I've finally finished the next giant update to my precious project, Keen Dreams Gold Edition!
Why is this so special release? Well...
HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY! A year ago, exactly on this day, I've released the first version of this source mod. This current update was planned to be released on Keen's Day, but due to time-pulling technical problems I've ended up thinking of other neat stuff that takes the time until May 10th.
So, let's see the changes since Keen's Day:
Update from 2025-03-14 to 2025-05-10:
Main menu:
- Added a 6th, Keen difficulty.
- The "Help Me, I'm Lost!" help section has been updated.
- Credit section has been extended with "Further Thanks" part.
- Added new, customizable scrolling, placing and pogo buttons.
- If the player turns on/off music or sound and/or changes between PC Speaker and AdLib, the changes become valid immediately.
- Joystick 2 has own separated, blue-colored button calibration button and menu button.
Parameters:
- Removed /nopan and /jerk parameters
Gameplay:
- There are 56 Boobus Bombs in the game in total.
- Helmetless Keen has entirely been removed for memory and free space issues.
- Reversed Sour Grape now appears in the plus 3 new difficulties.
- Reversed Door only appears in Castle Basement and Eggplant Estate.
- In Hill Top, beginner, skilled and keen difficulty rule window appears, which describes the features of the mode.
- Added 16 extra levels, which are the original levels at night (except one of them is new level, which is called Castle Tower + bonus 3 are from Ceilick's Keen Dreams Plus mod) with slight modifications in favour of Dream mode.
- The color of the night level texts are light blue.
- In Dream mode, instead of looking up while being bored Keen just faces to the actual direction (like in Bad Dreams Keen 1 mod by Levellord).
- Also in Dream mode, Keen has the pogo stick as secret item if he picks it. The pogoing has the same original sound as in Keen 4-6.
- Boobus' Chamber is renamed to Royal Chamber due to Queen Bustling Tuberina.
- Keen's looking up/ducking and scrolling up/down key combinations and movements have been corrected. (For example, if the player pushes and holds up, he/she can immediately duck while that and vice versa + same goes for the scrolling up/down version as well.)
- In Keen mode Keen has health counter, and thus, he has received a new, hit sprite (since the enemies resurrect not too, but very fast).
- Mushroom Mere (level 13) has received update, where the 4 Flower Power pellets and a mushroom can be found due to a bug, when Keen scrolls down from the mushroom and thus, he gets stuck in the ground tile.
- Demos have been re-recorded.
- In the super-secret level (Steel Bridge) the text has been updated in case of the note paper.
- Keen turning/stopping sprite state has been fixed.
- The incorrect score box cache that resulted crash while loading a game (or something else/similar like that, etc.) has been fixed.
- In Castle Basement, a guard robot has been removed on the top of the level and additional door + key are added.
- In Keen mode Boobus jumps higher.
- In beginner mode, since Queen Bustling Tuberina is the boss in that case, the ending is different.
- Blinking Flower Power now kills enemies like in Keen Dreams Definitive Edition.
- On the map level (where the bridge is) if the player tries to enter super-secret level, a warning message appears.
- The jukebox is now specific: If music is on, the jukebox can play music if the player chooses a track number, but if music is off, the jukebox is off as well.
- Keen now cannot jump through dangers by holding the jump key when hitting the ground.
EDIT:
- Fixed Turnip Trapway's 'DONE' mark (it was outside of the level entry spawn, so it wasn't marked)
- The melons in Watermelon Patch are now correctly positioned (even if they cannot be too visible, look for them to avoid 'em as soon as possible)
Graphics:
- Under the second title screen the "GOLD EDITION" sign is bigger and uses different font
- While facing to the left, the position of one of Keen's yawning frame has been corrected
- Boobus has different forms in skilled and keen mode
- In the masked tileset all the spawn code icons have been added and updated
- All Mortimer portraits have been tweaked
- Mortimer's helmetless portrait has been changed back to helmeted one
Shortcuts:
- If F7 is pressed, now there is a popup window that asks if the player wants to quit or not.
Levels:
- In Cauliflower Quarter the ground tile's height has been increased to prevent the player from getting hit by the Broccolash.
- 3 of Ceilick's levels have been added and been turned to night levels: Beet Street, Pea Pod Park, and Watermelon Patch
Others:
- Added technical notes for retro PC owners.
- The format of the help texts are now UTF-8.
- The info about how to buy the official Keen games in the previews has been removed.
- On the loading screen (and in case of using the "/noems" and/or "/noxms" parameters), the EMS and XMS memory's texts are now corrected.
- The F10 + M cheat has been improved.
- The new upside Melon is now the part of the melon cache, that's why the Celery has been moved.
- The code for the lyrics help section has been rationalized.
- If the super-secret level (Steel Bridge) is completed (no matter via saved game, F10 + E cheat, regular completing or not) the game now always print the correct amount of points.
- When the player pushes Esc to go to the main menu, the cursor is now always positioned to the first item.
- When the player loads a corrupted (or similar) saved game and receives an error message, the "Loading <save game name>" window now disappears correctly.
- On the first loading screen the invite link (that I created) to the PCKF's server has been fixed.
- On the quitting screen NetKeen has also been mentioned.
EDIT:
- Ceilick is credited for the 3 bonus secret levels that I added
Update 2025-05-13:
- Melon Mines have been edited.
- The position of Keen's right facing sprite (while/during being bored in night levels) has been fixed for big(ger) slope now.
- When Keen doesn't have pogo and the player pushes the pogoing button, now this only happens between level 25 and 40.
- Watermelon Patch level (night version) has been edited and renamed to Coastal Creek and has been edited.
- Coastal Creek's track is "Rowin' Down the Sad River"
- Melon Mines has been replaced by Cantaloupe Mine (which is from my Keen Dreams 2: Another Helping of Veggies with a few edit).
- Added Cantaloupe Lip between level 25 and 40. Its seed just stuns Keen and doesn't kill him.
- On Boobus' portrait, the line of Boobus' eyes have been corrected.
- Added Cantaloupe Lip description in the help menu.
- The Cantaloupe Lip's seed cannot stun Keen in god mode anymore.
Update 2025-05-15:
- Removed the unnecessary 3 Boobus Bombs from the night version of Spud City and those has been replaced with 3 Candy Bars + 3 Peppermints have been added at the upper left corner of the same level, where it was originally empty.
- In the enemy description, Boobus and Bustling are now called "THEIR VEGESTIES" instead of "ROYAL COUPLE".
- If the player runs the game for the first time, the music is now on (like in Keen 4-6).
Update 2025-05-16:
- When the player plays for the first time, the music is now on (as K1n9_Duk3 warned me earlier, it didn't happen before).
- If /noal (disabling AdLib detecting) parameter is used, either the AdLib music or the AdLib sounds are off.
Download this special update: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/yyopq8sw ... wnl5v&dl=1
YouTube trailer: https://youtu.be/RUHRl0vE3r0
KeenWiki: https://keenwiki.shikadi.net/wiki/Keen_ ... ld_Edition
