I played (almost) every Keen 1 mod

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CHOCOLATE MILK
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I played (almost) every Keen 1 mod

Post by CHOCOLATE MILK »

So I finally got a computer and access to all the commander keen mods (I previously had an android tablet but didn't know dosbox worked on it) and decided to play all of them, starting with keen 1 mods. But then I wondered: there are so many! How would I remember which ones I liked? So I came up with a rating system to conveniently sort my favorite ones on my computer. I then gave them more ratings based on there story and other things that I thought would be helpful. I eventually decided I would post the results when I finished my list, so here it is! Hopefully it will be interesting.

Legend:

Story:
| KS | for Keen story: a story in Keen's universe.
| PKS | for parody Keen story: an intentionally ridicules Keen story or a story about a Keen spoof.
| NS | for no new story
| US | for unfinished story: an incomplete mod that would have had or implies a new story but does not have it.
| OKS | for other Keen story: a story that involves Keen but is not canon to the official Keen games and is not a parody.
| OS | for other story: a story unrelated to Keen.

Miscellaneous:
| CD | for Can’t die: Can not lose.
| E | for easy: Hard to lose.
| H | for hard: Intentionally very hard.
| Why |: Intentionally brutal, and doesn’t allow useful cheats.
| B | for broken: Can not do all levels without cheats.
| B2 | for broken 2: Can not do all levels even with allowed cheats.
| ST | for stuck: Can get stuck in level with no escape, even with allowed cheats.
| MS | for map stuck: Can get stuck on map, even with allowed cheats.
| RU | for reused: Levels reused in a later mod.
| P | for puzzle: a puzzle mod or includes some sort of puzzle that you can get stuck on such as a keycard puzzle. (There may be a lot I missed with this rating since I came up with it late into the journey.)
| A |: Add-on
| SA |: Small add-on
| Cr | for crash: Experienced crash or error.
| U |: Unfinished
| M | for mature: Would be rated higher then PG.
| SLP | for small levelpack: a level pack that doesn't replace all the levels and levels from the level packs original game are still accessible from the map.

My rating:
Based on my opinion on how much I would want to play it again.
| S'N | for Should not.
| S'N/W'N |
| W'N | for Would not.
| W'N/Wd |
| Wd | for Would: the middle rating. I would not tell myself to play it in the future but I would not stop myself ether.
| Wd/S |
| S | for Should.
| S/WILL |
| WILL | for WILL.
Note that the ratings are not a review of the quality. For example, Harder mods are more likely to get "lower" ratings just because I would not want to go through them again and shorter mods are more likely to get "higher" ratings just because they are quicker to replay.


The List:
Name (from Keenwiki) | Story | Miscellaneous | My rating
Comment. Not all of them have comments because it would have taken a long time, I can't remember all of them and I'm lazy.

The Ice Factory | NS | RU E SLP | S'N
Rated S’N sense it’s in later level packs.

Flaose's Original Level Pack | NS | SLP | W'N/Wd
Pogo required for one of the levels.

Keen 1 BwB Level | NS | SA CD SLP | UR

therealdopefish's 1st Levelpack | NS | RU SLP | S’N/W’N
A true work of art. Only rated S’N/W’N because my brain isn’t big enough to comprehend it.

Xky's Mega Level | NS | SLP | S/WILL

A.R.'s Puzzle Levelpack | NS | P B U SLP | Wd
Requires C+T+Space for pogo.

Peder Johnson's 1st Levelpack | NS | RU SLP | S’N
Rated S’N because it’s in a later level pack.

Tom Bailey's 1st Levelpack | NS | H B SLP | S’N
B because level 9 has an area where fall-through pink block tiles are used instead of solid ones.

therealdopefish's 2nd Levelpack | NS | B2 SLP | S'N
The best mod ever made. One of the levels is so beautiful it makes my eyes hurt.

