As the opportunity of these particular days, I've managed to finish my next lion update to Keen Dreams Gold Edition. Also, keep in mind that the development log's text file will be used from this year if further updates will happen, since "version 2.00" was completely unnecessary in my opinion.
Let's see what tasty changes I've made to the mod so far from 1st of January!
2026-01-01, 2026-03-14, 2026-03-15 update:
The entire control panel has been changed to the one from NY00123's unofficial tech demo.
The help menu has completely been changed and reorganized.
In Spud City (at X=90 Y=39 and X=84 Y=34) Keen's climbing into the corner and potentially getting stuck inside the wall has now been prevented. This bug is also prevented in the night version of Apple Acress and Castle Tower as well.
The F10 + Y cheat now shows the tiles correctly.
Pogo has been added to the story of the game, that's why Keen has pogo like in the other, official episodes.
The broken pogo physics have been fixed.
The DoWeakGravity() and DoTinyGravity() implementations have been fixed and added DoHighGravity(), DoMidGravity(), and DoLowGravity() implementations as well.
Landing will no longer cancel Keen's throwing animation.
The "placing" movement has been modified. Just simply duck or look down and press the throw key to "place" a bomb/power pellet.
The VW_SetScreen behaviors with and without the LATCHPEL parameter have been swapped for best results when playing the game in DOSBox.
The second for-loop in the ClipToEnds function in KDG_PLAY.C has been corrected to avoid an infinite loop.
The game will no longer remove the thrown bombs if they are too far off-screen, making the boss battle unwinnable.
AdLib sound effects and music now work on real hardware.
The sprite variables of the Tater Trooper/Trooperina have been simplified.
The upwards spitting cantaloupe and melon lip's seed now appears in front of the cantaloupe/melon lip.
In easy mode the Mushroom now can bounce down slowly to the ground.
Squasher in sunglasses appears in night levels.
Level 18, 19 and 20 are now daytime, nonsecret levels and can be accessed from the map level.
Mountain Top that is a secret level can be unlocked if the player completes all 20 levels (involving the boss level).
Added one more Pink Owl on the map.
The earlier version of the Squasher has been moved up in Squash Swamp and it's no longer animated.
In Pea Pod Park and Eggplant Estate, the castle background has dark shade and the green "T" flag has been removed in Eggplant Estate.
Keen's bored sequence can now be interrupted with the pogo stick's button.
Keen's zee sprites have been moved into separated lump (INLEVELSPRITES_LUMP).
In hard mode there is no indication text of Boobus Bombs.
The bed graphics for Keen and Mortimer have been modified and updated.
In night levels, Boobus Bombs are deadly to touch and Keen must destroy them.
In night levels, Keen dies like in episode 4-6.
In keen mode, F10 + Z (suicide cheat) decreases Keen's health point instead of taking all lives.
Added life/health increasing for F10 + I cheat.
The 'audiokdr.h' and 'graphkdr.h'/'graphkdr.equ' files have been renamed to 'audiokdg.h' and 'graphkdg.h'/'graphkdg.equ' in the source code.
Bustling Tuberina now jumps, but lower.
B + A + T quick item cheat has been added.
Added A + 2 + Enter cheat activating.
If Keen is in god mode and falls asleep on a hazard or at an enemy that attacks or fall onto him, the 'Zzz' sequence now gets removed if god mode is turned off.
In case the player has not enough memory, a specific message will appear (like in Keen 4-6).
The Pink Owl has received plus one animation frame.
Queen Bustling Tuberina has green crown (which has been done on her portrait) and her mouth has been shaded.
The Queen's portrait has been animated.
King Boobus (like his wife) received new, separated sprites for dying, jumping (up-facing, down-facing, left-facing, right-facing, and player-facing)
The boss has been put upper in the final level.
Boobus jumps higher in hard mode.
The two endings are now stored in the graphic file.
The title page level is now level 46.
Keen's jumping gravity (with or without pogo) is now like in Keen 4-6.
The level entry texts have been removed.
In night levels, the amount of shot bombs appears.
Keen's sprites that weren't supposed to be left-right faced were removed, except the upthrowing one that is new addition.
The scrolling up/down key has been removed, so the player can freely scroll with up or down.
Keen's ducking sprite has been changed.
All the skypests (except the blue ones) have been removed from the daytime version of Spud City.
The yellow and the green skypests have been removed from Steel Bridge.
The new difficulties has been removed and thus, only easy, normal and hard modes exist again.
Added Pumpkin Plot night level.
Added Gargoyle, Pumpkin, and Eggplant as new enemies.
The cheat levels have been removed.
The ingame graphic of 'T' flag is now red and can be found in Guard Tower.
