Keen 5 secret level

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DoomJedi
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Keen 5 secret level

Post by DoomJedi »

I wonder if I'm the only one of 90s Keen fans here who never (!) played Keen 5 secret level (because my 90s version crashed it each time).

...If only I had the right version with save file at the secret level I'd sure enjoy playing it now....

I'm still by this day proud of discovering Keen 4 secret level in the 90s all on my own, the most rewarding secret finding experience ever in gaming for me. Maaan I miss the old times.
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ckguy
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Re: Keen 5 secret level

Post by ckguy »

DoomJedi wrote: Mon May 02, 2022 10:35 (because my 90s version crashed it each time)
Sounds like SOMEONE always played Keen 5 in easy mode.
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Re: Keen 5 secret level

Post by DoomJedi »

ckguy wrote: Mon May 02, 2022 14:55
DoomJedi wrote: Mon May 02, 2022 10:35 (because my 90s version crashed it each time)
Sounds like SOMEONE always played Keen 5 in easy mode.
I almost always played games and mods in easiest mode/skill :)
Only a few years ago I started playing some Wolf3D/Doom mods on higher difficulties.

I try to live life in easy mode too, so it was just an extension of how I live :)
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Re: Keen 5 secret level

Post by Hisymak »

Not sure if this is true or not, but according to my memories, I was rarely able to play secret level on easy difficulty (with the crashing game version) without a crash. It just randomly, after maybe series of tries, did not crash, maybe a save/load helped? Really not sure if that's even technically possible, maybe that's just a false memory and I actually played on higher difficulty and did not realize?
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Re: Keen 5 secret level

Post by DoomJedi »

So, anyone can help old Keen fan with save file at that level in any difficulty? :)
I'd love to play it.
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Nospike
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Re: Keen 5 secret level

Post by Nospike »

You could use the warp cheat. That's how I discovered this level as a kid, but because I only ever attempted to do this on easy difficulty and I had no idea the difficulty mattered, I got freaked out by it every time and thought it was some bizarre game glitch. And because the level crashes before the bagpipes in the background music get going, I also thought the music was in fact some kind of corrupted sound effect. :crazy :lol
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XkyRauh
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Re: Keen 5 secret level

Post by XkyRauh »

I found the Keen5 secret level alright, but I couldn't find the Keen4 one without help from the Internet. :dopekeen
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Re: Keen 5 secret level

Post by Grimson »

XkyRauh wrote: Thu May 05, 2022 2:02 I found the Keen5 secret level alright, but I couldn't find the Keen4 one without help from the Internet. :dopekeen
Same here, although I only ever found the Keen 5 secret level through a glitch. IIRC it involved dying to Shikadi Mines near the level edge in Q.E.D. which somehow teleported Keen to Korath :confused

As for Keen 4, as a kid I was certain you'd get to the secret level by taking this narrow path:
Image

I mean, it makes sense right? There's nothing visually blocking your way. Too bad Keen had gotten too wide from consuming all that candy :(
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Re: Keen 5 secret level

Post by DoomJedi »

Again, found it myself and it's the most satisfactory secret I found myself even in a game :)
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Re: Keen 5 secret level

Post by Syllypryde »

XkyRauh wrote: Thu May 05, 2022 2:02 I found the Keen5 secret level alright, but I couldn't find the Keen4 one without help from the Internet. :dopekeen
Most of the time I found the paths to the secret levels by dumb luck. In the Pyramid of the Moons I found it strange having all those inchworms on the bottom and using a gem to open a door to a switch that extended a bridge that had no purpose whatsoever. As for Chasm of Chills I did not realize for a long time that Keen could walk on top of the grass at the top of the level. I thought it was background. One day when I was playing that level on normal and used the impossible pogo to dodge a blue bird, I accidentally pogoed up to the grass where I found Princess Lindsey. She says, "The way to the Pyramid of the Forbidden lies under the Pyramid of Moons". I assumed "Pyramid of the Forbidden" was the inaccessible pyramid, so I went back to Pyramid of the Moons in order to find out how to get there once and for all. Upon doing so I found three secrets:

1) Found a secret pole in the ceiling that lead to a door that leads to the Lifewater Flask. I tried damn near everything to get to this extra life, and now I had finally figured it out.

2) Another secret passage that led to a group of ice cream cones and another door.

3) This door led to the outside of the pyramid.

Even after finding these secrets I still could not figure out how to get to the secret level. Out of complete frustration I was going to give up and then I remembered the inchworms and the "worthless" bridge. So for my own amusement, I decided to collect all of them. You cannot even imagine my surprise when that foot appeared!

Another example of dumb luck is how I found Blooglab Space Station in Keen 6. When I played Bloog Control Center for the first time, I did not realize Keen could walk through the dome. I was totally confused on what the hell to do and could get nowhere in the level. I was about to give up when I remembered there were still a few levels I did not complete. (Because I have to complete all available levels in the game.) So when I went to go back to The Bloogdome I accidentally hit the up-arrow and walked right through the dome to the railing. I did not think anything of it at the time and left Keen there while I left to go to the bathroom. When I came back Keen was standing on some kind of space station. So I wondered how the hell did he get there? Soon as I asked myself that question the satellite came back, picked up Keen and carried him back to the railing where I had left him. It is amazing the things you can learn while you are taking a leak! :spot
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Re: Keen 5 secret level

Post by Quillax »

This is turning out to be a good topic! It's fun reading about how people find the secret levels! :)

I think the only secret level I found myself was Keen 1's. I remember going down into the one pit in Red Maze City, finding and then taking the teleporter, and then got really excited when I saw where I ended up. I remember showing my parents what I found! :) I think the rest of the secret levels we found them with the help of Keen websites. I once found that glitch where Keen got out of the Omegamatic after dying in some level and could walk around the whole worldmap in outer space, but couldn't enter any level, secret level included.
DoomJedi wrote: Tue May 03, 2022 14:31 So, anyone can help old Keen fan with save file at that level in any difficulty? :)
I'd love to play it.
Sounds like the problem is that you have an older version of Keen 5. If I remember correctly, version 1.0 of Keen 5 will crash if you play the secret level on Easy, because of some goplat problem. This terrible glitch was fixed in later versions.