KMO Default Levels | NS | SLP | Wd

Peter Heardghana's Keen 1 Level | NS | RU E SLP | S'N
Rated S’N because it’s in a later level pack.

pLeitorian's 1st Levelpack | NS | H | S'N

A.R.'s Keen 1 Levelpack | NS | A SLP | Wd

Neil McRae's 2nd Levelpack | NS | A SLP | Wd

pLeitorian's 2nd Levelpack | NS | H | S'N

pLeitorian's 3rd Levelpack | NS | H | S'N

Keen Static | KS | || UR
Unrated because it’s basically a skin mod.

Ice Levels | NS | ST | W’N

Keen Armageddon | KS | H | S'N

Realms of Doom | NS || Wd

Jumping Practice | NS | SLP | W'N

Airefresco's Keen 1 Levelpack | NS | P St SLP | S'N/W’N

The Dark Side of Mars | NS || Wd

Twin Towers | NS | SLP | Wd

Mitchhell’s 2nd Levelpack | NS | SLP | Wd

The Freaking Vorticon | NS | B U SLP | W'N
Requires pogo.

Manboy's Keen 1 Levelpack | NS | SLP | Wd

Return on Mars | KS || W/S

Forge's 1st Level | NS | SLP | Wd

Thomas and Kael's Keen 1 Levelpack | NS | St SLP | W'N

I Am Frozen | NS | SLP | Wd

Ilsoap's Keen 1 Levelpack | NS | P SLP | W'N/W

Episode X | KS | || WILL

Norp the Yorp 1 | KS || S

The Four Golden Crystals | KS | M U | S'N

Extreme Keen | NS | St H SLP | S’N/W’N

Martian Building and Skyscraper | NS | SLP | Wd

Episode Y | KS | H B | W'N
B because level 5 has an impossible jump.

Dangerous Dave In Copyright Infringement | OKS || UR

Marooned on Mars Part II | NS || S

Test Your Keen Skillz | NS | H | Wd

Captainkeen's 2nd Levelpack | NS | SLP | Wd

Daniel's Keen Mod | KS | U B2 | Wd
B2 because exit in level 3 cannot be used.

Ice Planet | NS | U | S'N

Lego Keen | KS | P | W'N/Wd

Dungeon of Mystery | NS | P SLP | UR
UR because you can’t really rate the replay value of a puzzle level.

Zelda II | OS || S/WILL

Bazooka Wowbagger | KS || S

Robot Rebellion | KS | ? | ?
I could not get this to work. I get an error message saying there's an “invalid numeric format” in the patch file. When I remove that part of the patch file the game runs but doesn't seem to have loaded the patch file at all.

Dangerous Keen in The Haunted Mansion | KS | St | W’N/Wd

Commander Keen 0: Part 1 | NS | Cr | Wd/S (?)
When I quit the game it hangs dosbox. I tried it twice.

Patchwork Mod I | KS | B | W'N

Keenbot | UKS | U | UR

The Last Moon | KS || Wd

OrbKeen | KS | U P H | W’N

The Search for the Sentinel | KS | B2 | W’N/Wd
B2 because level 7 has a misplaced solid tile.

Kidnapped Keen | KS || Wd/S

Vanished To Venus | KS || W’N/Wd

Stopping the Skypest | KS || S’N/W’N

Bad Dreams | KS || S

Rorie’s Birthday Mod | PKS || Wd

The Adventures of Bunny Basher | OS || Wd

Christmas Special 2004 | KS | M | Wd/S

Hiding from the Sky | KS || Wd

The Perilous Pursuit | OKS | MS | Wd/S

The Adventures of The Oracle Janitor | KS || Wd

CGA Keen Episode 1 | US | U | UR

A Very Keen Christmas | KS || S

Xky’s One Level Mod | NS | CD | UR

Generic Mod I | KS || W’N

The Ripped Mod | PKS || W’N/Wd

Comrade Keen | PKS | U | Wd/S

Keen: Redemption | KS | U | UR

The Clones of Evil 1 | KS | Why P | S’N/W’N
Where I came up with the “Why” rating. I’d like to see someone beat this, I couldn’t get past the first level. Still interesting to look at after editing the patch file to allow cheats.

