Commander Keen
Encyclopedia
Commander Keen is a series of video games developed by id Software
in the early 1990s. The series focuses on the adventures of Billy Blaze, an 8-year old boy who travels through space and assumes the identity "Commander Keen". The series was successful at replicating the side-scrolling action of the Nintendo Entertainment System
Super Mario Bros.
games in DOS
. The cartoon
-style platform game
s are notable for their pioneering use of EGA
graphics and shareware
distribution, and they were some of the first games by id Software (which went on to develop blockbusters like Doom and Quake). The games were also exciting to the PC gaming
community of the time because of John D. Carmack's smooth-scrolling graphics engine
. Although developed by id, most of the Commander Keen games were published by Apogee Software
, an already established DOS shareware game publisher. Tom Hall
is Commander Keens designer and the creator of its universe. The games (with the exception of "Aliens Ate My Babysitter") were made available on Steam on August 3, 2007.
model (the "Apogee Model"), the first episode of a series was usually available as shareware
. The eighth game in the series is available exclusively for the Game Boy Color
.
helmet and becomes Commander Keen, Defender of Earth
.
In the first game, Keen is exploring on Mars
when aliens steal four spaceship components that he must get back. The aliens are the Vorticon
s, a fierce dog-humanoid race that had an outpost on Mars. Keen travels through different Martian cities, and eventually recovers all the missing parts. However, when Keen gets back to Earth, he finds the Vorticon mothership looming over the planet, with its cannons ready to attack. In the second game, Keen infiltrates the mothership and has to disable each of the Tantalus Rays targeting different Earth cities. During this adventure, Keen learns that the Vorticons used to be a peaceful race, but were enslaved by the mysterious Grand Intellect.
After disabling the cannons, Keen travels to the Vorticon homeplanet, Vorticon VI. In the third game, Keen has to face the Vorticon masses in their cities, all ready to kill Keen. After fighting through many levels of Vorticon-infested cities and military installations, Keen arrives at the lair of the Grand Intellect. There he discovers that the leader of the Vorticons is actually his school rival Mortimer McMire (whose IQ is a single point higher than Keen's). In the final level, Keen has to disable the "Mangling Machine", a large apparatus with many crushing parts controlled by Mortimer. Keen eventually defeats Mortimer and frees the Vorticons.
Unbeknownst to Keen, the Mortimer he had defeated was only an android duplicate. The real Mortimer goes on to lead the Shikadi, a race of energy beings who name him the Gannalech. In episodes 4 and 5, he attempts to destroy the galaxy with the Shikadi Omegamatic, but Keen stumbles on a radio message mentioning the Shikadi plans. In the fourth game, he travels to Gnosticus IV, to learn more about the Shikadi from the Oracle. However, when he gets there he discovers that the guardians of the Oracle have been captured by the Shikadi, and are imprisoned in the Shadowlands of the planet. Keen travels through dangerous forests, caves, and islands, and is finally able to rescue all of them. The guardians activate the Oracle, which tells Keen about the Omegamatic being near completion, and reveals the location of the station, in the Korath system.
In the fifth episode, Keen travels to Korath III and enters the Omegamatic to destroy its core, the Quantum Explosion Dynamo, and stop the destruction of the galaxy. After avoiding several defense systems, Keen is able to reach and destroy the device. There he learns that Mortimer was the Gannalech, and his intention to destroy the universe is revealed. In the sixth and final episode, Mortimer has Keen's babysitter kidnapped by the Bloogs to distract him. After travelling to Fribbulus Xax, Keen explores the alien planet and saves Molly from being eaten, and also finds out that Molly is Mortimer's sister.
. Keen is an eight-year-old boy genius purported to have an IQ
of 314 (a reference to π
). Keen is the grandson of William Joseph "B.J." Blazkowicz (the Allied
war hero of Wolfenstein 3D
). Keen's parents are Arthur Kenneth Blazkowicz, a television talk show personality in Milwaukee, and Susan Elizabeth McMichaels. Keen's father changed his last name to Blaze for show biz. Keen has one older brother and one possibly younger sister, names unknown. During Keen's first adventure in Mars, one of the friendlier martian aliens, a green critter with an eye on a stalk (called a Yorp) sneaked into his spaceship and came along home. Keen adopted him and named him Spot.
The main antagonist of the series is Mortimer McMire, Keen's arch-rival at school. Mortimer is an evil eight-year-old genius, and has an IQ of 315, as opposed to Keen's 314. In episode 3, it is revealed that McMire was somewhat of a bully towards Keen, beating him up and giving him swirlies because of the latter's lower IQ. McMire wears a black football helmet. Mortimer's older sister, Molly, is Keen's babysitter
.
Mortimer's main goal is to destroy all beings of lesser intelligence (i.e. the entire galaxy). In the first game series, Mortimer enslaves the Vorticon
s, a once peaceful alien race, and attempts to use them to destroy Earth. In the second game series, Mortimer convinced the Shikadi, a race of energy beings, to destroy the galaxy. Mortimer's next plan was to destroy the entire universe, but as the trilogy called The Universe is Toast was never created, his plans were left on indefinite hiatus. However, Mortimer had another couple of appearances: he is responsible for Keen's babysitter's abduction in episode 6 of the series, and in the Game Boy Color
release of Commander Keen, Mortimer is responsible for another alien race attempting to rule the galaxy.
Tom Hall
, Commander Keens creative designer, mentioned that Keen is based on himself at age eight. Keen wears a Green Bay Packers football helmet due to the fact that Tom Hall is from Wisconsin
.
, discovered a trick that would allow smooth-scrolling graphics in PC games, but only with the 16-color Enhanced Graphics Adapter
card. Carmack and his Softdisk colleague Tom Hall
kept the technology from Softdisk and used their own time to put together a clone of the first level of Super Mario Bros. 3
, except for the hero, which they replaced with Dangerous Dave
, a character from John Romero
's games for Softdisk. They called their creation Dangerous Dave in Copyright Infringement. After Romero saw their demo in action, he and Jay Wilbur, project chief at Softdisk, suggested that they finish the Mario clone. The team then created a perfect PC port of Super Mario Bros. 3
in a week and approached Nintendo
with their creation, who declined to enter the PC market at that time, but did congratulate the team for their efforts.
John Romero was later contacted by Scott Miller
of Apogee, who, after seeing some of id's work, advanced the team $2,000 for the development of Commander Keen, starting a profitable business relationship that would last until id Software self-published Doom.
The first trilogy, Invasion of the Vorticons, was completed in three months. After developing it the team left Softdisk to form id Software
. However, the developers of id had a contract with Softdisk requiring them to write several more games, one of which became Keen Dreams. Keen Dreams is sometimes referred to as "Keen 3.5", "Keen 7", or the "Lost Episode", as it was never distributed by Apogee.
The sequel to Invasion of the Vorticons was supposed to be another trilogy. Episode 6 (Aliens Ate my Babysitter!) was originally planned to be part of it, along with episodes 4 and 5 (which ended up together as Goodbye Galaxy!), but was later changed into a stand-alone commercial episode. Episode 6 was actually developed before episode 5.
