Public Commander Keen Forum

Hello, everyone!

I've finally finished the next giant update to my precious project, Keen Dreams Gold Edition!


Why is this so special release? Well...

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY!

A year ago, exactly on this day, I've released the first version of this source mod. This current update was planned to be released on Keen's Day, but due to time-pulling technical problems I've ended up thinking of other neat stuff that takes the time until May 10th.

So, let's see the changes since Keen's Day:

Update from 2025-03-14 to 2025-05-10:

Main menu:

- Added a 6th, Keen difficulty.
- The "Help Me, I'm Lost!" help section has been updated.
- Credit section has been extended with "Further Thanks" part.
- Added new, customizable scrolling, placing and pogo buttons.
- If the player turns on/off music or sound and/or changes between PC Speaker and AdLib, the changes become valid immediately.
- Joystick 2 has own separated, blue-colored button calibration button and menu button.

Parameters:

- Removed /nopan and /jerk parameters

Gameplay:

- There are 56 Boobus Bombs in the game in total.
- Helmetless Keen has entirely been removed for memory and free space issues.
- Reversed Sour Grape now appears in the plus 3 new difficulties.
- Reversed Door only appears in Castle Basement and Eggplant Estate.
- In Hill Top, beginner, skilled and keen difficulty rule window appears, which describes the features of the mode.
- Added 16 extra levels, which are the original levels at night (except one of them is new level, which is called Castle Tower + bonus 3 are from Ceilick's Keen Dreams Plus mod) with slight modifications in favour of Dream mode.
- The color of the night level texts are light blue.
- In Dream mode, instead of looking up while being bored Keen just faces to the actual direction (like in Bad Dreams Keen 1 mod by Levellord).
- Also in Dream mode, Keen has the pogo stick as secret item if he picks it. The pogoing has the same original sound as in Keen 4-6.
- Boobus' Chamber is renamed to Royal Chamber due to Queen Bustling Tuberina.
- Keen's looking up/ducking and scrolling up/down key combinations and movements have been corrected. (For example, if the player pushes and holds up, he/she can immediately duck while that and vice versa + same goes for the scrolling up/down version as well.)
- In Keen mode Keen has health counter, and thus, he has received a new, hit sprite (since the enemies resurrect not too, but very fast).
- Mushroom Mere (level 13) has received update, where the 4 Flower Power pellets and a mushroom can be found due to a bug, when Keen scrolls down from the mushroom and thus, he gets stuck in the ground tile.
- Demos have been re-recorded.
- In the super-secret level (Steel Bridge) the text has been updated in case of the note paper.
- Keen turning/stopping sprite state has been fixed.
- The incorrect score box cache that resulted crash while loading a game (or something else/similar like that, etc.) has been fixed.
- In Castle Basement, a guard robot has been removed on the top of the level and additional door + key are added.
- In Keen mode Boobus jumps higher.
- In beginner mode, since Queen Bustling Tuberina is the boss in that case, the ending is different.
- Blinking Flower Power now kills enemies like in Keen Dreams Definitive Edition.
- On the map level (where the bridge is) if the player tries to enter super-secret level, a warning message appears.
- The jukebox is now specific: If music is on, the jukebox can play music if the player chooses a track number, but if music is off, the jukebox is off as well.
- Keen now cannot jump through dangers by holding the jump key when hitting the ground.
EDIT:
- Fixed Turnip Trapway's 'DONE' mark (it was outside of the level entry spawn, so it wasn't marked)
- The melons in Watermelon Patch are now correctly positioned (even if they cannot be too visible, look for them to avoid 'em as soon as possible)

Graphics:

- Under the second title screen the "GOLD EDITION" sign is bigger and uses different font
- While facing to the left, the position of one of Keen's yawning frame has been corrected
- Boobus has different forms in skilled and keen mode
- In the masked tileset all the spawn code icons have been added and updated
- All Mortimer portraits have been tweaked
- Mortimer's helmetless portrait has been changed back to helmeted one

Shortcuts:

- If F7 is pressed, now there is a popup window that asks if the player wants to quit or not.