Musical Keen | KS || W’N

Xky1tuned | NS | H | W’N

A Sham on Inishmort | KS || W’N

Benvolio’s Puzzle Level | NS | P | UR

Story Land | KS | P | S

Harvey’s Mod | KS || W’N/Wd

Lord of the Rings: The Shards of Narsil | US | U | UR

Marooned on Mars Forever | NS | B U | S’N/W’N

Halloween Horrors | KS || Wd

Bunny Basher 2 | OS | B2 St | W'N
B2 because level 4 to have tiles next to the exit that seem to be incorectelly set to solid.
St because level 6 has has a room that Bunny cannot leave as his sprite is to big.

Keen Universe: Aliens Ate My Homework | KS | Why P ST | S’N/W’N

Aliens vs. Keen | KS || Wd

Keen 1 Level Competition Level Pack | NS | B | W’N/Wd

Yorphius II Level Pack | NS || W’N

A Christmas Mod | KS || W’N

Level Test | NS | CD SLP | UR

Onward: Silcar 1: Nightmare Before Teatime | KS || Wd

Invasion | KS | U | W’N

How the Vorticon Stole Christmas | KS | P | W'N/W

Episode Z | KS | H P | W’N

Happy Easter Pack | NS || S

Ally’s Mod | NS || Wd

Keen -6 | KS | H Cr | S'N
Beating this with cheats felt like an accomplishment.
Cr because of areas where the level would break from there own madness.

Oddpie | US | U B ST | Wd

Mars Kingdoms | US || UR

Lego Levels | NS || Wd

Keen S | NS | H P B2 MS | S'N/W'N
Originally TBA because the flashing light on the map screen gave hurt my eyes.
B2 and MS because the 2nd to last level doesn't work, probably because of a miss numbered level file?

Community Keen X Levelpack | NS | P | W’N/Wd

Clouds Unseen | OS | M | Wd/S

Retrosis | OS || Wd

Keen 1 640x480 Redux | NS | A | UR

Oasiz’s Mod | NS | M U | Wd/S

In the Bloogbrain | PKS | E | Wd/S

Marta 0 | KS || S

A Matter of Minkcraft | KS | P | Wd\S

Super Mario Brothers 1 | OS || | S

GARGapplesauce’s CK1 Levelpack | NS | SLP | Wd

Keen XMas 2010 Levelpack | NS || S

Kuliwil’s Level Pack | NS | SLP | Wd

How Bleen Saved Kwanzaa | PKS | M | Wd

Mondochrome | KS | B P | S

Armageddon 2: Pluto Burns | KS || Wd

The Krods of Keydacia | KS | U | W’N/Wd

Keen’s Pepsi Craving | NS | U | Wd

Return To Mars | KS || Wd/S

Earl Pedro in “Untitled” | US | U | UR

The Psychedelic Mod | KS | U | Wd

Highway Blues | US | U CD | UR

Extinction | KS | U | UR

Bad Carma(ck) | KS | U | UR

Aqua Keen 1: Red Tide | KS | ST | S/WILL

Aqua Keen 2 Seas Will Cease | KS || Wd/S

IceKeen | NS | H P | Wd

The Banana Mod | KS | U | WILL
Because banana. If I put more comments this would be the quality of them all.

Aqua Keen 3: Doomsday: 12-21-12 | KS || Wd/S

The Grand Intelligence Cybernetic Dream | KS || WILL
WILL because I've played the rest of the series and like them all.

xky1rooms | NS | SLP | S/WILL

Marta 1 | KS || W/S

Gestrand op de Rode Planeet | KS | P | W’N/Wd

Captainkeen’s 3rd Levelpack | NS || Wd

Yorphius II | KS || Wd\S

Keendroid | KS || Wd/S

Mort's Rescue | KS || WILL

Shadow Jack | OS | P Cr U | UR

Sonichu in Maradonia | OS | M | WILL+

Save Spot! | KS || Wd
So many monsters! Fun to shoot through them all with cheats though!