The player can walk left and right on the screen, and jump to get on higher platforms. Some of these are semi-solid and can be jumped through from below. In the first game the player must find a pogo stick
, which is used for a continuous jump. This makes Keen harder to control, but allows the player to jump twice as high if jump button in good timing. Keen keeps the pogo stick for the rest of the series.
The player can find ray guns
for firing projectiles bolts left or right to kill enemies. Some enemies die after one shot, some after multiple shots, and others are impervious to the ray gun. If Keen touches an enemy or a hazard, he immediately loses a life. Enemies include Martians (in episode 1), and Vorticon or Vorticon-related creatures (in all three episodes). Throughout the games the player can collect colored keycards to open doors with corresponding colors and bonus items in the form of sugary foods and sodas/colas (Those can be jumped on for a boost before collected). For every 20,000 points the player is awarded another life
.
The second episode introduces moving platforms which can transport Keen, and switches which usually extend bridges over gaps in the floor. Some switches are light switches which can be used to turn off the light, making some enemies afraid to jump. The third game includes a power-up
in the form of an ankh
which grants a temporary invulnerability shield.
While travelling between levels, Keen is viewed from above on a map, the only place where the player can save the game. Some of the levels are optional and can be skipped. Episodes 1 and 3 contain a secret level which is accessible by certain methods.
s, which the player can use to climb to higher platforms, and even jump up on them if the jumps are timed right. This and further episodes use a slanted 3D
look for the levels.
Instead of the ray gun, Keen is armed with "Flower Power", small pellets he can collect and throw left, right, straight up, or (in midair) straight down. The pellets are used up if they hit an enemy, but if Keen does not hit anything he can retrieve and re-use the pellet if he is quick enough. Enemies that are hit are not killed, but turned into a big, stunned flower
for several seconds, the actual time varying with the difficultly level. All enemies are based on fruit or vegetables, whereas the collectible score items are candy. Ten bombus bombs must be collected in order to defeat the king of vegetables to win the game.
Keen Dreams introduces three difficulty level
s. Another improvement is that the player can now save anywhere and at any time.
the screen up or down. Keen also has his pogo stick again. If Keen narrowly misses a jump, he can grab onto the edges of most platforms, and climb up. The slanted 3D look of the levels is used to add hidden passages in the ceiling and right-side walls. Keen can also enter doorways leading to other zones, if the player stands in front of the doorway and presses the up key.
Collecting bonus items remain the same excluding the beverages to stand on. Colored Keycards are replaced by Colored Key Gems. The Player can also collect 100 special life items or a big one to earn an extra life. Keen uses a Neural Stunner as a weapon, which he can fire in 4 directions, and has a faster rate of fire. It renders enemies dazed instead of killing them. This stun does not wear off for most enemies, yet some enemies are only momentarily paralyzed by it, and it does not work on a few enemies. In episode 4, the enemies are mostly based on animals. In episode 5, they are mostly robot
s and Shikadi. In episode 6, the enemies are Bloogs and alien-like.
Episode 5 has keycards that are needed to open the final doors in some levels. Episode 6 features very large switches Keen needs to either jump on, or headbutt to use.
The level maps feature obstacles which can be overcome with items retrieved, or actions performed, in the regular levels. Episodes 4 through 6 contain a secret level, and in order to find it the player has to thoroughly explore optional parts of the game world.
The games also include a minigame
called Paddle War, a clone of Pong
, programmed into Keen's Wrist Computer
, which functions as the main menu. (The minigame, although titled differently, can be found in Catacomb 3D
as well.)
-like atmosphere. Humorous references can be found in the characters, enemies, items, back story, locations, levels, signs, and animations. Tom Hall has stated that many elements of the games were inspired by Chuck Jones
's Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century
. This can be seen directly at least in two references to the Acme Corporation
from Looney Tunes
: in the world-map for episode two, which is the blueprints of the Vorticon Mothership, there is a small sign in the Standard Galactic Alphabet that says "Blueprint — Acme". Also, at the end of episode four, the Oracle has the sign "Acme Oracle" written on it in the same alphabet.
Some other humorous parts:
The Standard Galactic Alphabet, also known as SGA, is the writing system
used to depict Omnispeak, the alien language
of choice in the galaxy in the Commander Keen fictional universe
. The player usually first discovers the alphabet in the first Commander Keen game, Marooned on Mars, where Keen telepathically hears an alien inside a shrine say: "It is too bad you cannot understand the Standard Galactic Alphabet, human".
In reality, it is a simple substitution cipher
created by Tom Hall
for the Commander Keen series. Originally for Keen 1 he drew some graphics for Exit signs which he made look a bit more alien by changing the ordinary Latin
letters a bit.http://www.classicgaming.com/cc314/oldcc314/sga.htm After that he added other signs saying "hi" and "this is neat" (near raygun
s), and he ended up creating conversions for the other letters of the Latin alphabet for the signs to resemble writings in an alien language. Because the texts are still in English
, however, it is not an artificial script.
Besides the 26 letters, SGA uses spaces for its interword separation
, and in some instances uses a ·—· symbol as a full stop
. In the Keen 1 level in which most players obtain the pogo stick, a short horizontal dash above a long one appears on either side of the word "POGO", perhaps as quotation mark
s. No other known punctuation
exists. There is also no capitalization
, and numbers are absent.
Also in Keen 3 a sign with the complete SGA can be found in the secret level, similar to the Rosetta Stone
. Another alphabet
sign can be found in Keen 6 in the Blooglab Space Station level. Knowing the complete alphabet is necessary for the player to decipher
a letter which explains part of the storyline at the end of Keen 5.
hidden at the beginning of Keen 2s "Paris" level, spelled in SGA. The misspelled word "FUCL
" is made of yellow platforms inside a field of red platforms.
Joe Siegler later wrote a secret message that said "Dopefish
lives" in the walls of a Rise of the Triad
level. The story goes that during Rise of the Triad development, one of Tom Hall's instructions to the level editors was not to "write words in the levels with the walls". Joe asked about SGA, and that idea was approved, hence the "Dopefish Lives" message in SGA in one of his Rise of the Triad levels.
SGA has not had much other official use after that, but Tom Hall invented a syllabary
to create a more complex "alien" language used in Ion Storm
's Anachronox
. After that, id Software created a simple substitution cipher very similar to SGA for the Strogg race in Quake 4
. SGA was used in Minecraft
as the language for the magic enchantment system.
#197 by Sandy Petersen
in the first "Eye of the Monitor" column. Petersen gave the Commander Keen series 4 out of 5 stars. Peterson would later work with id.
and similar game construction software. The Public Commander Keen Forum has a forum devoted to the announcement and discussion of these unofficial Keen games.
CloneKeen is a game engine recreation that requires the original datafiles, and supports episodes 1 through 3. It was programmed on and off by Caitlin Shaw since 2003, and finally released on October 18, 2005. It is available for GP2X
, Linux
, Windows
and Dreamcast. It was also ported to the PlayStation Portable
in February 2006, the Nintendo DS
in October 2008 and the Wii
in November 2008. Commander Genius or Clone Keen Plus continues the effort.
