Where your Keen world and IRL intersect!

This is where you can post your Commander Keen related stories, artwork, or other stuff that is related to Commander Keen but otherwise doesn't belong in another forum.
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Benvolio
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Where your Keen world and IRL intersect!

Post by Benvolio »

Here's something that would be interesting to share stories about maybe, inspired by Awesome-Keener's post.

So all of us have a Keen world which is doing whatever Commander Keen stuff we do, and of course chatting on this forum. And each of us have an IRL world which is everything else. But have we all instances where we got our IRL people involved in Keen activities (whether overtly publicised in the community or not)? I guess there have been many examples over the years but it would be nice to share any amusing stories.

In my case you may or may not recall a user called Azura making a couple of posts in 2013 showcasing excellent pixel art - this was in fact a nice chap I befriended in the Netherlands when I was over there. The high quality Keen1 mod never materialised sadly as we shortly thereafter made our ways back to our home countries in different hemispheres. But it's amusing to look back at posts on this forum which actually come from someone I've known in "real life".

That's my only example that's involved the forum itself. But a few fun examples of modding related escapades come to mind.

One was many years ago with one of my good childhood friends (also in another hemisphere now), when we began work on a typical teenage boy themed Keen1 mod with the working title "Hitler's back". It didn't have much of a plot as I recall but the points items definitely included cigarettes and beer bottles (though we were a few years away from actually indulging in those things ourselves). Might have ended up an amusing if controversial mod but alas no copies of the early version appear to exist.

What does exist however is an early version of a collaboration with my sister on a Keen1 mod featuring all her various teddy bears. I guess she would have been about 8 or 9 when it was being made and I'm pretty sure I was more motovated about the whole thing. Nonetheless I think it genuinely had some promise. Perhaps I'll ask if she's happy for me to share it here. Actually come to think of it she's also ended up in that same Southern Hemisphere country as the other two people I mentioned. You know, the one with the Kangaroos and those massive black and white birds everywhere.

Perhaps you all have some such tales to report?!
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Nisaba
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Re: Where your Keen world and IRL intersect!

Post by Nisaba »

mmm... not sure if it really fits here. Be that as it may. I plan on giving my own creations and a few select mods from the community to my nephews to play once they turn 6 or 7. If they enjoy it, I think it will be interesting to see if these games make as big an impression on them as they did on me. This will be a long-term project, so to speak. And who knows, maybe they will continue to maintain the forums instead of me one day. For me this is already an exciting thought experiment...

Otherwise I try to find beta testers for my games and mods from my direct environment, preferably those who have nothing or not much to do with the Keen universe. This is because blind testing simply gives me another look at my products, and makes me less biased to logic gaps and ambiguities. I love to see the sparkle in their eyes in such cases. Then I know that I have done something right. And that's why we all build mods, or do you see it differently? I mean, to give pleasure to ourselves but also to the community, as we ourselves found pleasure in the originals many many years ago. Anyways. Some of my IRL testers actually dropped by the forums as guests from time to time and are amazed at how civilized and with what enthusiasm and passion this game series is still celebrated by us after so many years...

happy keening everybody
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Ceilick
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Re: Where your Keen world and IRL intersect!

Post by Ceilick »

In grade school my buddies and I would talk about finding secret levels and making our own Keen games. I think our best idea featured aliens taking over Keen's school, an evil janitor, and getting to the secret level via flushing Keen down the toilet.

I also used to try to recruit family and friends to test my work, however, I've never been met with much enthusiasm or skill in the matter (using the pogo is simply too difficult for some). I also tried getting the same friends from grade school to mod with me, but the most effort I got was a sketch that lead to Dead in the Desert's Cobrit creature.

I briefly met Mink at the airport after development of Battle of the Brains, which was a cool experience after working with him for several years. Great guy, I miss having him around. Got to share some of the Sign of the Vool development I had at the time, as well as some other art. We even signed disc copies of Battle of the Brains for each other, with room for Tulip should we ever have the chance to meet him as well.
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XkyRauh
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Re: Where your Keen world and IRL intersect!

Post by XkyRauh »

In fourth grade there was a boy in my class named Jesse. He found out I liked Commander Keen (I talked about it incessantly) and he told me about an episode of Keen titled "Keen Dreams," where Keen was "in his pajamas," had "no pogo," and had to "collect Boobus Bombs." Having only known Keen:Vorticons and Keen:Galaxy, this sounded incredibly far fetched. Why would there be a Keen game like that? I called him a liar and was offended he'd try to trick me like that. He was confused I reacted like that, but we weren't exactly close friends or anything, so we went our separate ways.

Years later, when I was in 8th or 9th grade and started using the Internet in general (and found the PCKF in its younger days) I found out Jesse had been telling me the truth all along!

Sorry, Jesse. :) haha
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proYorp
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Re: Where your Keen world and IRL intersect!

Post by proYorp »

Benvolio wrote: Fri Mar 11, 2022 6:12 Here's something that would be interesting to share stories about maybe, inspired by Awesome-Keener's post.
Just to preserve the context when these threads are eventually buried, this is the referenced post:
viewtopic.php?p=102976#p102976


This seems like a fun discussion. Might write something if I ever have time.
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