Keen: 0 Printed to Pluto | KS | B | S/WILL
B because level 9 has an unreachable jump.
Despite being a prequel to Keen 1 it has even more enemies than Save Spot! and is about as hard as Keen 3! I did not have to cheat in this one though.

Keen 1 Lost Secret | NS || Wd/S

Bugmod | KS | U P | S/WILL

The Grand Intellect: Doomship Dilemma | KS | P | Wd

The Grand Intellect: Doomship Dilemma (Ultimate Version) | KS || S/WILL

Colander Ken | PKS || WILL+

The Morticore | KS || WILL

Crash on Gobo III (Ultra Version) | KS || S/WILL

Regentropfen | OS | CD | UR

Keen Error | NS | U | UR

Shmaynoria | KS || S

Swan Song | KS | B P | W’N/W

Bananasauros | OS | St | WILL

Keendroid Underground | KS || S

Insalevs | NS || S

Planet of Agony | KS | M | W'N

Keen 1 Gold Edition | NS || Wd/S

Four Holy Pogos | KS || WILL

Commander Keen Confronts the Commandeered Planet | KS || W'N/Wd

Fireblaze | OS || Wd/S

Planet of the Pandas | KS || WILL

Captainkeen’s 4th Levelpack | NS || Wd
This one seems to have edited versions of The Dark Side of Mars levels.

Flixxy the Fox in Mineepleo | US | U | UR

The Earth Implodes | KS || W

Keen Sunset | KS | M | S



TBA because of being a sequel to a non-Keen 1 mod:
Thwarting Mort
Norp the Yorp 3.5
Shikadi’s 2nd Levelpack
Onward Silcar 4 The Civilization Inside
Ally’s Mod IV


TBA because I'm not ready:
Fall Up
ShadowKeen1



Final thought:
As I played through the Mods I started to develop a hatred against keycard doors. So many mods seem to use so many in all the levels! It might be because I'm forgetful/impatient, but I would spend a lot of time circling levels, finding doors, finding keycards, remembering where the doors where, then coming across even more doors, all under the stress that I would die and forget where all the keycards where, thus having to circle it even more!
GAAAARG!


Anyway that's it! I came up with the ratings as I went along so there may be some I missed. I also decided to write comments after I already played them all, so even though the reasons for mods being "broken" and other things are explained earlier in the list, I got to lazy to replay all the mods and remember all the reasons. If your curious about the reasoning for a specific rating I'll try to remember.

Now that I know what I'm doing, I'll explain the reasons for ratings better when I do the Keen Dreams/2/4 mods when I inevitably do them.

Let me know if there are any more useful ratings I should use/my ratings suck/I should get better at Keen/I suck at Keen/I made errors/I suck at making errorswait
Last edited by CHOCOLATE MILK on Sun Jan 03, 2021 10:25, edited 6 times in total.
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Roobar
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Re: I played (almost) every Keen 1 mod

Post by Roobar »

Dude.

Well, doors are a major mechanic in keens. Without them levels could feel short and somewhat bland. You may hate these because you're playing so many mods at once.

Anyway, interesting voting system. Wd look forward for your next mods ratings.
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Re: I played (almost) every Keen 1 mod

Post by Benvolio »

Interesting project and a lot of enthusiasm has gone into this.