In the years since the release of utilities to modify the levels and graphics in the original Keen series in early 2002 , more than fifty mods
have been made, most of which feature Commander Keen as the protagonist. Popular among these efforts is The Universe is Toast trilogy by Ceilick, based on the concepts of id's canceled trilogy of the same name. The tools and utilities used to modify the games, as well as a body of accumulated knowledge of the Keen code, continues to be updated, improved, and discussed on the Keen Modding Forum.
NetKeen is a multiplayer fangame created by Lemm in 2011 by reverse engineering the Keen Galaxy/Wolf3D code and combining it with the Doom IPX network code. The game supports LAN and Internet play using DOSBox IPX tunneling for up to four players with eight playable characters to choose from. Game modes include deathmatch, team deathmatch, and treasure race. Custom arenas have been created for Keen episodes 4, 5, 6, and Dreams.
Warros Padulosos!!! is a remake of Keen's wrist computer mini-game, Paddle War! It was made available for Google
Android phones as a freely available public beta in November 2010.
By the Keen Community:
The shareware games can be downloaded from the Apogee pages above or the following sites:
Id Software
Id Software is an American video game development company with its headquarters in Richardson, Texas. The company was founded in 1991 by four members of the computer company Softdisk: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and artist Adrian Carmack...
in the early 1990s. The series focuses on the adventures of Billy Blaze, an 8-year old boy who travels through space and assumes the identity "Commander Keen". The series was successful at replicating the side-scrolling action of the Nintendo Entertainment System
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros.
is a 1985 platform video game developed by Nintendo, published for the Nintendo Entertainment System as a sequel to the 1983 game Mario Bros. In Super Mario Bros., the player controls Mario as he travels through the Mushroom Kingdom in order to rescue Princess Toadstool from the antagonist...
games in DOS
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
. The cartoon
Cartoon
A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
-style platform game
Platform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...
s are notable for their pioneering use of EGA
Enhanced Graphics Adapter
The Enhanced Graphics Adapter is the IBM PC computer display standard specification which is between CGA and VGA in terms of color and space resolution. Introduced in October 1984 by IBM shortly after its new PC/AT, EGA produces a display of 16 simultaneous colors from a palette of 64 at a...
graphics and shareware
Shareware
The term shareware is a proprietary software that is provided to users without payment on a trial basis and is often limited by any combination of functionality, availability, or convenience. Shareware is often offered as a download from an Internet website or as a compact disc included with a...
distribution, and they were some of the first games by id Software (which went on to develop blockbusters like Doom and Quake). The games were also exciting to the PC gaming
Personal computer game
A PC game, also known as a computer game, is a video game played on a personal computer, rather than on a video game console or arcade machine...
community of the time because of John D. Carmack's smooth-scrolling graphics engine
Game engine
A game engine is a system designed for the creation and development of video games. There are many game engines that are designed to work on video game consoles and personal computers...
. Although developed by id, most of the Commander Keen games were published by Apogee Software
3D Realms
3D Realms is a current video game publisher and former video game developer based in Garland, Texas, United States, established in 1987...
, an already established DOS shareware game publisher. Tom Hall
Tom Hall
Tom A. Hall is a game designer born in Wisconsin. He attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he received a B.S. in Computer Science. In 1987, he worked at Softdisk Inc., where he was both a programmer and the editor of Softdisk, a software bundle delivered monthly...
is Commander Keens designer and the creator of its universe. The games (with the exception of "Aliens Ate My Babysitter") were made available on Steam on August 3, 2007.
Episodes
Seven official Commander Keen games were released for the PC under MS-DOS. They are divided into mini-series, and are considered "episodes" of the full series. Under the Apogee version of the sharewareShareware
The term shareware is a proprietary software that is provided to users without payment on a trial basis and is often limited by any combination of functionality, availability, or convenience. Shareware is often offered as a download from an Internet website or as a compact disc included with a...
model (the "Apogee Model"), the first episode of a series was usually available as shareware
Shareware
The term shareware is a proprietary software that is provided to users without payment on a trial basis and is often limited by any combination of functionality, availability, or convenience. Shareware is often offered as a download from an Internet website or as a compact disc included with a...
. The eighth game in the series is available exclusively for the Game Boy Color
Game Boy Color
The is Nintendo's successor to the 8-bit Game Boy handheld game console, and was released on October 21, 1998 in Japan, November 19, 1998 in North America, November 23, 1998 in Europe and November 27, 1998 in the United Kingdom. It features a color screen and is slightly thicker and taller than...
.
Commander Keen in Invasion of the Vorticons
- 1. "Marooned on Mars" (first released as shareware on December 14, 1990)
- While Commander Keen is exploring MarsMarsMars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
, the VorticonVorticonThe Vorticons are a fictional race of blueish, dog-like, bipedal aliens featured in the Commander Keen: Invasion of the Vorticons computer games. In the series, the Vorticons are the primary enemies that Commander Keen faces...
steal four vital components of his ship and hide them in Martian cities, each guarded by a Vorticon soldier. In this episode, Keen acquires his trademark pogo stick and meets a variety of Martian aliens and robotRobotA robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...
s.
- While Commander Keen is exploring Mars
- 2. "The Earth Explodes"
- Keen returns to Earth only to find the Vorticon mothership hovering above with its deadly X-14 Tantalus Ray cannons locked on to eight of Earth's greatest landmarks: Big Ben (LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
), the SphinxSphinxA sphinx is a mythical creature with a lion's body and a human head or a cat head.The sphinx, in Greek tradition, has the haunches of a lion, the wings of a great bird, and the face of a woman. She is mythicised as treacherous and merciless...
(CairoCairoCairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
), the Sydney Opera HouseSydney Opera HouseThe Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in the Australian city of Sydney. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, finally opening in 1973 after a long gestation starting with his competition-winning design in 1957...
(SydneySydneySydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
), the Statue of LibertyStatue of LibertyThe Statue of Liberty is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, designed by Frédéric Bartholdi and dedicated on October 28, 1886...
(New YorkNew YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
), the Eiffel TowerEiffel TowerThe Eiffel Tower is a puddle iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris. Built in 1889, it has become both a global icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world...
(ParisParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
), the ColosseumColosseumThe Colosseum, or the Coliseum, originally the Flavian Amphitheatre , is an elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire...
(RomeRomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
), St Basil's Cathedral (MoscowMoscowMoscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
), and the White HouseWhite HouseThe White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
(Washington D.C.). Keen has to find and deactivate each of the cannons to save Earth. Unlike the first game which had a happy and friendly atmosphere, almost everything in this game is hostile towards Keen, from the floating machine gun robots to the electrified floors. The engine has more features than the first episode, such as light switches and moving platforms.
- Keen returns to Earth only to find the Vorticon mothership hovering above with its deadly X-14 Tantalus Ray cannons locked on to eight of Earth's greatest landmarks: Big Ben (London
- 3. "Keen Must Die!"
