First Keen mod you played

[The Shifted One]

That would be KeenQ by Joriz.
Even though I had been designing levels for Keen (and more so the original Duke Nukem) long before I never really joined any online community or found out there were many mods until Joriz showed me his mod (which he had just finished).
I absolutely loved it and because of that it paved the way for me to try many others.
I'm almost as nostalgic for KeenQ as I am for some other (older) Keen games

If Joriz ever reads this: you still have my thanks!

[T-Squared]

Had to be Zero X. I was floored when I heard the new music on the map screen, as I thought that it wasn't possible to modify Commander Keen.

[szemi]

Don't remember exactly, but Levellords' mods were the very first.

[Snortimer]

Out of curiosity, was Bloog Sports: Soccer any fun with friends? I've only played that alone. I played Ilsoap's The Rule of a Yorp's Dinner (and made a KeenWiki article about it) recently and it's actually very good! It recaptures the Keen humor and spirit very well! It's also pretty polished compared to the average Klik game! A shame it never got finished!

Out of curiosity, did you play Battle of the Brains? It's the sequel to Dead in the Desert and the conclusion to Ceilick's TUIT trilogy. It's quite a popular favorite among fans. You didn't mention it at all, so I wasn't sure if you really did play it or you somehow missed it. If it happens to be the latter, I absolutely recommended it!

Funny, I thought I must have replied to this ages ago, but I guess I never did. Anyways,

Yes, Bloog Sports: Soccer was fun with friends, even if the ball did have a tendency to get stuck behind the goal posts. I would compare it a bit to playing air hockey.

I didn't like "Battle of the Brains" as much as "Dead in the Desert". I think maybe I thought it tried to do too much in one game, the art direction didn't appeal as much as "Dead in the Desert" and I found at least some of the levels more frustrating (perhaps due to more of the enemies being unkillable). Still one of the better mods, but not one of my own favourites.

Since I wrote my post above, I've played and mentally added Keen Meets the Meats and Foray in the Forest to my list of favourite mods.

[SodiumtheGlitcher]

Kinda funny, but my first "mod" that I ever played was the Eight Accumulators by Bubbatom as it was the only mod I had access to at the age of 6 lol

[Syllypryde]

It's good to see people still posting to this thread. See mods that inspired them as well as what mods they are playing now.

[AndyFox]

Commander Keen 2000.

[lestagio]

I've played Keen for a long time but only recently discovered modding. However, my first mods were the whole "The Universe is Toast!" series. Great mods! My mind was blown when I realized that Keen modding was even a thing, lol. After ages of playing Keen (especially 1, 4, and 5) I discovered that there was a practically infinite amount of quality mods (at least for me who only plays every so often)!

[dark]

I've played Keen for a long time but only recently discovered modding. However, my first mods were the whole "The Universe is Toast!" series. Great mods! My mind was blown when I realized that Keen modding was even a thing, lol. After ages of playing Keen (especially 1, 4, and 5) I discovered that there was a practically infinite amount of quality mods (at least for me who only plays every so often)!

Same! I had already long since determined Keen 4-6 were classic games by my standards and I periodically played them for 25+ years, and then around 2019 or so I learned about Keen mods and its been pretty awesome to check those out!

[OzmoGizmo]

I don't remember exactly, but it was probably Atroxian Realm.

[Bounder]

A long time ago (30+ years), I played a "Christmas" themed one. I haven't been able to find it again. It is not the one based on Keen Dreams, and it's obviously not anything produced since the year 2000 on.

[Benvolio]

Interesting! Assuming your absolute confidence in having played it in the 1990s, that really narrows the options.

Commander Keen modding itself didn't exist in any form akin to what we know before around 2002. Since then several Christmas mods were made starting around 2004-2005 (including my own collaboration with Levellord).

But in the 1990s there was only level editing, and even that was in its infancy. The famous "Ice Factory" by Xky was made in 1998, so if you construe ice to signifiy christmassiness (which I do) then that could be it. There was also "Ice Levels" by Neil McRae in 1999. I remember playing those back in the day.

Or... could it have been a fangame?

[Syllypryde]

Interesting! Assuming your absolute confidence in having played it in the 1990s, that really narrows the options.

Commander Keen modding itself didn't exist in any form akin to what we know before around 2002. Since then several Christmas mods were made starting around 2004-2005 (including my own collaboration with Levellord).

But in the 1990s there was only level editing, and even that was in its infancy. The famous "Ice Factory" by Xky was made in 1998, so if you construe ice to signifiy christmassiness (which I do) then that could be it. There was also "Ice Levels" by Neil McRae in 1999. I remember playing those back in the day.

Or... could it have been a fangame?

I played all 7 official games during the mid and late 90's, (shortly after Windows '95 came out), then they were readily available to download. When I replaced my laptop computer around '98 to '99 (?) I lost all the games. Never played it again for years. Then around '04-'05 (?) I redownloaded all 7 games again and played most of them quite often. If I remember correctly it was shortly after when the non-shareware versions were taken down online. I was trolling on the CK Yahoo! Group for a little over a year before I had finally joined the group. My first 2 mods of 3 that I listed earlier in this thread I downloaded soon after I joined the group. CK Guy's Keen 5 Level Pack, first because Keen 5 was my favorite official game at the time, and also it was the Galaxy mod that had the most custom levels at the time, Keen X because it was one of the very first completed mods. Not sure why I never tried any of the other mods. Keen 7: The Keys of Krodacia was the catalyst for finally trying other mods.

After playing 140+ mods (so many more I still haven't gotten to and possible never will) I still prefer Commander Keen over most modern video games. Just recently I had wished I had never sold my Atari 2600, because after watching numerous YouTube videos of the top Atari 2600 games of all time, I began to feel nostalgic to play these games again, most especially the Pitfall series, Kaboom!, Yar's Revenge, Asteroids, Missile Command, Haunted House, and Dark Caverns.

This also brought nostalgia to the old Commodore 64. My favorite games on that were Jumpman, Jumpman Jr., Forbidden Forest, Beyond the Forbidden Forest, Impossible Misson, Impossible Misson 2, Law of the West, Summer Games, and 1 on 1: Jordan Vs. Bird.

[Nospike]

I think I recall a Christmas themed Keen Dreams mod, but K:D was the last major episode to receive any kind of modding support IIRC, that would've been maybe 2012-2013?