Mort+1 Day Surprise: Abandoned Keen 4 mod

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StupidBunny
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Mort+1 Day Surprise: Abandoned Keen 4 mod

Post by StupidBunny »

So while rooting through all the unfinished/outstanding projects in my computer's hard drive I happened across a mod of Commander Keen 4 that I started building unknown ages ago. I seem to remember working on it around the same time as Comrade Keen, although given the quality of the graphics as well as the fact that it's made under the name "KeegTech Software" it seems this was actually abandoned well before I was working on Comrade Keen, evidently making this my oldest Keen mod still in existence. The .pat file shows as having last been modified in October of 2004, so this was probably abandoned in mid 2005 at the latest.

What surprises me most is how much I had apparently already done on this: all the enemy sprites are replaced and there's a decent part of the tileset (mostly background tiles) that I've redrawn too. Not surprisingly, the graphics aren't that great and the story is kind of silly. Having finished and released one old mod that you should definitely play, I feel justified in releasing another, much dustier mod in this highly unfinished state, for the sake of historical interest if nothing else.

tl;dr: Old-ass Keen 4 mod I never finished. Download here.
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Post by Paramultart »

WHOOOO! More surprises!
Givin' this a play.

EDIT: Wow! I can definitely see what you mean about it being extremely old and extremely unfinished. There appears to be no new levels. Still, it's really cool you released this old scrap project! I wish I still had all of my old Wolf3D mod scraps. Those were quite a laugh! :D
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Post by Benvolio »

Some promising stuff here - amusing backgrounds, I like the green tar. The sprites were good enough that I warped to every single level to view them all in action. The silurian with its granades was the best, oh and the cloud replacement was badass!! Some of these worth salvaging for a future project perhaps!!
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Post by Syllypryde »

It is amazing how much is done on this abandoned mod. Granted, there is no new level designs, but the graphics and the background tiles are great. They may or may not be Keenish, but I really liked them. It is a shame this was abandoned.
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Post by StupidBunny »

There's a possibility I might integrate some of the tiles and sprites here in a future Galaxy mod, though obviously after some thorough retouching to make them look less...old.

I should have said earlier that, because this is so unfinished, people can use resources from this mod if they wish (with credit and all that good stuff of course.) I may use a variation of the Silurian hovertrooper in the currently-stalled Comrade Keen remake, whenever I feel motivated to get back on that.
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Post by troublesomekeen »

Thank you for releasing this! Plenty of interesting stuff here. I especially like the replacement for the Blue Bird. And your "puddle of Slug poison" is exactly the same as mine. Pink and purple. Now I feel like I have to change it. XD Again, this is great. It reminded me that I still have to replace the sleeping slug sprite under the ground. The Princess Lindsey replacement made me laugh (also the Arachunt replacement). I like those red mountains! And I'm impressed every time I see those cactuses. Cacti? I like the Underwater Sprite replacement. A quid who fires black ink. Brilliant. And the Schoolfish remind me if the Rabites in Secret of Mana (SNES). And great goons! What have you done to the Dopefish!? Omigodzilla, it just showed its teeth at me!
I may have to steal your Skypest. It'll be a micro-flying-saucer! The replacement for the Gnosticenes are Yorps! lmeo! Regrettably, I have given this unfinished mod for play-time than TUIT. XD
Cheers! :lol
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Post by tulip »

I can only agree with the previous post. I was surprised you practically finished a full set of enemies, and then didn't finish the mod. That's usually the part that takes me the longest. Once the enemies and tilesets are finished modding is bliss. But on the other hand this was probably made in pre-TOM era, and I can see how that could stop a mod.
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Post by StupidBunny »

tulip wrote:I can only agree with the previous post. I was surprised you practically finished a full set of enemies, and then didn't finish the mod. That's usually the part that takes me the longest. Once the enemies and tilesets are finished modding is bliss. But on the other hand this was probably made in pre-TOM era, and I can see how that could stop a mod.
This as far as I can remember was released well before anything besides TED existed, which would definitely explain how I could never figure out how to build any levels. I also kind of got stuck with the tileset, since KeenGrout was a long time in coming as well and doing the masked tiles was a pain in the ass back then. Still...I was surprised myself when I rediscovered this and realized that I had, in fact, replaced all the enemies in the game.
troublesomekeen wrote:I may have to steal your Skypest. It'll be a micro-flying-saucer!
No! I'm thinking I might reuse that in my Comrade Keen remake! :dopefish
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Post by troublesomekeen »

StupidBunny wrote:No! I'm thinking I might reuse that in my Comrade Keen remake!
It's too late, m'friend! Mwa ha ha!
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Last edited by troublesomekeen on Tue Jul 11, 2017 19:42, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by StupidBunny »

Noooooooooo

Actually, that's different enough from my working concept that I think it'll be fine. All is well with the universe.
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Post by Gridlock »

Abandoned mods are always fun to look through. I can understand how hard the graphics must have been; I remember trying to do tile masking when I first started modding. Some of the enemy sprites are really neat, especially the cloud, wormouth, dopefish, and berkeloid. I actually had to go in and change the ridiculous level entry text for level 13 so I could see the smirky replacement without the game crashing. Also, some of your new items are pretty good, especially the cereal. Is one of those supposed to be a stick of butter?

I hope you do work on more Galaxy mods, as I think you have plenty of potential.
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Post by troublesomekeen »

Gridlock wrote:I actually had to go in and change the ridiculous level entry text for level 13 so I could see the smirky replacement without the game crashing.
Me too. It crashed upon entry.
Gridlock wrote:Is one of those supposed to be a stick of butter?
It's a toblerone bar. I googled it. The images that were shown made me appreciate that point item a whole lot more.
StupidBunny wrote:Actually, that's different enough from my working concept that I think it'll be fine.
Splendid! I was whacking me brains trying to think of an idea for the Skypest. I was going to make it a flying light bulb that flickers off and on. It would shatter when pogo-ed. But your "Whirl" made me think to use a UFO because of its round shape and cool rotation. ^^
Edit: Um... I hate to say it, but I'm going to have to give the same treatment to your StormCloud replacement. It's genius. [:<
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Post by StupidBunny »

I'd say "nooooooo" again, since I was anticipating reusing that one too, but...I kind of want to make myself come up with some new ideas. :P So you may use it, as long as credit and etc.

Also you'll appreciate the Toblerone Bars even more if you actually eat one. I promise.
Gridlock wrote:I actually had to go in and change the ridiculous level entry text for level 13 so I could see the smirky replacement without the game crashing.
THAT'S why that level wouldn't run! I'd not bothered to look in the patch file, I guess assuming I hadn't touched it. :crazy
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Post by troublesomekeen »

StupidBunny wrote:I was anticipating reusing that one too
Fine! You can keep your blasted Mechanical Cloud replacement mechanism thingy! I don't want it anymore!
:(
Nah, but seriously. I just had a brilliant idea for what to do with the Clouds. Thanks anyway.
My mod is going quite well so far. Still so many things to do before I can begin building levels!
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StupidBunny wrote:Also you'll appreciate the Toblerone Bars even more if you actually eat one. I promise.
In that case, Imma swallow one the next chance I get! Sounds like a must-eat.
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Post by Toomuchsparetime »

My computer sux right now... maybe I need dosbox. Dying to see some screenshots though! :D
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