

This game is not my favorite of the series but for sake of completness I'm happy to have it available as native in Commander Genius. SDL 1.2 will also be supported, so soon there might be a version which will ship this one on Android.

There are a lot of more plans still, especially for package managers and more SDL 2.0. So stays tuned. CG will provide more awesomeness in the future.
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troublesomekeen
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Post by troublesomekeen »

gerstrong wrote:Now, what do you think? Should we add some newer graphics and nice music? Or should we fix the flaw that might make the game unbeatable. Let me know what you think about.

This game is not my favorite of the series but for sake of completness I'm happy to have it available as native in Commander Genius. SDL 1.2 will also be supported, so soon there might be a version which will ship this one on Android.
I love Keen Dreams due to it's raw nostalgic power. It certainly has its shortcomings--which might be partly why Ceilick made Dreams Plus. It has some great additions and replacements. If you're going for completeness, a true-to-the-original Dreams port might be the most fitting. I am currently trying to expand on the existing world of Tuberia (insofar as levels and artwork) to include more of the Waving Trees and Kumquat Chasm.

Glad to hear that the Dreams source code was useful. I put a ton of hours into that. :p

NY00123 released a version of Dreams compiled from the source code, if I understand correctly. I tried to add a little something to his main menu screen:

Image
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Commander Keen in... Canteloupe Quest!
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Post by Roobar »

Oh yes! Some new original adlib music if possible. That's what this game is lacking the most.
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Post by gerstrong »

wiivn wrote:Oh yes! Some new original adlib music if possible. That's what this game is lacking the most.
Very good, if someone has original tunes let me know, but please no "gotta eat vegetables"-stuff. Some original and fitting for a nice overall amazing Keen Dreams experience to have in maybe a package which you can play it on android would be cool.

The game has a lot of flaws in my opinion, but it's still a lot of fun and worth playing for that.

I think modding this will also be easy. The internal CG patcher also already works to certain extend...
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troublesomekeen
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Post by troublesomekeen »

I call dibs on the music. All original tunes and extremely keenish. You'll all think it was written by Bobby. I'll be working on it. I'll have the collection in midi format, and IMF as soon as I learn how to do the converting.
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Post by gerstrong »

troublesomekeen wrote:I call dibs on the music. All original tunes and extremely keenish. You'll all think it was written by Bobby. I'll be working on it. I'll have the collection in midi format, and IMF as soon as I learn how to do the converting.
That would be awesome! I only don't want to support another music format. IMF and OGG are supported. So it would be cool, like with the others packs and extensions we have to focus on one of these formats. IMF is more limited than OGG in my opinion but for Keen music that made exactly mods like Keen 9 so great.

Both formats are fully supported in CG! So, if you can create some tunes for the levels and really want to do that, then dibs to you!
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troublesomekeen
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Post by troublesomekeen »

This is the music I had in mind. I have yet to notate all the tracks, but this is basically how the tunes are:
https://youtu.be/SeZgZ1oWhYI
Spontaneous piano versions. I'll be making midi versions as soon as I can.
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Post by kvee »

troublesomekeen wrote:This is the music I had in mind. I have yet to notate all the tracks, but this is basically how the tunes are:
https://youtu.be/SeZgZ1oWhYI
Spontaneous piano versions. I'll be making midi versions as soon as I can.
Damn, that's impressive! Great job!
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Post by gerstrong »

troublesomekeen wrote:This is the music I had in mind. I have yet to notate all the tracks, but this is basically how the tunes are:
https://youtu.be/SeZgZ1oWhYI
Spontaneous piano versions. I'll be making midi versions as soon as I can.
This sounds very good. As synthesized midi I think this might work well. I have to rush so the next Release will have keen dreams and listen your tunes. There is something left to do in the CG code before publishing.
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troublesomekeen
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Post by troublesomekeen »

No rush on my account, Gerstrong. I'll be lucky if I get this soundtrack done this year. Perhaps in January. A lot of my co-workers are leaving and one is in for surgery, which means I'm going to be waiting tables every single evening. And I'm plenty busy during the day with the lodge. (Gotta work build up the piggy bank for the next kickstarter.) So yeah. I do have software and another amazing cool awesome keyboard (the Korg Kronos 2, probably the most powerful keyboard on earth right now) which isn't what I'm playing on in the video. Time is really all I need now.
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Commander Keen in... Canteloupe Quest!
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