I just don't understand the reason for excluding the small minority of mods without Keen as a part of the story? I would consider them equally mods of Commander Keen as any other and an outlet for creativity as much as any mod featuring Keen. But you obviously have thought about this, so what do I know!
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CHOCOLATE MILK
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Re: I played (almost) every Keen 1 mod

Post by CHOCOLATE MILK »

Roobar wrote: Wed Nov 25, 2020 18:29
Well, doors are a major mechanic in keens. Without them levels could feel short and somewhat bland. You may hate these because you're playing so many mods at once.
I don't hate keycard doors usually, I just started to dread finding them in really long levels where I would finally get to the end, see like 4 doors in front of the exit, and realize the level would take even longer! :old I may have been rushing to much. :rollin
Benvolio wrote: Wed Nov 25, 2020 20:37 I just don't understand the reason for excluding the small minority of mods without Keen as a part of the story? I would consider them equally mods of Commander Keen as any other and an outlet for creativity as much as any mod featuring Keen. But you obviously have thought about this, so what do I know!
I will play them eventually, I was just finding excuses to skip mods so that I could reach the end of the list quicker. Now that I've gotten through the ocean of Keen 1 mods, I'll take more time when playing mods instead of trying to be a speed-runner.
Actually I don't think I did put much thought into this, I just made up ratings as I went along. I only decided to post this when I realized the miscellanies ratings might be useful.

Hopefully you like seeing which mods I'm terrible at! For later mods I'll try to explain why I'm terrible at them, unlike here.
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Re: I played (almost) every Keen 1 mod

Post by Quillax »

Wow, I'm very impressed! Very few people have played that many mods! I can only think of a handful of mods that I haven't played. I remember beating many levels in Clones of Evil 1 without cheats, but I don't think I've legitimately beaten the whole mod. The only thing I question is the M rating you gave to Christmas Mod 2004. Is it because of the green hands or the guts in the teeth levels? It's been forever since I've played that mod, so maybe there's something I forgot about.

I'm really happy that you enjoyed Mort's Rescue! I will let you know that while KeenWiki calls The Morticore the sequel to the ROM trilogy, it actually has no connections to said trilogy. I recommend playing The Mortrix after the ROM trilogy and The Morticore, however, since that mod has a lot of references to those mods.
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CHOCOLATE MILK
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Re: I played (almost) every Keen 1 mod

Post by CHOCOLATE MILK »

Quillax wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 2:02 The only thing I question is the M rating you gave to Christmas Mod 2004.
The reason for that is because the ending has an e-word that I don't think will find an apparent use in kids shows. :p

I've added a few more mods: Zelda II, Keen -6, Keen S and The Earth Implodes.
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Re: I played (almost) every Keen 1 mod

Post by CHOCOLATE MILK »

I got through the majority of the Keen 1 mods. The only ones left are five sequel mods, plus Fall Up and Shadow Keen, both of which may take a while for me to beat. The next game's mods I'll do will be for Keen 4 and probably the other galaxy mods since there aren't many of them and I'm much better at Galaxy. In hard levels, I will be able to spam save states instead of cheating which means I might beat more of them "legitimately". :p
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Re: I played (almost) every Keen 1 mod

Post by Nisaba »

Fall Up is a great one. I'm curious about your report on that one. I had a blast playing this one. The new physics feature is awesome.
out now (link) : Image
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Re: I played (almost) every Keen 1 mod

Post by Syllypryde »

Quillax wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 2:02 Wow, I'm very impressed! Very few people have played that many mods!....
I'm one of those chosen few.
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CHOCOLATE MILK
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Re: I played (almost) every Keen 1 mod

Post by CHOCOLATE MILK »

I saved Fall Up as one of the last because it seems to be a unique full-sized puzzle game. I like puzzle games, but I'm not good at doing lots of levels in a row. I've done 3 levels so far.
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Re: I played (almost) every Keen 1 mod

Post by Syllypryde »

CHOCOLATE MILK wrote: Mon Jan 04, 2021 9:51 I saved Fall Up as one of the last because it seems to be a unique full-sized puzzle game. I like puzzle games, but I'm not good at doing lots of levels in a row. I've done 3 levels so far.
I have yet to complete a single one of Keenrush's mods yet. I've played them all and I'm half to three quarters of the way through each one.
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