- Keen travels to the Vorticon homeworld in search of the mysterious Grand Intellect that has directed the Vorticons toward Earth. The game features the cities, parks, and suburbs of the Vorticons, and their women, children, pets, and mechanical toys make up the enemies. The Vorticon alphabet is also decoded in a school house, allowing for the player to travel to the other in-game locations and read the Vorticon signs.
Keen Dreams
- 3.5. "Keen Dreams" aka "The Lost Episode" (published as shareware by SoftdiskSoftdiskSoftdisk is a software and Internet company based in Shreveport, Louisiana. Founded in 1981, its original products were disk magazines...
)- After refusing to eat his vegetableVegetableThe noun vegetable usually means an edible plant or part of a plant other than a sweet fruit or seed. This typically means the leaf, stem, or root of a plant....
s, Billy is sent to bed by his parents. He falls asleep, only to awaken in a strange vegetable kingdom led by the evil potato king Boobus Tuber, who has imprisoned other sleeping children there. In the dream world, Keen does not have his trademark raygun and pogo stick, but has to defend himself with "Flower Power" seeds that temporarily turn enemies into flowers.
- After refusing to eat his vegetable
Commander Keen in Goodbye, Galaxy!
- 4. "Secret of the Oracle" (first released as shareware on December 15, 1991)
- Keen's newly finished homemade faster-than-lightFaster-than-lightFaster-than-light communications and travel refer to the propagation of information or matter faster than the speed of light....
radioRadioRadio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
picks up a plot by the Shikadi to destroy the galaxy. He rushes to the planet Gnosticus IV to consult the Keepers of the Oracle, but discovers that they have been taken captive. Thus, the gameplay centers on Keen finding and rescuing the eight elders. This episode features huge levels and a wide variety of enemies, such as rocks that only move when Keen's back is turned, and modified game mechanics. The game also features a mini-game called "Paddle War", a remake of the video game PongPongPong is one of the earliest arcade video games, and is a tennis sports game featuring simple two-dimensional graphics. While other arcade video games such as Computer Space came before it, Pong was one of the first video games to reach mainstream popularity...
, though this version is vertical instead of horizontal.
- Keen's newly finished homemade faster-than-light
- 5. "The Armageddon Machine"
- After getting information from the Oracle, Keen lands on a massive Shikadi space station, the Omegamatic, nicknamed the Armageddon Machine, and seeks out the mysterious Gannalech. The gameplay centers on Keen advancing through the Omegamatic to deactivate it.
Commander Keen in Aliens Ate My Babysitter!
- 6. "Aliens Ate My Babysitter!" (published commercially only by FormGenFormGenFormGen Corporation was a shareware and computer game company that was founded in 1987 by Randy MacLean and James Perkins. The company was later bought out by GT Interactive in 1996....
, Apogee resold it as a retailer; now discontinued)- When Keen's babysitterBabysittingBabysitting is the practice of temporarily caring for a child on behalf of the child's parents. Babysitting is commonly performed as an odd job by teenagers for extra money.-General:...
Molly is abducted by the Bloogs, Keen must come to her rescue by fighting his way through the inhabitants of the planet Fribbulus Xax. This is the last episode of the original Keen series. A demo version of this game was also released.
- When Keen's babysitter
Commander Keen (GBC)
- In 2001, ActivisionActivisionActivision is an American publisher, majority owned by French conglomerate Vivendi SA. Its current CEO is Robert Kotick. It was founded on October 1, 1979 and was the world's first independent developer and distributor of video games for gaming consoles...
published a Commander Keen game for the Game Boy ColorGame Boy ColorThe is Nintendo's successor to the 8-bit Game Boy handheld game console, and was released on October 21, 1998 in Japan, November 19, 1998 in North America, November 23, 1998 in Europe and November 27, 1998 in the United Kingdom. It features a color screen and is slightly thicker and taller than...
, titled Commander Keen. The game, although developed with id's permission, did not involve any of the original Commander Keen developers, but was instead a David A. Palmer Productions game. Tom HallTom HallTom A. Hall is a game designer born in Wisconsin. He attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he received a B.S. in Computer Science. In 1987, he worked at Softdisk Inc., where he was both a programmer and the editor of Softdisk, a software bundle delivered monthly...
, creative director and designer of the original Commander Keen series, has stated that he does not consider the GBC game "canon by any means".
Other releases and cancelled games
- On August 3, 2007, episodes 1-5 (excluding "Keen Dreams") were rereleased on Steam as part of the id SoftwareId SoftwareId Software is an American video game development company with its headquarters in Richardson, Texas. The company was founded in 1991 by four members of the computer company Softdisk: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and artist Adrian Carmack...
game addition to Steam. The package was priced at USD$United States dollarThe United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
4.95 on release. In this release, the DOSBoxDOSBoxDOSBox is emulator software that emulates an IBM PC compatible computer running MS-DOS. It is intended especially for use with old PC games. DOSBox is free software....
emulator is used to run the games on Microsoft WindowsMicrosoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
.
- A Commander Keen game for the Nintendo Entertainment SystemNintendo Entertainment SystemThe Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
was planned. It was supposed to be released by a major American Nintendo publishing company.
- An additional trilogy, tentatively titled The Universe is Toast!, was planned for ChristmasChristmasChristmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
1992, but it was never produced, as id moved on to Wolfenstein 3DWolfenstein 3DWolfenstein 3D is a video game that is generally regarded by critics and gaming journalists as having both popularized the first-person shooter genre on the PC and created the basic archetype upon which all subsequent games of the same genre would be built. It was created by id Software and...
and then Doom. Tom Hall claims that he intends to make a new game if he ever reclaims the intellectual propertyIntellectual propertyIntellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
rights to Commander Keen.
- Monkeystone GamesMonkeystone GamesMonkeystone Games was a video game developer and publisher founded by John Romero, Tom Hall, Stevie Case, and Brian Moon. The company's focus was on mobile games...
planned to release Keen Chronicles through a Softek International April 2002. It would have consisted of all Keen games packaged together for Microsoft WindowsMicrosoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
and Pocket PCPocket PCA Pocket PC is also known by Microsoft as a 'Windows Mobile Classic device'. It is a hardware specification for a handheld-sized computer, personal digital assistant , that runs the Microsoft 'Windows Mobile Classic' operating system...
, but it never got out of the planning stages, and was never even officially announced. Fan website Keen.Retodon8.net features the logo that would have been used.
Plot
Billy Blaze is an eight-year-old boy genius who has constructed a spaceship in his backyard from old soup cans and other household objects, called The Bean-with-Bacon Megarocket. When his parents are out and the babysitter falls asleep, he dons his brother's PackersGreen Bay Packers
The Green Bay Packers are an American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The Packers are the current NFL champions...
helmet and becomes Commander Keen, Defender of Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
.
