KEENGINE (It's a keen engine!)

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K1n9_Duk3
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KEENGINE (It's a keen engine!)

Post by K1n9_Duk3 »

Some of you might remember, some might not. Back in 2008 I started working on a Keen-style game engine for Windows that I eventually named KEENGINE. Over the past months, I finally managed to add some new features and release a new version of the engine. You can find the download here: keengine_release_0_43_1.zip

The download contains a documentation for the engine and its tools. Since English is not my first language, I would appreciate it if somebody could take the time to check the documentation for spelling errors, grammatical errors, or anything else I might have fucled up.

Edit: link updated
Last edited by K1n9_Duk3 on Sat Jan 28, 2017 21:05, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: KEENGINE (It's a keen engine!)

Post by troublesomekeen »

No typos so far.

That was the funny game of Skull'N'Bones I ever had. Tied it up with an epic winning streak 17 - 17. Then I flubbed it big time 17 - 20. Another comeback and chalk that up for another win, babaaaaay
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Commander Keen in... Canteloupe Quest!
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Re: KEENGINE (It's a keen engine!)

Post by Levellass »

According to Avast the .dat file is a 'very rare file' that it has sent off to the virus lab for deep analysis.
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Re: KEENGINE (It's a keen engine!)

Post by Roobar »

You should have sent them the rest of the files, so they could at least play the demo...

But seriously, you're using this garg avast and don't have control over such things? :crazy :crazy :crazy

Anyway, it's amazing how advanced and capable of modding this engine has become! It's second to none, really. On top of what's already in original keens, there's also parallax scrolling, 32 bit png graphics with transparency support, ogg/wav music and sound effects support, enormous levels, huge tilesets, checkpoints... You name it.
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Re: KEENGINE (It's a keen engine!)

Post by K1n9_Duk3 »

Levellass wrote: Sun Jan 29, 2017 4:10 According to Avast the .dat file is a 'very rare file' that it has sent off to the virus lab for deep analysis.
That's probably because keengine.dat is actually the main executable. All the launcher does is execute "cmd /c keengine.dat addpath game.dat" in a hidden window, so that the engine's text window is hidden from the end-user. I was asked if it was possible to hide that window, so I wrote this little proof-of-concept laucher program. I'm not sure if you would get a similar virus warning if the file name was keengine.exe and the text string in the laucher was modified. You should be able to edit the text string in the laucher yourself with a hex editor, if you would like to check that.

I've read about Avast-related issues on the German forum, so I guess the launcher should not be used in an actual game release. Or at least not in its current form.
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Re: KEENGINE (It's a keen engine!)

Post by Levellass »

Well the .dat was cleared about an hour later, so it should be good from now on as long as you don't massively alter it.

One issue I note is that my right ctrl and alt keys don't work, only the left. This makes it hard for me to use since I don't HAVE a left alt key. I'm guessing this has to do with just responding to the ctrl and alt values, the other two keys having some weird mapping.

Will this have cheats? It'd be nice to jump-fly all over the levels.
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Re: KEENGINE (It's a keen engine!)

Post by keenmaster486 »

Why on earth don't you have a left alt key?
I flermmed the plootash just like you asked.
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Re: KEENGINE (It's a keen engine!)

Post by Levellass »

As covered before my laptop is old and damaged and keys are missing.
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Re: KEENGINE (It's a keen engine!)

Post by K1n9_Duk3 »

Levellass wrote: Mon Jan 30, 2017 5:14One issue I note is that my right ctrl and alt keys don't work, only the left.
You can re-map the keys from the menu. The left and right Alt and Ctrl keys have different key codes, and the defaults are mapped to the left keys because there are issues with the German keyboard layout. My right Alt key is actually named AltGr and it simulates pressing Ctrl+Alt for some key combinations. I can't play with these keys because the input libraries will actually treat the right Alt key like pressing Ctrl and Alt, which makes Keen jump and toggle the pogo stick.
Levellass wrote: Mon Jan 30, 2017 5:14Will this have cheats? It'd be nice to jump-fly all over the levels.
There are cheats. Activate the cheat mode by pressing A-2-Enter, then press G for god mode or I for free items. There is no jump cheat or noclip mode right now, but you can "teleport" the player by holding down the right mouse button an then clicking the left mouse button on the location you want to move the player to.
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Re: KEENGINE (It's a keen engine!)

Post by Nisaba »

I was wondering: will there be support for a linux based system? I was thinking of having this engine running within retropie...
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Re: KEENGINE (It's a keen engine!)

Post by MoffD »

Nisaba wrote: Mon Jan 30, 2017 10:20 I was wondering: will there be support for a linux based system? I was thinking of having this engine running within retropie...
As someone who has been messing with RetroPie a lot recently (moving my dos library over to my pi) That'd be sweet! :D
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Re: KEENGINE (It's a keen engine!)

Post by K1n9_Duk3 »

Nisaba wrote: Mon Jan 30, 2017 10:20I was wondering: will there be support for a linux based system?
You tell me. The engine is written in BlitzMax, so creating a linux build should be possible. The source code for an older version of the engine is still on my website and you can download the linux version of BlitzMax for free, so go ahead and test it.
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Re: KEENGINE (It's a keen engine!)

Post by MoffD »

mortimermcmirestinks wrote: Now I wish MoffD wasn't allergic to me.
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Re: KEENGINE (It's a keen engine!)

Post by K1n9_Duk3 »

To be honest, I'm a DOS/Windows guy. Windows is the target platform for KEENGINE, since that's what I use. I have a few old Linux distributions on CDs or DVDs, but I don't have a Linux system set up that I could use to create and test a Linux build of KEENGINE. With all those different Linux distributions out there, I'm not even sure if it would be possible to create one Linux build that would work for all distributions. If you're using Linux, I assume you have the skills to download the KEENGINE source code and the BlitzMax compiler and compile it yourself. Since I don't have an Apple, you won't see me doing a MacOS version either. Keenfansite, who runs the German Keen forum, compiled earlier versions of the engine on MacOS, so that should work, as far as endian-ness is concerned.

It would be neat if we could get back to the original topic:
K1n9_Duk3 wrote: Thu Jan 26, 2017 22:19 Since English is not my first language, I would appreciate it if somebody could take the time to check the documentation for spelling errors, grammatical errors, or anything else I might have fucled up.
Reading a PDF file should be possible for anyone, regardless of operating systems or virus scanners. The only feedback I got on that was troublesomekeen's "No typos so far", which doesn't really help me since I don't know how far "so far" actually is.
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Re: KEENGINE (It's a keen engine!)

Post by MoffD »

I'm reading through the documentation currently. As far as TSK's post I think you can safely assume there are no major errors. I haven't found anything wrong either and while that's not definite tell; the whole document is well written, so I wouldn't worry too much about it.
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