In this very section of the forum, there is a pinned topic called "Keen Upgrades/Downgrades thread". It has downloads of patches that are used to change a Keen game into a different version. There is a patch for turning Keen 5 into version 1.4, which has the glitch fixed. The links in the original post are dead, but Grandy02 offered some downloads hosted by other people: viewtopic.php?p=95277#p95277

Do be cautious, though; my antivirus software flagged the patches as malware and I haven't really tried any of them out yet. However, it's possible that the antivirus software was just giving a false alarm, as usual.

That's probably your best bet. I hope this was helpful! :)
Nospike wrote: Tue May 03, 2022 14:39 And because the level crashes before the bagpipes in the background music get going, I also thought the music was in fact some kind of corrupted sound effect. :crazy :lol
Hahaha, that's funny! :lol
Grimson wrote: Thu May 12, 2022 9:46 Same here, although I only ever found the Keen 5 secret level through a glitch. IIRC it involved dying to Shikadi Mines near the level edge in Q.E.D. which somehow teleported Keen to Korath :confused

As for Keen 4, as a kid I was certain you'd get to the secret level by taking this narrow path:
-image-

I mean, it makes sense right? There's nothing visually blocking your way. Too bad Keen had gotten too wide from consuming all that candy :(
That Keen 5 glitch you found sounds really weird! :eek I don't think I've ever heard of that before! Are you sure that's how it happened? Did it ever happen again?

For Keen 4, I think I probably had that same thought as well. One thing I certainly remember was thinking that Keen could get to the secret level by going through what looked like an opening that's south to the pyramid. I'm pretty sure a lot of Keen fans here had those same thoughts too!
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DoomJedi
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Re: Keen 5 secret level

Post by DoomJedi »

In the Pyramid of the Moons I found it strange having all those inchworms on the bottom and using a gem to open a door to a switch that extended a bridge that had no purpose whatsoever.
I found Princess Lindsey. She says, "The way to the Pyramid of the Forbidden lies under the Pyramid of Moons".
Exactly the hints I used.

Keen 1 secret I think I found myself as well, but it's much easier than Keen 4 one.
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Re: Keen 5 secret level

Post by Benvolio »

Well seeing as we've mentioned Keen1, let me quote my own post from 2013...
Well, for Keen1, long after I had beaten the game, I was messing around at the very start of the game one day and my sister who was maybe 6 at the time was beside me with her bear and then she decided to be cheeky and she brought poor Mammybear crashing down on my trusty Amstrad keyboard and lo and behold a little box appeared saying 'God Mode Enabled' and then I thought 'what does this do' and I took a stroll in an eastwards direction, simply to go to the exotic dark side of Mars, and then I decided I'd see if I could walk in space and then WTF another area with a level in it and... the rest is history. It took some weeks, if I recall, to refine what the actual cheat codes for GOD and CT-SPACE were so pressing every key simultaneously was routine procedure!
I think I learned the proper way to find the secret level from the internet... that dark area, though very cool and mysterious, seemed a distraction from the novelty of such a big maze in the main part of the Red Maze City.
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Re: Keen 5 secret level

Post by Grimson »

Quillax wrote: Mon May 16, 2022 5:18
Grimson wrote: Thu May 12, 2022 9:46 Same here, although I only ever found the Keen 5 secret level through a glitch. IIRC it involved dying to Shikadi Mines near the level edge in Q.E.D. which somehow teleported Keen to Korath :confused
That Keen 5 glitch you found sounds really weird! :eek I don't think I've ever heard of that before! Are you sure that's how it happened? Did it ever happen again?
I'm 100% certain I got there via a repeatable glitch, because I used to rely on it to get to the secret level. I never discovered the real path (the secret route in Gravitational Damping Hub) until much later, when I re-played/rediscovered Keens as a late teenager/young adult.

Sadly, I don't remember for certain if that was the glitch, or if it was something else. It's been over 20 years and I was just a wee lad back then :o
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Re: Keen 5 secret level

Post by Hisymak »

I first time "discovered" Keen5 secret level through a door glitch. I don't remember exactly, but maybe it was in Energy Flow Systems, where I walked through a door in lower part of map, and bam, I exited the level and appeared in front of the secret level. It indeed crashed because I was certainly playing on easy, so I did not even realize it was a secret level, but rather some kind of bug/glitched level. When I launched the game again, I could walk through the door normally, so I assumed that was just some odity, and during future replays of Keen5 I was always afraid of walking through door and being glitched, rather than searching for it to happen.
I realized it was a secret level later with use of cheats. With noclip or warp cheat I could reach the level easily, and eventually, I discovered the official way with help of F10+Y cheat, which I liked to use especially in Keen5 as there were many secret areas overally. Poor me, young cheater.
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