In the first game, Keen is exploring on Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
when aliens steal four spaceship components that he must get back. The aliens are the Vorticon
Vorticon
The Vorticons are a fictional race of blueish, dog-like, bipedal aliens featured in the Commander Keen: Invasion of the Vorticons computer games. In the series, the Vorticons are the primary enemies that Commander Keen faces...
s, a fierce dog-humanoid race that had an outpost on Mars. Keen travels through different Martian cities, and eventually recovers all the missing parts. However, when Keen gets back to Earth, he finds the Vorticon mothership looming over the planet, with its cannons ready to attack. In the second game, Keen infiltrates the mothership and has to disable each of the Tantalus Rays targeting different Earth cities. During this adventure, Keen learns that the Vorticons used to be a peaceful race, but were enslaved by the mysterious Grand Intellect.
After disabling the cannons, Keen travels to the Vorticon homeplanet, Vorticon VI. In the third game, Keen has to face the Vorticon masses in their cities, all ready to kill Keen. After fighting through many levels of Vorticon-infested cities and military installations, Keen arrives at the lair of the Grand Intellect. There he discovers that the leader of the Vorticons is actually his school rival Mortimer McMire (whose IQ is a single point higher than Keen's). In the final level, Keen has to disable the "Mangling Machine", a large apparatus with many crushing parts controlled by Mortimer. Keen eventually defeats Mortimer and frees the Vorticons.
Unbeknownst to Keen, the Mortimer he had defeated was only an android duplicate. The real Mortimer goes on to lead the Shikadi, a race of energy beings who name him the Gannalech. In episodes 4 and 5, he attempts to destroy the galaxy with the Shikadi Omegamatic, but Keen stumbles on a radio message mentioning the Shikadi plans. In the fourth game, he travels to Gnosticus IV, to learn more about the Shikadi from the Oracle. However, when he gets there he discovers that the guardians of the Oracle have been captured by the Shikadi, and are imprisoned in the Shadowlands of the planet. Keen travels through dangerous forests, caves, and islands, and is finally able to rescue all of them. The guardians activate the Oracle, which tells Keen about the Omegamatic being near completion, and reveals the location of the station, in the Korath system.
In the fifth episode, Keen travels to Korath III and enters the Omegamatic to destroy its core, the Quantum Explosion Dynamo, and stop the destruction of the galaxy. After avoiding several defense systems, Keen is able to reach and destroy the device. There he learns that Mortimer was the Gannalech, and his intention to destroy the universe is revealed. In the sixth and final episode, Mortimer has Keen's babysitter kidnapped by the Bloogs to distract him. After travelling to Fribbulus Xax, Keen explores the alien planet and saves Molly from being eaten, and also finds out that Molly is Mortimer's sister.
Characters
William Joseph "Billy Blaze" Blazkowicz II, a.k.a. "Commander Keen" or "Keen", is the main character of the games, and the player's alter egoAlter ego
An alter ego is a second self, which is believe to be distinct from a person's normal or original personality. The term was coined in the early nineteenth century when dissociative identity disorder was first described by psychologists...
. Keen is an eight-year-old boy genius purported to have an IQ
Intelligence quotient
An intelligence quotient, or IQ, is a score derived from one of several different standardized tests designed to assess intelligence. When modern IQ tests are constructed, the mean score within an age group is set to 100 and the standard deviation to 15...
of 314 (a reference to π
Pi
' is a mathematical constant that is the ratio of any circle's circumference to its diameter. is approximately equal to 3.14. Many formulae in mathematics, science, and engineering involve , which makes it one of the most important mathematical constants...
). Keen is the grandson of William Joseph "B.J." Blazkowicz (the Allied
Allies
In everyday English usage, allies are people, groups, or nations that have joined together in an association for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out between them...
war hero of Wolfenstein 3D
Wolfenstein 3D
Wolfenstein 3D is a video game that is generally regarded by critics and gaming journalists as having both popularized the first-person shooter genre on the PC and created the basic archetype upon which all subsequent games of the same genre would be built. It was created by id Software and...
). Keen's parents are Arthur Kenneth Blazkowicz, a television talk show personality in Milwaukee, and Susan Elizabeth McMichaels. Keen's father changed his last name to Blaze for show biz. Keen has one older brother and one possibly younger sister, names unknown. During Keen's first adventure in Mars, one of the friendlier martian aliens, a green critter with an eye on a stalk (called a Yorp) sneaked into his spaceship and came along home. Keen adopted him and named him Spot.
The main antagonist of the series is Mortimer McMire, Keen's arch-rival at school. Mortimer is an evil eight-year-old genius, and has an IQ of 315, as opposed to Keen's 314. In episode 3, it is revealed that McMire was somewhat of a bully towards Keen, beating him up and giving him swirlies because of the latter's lower IQ. McMire wears a black football helmet. Mortimer's older sister, Molly, is Keen's babysitter
Babysitting
Babysitting is the practice of temporarily caring for a child on behalf of the child's parents. Babysitting is commonly performed as an odd job by teenagers for extra money.-General:...
.
Mortimer's main goal is to destroy all beings of lesser intelligence (i.e. the entire galaxy). In the first game series, Mortimer enslaves the Vorticon
Vorticon
The Vorticons are a fictional race of blueish, dog-like, bipedal aliens featured in the Commander Keen: Invasion of the Vorticons computer games. In the series, the Vorticons are the primary enemies that Commander Keen faces...
s, a once peaceful alien race, and attempts to use them to destroy Earth. In the second game series, Mortimer convinced the Shikadi, a race of energy beings, to destroy the galaxy. Mortimer's next plan was to destroy the entire universe, but as the trilogy called The Universe is Toast was never created, his plans were left on indefinite hiatus. However, Mortimer had another couple of appearances: he is responsible for Keen's babysitter's abduction in episode 6 of the series, and in the Game Boy Color
Game Boy Color
The is Nintendo's successor to the 8-bit Game Boy handheld game console, and was released on October 21, 1998 in Japan, November 19, 1998 in North America, November 23, 1998 in Europe and November 27, 1998 in the United Kingdom. It features a color screen and is slightly thicker and taller than...
release of Commander Keen, Mortimer is responsible for another alien race attempting to rule the galaxy.
Tom Hall
Tom Hall
Tom A. Hall is a game designer born in Wisconsin. He attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he received a B.S. in Computer Science. In 1987, he worked at Softdisk Inc., where he was both a programmer and the editor of Softdisk, a software bundle delivered monthly...
, Commander Keens creative designer, mentioned that Keen is based on himself at age eight. Keen wears a Green Bay Packers football helmet due to the fact that Tom Hall is from Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
.
Creation and development
John D. Carmack, a game programmer at SoftdiskSoftdisk
Softdisk is a software and Internet company based in Shreveport, Louisiana. Founded in 1981, its original products were disk magazines...
