The Alphamatic (Version 2 In Development + Marooned Over Mars Expansion)

You can discuss anything about fan-made Commander Keen games here.

Who would you want to see as the playable character?

Keep it Keen
18
45%
Lindsey
3
8%
Spot
6
15%
Oracle Janitor
1
3%
Lt. Barker
12
30%
 
Total votes: 40

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KeenRush
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Re: The Alphamatic

Post by KeenRush »

Looking pretty good! Can't wait to play. Looking like a set of complex levels. The altered palette does wonders.
My newest mod - Commander Keen: Sunset: viewtopic.php?t=8568 | codename H.Y.E.N.A.
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proYorp
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Post by proYorp »

I like how this uses the same colours for the introductory "Commander Keen" letters as Exile of the Krile. Usually it seems people like to use unique colours for each mod (which have probably all been used at least once by now) but I feel like it really denotes how this is a series. It just fits with the Atroxian Realm style.


I read the story draft on page 2 and it definitely has a very Keenish feel to it. However, I have a few minor nitpicks. I'm not sure that it's even the latest version or not, but if I may make a few suggestions:

At the beginning, it's Spot who announces they haven't heard from Keen in ages. But Spot lives right in Keen's backyard so he theoretically should've heard from Keen every day. Or did the adventure on Krisle really take that long?
At any rate, it feels like Spot should greet Keen when he arrives. It doesn't quite make sense if he's just in some interplanetary phone call, since he should be right where Keen is.

Also, this is just a personal opinion, but I've never really been a fan of portraying the Oracle Janitor as a big grump. *Everyone gasps in shock* In the original game he always seemed to me to just be an apologetic goofball who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. But I don't know, I guess everyone's grown attached to Ceilick's "grumpy old man" interpretation. Minor nitpicks, like I said.


That being said though, the levels in AR were the best I've seen in a long time, possibly ever. Arguably the most important part of a mod. So I'm very much looking forward to playing this! :)
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Gridlock
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Re: The Alphamatic

Post by Gridlock »

Hey! Things have calmed down a lot for me, so I finally have the time to get back to this project. I'm going back in cold since it's been like 4-5 months since I've touched anything, but once I get into it and finish up the remaining tasks, I'm hoping to get another round of testing going. I'll let you know when that's ready, but feel free to let me know if you're interested.

I want to get this wrapped up as soon as possible, so I'm hoping the release will be soon. As far remaining tasks, some music issues need to be resolved, I need to test a few patches that Levellass did ages ago, and I need to fix some other minor issues and playtest more. Based on the feedback you all gave, I'll also take another look at the story texts and see if they can be improved. Thanks for waiting!
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Armageddon Begins Again. The Alphamatic has arrived.

Atroxian Realm: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3536
The Alphamatic: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4086
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Levellass
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Re: The Alphamatic

Post by Levellass »

The way things are shaping up, this should be he summer of mods.
What you really need, not what you think you ought to want.
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Re: The Alphamatic

Post by Roobar »

For once I'm almost surprised that Levellass wasn't to blame for the delay :crazy .
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Re: The Alphamatic

Post by Levellass »

Nobody knows this, but I actually work for Mortimer, slowing down all possible Keen mods.
What you really need, not what you think you ought to want.
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Re: The Alphamatic

Post by Gridlock »

Hey everyone! Just doing some more testing and polishing on the game. Thanks to Mobiethian for helping with the latest round of testing.

With E3 starting tomorrow, I thought I'd share in the spirit and give you a new trailer for The Alphamatic:

https://youtu.be/Shn0xbWblcY

Thanks!
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Armageddon Begins Again. The Alphamatic has arrived.

Atroxian Realm: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3536
The Alphamatic: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4086
Plasma Captain
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Re: The Alphamatic

Post by Plasma Captain »

Gosh, yes. Keen 5 is my favourite episode. I'm looking forward to it.

Very nice video, by the way.
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Re: The Alphamatic

Post by KeenRush »

Gonna be good, gonna be good!
My newest mod - Commander Keen: Sunset: viewtopic.php?t=8568 | codename H.Y.E.N.A.
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Re: The Alphamatic

Post by Mobiethian »

Very good. Testing is coming along nicely, I'm excited!
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Re: The Alphamatic

Post by Gridlock »

Just a little over a week away. If you didn't see from the trailer, the game will be released July 4. :korath

I wanted to ask people's thoughts about UNZELXE and the Keen executable. I won't be distributing Keen5.exe due to copyright reasons, and that'll mean people will need to unpack their own with UNZELXE. However, some web protection programs / virus scanners don't like UNZELXE. I found that McAfee's Web Protect software would flag the download as malware, and even if you accepted the download, it would delete UNZELXE.exe from the folder. I ended up just uninstalling Web Protect to get the download to work on Chrome. I'm currently running Avira (free) on my Windows 10, and it doesn't flag it, but it's possible other programs might.

Does anybody have any suggestions on how to make this process easier for unfamiliar users who might not want to deal with these issues? I think I'll include the setup batch file shipped with Keen 9 to make this process easier, but people still need to get UNZELXE onto their computers in the first place. Anyone else had this problem?
Image
Armageddon Begins Again. The Alphamatic has arrived.

Atroxian Realm: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3536
The Alphamatic: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4086
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Re: The Alphamatic

Post by K1n9_Duk3 »

Gridlock wrote: Sun Jun 25, 2017 22:44UNZELXE
Don't you mean UNLZEXE? Also, I'm not much of a Keen modder, but I don't think you need to include UNLZEXE itself in a mod release at all. CKPATCH has built-in code to decompress and patch the executable on the fly. And without CKPATCH, there would be no way to play the mod anyway.
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Re: The Alphamatic

Post by Fleexy »

The newest version of CKPatch doesn't need the EXE to be pre-UNLZEXE'd. I just tested it on a fresh Keen 5 executable and it worked. You can get the newest version from KeenWiki, or use the one that Abiathar spits out. I realized just now that I never needed an UNLZEXE feature in Abiathar because it has shipped this CKPatch version since v1.4. :dopekeen
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Re: The Alphamatic

Post by Gridlock »

Thank you! Here I am living in the past. So nice to hear this is no longer the case.
Don't you mean UNLZEXE
:o
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Armageddon Begins Again. The Alphamatic has arrived.

Atroxian Realm: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3536
The Alphamatic: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4086
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Re: The Alphamatic

Post by K1n9_Duk3 »

Fleexy wrote: Sun Jun 25, 2017 23:31You can get the newest version from KeenWiki
I believe NY00123's "unofficial" CKPatch is the newest version. Don't know why it's not mentioned on the KeenWiki.
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