Shadow keen 1 remake troubles

[Vortlike]

Does anyone remember playing this classic keen 1 mod?

https://keenwiki.shikadi.net/wiki/ShadowKeen1

Appearantly there was a remake made after the first version. With some improvements. But I noticed some errors in playing it as soon as the third level. tiles that are clearly ment to be background are foreground making it as good as unplayable. then after the level the teleporter brings you to the mountains where you are stuck forever. And on top of that god mode is hidden under a new keybinding and does no longer give no clipping on the world map.

So I got around these issue by editing the files. And I didn't find it to have any more bugs or be unreasonably hard. it has some interesting patching of the enemies.

How come this bug has never been commented on or a fixed version ever released?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnIWYjWHy04

[Benvolio]

Ah yes I remember well the chaotic world of Shadow Keen! Episode 2 was my favourite. Followed by 3 and then 1.

At the time I definitely wasn't aware of the degree of ripped-ness of graphics nor was I familiar with the sources (to be honest I still am not in many cases).

How come ... a fixed version ever released?

Goodness knows. There is probably too finite an amount of time at people's disposal... unless you fancy giving it a go!!

I have little or no recollection of Levellord's Mortuary website funnily enough. What a sweet website firmly belonging to the old (nice) internet and not the new (nasty) one.

[Vortlike]

Goodness knows. There is probably too finite an amount of time at people's disposal

Aside from finding out the reason I think it is kind of unfortunate that such a promising project was abandoned in such an unfinished state. And it makes me wonder if people didn't even get past the first few levels or if they found the same bug as me and were just like nope and closed it never to look at it again. But it seems kind of unfortunate if the bug was never fixed because no-one bothered to let the author know. Also these conversation may be lost now on an old forum or something

unless you fancy giving it a go!!

I might but I also want to know if other people agree with me this is an important bug that warrants a fix even if we can not get permission from the original author. Do other people support the idea to add a fixed version to the wiki if I do one.

The thing is fixing it might not be a lot of work. I already changed the background thing as I was playing it. I deleted the no clipping with god mode patch and walked to the the place I was supposed to go, which isn't hard to guess.

From there on I played through all the levels of the first part.

If I can patch the teleporter coordinates. if that patch works and I can get it to work (I may need some help with this or think of another work around)

I do not intend to go over this project with a fine-tooth comb but I also don't think it needs to.

That being said doing a level pack for this mod might also be fun to do.

I made a game play video of the castle level after fixing the foreground bug. The garg replacement changes in a yorp replacement when shot. this gives an interesting dynamic when a garg charges and you shoot it the yorp keeps charging being more dangerous to push you into danger it can also block a second shot if there are multiple enemies. the tank bot also changes into a yorp when shot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtESydujEHI

[Quillax]

Oh boy, I remember playing Shadow Keen 1 so many years ago, along with a bit of Shadow Keen 3. I don't know if I ever played them after I signed up in PCKF. I remember the first game being very hard and sometimes a bit confusing, while with the third one I just remember who the villain is (I think you could just head straight to the final level without playing any of the others, right?). I've played a bit of Shadow Keen 2 last year, but it was more of a test run than anything.

At first, I wasn't sure what remake you were talking about, but looking at that video I can tell it's Levellord's remake. The KeenWiki article you linked notes the teleporter bug under the Version History header (relevant part in bold):

The remake released by Levellord in 2005 features improved and new graphics, modified levels, altered and new enemies and sound effects from Perilous Pursuit. The story of the second part has been changed, now Spaceman Spiff from the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip is the protagonist. He is given the ability to use antigravity boots, which is achieved through patching of the pogoing behaviour. Like the previous releases, the remake is not without bugs. For example, the teleporters of the world map in the first part don't work properly, making it impossible to access all levels of the mod. As the map clipping effect of God mode is disabled, the game cannot be finished without editing the patch file.

However the tile foreground issue you have in that one level doesn't seem to get brought up. Maybe whoever wrote that knew about it ("not without bugs") but didn't think it was as noteworthy of an example. If I remember correctly, Levellord's mods were infamous for being rushed and thus have some critical errors that could make them really hard or even impossible. I think in the old PCKF ezboard, someone (may have been Levellord herself) said that while most people would spend weeks or months making a mod, Levellord would make whole mods in days. I don't know how true that is, but looking at her KeenWiki page, she is definitely a prolific modder, especially in early 2005 (FOUR mods released on March!).

As for your question about an unofficial bug fix to add to the wiki, I'm not very sure. We've added some of K1n9_Duk3's updates for other mods, as they make lots of fixes and changes, and the original versions were sometimes unplayable. Now, with Shadow Keen 1 here, it seems to be unplayable after a certain point, but that can just be easily fixed if one knows how to open up a patch file and remove the patch that disables no clipping mode for God mode. If you made an update that fixed that along with the tile foreground issue, I may consider putting that on KeenWiki, but who knows. I feel a bit iffy on how the whole unofficial bug fix thing should be handled in KeenWiki. I'd rather not have too many different versions on the wiki, otherwise everyone might try to make their own unofficial bug fix.

I have little or no recollection of Levellord's Mortuary website funnily enough. What a sweet website firmly belonging to the old (nice) internet and not the new (nasty) one.

Oh yeah, I remember The Mortuary! That was a fun little website. I like how it presents itself as a website owned by Levellord. That background image really takes me back.

[Vortlike]

I hadn't noticed that the keen wiki already mentioned these bugs. It's true that anyone can break open the patch search through it, figure out what the no clipping patch is and take it out. Or you can open a level editor and give the player access to all 16 levels right away. But not everyone might be as skilled at modding to know how to do that without taking a bunch of effort. Maybe someone can gets past the level with the foreground tile but since the person commenting here was already technically able to eliminate the cheat restriction maybe they also used god-mode there.

Out of twelve playable levels only three are accessible without editing the patch file and cheating.

that is 25% playable levels.

And of those three levels only 2 are bug free. the third is practically unplayable already.

So that makes 16,6% levels playable and bug free

Once you get around the teleporter(s) I didn't find any major issues. I guess I could point out that if you miss any of the parts the teleporters can never bring you back even if they work but this is just a minor thing I would say.

I realized in the keen wiki that it was only added in May 2019. if you click on the history tab it says: ‎

"Wow, Levellord released a remake of both parts in 2005 which went almost unnoticed, it seems."

I think it's particularly unfortunate because the original shadowkeen got a lot of criticism for being buggy and too hard. I think it was mostly unfair and too hard level design. Since I played this again recently by, as you put it, easily modifying the game files to get around the bugs. I realized the levels are seriously toned down in terms of outrageous situations. And also the interesting patching wasn't in the original. I think that it is a waste to not give more people a chance to play this as an example of how a mod could be and what is possible. But I wouldn't know what version to recommend right now. I think a version that only has 3 levels accessible can not be presented to anyone as a complete and playable mod and even if we say one level is enough, or two in this case. some of the best content is still locked away. the old version has different issues but doesn't qualitatively compare in my opinion.

Also assuming the player has the skill and the patience to enable god-mode and no-clipping mode. It then sort of ruins the immersion having to figure out where you are supposed to go and be your own referee in that. We can guess (I can) where you are supposed to go. (or look at the old version) And a patch should work here.

By the way I also not sure what a mostly correct way of dealing with extra versions is. However someone could verify the bugs and decide that it is a big enough bug te justify an update. You could take my word for it that I played the remaining levels and didn't find any big issues (or any, it depends or I don't remember). I did notice there is a level18 included that I don't think you can access and doesn't seem to fit the tileset anymore.