, discovered a trick that would allow smooth-scrolling graphics in PC games, but only with the 16-color Enhanced Graphics Adapter
Enhanced Graphics Adapter
The Enhanced Graphics Adapter is the IBM PC computer display standard specification which is between CGA and VGA in terms of color and space resolution. Introduced in October 1984 by IBM shortly after its new PC/AT, EGA produces a display of 16 simultaneous colors from a palette of 64 at a...
card. Carmack and his Softdisk colleague Tom Hall
Tom Hall
Tom A. Hall is a game designer born in Wisconsin. He attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he received a B.S. in Computer Science. In 1987, he worked at Softdisk Inc., where he was both a programmer and the editor of Softdisk, a software bundle delivered monthly...
kept the technology from Softdisk and used their own time to put together a clone of the first level of Super Mario Bros. 3
Super Mario Bros. 3
, also referred to as Super Mario 3 and SMB3, is a platform video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System , and is the third game in the Super Mario series. The game was released in Japan in 1988, in the United States in 1990, and in Europe in 1991...
, except for the hero, which they replaced with Dangerous Dave
Dangerous Dave
Dangerous Dave is a 1988 computer game by John Romero. It was developed for the Apple II and DOS as an example game to accompany his article about his GraBASIC, an Applesoft BASIC add-on, for the UpTime disk magazine.-Summary:...
, a character from John Romero
John Romero
Alfonso John Romero is a game designer, programmer, and developer in the video game industry. He is best known as a co-founder of id Software and was a designer for many of their games, including Wolfenstein 3D, Dangerous Dave, Doom and Quake...
's games for Softdisk. They called their creation Dangerous Dave in Copyright Infringement. After Romero saw their demo in action, he and Jay Wilbur, project chief at Softdisk, suggested that they finish the Mario clone. The team then created a perfect PC port of Super Mario Bros. 3
Super Mario Bros. 3
, also referred to as Super Mario 3 and SMB3, is a platform video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System , and is the third game in the Super Mario series. The game was released in Japan in 1988, in the United States in 1990, and in Europe in 1991...
in a week and approached Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
with their creation, who declined to enter the PC market at that time, but did congratulate the team for their efforts.
John Romero was later contacted by Scott Miller
Scott Miller (programmer)
Scott Miller is an American entrepreneur best known for founding Apogee Software, Ltd. in 1987.- Personal life :...
of Apogee, who, after seeing some of id's work, advanced the team $2,000 for the development of Commander Keen, starting a profitable business relationship that would last until id Software self-published Doom.
The first trilogy, Invasion of the Vorticons, was completed in three months. After developing it the team left Softdisk to form id Software
Id Software
Id Software is an American video game development company with its headquarters in Richardson, Texas. The company was founded in 1991 by four members of the computer company Softdisk: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and artist Adrian Carmack...
. However, the developers of id had a contract with Softdisk requiring them to write several more games, one of which became Keen Dreams. Keen Dreams is sometimes referred to as "Keen 3.5", "Keen 7", or the "Lost Episode", as it was never distributed by Apogee.
The sequel to Invasion of the Vorticons was supposed to be another trilogy. Episode 6 (Aliens Ate my Babysitter!) was originally planned to be part of it, along with episodes 4 and 5 (which ended up together as Goodbye Galaxy!), but was later changed into a stand-alone commercial episode. Episode 6 was actually developed before episode 5.
Invasion of the Vorticons
Pogo stick
A pogo stick is a device for jumping off the ground in a standing position with the aid of a spring, used as a toy or exercise equipment. It consists of a pole with a handle at the top and footrests near the bottom, and a spring located somewhere along the pole...
, which is used for a continuous jump. This makes Keen harder to control, but allows the player to jump twice as high if jump button in good timing. Keen keeps the pogo stick for the rest of the series.
The player can find ray guns
Raygun
Rayguns are a type of fictional directed-energy weapon. They have various alternate names: ray gun, death ray, beam gun, blaster, laser gun, phaser, etc. They are a well-known feature of science fiction; for such stories they typically have the general function of guns...
for firing projectiles bolts left or right to kill enemies. Some enemies die after one shot, some after multiple shots, and others are impervious to the ray gun. If Keen touches an enemy or a hazard, he immediately loses a life. Enemies include Martians (in episode 1), and Vorticon or Vorticon-related creatures (in all three episodes). Throughout the games the player can collect colored keycards to open doors with corresponding colors and bonus items in the form of sugary foods and sodas/colas (Those can be jumped on for a boost before collected). For every 20,000 points the player is awarded another life
1-up
1-up , pronounced "one up", is a term in console video gaming that commonly refers to an item that gives the player an extra life, to complete the game. In certain games, it is possible to receive multiple extra lives at once...
.
The second episode introduces moving platforms which can transport Keen, and switches which usually extend bridges over gaps in the floor. Some switches are light switches which can be used to turn off the light, making some enemies afraid to jump. The third game includes a power-up
Power-up
In computer and video games, power-ups are objects that instantly benefit or add extra abilities to the game character as a game mechanic. This is in contrast to an item, which may or may not have a benefit and can be used at a time chosen by the player...
in the form of an ankh
Ankh
The ankh , also known as key of life, the key of the Nile or crux ansata, was the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic character that read "eternal life", a triliteral sign for the consonants ʻ-n-ḫ...
which grants a temporary invulnerability shield.
While travelling between levels, Keen is viewed from above on a map, the only place where the player can save the game. Some of the levels are optional and can be skipped. Episodes 1 and 3 contain a secret level which is accessible by certain methods.
Keen Dreams
In this game Keen does not have his pogo stick, so he cannot jump as high anymore. However, he can duck, and drop down from the semi-solid platforms if the player presses the jump key while ducking. An addition to the platforms are firemen's poleFiremen's pole
A fireman's pole is a wooden pole or a metal tube or pipe installed between floors in fire stations, allowing firefighters responding to an alarm to quickly descend to the ground floor faster than by using a standard staircase.The device was invented in the 1870s by David Kenyon, a resident of...
s, which the player can use to climb to higher platforms, and even jump up on them if the jumps are timed right. This and further episodes use a slanted 3D
Isometric projection
Isometric projection is a method for visually representing three-dimensional objects in two dimensions in technical and engineering drawings...
look for the levels.
Instead of the ray gun, Keen is armed with "Flower Power", small pellets he can collect and throw left, right, straight up, or (in midair) straight down. The pellets are used up if they hit an enemy, but if Keen does not hit anything he can retrieve and re-use the pellet if he is quick enough. Enemies that are hit are not killed, but turned into a big, stunned flower
Flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...
for several seconds, the actual time varying with the difficultly level. All enemies are based on fruit or vegetables, whereas the collectible score items are candy. Ten bombus bombs must be collected in order to defeat the king of vegetables to win the game.
Keen Dreams introduces three difficulty level
Difficulty level
In general usage, difficulty level refers to the relative difficulty of completing a task or objective.In computer and video games, the term specifically delineates the ease or difficulty with which an average user may complete a game or a part of a game. Arcade games as well as many early console...
s. Another improvement is that the player can now save anywhere and at any time.
Goodbye Galaxy! and Aliens Ate My Babysitter!
