The things/places in Keen you were most afraid of?

Here, you can get help with anything or just chat about the original Commander Keen games.
Post Reply
Hisymak
Vortininja
Posts: 112
Joined: Sat Mar 26, 2016 20:13

The things/places in Keen you were most afraid of?

Post by Hisymak »

Were there any monsters you were really scared of or places you were always afraid of and could not pass through back then, when you were a kid? Here are mine:

1. The Dopefish. Well of Wishes was definitely the hardest level of Keen4 for me. Not only I was extremely scared of a Dopefish eating me, but I never knew how to get past it and reach the exit. Many times I played Keen, I beat all levels, but saved game the last time and ended up just before the final Dopefish, guarding the last Council member. I remember once or a few times my dad managed to get past it and finish the game, so at least I could see the ending sequence. A few times I managed that myself, too. Even nowadays, Dopefish is the toughest enemy for me in CK4.

2. The Blue Bird and Blue Bird egg. Basically the main reason was it could not be permanently killed, and it could chase me ewerywhere. When I was playing on Easy, I had to be extremely careful not to break the egg (especially those in Chasm of Chills), and when I broke one, I always reloaded or restarted the level because I did not want to play with them. On harder difficulties, there were active Blue Birds even without breaking the egg, I remember in Crystalus. That was one of the reasons I always wanted to play on Easy only.

3. Vorticon Elites in Keen2. They were extremely deadly for me, because they could shoot randomly, and killed me almost always, because I could not react fast enough to jump and avoid the shoot. I was always afraid of any level in Keen2 where they were present, and very few times could beat those levels.

4. The levers in Keen2. I guess you know why.

5. The ending level of Keen3. I never beat that level (only managed that later with cheats), and was very scared of it, too. Everything in this level was killing me.

6. The ending part of Ice City in Keen1. There is a Vorticon Guard, like in other levels with an item to collect, but this specific part I was afraid of the most. Maybe because it's on ice and it's harder to control Keen here, and there's no space to escape. I remember I died there lot of times.

7. Ceilicks in Keen6 (demo). Ugh.

Bonus fact: I remember once I unknowingly discovered the way to secret level in Keen4. I don't remember exactly, maybe it was like this: I was gathering the inchworms together just for fun, and purposelessly jumping in the air with pogo. When the foot appeared I was just in middle in the air, so I touched it just when it appeared, and I was probably rapidly pressing jump button and probably not fully watching my monitor, so I missed what was actually happening on screen. Then I looked back on monitor and I was seeing I appeared just next to the Hand pyramid. I was so frightened, that I quickly quit the game, without even trying to enter the pyramid. I don't remember if I was regretting that or not back then, but as I was not knowing what actually happened, it took me another year or two to definitely re-discover the way to the secret pyramid.
User avatar
55Aavenue
Vortininja
Posts: 116
Joined: Tue Apr 03, 2018 4:35
Location: Straight Outta Dosbox

Re: The things/places in Keen you were most afraid of?

Post by 55Aavenue »

Ah how interesting! Here's what I can remember on this topic:

1) Bluebirds are on the list for me too. When I was first started playing Keen I was pretty young so usually played on easy, to the fact that you don't see any bluebirds unless you shoot an egg (and eggs are only in 2 levels) added to their intimidation factor I think. I would usually jump so carefully around the eggs at the end of Chasm of Chills, although a few times I remember being in an adventurous mood and shooting them on purpose and letting the mayhem unfold!

2) The secret area at the top of Chasm of Chills. I remember the darker shade of blue sky and what seemed like 100 thunderclouds attacking me, but I just looked on the wiki and there's only 2 of them up there... :lol

3) Wormouths. Back then I didn't know you could kill them if you shot quick enough when they attack you. I would skim shots across the ground until I hit them when they were looking up and kill them that way. If they were in an area where this was not possible, I ran away. We didn't have a sound card in our first computer and I still remember the PC speaker sound they made when they attacked.

