MILDLY NEAT -- For all your random Keenery needs!

[proYorp]

It's been noticeable for a long while now that there are quite a lot of posts in the Off-Topic Thread that are, in fact, not off-topic at all and very much related to Keen.

This can become troublesome as those posts tend to get lost in the 150+ pages of the thread and may be difficult to find again... or, to even remember that they exist at all. (There had been at least one thing buried in there that I would have nominated for the Keen Awards if I'd remembered it existed!) My hope is that having a thread specifically for those little interesting things will help to prevent them from getting lost.

* * *

Quick summary: This thread is meant to be a depository for all of those little Keen-related things that are kind of neat, but maybe not quite enough so to warrant their own dedicated thread. (In essence, what the Off-Topic Thread has become but without all the other unrelated posts in between.)

[Nisaba]

[proYorp]

Haha Lego Keen IRL! I love the details, especially the door and gem. That's awesome, who made that?

[Nisaba]

Oops, I forgot to past the source. the concept design was made by Morten Sørensen: https://mortensrensen.artstation.com/projects/v1G6wd

[Pandakeen]

Today, there are now legal adults that have been in development as long as Orbkeen.
http://archive.shikadi.net/pckf/unofficial/813.htm

[StupidBunny]

I just thought of this mod for the first time in a long while. And now it's turning 18!

Must be a sign that Spleen is gonna come with updates any day now right?

[TheBigV]

So, there was a topic on this forum made back in 2015 asking if Commander Keen could be included in Windows 11. At the time, other people thought the idea was ridiculous.

Well, now that Microsoft owns Commander Keen and Windows 11 is now an actual thing, it's within the realm of possibility. Unlikely, but possible.

[proYorp]

Crazy how those two factors happened and that idea went from "unimaginably inconceivable" to "hey it could happen!"

...and you all doubted SupFanat.

[proYorp]

I was looking at these weird pink blocks in the vortininja fort (Cape Canavorta), trying to figure out what they were supposed to be. They look sort of like sturdy metal storage chests, and I thought "well that makes sense if it's a military base" (I guess these show up in all the official Fort levels, and possibly not any other levels but I didn't thoroughly check that).



But then I was like, "why do they look like the ground?" Because their textures are almost the same. Are they made of ground?

Then I realized... it's camouflage. And the camo is purple because everything is purple on Vorticon VI. Green or brown camouflage would not blend in at all.

I think this is a really cool attention to detail.

[Quillax]

That Lego Keen is really awesome! Imagine if Ilsoap saw that! His mod could become a reality! If Microsoft is willing to license Keen for Legos, that is.

proYorp, what you said about the purple blocks is really interesting. I never stopped to think what those things are, but your theory makes total sense! Too bad there were no Vorticon soldiers dressed in purple, although the Vorticon Elites were pretty close.

[Pandakeen]

How many people have actually noticed that Keen 4 has a different map sprite than Keens 5 and 6?

[Quillax]

I've noticed that for years! I don't know when I started to notice, but it was probably some time after I started modding. The Keen 4 sprite kind of reminds me of the Rescue Rover graphics because of the perspective, while the newer sprite has a bit of an RPG look. It's odd that in the newer sprite, Keen is missing an outline at the right side of his helmet.

[Kayburt]

How many people have actually noticed that Keen 4 has a different map sprite than Keens 5 and 6?

I didn't notice till you made this comparison. Not sure why they would use different sprites instead of reuse the same one. Improvement? Different perspectives?

[Quillax]

I think it's to make the perspective more consistent. If you look around the world maps (including the Shadowlands), you'll notice that the graphics are usually closer to the 5/6 sprite in perspective than the 4 sprite. I'm actually not sure if any of the artwork have the same perspective as the 4 sprite. Didn't the Keen Dreams map sprite use the same perspective as the 4 sprite? I wonder if the worldmap for Dreams/4 was going to look something like Rescue Rover (but with outlines).

EDIT: Just found this neat floppy drive remix: https://invidious-us.kavin.rocks/watch?v=C1fnI-lSux8, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1fnI-lSux8 (alt link)

[Quillax]

(Quote from an old thread:)

Randomly found this on Google Images one day:
http://www.diffusedion.co.uk/images/C/Keen318.jpg

This guy apparently has a website where he uploads pictures of games he's completed on original hardware. Here's the index for the games he did in 2018 (including all episodes of Commander Keen):
http://www.diffusedion.co.uk/2018.html

The above picture is a 386 SX-25, as evidenced by this lovely video of it booting up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptYHlQvMoMY

That guy's site also has a page with DOS music he recorded from the original hardware, with one Keen song (Korath III Base, or Playing Bagpipes Nearly Kilt Me!) included. I listened to that and the song in DOSBox, going back and forth a few times in an attempt to spot any differences. All I noticed is that in DOSBox when the song is about to loop you hear a little sound, while such sound doesn't seem to exist in the guy's recording. DOSBox emulation seems pretty good, but not exact I guess. It'd be neat to hear the other Keen songs -- didn't keenmaster486 say that the Keen 6 factory music sounds a little different in DOSBox compared to the original hardware?