In Goodbye Galaxy! and Aliens Ate My Babysitter!, all the improvements from Keen Dreams are kept, except for the "Flower Power". In these episodes the player can look up and down by pressing the corresponding movement keys for a short while. This effectively scrollsScrolling
In computer graphics, filmmaking, television production, and other kinetic displays, scrolling is sliding text, images or video across a monitor or display. "Scrolling", as such, does not change the layout of the text or pictures, or but incrementally moves the user's view across what is...
the screen up or down. Keen also has his pogo stick again. If Keen narrowly misses a jump, he can grab onto the edges of most platforms, and climb up. The slanted 3D look of the levels is used to add hidden passages in the ceiling and right-side walls. Keen can also enter doorways leading to other zones, if the player stands in front of the doorway and presses the up key.
Robot
A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...
s and Shikadi. In episode 6, the enemies are Bloogs and alien-like.
Episode 5 has keycards that are needed to open the final doors in some levels. Episode 6 features very large switches Keen needs to either jump on, or headbutt to use.
The level maps feature obstacles which can be overcome with items retrieved, or actions performed, in the regular levels. Episodes 4 through 6 contain a secret level, and in order to find it the player has to thoroughly explore optional parts of the game world.
The games also include a minigame
Minigame
A minigame is a short video game often contained within another video game. A minigame is always smaller or more simplistic than the game in which it is contained. Minigames are sometimes also offered separately for free to promote the main game...
called Paddle War, a clone of Pong
Pong
Pong is one of the earliest arcade video games, and is a tennis sports game featuring simple two-dimensional graphics. While other arcade video games such as Computer Space came before it, Pong was one of the first video games to reach mainstream popularity...
, programmed into Keen's Wrist Computer
Wearable computer
Wearable computers are miniature electronic devices that are worn by the bearer under, with or on top of clothing. This class of wearable technology has been developed for general or special purpose information technologies and media development...
, which functions as the main menu. (The minigame, although titled differently, can be found in Catacomb 3D
Catacomb 3D
Catacomb 3-D is the third in the Catacomb series of video games , and the first of these games to feature 3D computer graphics...
as well.)
Humor
An important part of Keen games is their humor and cartoonCartoon
A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
-like atmosphere. Humorous references can be found in the characters, enemies, items, back story, locations, levels, signs, and animations. Tom Hall has stated that many elements of the games were inspired by Chuck Jones
Chuck Jones
Charles Martin "Chuck" Jones was an American animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, producer, and director of animated films, most memorably of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts for the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio...
's Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century
Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century
Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century is a Merrie Melodies cartoon created in 1952 and released on July 25, 1953, starring Daffy Duck as space hero Duck Dodgers, Porky Pig as his assistant, and Marvin the Martian as his opponent...
. This can be seen directly at least in two references to the Acme Corporation
Acme Corporation
The Acme Corporation is a fictional corporation that features prominently in the Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote cartoons as a running gag featuring outlandish products that fail catastrophically at the worst possible times...
from Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
: in the world-map for episode two, which is the blueprints of the Vorticon Mothership, there is a small sign in the Standard Galactic Alphabet that says "Blueprint — Acme". Also, at the end of episode four, the Oracle has the sign "Acme Oracle" written on it in the same alphabet.
Some other humorous parts:
- In episode 3 of "Invasion of the Vorticons", Foobs are creatures who are afraid of everything, and run away from Keen. If Keen touches them, they die, in contrast with Keen dying when he touches an enemy.
- In the "Pyramid of the Moons" level of Secret of the Oracle, if Keen stands on top of one of the crescent moon symbols on the floor, after a short while he will moonMooningMooning is the act of displaying one's bare buttocks by removing clothing, e.g., by lowering the backside of one's trousers and underpants, usually bending over, whether also exposing the genitals or not...
the player. - In the "Pyramid of the Moons" level, Keen can gain access to a secret level by gathering inchworms under him at a certain point. He must gather 12, and then a giant footFootThe foot is an anatomical structure found in many vertebrates. It is the terminal portion of a limb which bears weight and allows locomotion. In many animals with feet, the foot is a separate organ at the terminal part of the leg made up of one or more segments or bones, generally including claws...
appears (since 12 inch (worms) = one foot). - At the end of the secret level of Secret of the Oracle, which is very difficult to complete, what appears to be one of the guardians of the oracle is actually their janitor, kidnapped by mistake.
- In "Secret of the Oracle", the DopefishDopefishThe Dopefish is a fictional fish that originated in the fourth Commander Keen video game, Secret of the Oracle, released in 1991. The character has since evolved into a PC game industry in-joke, making appearances in games from Apogee's 1994 Wacky Wheels as well as titles as recent as the 2006 SiN...
is mentioned to be the 'second dumbest' creature in the whole universe, referring to the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the GalaxyThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the GalaxyThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction comedy series created by Douglas Adams. Originally a radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1978, it was later adapted to other formats, and over several years it gradually became an international multi-media phenomenon...
. - In episodes 4, 5, and 6, if Keen is left idle for several seconds, he will look directly towards the screen with his hands on his waist, looking impatient, then shrug his shoulders. After a few more seconds he will grab a big red book out of his pocket, sit down, and start reading, flipping pages occasionally. He will continue to do this until an action key is pressed. In "Keen Dreams", Keen will fall asleep instead of reading a book.
Standard Galactic Alphabet
Writing system
A writing system is a symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in language.-General properties:Writing systems are distinguished from other possible symbolic communication systems in that the reader must usually understand something of the associated spoken language to...
used to depict Omnispeak, the alien language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
of choice in the galaxy in the Commander Keen fictional universe
Fictional universe
A fictional universe is a self-consistent fictional setting with elements that differ from the real world. It may also be called an imagined, constructed or fictional realm ....
. The player usually first discovers the alphabet in the first Commander Keen game, Marooned on Mars, where Keen telepathically hears an alien inside a shrine say: "It is too bad you cannot understand the Standard Galactic Alphabet, human".
In reality, it is a simple substitution cipher
Substitution cipher
In cryptography, a substitution cipher is a method of encryption by which units of plaintext are replaced with ciphertext according to a regular system; the "units" may be single letters , pairs of letters, triplets of letters, mixtures of the above, and so forth...
created by Tom Hall
Tom Hall
Tom A. Hall is a game designer born in Wisconsin. He attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he received a B.S. in Computer Science. In 1987, he worked at Softdisk Inc., where he was both a programmer and the editor of Softdisk, a software bundle delivered monthly...
for the Commander Keen series. Originally for Keen 1 he drew some graphics for Exit signs which he made look a bit more alien by changing the ordinary Latin
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...
letters a bit.http://www.classicgaming.com/cc314/oldcc314/sga.htm After that he added other signs saying "hi" and "this is neat" (near raygun
Raygun
Rayguns are a type of fictional directed-energy weapon. They have various alternate names: ray gun, death ray, beam gun, blaster, laser gun, phaser, etc. They are a well-known feature of science fiction; for such stories they typically have the general function of guns...
s), and he ended up creating conversions for the other letters of the Latin alphabet for the signs to resemble writings in an alien language. Because the texts are still in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, however, it is not an artificial script.