4) Cape Canavorta. So many Vortininjas! I avoided this level and when I did play it I don't think I ever got past the 2nd building.

5) The bouncing Slicestar at the end of Neutrino Burst Injector. Or as I called it back then, the "bouncing snowflake" Although I did get past it and beat Keen 5 eventually, the first time I saw one of these "snowflakes" bouncing freely and not just going back and forth in a nice straight line it was startling

6) Bloogdome. Another level I basically avoided until I got a little older. That exterior..yikes! I'm not going in there!

I think I have more of these memories from Keen 4 just because I was a bit younger when I got Keen 4. I got that game first and then all the others about a year or so later.
User avatar
KeenRush
Android Dummy
Posts: 2560
Joined: Sat Oct 27, 2007 20:57
Location: KEEN1.EXE
Contact:

Re: The things/places in Keen you were most afraid of?

Post by KeenRush »

What a great topic! It's so interesting to read this kind of stuff. I hope many members will post theirs.

While I'm sure I won't be remembering everything, certain things I do remember surprisingly well.

1. Garg. Quite possibly the first thing (if not counting the pat pat danger tiles) that ever killed me in a game. One of the few creatures in all games I've ever played that has made me jump -- and still does, occasionally. :lol This just is the apex predator, no doubt about it. The way they suddenly run (and they will always outrun you) and jump has made me shout in fear more than anything else. As a very young player I was afraid of the garg statue in Fourth Red Rock Shrine. There was something so menacing and mysterious about the statue and its flaming eye. Note that at this point I couldn't read even my native language, so I had no understanding at all what it was about, I don't think I even understood it was a statue. (The level's dark sparseness and the fires also scared me.)

2. Jack. Something about these bouncing, metallic, unkillable things disturbed me a lot. I still don't know what they are. I don't think we had these jacks in my country (in case it's a real toy from Earth).

3. Mad Mushroom. It has a certain kind of crazy otherness to it; I can't think of another creature in Keens that is mad in that same way. Its resistance to the stunner also disturbed me.

4. Blue Bird. I always thought this creature was particularly cunning with its ability to both walk and fly, and it scared me that it was not possible to stun it for good, it kept returning to motion again and again. I, too, was anxious about not breaking the eggs.

5. Dart Gun. I wasn't afraid of the ones shooting up or down, but the ones on left walls with their black, hollow eyes made me queasy. In fact, my stoopid brain didn't even realize they were the same 'enemy' but from a different angle.

6. Wormouth. Their sudden attacks and my unskilledness to stun them... Eek.

7. Sprite. I can't remember I was scared of the Dopefish but Sprites always disturbed me. Something about their motion, eyes, and their sudden shooting...

8. Thundercloud. Unsolid, angry, unstunnable... When I was a kid I felt they were crazy fast and like constantly shooting bolts. Like 55Aavenue, I felt it was a freaking thunderstorm up there!

9. Slicestar. Not the predictably moving, but the fast and bouncing ones. Like 55Aavenue, I was quite startled when I first encountered them. One of the most menacing things, still.

10. Spirogrip. So eerie, so alien. That staring eye, the sudden launch into random direction. Damn they were scary & still are.

11. Gik. Something about a large, attacking, indestructible bug didn't agree with my younger self...
My newest mod - Commander Keen: Sunset: viewtopic.php?t=8568 | codename H.Y.E.N.A.
User avatar
Fleexy
Tool Smith
Posts: 1432
Joined: Fri Dec 12, 2008 1:21
Location: Abiathar C&C

Re: The things/places in Keen you were most afraid of?

Post by Fleexy »

Yep, jacks are a real thing, though I don't think I ever played with them.

The Garg statue in the Fourth Red Rock Shrine was terrifying to me too. I was hesitant to enter any of the shrines on the second continent because I couldn't remember which one had that statue.

