Announcement 2 of 2: Oh, and also here's a beta of a Keen 5 mod.

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Kohntarkosz_
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Announcement 2 of 2: Oh, and also here's a beta of a Keen 5 mod.

Post by Kohntarkosz_ »

Title: "Send In the Clorts"

Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wxHwYi ... sp=sharing

Tagline: What's more dangerous than *one* Mortimer McMire?

Summary: This is the conclusion of the trilogy which began with "Bounty Hunting Brouhaha" and continued with "The Prisoner's Dilemma". Mort gets his comeuppance, the galaxy is saved, several peculiar detours are taken, and the plot point which kicked off the trilogy is resolved. Rick Uller is not a playable character in this one, but he still has things to do.

I believe this is the first Commander Keen mod to feature gospel music, and the first DOS platformer of any kind to feature the word 'Yeet'. (I promise there are plausible in-universe explanations for both.)

How to play: Uncompress the Zip file. Drop a certain EXE file, which shall remain nameless (preferred version number: 1.4) into the directory you uncompressed the Zip file into. Run "CK5patch.bat". Strongly recommend you read "the game" and "the story" before getting going.

I have verified that none of the levels will set off an "insufficient memory" error when running the game on a Windows XP machine with default memory settings.

Known bugs:
  • The images in the story text are slightly off-centre.
  • The "Null pointer" text, appearing at the bottom when the application exits. I'm not sure what it's about; it doesn't seem to point (no pun intended) to any acute in-game problems.
  • The music seems to be a bit glitchy in DosBox. The glitches don't recur in exactly the same place every time, leading me to believe it's not an issue with the IMF files. If it was a memory consumption issue I'd get an error message saying so, right?
Things that are already on my "to-do" list but aren't strictly bug-related:
  • Separate level for the Bean-with-Bacon Megarocket (and for Rick's ship, which we have not seen the interior of yet)
  • I'm pretty happy with the "cloaking device" gimmick I use on the world map but I realize now that it might make navigation difficult. (E.g. the item being protected by the cloaking device in the cloning lab is all the way at the other end of the map.) I may end up reworking the world map entirely.
  • If possible, I really would like to figure out a way to have multiple frames of "bridge" animation. E.g. when Rick blows up the bridge in the first level it would be nice to be able to stick a "kaboom!" frame between the "bridge is standing" frame and the "bridge is in pieces" frame.
Personal note: Due to the pressures of parenting and other such grown-up responsibilities, this will probably be my last mod for a while, although I have a rather demented idea for a mini-mod which I would like to release on April Fool’s Day of 2022. I would like to thank the forum for the kindness it has shown me during the brief periods when I pop my head in here to announce things.

I think that covers everything. Enjoy!
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Re: Announcement 2 of 2: Oh, and also here's a beta of a Keen 5 mod.

Post by DarkAle »

Finally new mods to play! I'll test this beta surely, but I have to play your "The Prisoner's Dilemma" first
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Re: Announcement 2 of 2: Oh, and also here's a beta of a Keen 5 mod.

Post by Syllypryde »

Kohntarkosz_ wrote: Fri Jul 16, 2021 16:04 Title: "Send In the Clorts"

Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wxHwYi ... sp=sharing
Your download is missing that .bat file needed to run the game.
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Re: Announcement 2 of 2: Oh, and also here's a beta of a Keen 5 mod.

Post by K1n9_Duk3 »

Kohntarkosz_ wrote: Fri Jul 16, 2021 16:04 The "Null pointer" text, appearing at the bottom when the application exits.
I haven't seen that message pop up in the current version. Unless you were getting that error when using a different patch file, this indicates a serious problem. Something has corrupted parts of the memory while the game was running. Real-mode DOS programs allow you to write to any memory location without causing any immediate errors (like general protection faults, read/write exceptions and so on). The Borland C++ library code performs a checksum test on the first couple of bytes in the data segment (the ones containing the Borland C++ copyright message) when the program quits to DOS and prints that error message if the checksum is wrong.
Kohntarkosz_ wrote: Fri Jul 16, 2021 16:04 The music seems to be a bit glitchy in DosBox. The glitches don't recur in exactly the same place every time, leading me to believe it's not an issue with the IMF files. If it was a memory consumption issue I'd get an error message saying so, right?
If there was some memory corruption going on, you wouldn't get an error message right away (see Null pointer). I haven't checked it, but your patches might be causing some memory corruption if you miscalculated a jump address or patched in the wrong cleanup-and-return code to skip parts of the original code.

If you know a bit about programming in C, you might want to consider using the reconstructed Keen 4-6 source code instead of patching the executable.
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Re: Announcement 2 of 2: Oh, and also here's a beta of a Keen 5 mod.

Post by DarkAle »

I won this mod at hard and I liked it

Cool things
I really liked the graphics, the music, the levels and the ideas you put in them. My favorite level was INDEMNITY!