If Keen's conversation with Mortimer ends, the conversation will no longer pop up again if the level is restarted in case of losing. (Instead, Mortimer just start to act instead of just standing/waiting.)
Cameos that appears in the game have been reorganized and modified.
In Celery Sector the beginning of the level has been changed.
In Cauliflower Quarter the end of the level has been changed.
Removed Delbert's and Roger's cameo.
The Sour Grape's new, left-facing version now only appears in easy mode.
Demos have been re-recorded, but except the first level, instead of level 6 (Celery Sector) and level 13 (Mushroom Mere) the 12th level (Brussels Sprout Bay) and the 17th level (Guard Tower) have been recorded.
The keys for throwing/shooting (attacking) and pogoing have been reorganized and now are the same as in Keen 4-6: pogo -> Alt, jump -> Ctrl, and throw/shoot -> Space.
The status window's calling key is now Enter like in Keen 4-6.
Added two-button attack (throw or shoot) option from Keen 4-6.
The bitmap-based title screen now appears before the high score table during the demo with the title screen's theme.
The night quest's help menu has been removed and instead, the original one has been rationalized.
The pink owl by Hill Top now has a 3rd sentence, which is said randomly.
The "goto nightdone" variable has been removed and the "done" variable has been simplified.
All states and state pointers have been changed from "far" to "near", so the player can transfer saved games from system to system now.
The volume calculations for the "quiet" AdLib sound effects have the correct value.
The AdLib's detection has been improved.
In StopMusic(), the missing MM_SetPurge() has been added back that was removed accidentally.
In Melon Mines the nearly invisible tile (X=87, Y=21) has been removed.
The exit of Melon Mines have been moved to the bottom of the level, so the player don't have to backtrack all the way up from where they came after collecting the Boobus Bombs there.
In Coastal Creek the extra life can now be picked up without cheating.
The impossible pogo trick can no longer be used to get to the 3 Boobus Bombs between the first two "buildings" in Spud City.
The walking speed of Keen on the world map now matches his walking speed in Keen 4-6.
Day and night quests now only have 40-40 Boobus Bombs in total.
Added new, guarding Tater Trooperina graphic for the bottom of Melon Mines, that's why the guarding Tater Trooper is no longer animated.
Added Keen difficulty, where Keen has health instead of life counter and enemies resurrect super fast.
Dream mode and its "D" letter has been removed from the status window.
Help sections have been updated.
Restored King Boobus' 2 dropped form (the purple one and the one in teal crown with red eyes).
Added plus one cameo.
The '/VER' parameter has been updated and thus, "Rev (2)" and "Version 2.00" have been removed from everywhere.
In the main menu "F1" has been recolored to dark cyan.
Mortimer's bed graphics have been corrected.
The mushroom now no longer bounces slowly.
Added Panting Flower graphics in pot for each night levels.
Added Beet and Pear as new creatures.
Added new, door-exiting ability for Keen in Cantaloupe Mine.
Added all dropped musics back.
Easy mode has own ending song.
Help menu has a brand-new song titled as "What's In The Plate?".
When the name of the player on the high score table can be entered, the text's highlight has light red color in daytime mode and light blue in nighttime mode.
Demo mode has dark green text color.
Each (day and night) level orders have been modified.
The graphic of the 2 pink owls on the map has been changed.
Added new, exit table graphic for Celery Sector, Cauliflower Quarter, Turnip Trapway, and Mushroom Mere.
If the player plays Flower Pong, no music (unless the player quits from Flower Pong, when there's music again).
Keen difficulty has blue Flower Power, which disappears once it hits the ground.
The intro text that appears before fighting Mortimer has been rewritten.
If the player turns on/off music or sound and/or changes between PC Speaker and AdLib, the changes become valid immediately involving the switching between AdLib or quiet AdLib sounds effects as well.
Added missing blank dark grey 8x8 tile for joystick configuration after button 2 is pressed.
The Parsnip is only deadly if it stands.
The green and the blue "T" flags have been removed.
The yellow, green, and blue level edge blocking graphics have been removed and have been replaced by the original red one.
The "compatability" variable has been corrected to "compatibility" in the source code.
Keen's galaxy-type dying has been removed.
The Cantaloupe Cart now no longer kills Keen immediately in keen mode.
The help screen's main bitmap has been changed.
When Mortimer or the turnip gets hit with Keen's Flower Power, smoke is only made when they die.
Night mode can now be unlocked by collecting all the 40 bombs. (In night mode if all the 40 bombs shot, a secret message appear in the game.)
Along with appearing on the map pink owl has been added as a character as well, which appears in the last night level (level 46: Mount Tuberest) and ends the night quest.
If the pong ball is red, the player must 21 matches in Flower Pong and 11 if the pong ball is green (if the player is in easy mode).