Ironically, I was scared of Fleexes at first. I would always play on Easy when I was very young, so I never saw any until I increased the difficulty. Obviously I got over that fear :lol
User avatar
nanomekia
Vorticon Elite
Posts: 559
Joined: Sat Sep 24, 2016 19:11
Location: FARM COUNTRY!
Contact:

Re: The things/places in Keen you were most afraid of?

Post by nanomekia »

Oh lord - what were those unkillable robots in...was it Keen 1? The ones that go back and forth and their shots go ZAP and ZOT and they're just a little too fast to comfortably evade. Those guys always scared the dopefish out of me.
Writer. Translator. Player of games. Only bites when asked nicely.

"That's ten pounds of yikes in a five-pound bag."
Gridlock
Vorticon Elite
Posts: 617
Joined: Thu Aug 12, 2010 2:20

Re: The things/places in Keen you were most afraid of?

Post by Gridlock »

I think I was probably 4 or 5 years old when I had my first experiences with Keen, watching my parents play Keen 4. I was absolutely terrified of the "mean clouds" in Chasm of Chills and would run terrified out of the room whenever my parents encountered them.

I don't remember a whole lot else really freaking me out like that. The bluebirds were definitely scary, but I think it was something about the mystery and unknown factor of the clouds that made them so scary.

I also used to be intimidated by Pyramid of the Forbidden, but not for the reasons most people expect. When I was young I pretty much cheated all the time when I played Keen, but there are a couple "traps" for cheaters using god mode that can get you stuck in the level. Two that I can remember: In the first section, ledge climbing at the top where the dart shooter is can get you stuck above the pyramid. And, when god mode walking in the tar pit in the last room, you can fall down (I think) the left side and get pushed by tiles out of the right level exit, which completes the level without touching the hand, leaving you kinda stuck. I think you could even ledge grab of the yellow bricks at the top in the last room and pull yourself out of the pyramid. Oh, and I remember the section with the green and red gem being probably the most intimidating area of any Keen game because falling into the tar is an insta-death and it's hard to jump cheat through. It's weird how this level took on an almost mythical, scary quality to my young brain.

I guess the smirkys and mimrocks were also a little intimidating, but not as bad.

I don't remember as much from Keen 5 and 6 being scary. I guess the Robo Red enemies in Energy Flow Systems and Regulation Control Center did scare me, though, as well as that last bouncing slicestar in Neutrino Burst Injector.

I never really had these kind of experiences with Vorticons because I played them later when I was a little older. I kind of thumbed my nose at them at the time because they felt way more primitive than Galaxy, though I did eventually come around to have some good childhood experiences with them.
Image
Armageddon Begins Again. The Alphamatic has arrived.

Atroxian Realm: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3536
The Alphamatic: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4086
Benvolio
Vorticon Elite
Posts: 976
Joined: Sun May 29, 2011 12:43
Location: Ireland
Contact:

Re: The things/places in Keen you were most afraid of?

Post by Benvolio »

Excellent thread. Of the above, the one I empathise with most is the lightning clouds in the Chasm, which I, too, felt as though there were hundreds of. Overall, having missed out on playing Keen in early childhood (even though the diskette was just sitting there in my dad's study since the year of my birth), I did not have much true fear (in the horror/losing sleep sense) of items in Keen.

But as far as being afraid in-game of dying from items, the thing that stands out in my memory is the (now humble) pat-pat. The amount of carefully choreographed jumps, executed gingerly with heart pounding, to navigate past the pat-pats in Level 1 of Keen1, brings to mind far more anxiety than any mangling machines or forbidden pyramids ever could.
User avatar
IceDuck347
Vortininja
Posts: 81
Joined: Tue Oct 25, 2016 21:15
Location: Argentina

Re: The things/places in Keen you were most afraid of?

Post by IceDuck347 »

As a kid, I was very scared of keen's death. For some reason, I didn't like the sprite of keen bouncing around with those big eyes, particullary in that one in wich he is smiling. So I always cheated in order to play keen, but some day, I was playing keen 5 when I suddenly fell to that endless pit in Energy Flow Systems and a I died. I remember running out of the room (probably crying :lol )
And telling my dad.

