Keen6: Discovered a glitch

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Benvolio
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Keen6: Discovered a glitch

Post by Benvolio »

This morning whilst on a bus I heard a kid excitedly telling his disinterested mother about some glitch he had discovered in some present-day game.

12h later, I am here to report a glitch in a different game that has excited 31 year old me.

Have fired up Keen6 for the first time in years. Home after catching up with a few friends over a Guinness or two - so doubly lacking in confidence on how my playing skills would hold up.

Went into the First Dome of Darkness (easy mode as always).

Found my way top the slope immediately below the starting point. Oh no, a blooglet - and spikes a few tiles away.

Jamming on the pogo stick to try avoid said blooglet, I found that Keen was pushed along (holding his pogo)... towards the spikes... into the spikes... through the spikes... out the other side (to the left of the spikes)... still alive.

I tried to replicate this. The pogo Keen sprite clearly needs to engage the blooglet at a precise point to get pushed along as such. But after a few tries this has occurred again, once more surviving the spikes.

Has this phenomenon been identified before?
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proYorp
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Re: Keen6: Discovered a glitch

Post by proYorp »

Oh snap I actually got it to happen. I haven't seen this before. Seems pretty random, for me it was when I pogoed off the wall left of the spikes and into the Blooglet coming down the slope that it happened.

I do know that if God Mode is on, this happens by default. Keen floats over hazards like this. I wonder if somehow that's being triggered. Because as we all know, Keen 6 is a bit wonky when it comes to collision handling. I've even seen it nicknamed "Aliens Ate My Collision Code." :lol So my first reaction to this was "ya know, that sounds about right!" :D
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StupidBunny
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Re: Keen6: Discovered a glitch

Post by StupidBunny »

I think I remember this happening to me a long time ago, probably in the same spot. I never found it easily repeatable enough, or repeatable in enough places, to exploit but it’s a neat find nonetheless. Might have to go see if I can make it go again ;)

Now we need to find a trick to get past all the giks in Bloogville because they continue to be the great evil clouding my life
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Nisaba
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Re: Keen6: Discovered a glitch

Post by Nisaba »

oh, that sounds pretty interesting. I can't seem to replicate it on my end though. can you record a record a video via DOSBox's capturing feature and share the RAW material please. I'd like to extract an animated GIF from it to put it on the glitch section of our KeenWiki.
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NY00123
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Re: Keen6: Discovered a glitch

Post by NY00123 »

As I guess that one of the preceding posters will do so, I won't record a video for now. But yeah, it works and this is a nice find.

I weirdly don't recall if I got Keen to fly through the spikes, but I'm quite sure I saw him flying above ground while being pushed by a blooglet more than once.
You basically need to ensure a blooglet is moving left, and then push right towards the blooglet while falling down. You don't even have to use the pogo. It might not be reliably reproduced, but eventually, you should find Keen flying a bit above ground while being pushed left.

Note that if you're doing this in level 3 to the right of the aforementioned slope, Keen will land around the slope's right most edge. In order to have a chance of flying through the spikes, you should start the ride from the slope itself.

The reason Keen isn't killed by the spikes is simple. It's actually the bases of the spikes connecting them to the floor which pose a hazard. You can see that if you move (very) few pixels into one of the spikes, Keen will stay alive.
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Soul Monster
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Re: Keen6: Discovered a glitch

Post by Soul Monster »

Now that you mention it, I do remember running into this glitch in the past. Isn't it weird that there's so many glitches in Keen 6 that actually benefit the player?
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Re: Keen6: Discovered a glitch

Post by ShikadiQueen »

I originally thought Keen was just naturally able to stand on Blooglets the same way he does on Giks. I remember running into (hah) this glitch quite a few times when I was a kid playing on actual MS-DOS machines, without being aware it was not actually supposed to happen.
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Re: Keen6: Discovered a glitch

Post by XkyRauh »

ShikadiQueen wrote: Fri Sep 03, 2021 16:12 I originally thought Keen was just naturally able to stand on Blooglets the same way he does on Giks. I remember running into (hah) this glitch quite a few times when I was a kid playing on actual MS-DOS machines, without being aware it was not actually supposed to happen.
I always enjoyed "Blooglet Surfing" at the end of the secret level, if you timed Keen's slide down the final pole before the exit to land atop the Blooglet. Keen attacks Fribbulus Zax!
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Quillax
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Re: Keen6: Discovered a glitch

Post by Quillax »

Wow, I was able to pull off that glitch you found, Benvolio! Several times! I did it while on the pogo and off the pogo! It definitely only seems to work while Keen is falling, because otherwise Keen will just go over the Blooglet after a little while. It's kind of funny seeing Keen fly over the spikes without getting killed! I wonder if Keen can fly over the air to the right while being pushed by a Blooget from the left. I think I might've gotten that to happen.

I also think this glitch might be possible in Keen 5 with the Koraths. Last time I played the secret level of that game, I want to say I've been pushed by those people several times while slightly hovering above the floor. I know that happens when Keen goes up and there is a low ceiling that prevents Keen from simply jumping over the Korath. I'm not sure if I've ever gotten Keen to glide from a Korath while falling. It would be interesting to know if the Koraths push Keen the same way the Blooglets do. :korath :korath :korath :korath It's funny when Keen, trying to go up, keeps hitting his head on the ceiling while being pushed by a Korath! :lol It seems that Galaxy Keen has some problems with being pushed around. :rollin
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Nisaba
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Re: Keen6: Discovered a glitch

Post by Nisaba »

Quillax wrote: Tue Oct 12, 2021 6:04 Wow, I was able to pull off that glitch you found, Benvolio! Several times! [...]
if you could, please record it via DOSBox's build in capturing tool and send me the raw material. the video can contain unsuccessful attempts as well, so you don't have to time things perfectly or edit the output. I'll then convert a GIF file from it and upload it to our wiki
(I'm asking cause I'm still not able to reproduce this glitch on my end)
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