Good things
I liked the story. Not very much but not very little either

Bad things
My only problem with this mod was the creatures. I liked the fact that you took enemies from the originals but Foob and Yorp are drawn a little poorly. You could have borrowed the Yorp in the galaxy version of the Marooned on Mars. Also, it is easy to deduce which enemy they replace: the Yorp is definitely the Little Ampton as you have not eliminated the sound of its footsteps, Foob is very reminiscent of Shelley because it stops at the ledges. In short, the only enemy behavior that seems to have changed a lot is Sparky's one

Errors
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  • In Cave of Acute Discomfort you put another green gem instead of a yellow one
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  • The glass doesn't break. Is it intentional?
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  • When I activate the secret switch two pink tiles appear in front of the door
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  • Keen appears in front of these tiles
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  • Keen appears behind these tiles
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  • There is a missing tile here
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  • The flag appears in front of the Scorebox and when I enter the teleporter the game freezes
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  • These pies (or at least the red one) cannot be collected
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  • This secret area has nothing inside
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  • lol
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  • Superfluous tile
I spent a nice weekend playing your mods. Best regards, DarkAle
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Re: Announcement 2 of 2: Oh, and also here's a beta of a Keen 5 mod.

Post by proYorp »

Kohntarkosz_ wrote: Fri Jul 16, 2021 16:04 I believe this is the first Commander Keen mod to feature gospel music, and the first DOS platformer of any kind to feature the word 'Yeet'. (I promise there are plausible in-universe explanations for both.)
You had my curiosity, but now you have my attention. :lol

I'd like to do more beta-testing but I currently have a lot of real life and other projects on my priorities list. Will testing still be open in oh say 6 months? :disguised

Just make sure to test the levels on Normal difficulty while you're developing them. :p
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Re: Announcement 2 of 2: Oh, and also here's a beta of a Keen 5 mod.

Post by TheBigV »

The Velospike appears to be stuck here:
Image

This one can end up blocking the blue key door:
Image

There seems to be a typo here, the letters read "Brain-N-Mbtic":
Image

Also, the batch file appears to be missing.
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Re: Announcement 2 of 2: Oh, and also here's a beta of a Keen 5 mod.

Post by Syllypryde »

I do not understand how anyone is playing this game. Every time I try to download the file and unzip, the .bat file is missing.
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Re: Announcement 2 of 2: Oh, and also here's a beta of a Keen 5 mod.

Post by DarkAle »

I created one myself
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Re: Announcement 2 of 2: Oh, and also here's a beta of a Keen 5 mod.

Post by TheBigV »

To run the game, you can create a custom batch file containing the text "ck5patch KEEN5a.pat". You can also run that command directly in DOSBox.

Here's some more beta test stuff.

This is supposed to be an exit, but instead it's acting as a wall:
Image

It appears there's another typo here, the sign reads "Ccautjon. Stteam."
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Re: Announcement 2 of 2: Oh, and also here's a beta of a Keen 5 mod.

Post by Soul Monster »

So, I just downloaded the game, but there's no .bat file. I'm seeing people in this thread saying it's possible to create your own. Could someone please tell me how to do this?
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Re: Announcement 2 of 2: Oh, and also here's a beta of a Keen 5 mod.

Post by Pandakeen »

1. Create a text file
2. Put this in the text file:

Code: Select all

ck5patch.exe keen5a.pat
3. Rename file extension from .txt to .bat
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Re: Announcement 2 of 2: Oh, and also here's a beta of a Keen 5 mod.

Post by Soul Monster »

Thanks for the speedy response, Pandakeen!

Edit: Worked like a charm. I'll be beta testing this once I beat the first 2 in the trilogy. I've played through a few levels so far and already found a couple things. I'll upload a complete list once I beat it.
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Re: Announcement 2 of 2: Oh, and also here's a beta of a Keen 5 mod.

Post by Quillax »

What's the current status of this mod? Has it been completed yet, or is it still in the beta phase (perhaps perpetually)? Kohntarkosz_ hasn't logged into this place since July 19, 2021. Is there anyone here in contact with him? I just sent him a PM. Who knows, maybe he'll get an e-mail for that; is that option opt-in or opt-out?
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Re: Announcement 2 of 2: Oh, and also here's a beta of a Keen 5 mod.

Post by Syllypryde »

Quillax wrote: Sun Mar 24, 2024 6:02 What's the current status of this mod? Has it been completed yet, or is it still in the beta phase (perhaps perpetually)? Kohntarkosz_ hasn't logged into this place since July 19, 2021. Is there anyone here in contact with him? I just sent him a PM. Who knows, maybe he'll get an e-mail for that; is that option opt-in or opt-out?
The game is a full version, beta or not, You can complete the game and have an ending sequence. But most of its bugs haven't been fixed. The same goes for Prisoner's Dilemma. Most of its bugs haven't been fixed, most especially in the final level where there is a massive bug that makes the level unsolvable. Since you said so yourself that Kohntarkosz has been here since 2021, I doubt any of these issues will ever be addressed, unless K1n9_Duk3 has free time and decides to debug both of these games.
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