It was the same story in keen 6 level "BASA" in wich you have to wait for a moving platform coming out from a secrer place instead of dropping yourself through the hole...

I was also very scared of Blooguards hitting the ground with their giant... ¿clubs? Maybe? (Don't know how to name that thing)
Signed. IceDuck347 Have a nice day!
Hisymak
Vortininja
Posts: 112
Joined: Sat Mar 26, 2016 20:13

Re: The things/places in Keen you were most afraid of?

Post by Hisymak »

55Aavenue wrote: Mon Dec 31, 2018 1:15 2) The secret area at the top of Chasm of Chills. I remember the darker shade of blue sky and what seemed like 100 thunderclouds attacking me, but I just looked on the wiki and there's only 2 of them up there... :lol
KeenRush wrote: Mon Dec 31, 2018 18:18 8. Thundercloud. Unsolid, angry, unstunnable... When I was a kid I felt they were crazy fast and like constantly shooting bolts. Like 55Aavenue, I felt it was a freaking thunderstorm up there!
Actually you guys were not far from thruth. The Wiki lies, there are actually seven of them up there! I just confirmed with level editor and in-game too.
User avatar
55Aavenue
Vortininja
Posts: 116
Joined: Tue Apr 03, 2018 4:35
Location: Straight Outta Dosbox

Re: The things/places in Keen you were most afraid of?

Post by 55Aavenue »

Well that makes a lot more sense, I was so shocked when the wiki only showed 2, but I didnt bother to actually check. Good to know my memory isnt quite as bad as I thought :lol
User avatar
Grimson
The Dragoner
Posts: 1833
Joined: Tue Jul 14, 2009 6:55

Re: The things/places in Keen you were most afraid of?

Post by Grimson »

Arachnuts. Those things scared me more than anything else. They were freaking fast, hard to dodge (at least in crowded spaces), and could not be perma-stunned. Worst of all, there was no way to know when you were going to run into one (unless you memorized where they were in the levels, but even then they're constantly running around), so I was always on my toes when playing Sand Yego or the Pyramid of the Moons.
:dead2

The second place goes to this thing: :wormouth

On a side note, I had this funny fixation as a child where I avoided shooting the Vorticons whenever possible: When I learned from the Vorticon Elder in Keen 2 that the Vorticons are not evil and are in fact just being mind-controlled, and he asked me not to shoot them, I felt such strong empathy for a bunch of sprites I basically gave up the raygun. As you can imagine, it made the games much more challenging. Who knows, maybe that's why I've always enjoyed ultra-challenging, masochistic platformers :lol Thankfully Keen got a stunner in the Galaxy games so I could shoot around with a clear conscience :P
"All those thousands upon thousands of junk foods made for me on the various planets I explored make me wonder how I'm still alive."
User avatar
XkyRauh
Mortimer's RightHand Man
Posts: 418
Joined: Thu Nov 01, 2007 16:32
Location: San Diego, California

Re: The things/places in Keen you were most afraid of?

Post by XkyRauh »

When I was in grade school, staying the night at a friend's house, his mom told me that I was yelling in my sleep about Vorticons. They definitely creeped me out when I was younger. It's a shame, because I really enjoy them as characters now (and I'm sympathetic to them because of the whole Mind Belt thing).

I've always hated underwater levels in video games, but my aggravation with the Dopefish wasn't fear--it was simply frustration that Keen wasn't so nimble and responsive in the Well of Wishes.

I don't think there were any parts of Keen that terrified me, though. The whole universe of each game seemed kid-friendly enough that I found it charming!
User avatar
RoboBlue
It's that one guy.
Posts: 941
Joined: Wed Apr 23, 2008 10:26
Contact:

Re: The things/places in Keen you were most afraid of?

Post by RoboBlue »

Arachnuts and birds were always the scariest thing in Keen for me as a kid.
Image
Post Reply