Levels:

- In Cauliflower Quarter the ground tile's height has been increased to prevent the player from getting hit by the Broccolash.
- 3 of Ceilick's levels have been added and been turned to night levels: Beet Street, Pea Pod Park, and Watermelon Patch

Others:

- Added technical notes for retro PC owners.
- The format of the help texts are now UTF-8.
- The info about how to buy the official Keen games in the previews has been removed.
- On the loading screen (and in case of using the "/noems" and/or "/noxms" parameters), the EMS and XMS memory's texts are now corrected.
- The F10 + M cheat has been improved.
- The new upside Melon is now the part of the melon cache, that's why the Celery has been moved.
- The code for the lyrics help section has been rationalized.
- If the super-secret level (Steel Bridge) is completed (no matter via saved game, F10 + E cheat, regular completing or not) the game now always print the correct amount of points.
- When the player pushes Esc to go to the main menu, the cursor is now always positioned to the first item.
- When the player loads a corrupted (or similar) saved game and receives an error message, the "Loading <save game name>" window now disappears correctly.
- On the first loading screen the invite link (that I created) to the PCKF's server has been fixed.
- On the quitting screen NetKeen has also been mentioned.
EDIT:
- Ceilick is credited for the 3 bonus secret levels that I added

Update 2025-05-13:

- Melon Mines have been edited.
- The position of Keen's right facing sprite (while/during being bored in night levels) has been fixed for big(ger) slope now.
- When Keen doesn't have pogo and the player pushes the pogoing button, now this only happens between level 25 and 40.
- Watermelon Patch level (night version) has been edited and renamed to Coastal Creek and has been edited.
- Coastal Creek's track is "Rowin' Down the Sad River"
- Melon Mines has been replaced by Cantaloupe Mine (which is from my Keen Dreams 2: Another Helping of Veggies with a few edit).
- Added Cantaloupe Lip between level 25 and 40. Its seed just stuns Keen and doesn't kill him.
- On Boobus' portrait, the line of Boobus' eyes have been corrected.
- Added Cantaloupe Lip description in the help menu.
- The Cantaloupe Lip's seed cannot stun Keen in god mode anymore.

Update 2025-05-15:

- Removed the unnecessary 3 Boobus Bombs from the night version of Spud City and those has been replaced with 3 Candy Bars + 3 Peppermints have been added at the upper left corner of the same level, where it was originally empty.
- In the enemy description, Boobus and Bustling are now called "THEIR VEGESTIES" instead of "ROYAL COUPLE".
- If the player runs the game for the first time, the music is now on (like in Keen 4-6).

Update 2025-05-16:

- When the player plays for the first time, the music is now on (as K1n9_Duk3 warned me earlier, it didn't happen before).
- If /noal (disabling AdLib detecting) parameter is used, either the AdLib music or the AdLib sounds are off.


Download this special update: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/yyopq8sw ... wnl5v&dl=1

YouTube trailer: https://youtu.be/RUHRl0vE3r0

KeenWiki: https://keenwiki.shikadi.net/wiki/Keen_ ... ld_Edition

Great release! The new difficulty is really neat, though I don't think I could beat the game on it.

Happy 1st Birthday, Keen Dreams Gold Edition! I am very happy to see this. Awesomeness! Keep up this amazing work that you're doing.

Congrats once again, Szemi! I am a little too busy to play it now, but I am looking forward to trying it this weekend. Just by reading what you've added and seeing the trailer, this looks super! Nice work.

If I will be in the good mood, I might try the highest difficulty to see how you've spiced it up.

Wow! I've beaten the game and I think I've managed to find all the secret levels. Instead of finished the game, the game kept goin! Really cool!

However, I don't think I've found the pogo or don't get it what it means. What is that "Dream Mode"? What are those night levels? Any hints as to how to find them?

I played through the game twice and, yeah, it's a little unusual there's a pogo button but no pogo stick in sight. I'm guessing it's a planned feature or something I couldn't find? Great mod, by the way! It can easily see it becoming my way of playing Keen Dreams going forward.

Nice work in making keen dreams feel like a more complete game.

Wow, this looks really impressive!

I remember the disappointment when I first played the game that was in the folder named "KEEN7" in the 1990s. No music, no ledge grabbing, hard to hit the enemies, which don't stay killed... I felt cheated.

When I introduce my kid to Keen Dreams, it'll be to this version.

I am really, truly happy to see the success of your mod, Szemi! It's so much fun and I will always be pleased to help you out with anything that you need when there is time. Keep up this amazing work, as always!