When an enemy is turned into a panting flower, either the flower or the poof smoke now face the direction where Keen is.
Demo recording has been limited to between level 1 and 19.
One of the tile properties of Mortimer's bed has been corrected.
"Entering..." and "Exiting..." texts have been removed while entering or exiting a level.
If demo recording is activated and then the player decides to end the current game during that, demo recording now ends instead stick the player to demo mode forever whenever starting a new game.
Added 3 more nightly demos for night mode.
If night mode is unlocked, it's now stored in the KDGOLD.CFG file.
If Keen explodes/dies of the Boobus Bomb in night levels, it will no longer go to the next level.
In the story the pogo is now just mentioned as a pogo.
Added unlockable 5th, so called "Grand" mode, where you use blue Flower Power and play as Mortimer:
- Grand mode can be unlocked if you beat Mortimer in keen mode. (Even the help refers to it in Mort's help.)
- If he is unlocked, it's stored in the KDGOLD.CFG file.
- He has own story and ending (involving bad ending as well).
- He has health like Keen has in keen mode.
- He uses the purple pistol from Keen 3.
- He has own help bitmap in the help menu and has dark red window border.
- He has own main menu surface.
- He has own bitmap death portrait if he touches a bomb in night mode.
- If you play Flower Pong with him, "MORT:" appears on the top and the player must win 31 matches.
- His background color is dark red on the high score table.
- He starts in Mountain Top in daytime and night mode. Furthermore, in night mode the player cannot warp to Hill Top
- In case of him the eye item is a new, blue eye item, which gives 5000 points + 2 extra lives + 4 pellets/ammos.
- No cameos appear, except Rover, who appears in front of the exit door in Cantaloupe Mine (like in case of Keen).
- His abilities (as secret boss) in Mountain Top:
- easy mode: jumps + hits only that stuns Keen
- normal mode: jumps + throws blue flower power left and right from the ground
- hard mode: jumps + throws blue flower power left, right and up from the ground
- keen mode: jumps + throws blue flower power left, right, up from the ground and air + down from the air
- King Boobus is the enemy, who jumps as high as in normal mode.
- If F10 + D cheat is used in Grand mode, that demo will play featuring Mortimer instead of Keen.
Demo video on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/KJnvfCH3I2k
2026-05-26 update:
Night mode and Mortimer now get unlocked properly:
- On any difficulty, if Royal Couple (level 20) is completed regularly or by using E+N+D cheat, night mode can be unlocked by typing DARKNESSTUBERIA as name on the high score screen. (Not valid in case of game over, ending the game and bad ending!)
- On any difficulty (except Grand), if Mountain Top (level 21) is completed regularly or by using E+N+D cheat, Mortimer can be unlocked by typing GRANDINTELLECT as name on the high score screen. (Not valid in case of game over, ending the game and bad ending!)
Cantaloupe Lip's seed now doesn't get removed immediately if hits the ground.
Added fading in-out effect when choosing Flower Pong (same happens when the player quits Flower Pong).
If the player loads a saved game that was saved in night mode, the font's color is always blue and if the player loads a saved game that was saved daytime, the font's color is always light red color.
When E+N+D cheat is used in Mountain Top, it brings up Mortimer's ending. (Only valid if the player is not in Grand mode!)
The narrow path by Guard Tower to the left has been moved upper and a 'DONE' unnecessary marker have been removed that was added accidentally.
The texts when Keen tries to leave Mountain Top or Royal Chamber have been removed.
If the player uses the demo-recording cheat, thus being in demo mode, starting new game, loading/saving game are disabled.
Added 8-8 more Boobus Bombs, so now daytime and night mode have 48-48 bombs in total in the game.
If all the 48 bombs are collected in daytime mode + completing Castle Tuberia, a secret message appears with green window border. (On the status window "48" is marked with dark green, but in the boss level it's always black.)
If all the 48 bombs are collected in night mode + completing Mount Tuberest, a secret message appears with green window border. (On the status window "48" is marked with dark green.)
The door's graphic is mirrored in Grand mode.
Mortimer's ending has blue flashing arrow.
The random text of the pink owl, which about collecting 40 bombs before night falls has been changed to an other one.
The sound and the music codes for the alternative endings + the alternative endings have been removed.
Added the title screen music's lyrics in the 'About Me' help section, but only in case of Keen.
Added owl for Mountain Top (if Mortimer is the player) and Hill Top.
The "Move Joystick" text in the joystick calibration option has been changed to "Move joystick".
The splashing part of the title screen has been made bigger by adding a green-colored "KEEN DREAMS" graphical text.
Mortimer now only and only appears in the last demo in daytime and nighttime modes.
The Boobus Bomb's boom effect (when the boss is bombed or the Boobus Bomb is exploded after shooting it in night mode) has plus 1 frame in case of Keen and Mortimer, except in case of Mortimer the boom graphics are mirrored.
Mortimer's ducking sprite has been mirrored.
If the player uses the demo-recording cheat and decides to check the status window, the text color of the extra life, the difficulty, the score, and the "PRESS A KEY" graphic are green.
If the player is in demo mode and ends the game + then gets high score to enter name, the high score and the name is highlighted with dark green color.
The eye color and the tongue color of the Gargoyle are green.
If the 48th Boobus Bomb is collected (daytime) or shot (at night), it makes sound.
In both versions of Parsnip Pass the place, where the Frenchy is (on the right) has been changed due to prevent the player from dying because of a wrong-timed jumping.
Added 2 ammos for Keen and Mortimer in both versions of Hill Top and Mountain Top.
Keen and Mortimer can now do shooting even during ducking as well.
Added metal door only for Castle Basement, which is mirrored (like the original door) if the player plays as Mortimer.
The sound of the metal door is different if cannot be opened yet.
Blue eye item now gives 50000 points instead of 5000.
Green eye item now gives 20000 points instead of 10000.
After getting the blue or the green eye items, their floating shapes are now graphically corrected and added the received point as well additionally.
All the 3 eye items have their own outlining colors for their animation frames (red has red, green has green, and blue has blue).
The graphic and the animation frame of both ammos (along with the upflying sprite) have been changed.
Added 7 new enemies and their descriptions in the help menu:
- Bean Seed (deadly to touch, if it's shot, it temporarily stops and then keeps walking forth and back)
- Baberry (harmless to touch, but if you shoot it, then becomes deadly)
- Mosquito (deadly to touch, but can be shot and then disappears)
- Guard Robot (only kills you if hits with the axe, but if it gets shot, it will no longer use axe anymore, thus, it becomes harmless)
- Kumquat (deadly to touch, always faces the direction where Keen is, can be shot)
- Steel Cart (deadly to touch, immortal)
- Colonel Corn (harmless to touch, but its hitting stuns or kills Keen randomly, can be killed with 2 shots)
Added an unknown kid character for Pumpkin Plot.
Rhubarb now appears in the night version of Rhubarb Rapids as well.
Pumpkin appears in Castle Basement as well.
Eggplant appears in Steel Bridge as well.
In Castle Basement the keys have been removed and instead added a new item called Tuberian Royal Keycard, which has a galactic "T" on it and only appears in Castle Basement. (It only opens metal door as technical side note!)
If F10 + I or T + A + B called, these give only 1 keycard in all cases.
The T + A + B cheat's text has been specified in Castle Basement for Keen and Mortimer.
In Mortimer's help "THEIR VEGESTIES" has been corrected to "KING BOOBUS TUBER" as well as its description.
The description in Mortimer's Control Panel help section under the "NEW GAME" part has been corrected.
"MORT INFO" section has been updated.
On the "You didn't make it past" window:
In demo mode the color of the second highlight is always light green.
In grand mode (playing as Mortimer) the color's flashing is dark red-light blue (which is the opposite of dark blue-light red for any other difficulties).
When "NEW GAME" option is chosen, the cursor now always highlights the first difficulty.
Added pause feature for Paddle War. (For technical issues it can be called by pushing P.)
Mortimer's Paddle War ball has been changed.
In Gravis Gamepad button configuration the text "FIRE" has been corrected to "ATTACK".
Instead of the Boobus Bomb's counter in Mountain Top on the status window (if the player is not in grand mode of course), Mortimer's health is counted instead.
If the player beats Mortimer on any difficulty (except grand one), it gives 1000000 points.
After the boss is defeated, it gives the player 100k points in easy mode, 200k points in normal, hard, keen modes, and 500k points in grand mode.
On the status window, on Mortimer's helmet now there is a brown 'M' letter.
The F10 cheats have been listed in the 'THE GAME' help section for Keen and Mortimer as well.
In Mortimer's help the "A WORD ABOUT LETTERS" section has been modified.
One slope of the metallic platform tileset has been fixed.
Fixed the red eye's 2nd frame, where the outlines were still black.
The outline of the 3rd blue eye item frame now has the correct color.
2026-05-30 update:
In Cauliflower Quarter an additional door has been added to the upper-left area, so the unnecessary extra key is no longer unnecessary.
2026-05-31 update:
In kdg_keen.c's "MINI KEEN" routine Keen's/Mortimer's sleeping and waving sprite numbers now have the correct value.
Demo video on YouTube (original 2026-05-26 update):
https://youtu.be/XITth91c668
Download:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/9w5jqcil ... 5bwye&dl=1