Besides the 26 letters, SGA uses spaces for its interword separation
Interword separation
In punctuation, a word divider is a glyph that separates written words. In languages which use the Latin, Cyrillic, and Arabic alphabets, as well as other languages of Europe and the Mideast, the word divider is a blank space, or whitespace, a convention which is spreading, along with other aspects...
, and in some instances uses a ·—· symbol as a full stop
Full stop
A full stop is the punctuation mark commonly placed at the end of sentences. In American English, the term used for this punctuation is period. In the 21st century, it is often also called a dot by young people...
. In the Keen 1 level in which most players obtain the pogo stick, a short horizontal dash above a long one appears on either side of the word "POGO", perhaps as quotation mark
Quotation mark
Quotation marks or inverted commas are punctuation marks at the beginning and end of a quotation, direct speech, literal title or name. Quotation marks can also be used to indicate a different meaning of a word or phrase than the one typically associated with it and are often used to express irony...
s. No other known punctuation
Punctuation
Punctuation marks are symbols that indicate the structure and organization of written language, as well as intonation and pauses to be observed when reading aloud.In written English, punctuation is vital to disambiguate the meaning of sentences...
exists. There is also no capitalization
Capitalization
Capitalization is writing a word with its first letter as a majuscule and the remaining letters in minuscules . This of course only applies to those writing systems which have a case distinction...
, and numbers are absent.
Deciphering
Players of the Keen series that spent the necessary time could figure out SGA by looking at the many signs throughout the games. While the original Keen only has fifteen letters displayed anywhere (A, B, C, D, E, H, I, K, L, N, O, S, T, X and Y), later games have more. Keen 3 is particularly helpful, since it has a relatively large number of signs with both SGA and Roman letters.Also in Keen 3 a sign with the complete SGA can be found in the secret level, similar to the Rosetta Stone
Rosetta Stone
The Rosetta Stone is an ancient Egyptian granodiorite stele inscribed with a decree issued at Memphis in 196 BC on behalf of King Ptolemy V. The decree appears in three scripts: the upper text is Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, the middle portion Demotic script, and the lowest Ancient Greek...
. Another alphabet
Alphabet
An alphabet is a standard set of letters—basic written symbols or graphemes—each of which represents a phoneme in a spoken language, either as it exists now or as it was in the past. There are other systems, such as logographies, in which each character represents a word, morpheme, or semantic...
sign can be found in Keen 6 in the Blooglab Space Station level. Knowing the complete alphabet is necessary for the player to decipher
Decipherment
Decipherment is the analysis of documents written in ancient languages, where the language is unknown, or knowledge of the language has been lost....
a letter which explains part of the storyline at the end of Keen 5.
Other uses
In addition to printed signs within levels, the SGA was found in level design features. There is a curse wordProfanity
Profanity is a show of disrespect, or a desecration or debasement of someone or something. Profanity can take the form of words, expressions, gestures, or other social behaviors that are socially constructed or interpreted as insulting, rude, vulgar, obscene, desecrating, or other forms.The...
hidden at the beginning of Keen 2s "Paris" level, spelled in SGA. The misspelled word "FUCL
Fuck
"Fuck" is an English word that is generally considered obscene which, in its most literal meaning, refers to the act of sexual intercourse. By extension it may be used to negatively characterize anything that can be dismissed, disdained, defiled, or destroyed."Fuck" can be used as a verb, adverb,...
" is made of yellow platforms inside a field of red platforms.
Joe Siegler later wrote a secret message that said "Dopefish
Dopefish
The Dopefish is a fictional fish that originated in the fourth Commander Keen video game, Secret of the Oracle, released in 1991. The character has since evolved into a PC game industry in-joke, making appearances in games from Apogee's 1994 Wacky Wheels as well as titles as recent as the 2006 SiN...
lives" in the walls of a Rise of the Triad
Rise of the Triad
Rise of the Triad: Dark War is a first-person shooter video game that was first released on February 17, 1995 and developed by Apogee Software . The members of the development team involved referred to themselves as "The Developers of Incredible Power"...
level. The story goes that during Rise of the Triad development, one of Tom Hall's instructions to the level editors was not to "write words in the levels with the walls". Joe asked about SGA, and that idea was approved, hence the "Dopefish Lives" message in SGA in one of his Rise of the Triad levels.
SGA has not had much other official use after that, but Tom Hall invented a syllabary
Syllabary
A syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent syllables, which make up words. In a syllabary, there is no systematic similarity between the symbols which represent syllables with the same consonant or vowel...
to create a more complex "alien" language used in Ion Storm
Ion Storm Inc.
Ion Storm Inc. was a Texas based developer of computer games founded by John Romero, Tom Hall , Todd Porter, and Jerry O'Flaherty, under the slogan "Design is Law"...
's Anachronox
Anachronox
Anachronox is a 2001 third-person computer role-playing game produced by Tom Hall and the Dallas Ion Storm games studio. It offers gameplay in the style of console RPGs, such as Chrono Trigger and the Final Fantasy series...
. After that, id Software created a simple substitution cipher very similar to SGA for the Strogg race in Quake 4
Quake 4
Quake 4 is the fourth title in the series of Quake first-person shooter computer games. The game was developed by Raven Software and published by Activision. Raven Software has collaborated with id Software, the creators and historical developers of preceding Quake games...
. SGA was used in Minecraft
Minecraft
Minecraft is a sandbox-building independent video game written in Java originally by Swedish creator Markus "Notch" Persson and now by his company, Mojang, formed from the proceeds of the game. It was released as an alpha on May 17, 2009, with a beta version on December 20, 2010...
as the language for the magic enchantment system.
Reception
Invasion of the Vorticons, Goodbye, Galaxy!, and Aliens Ate My Babysitter! were reviewed in 1993 in DragonDragon (magazine)
Dragon is one of the two official magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products, the other being Dungeon. TSR, Inc. originally launched the monthly printed magazine in 1976 to succeed the company's earlier publication, The Strategic Review. The...
#197 by Sandy Petersen
Sandy Petersen
Carl Sanford Joslyn Petersen is a game designer.Petersen was born in St. Louis, Missouri and attended University of California, Berkeley, majoring in zoology....
in the first "Eye of the Monitor" column. Petersen gave the Commander Keen series 4 out of 5 stars. Peterson would later work with id.
Fan-made games
A number of fan-made Commander Keen games have been created, mostly using Klik & Play, Click & Create, Game MakerGame Maker
GameMaker is a Windows and Mac IDE originally developed by Mark Overmars in the Delphi programming language. It is currently developed and published by YoYo Games, a software company in which Overmars is involved...
and similar game construction software. The Public Commander Keen Forum has a forum devoted to the announcement and discussion of these unofficial Keen games.
CloneKeen is a game engine recreation that requires the original datafiles, and supports episodes 1 through 3. It was programmed on and off by Caitlin Shaw since 2003, and finally released on October 18, 2005. It is available for GP2X
GP2X
The GP2X is an open-source, Linux-based handheld video game console and portable media player developed by South Korean company GamePark Holdings. It was released on November 10, 2005, in South Korea only....
, Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
, Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
and Dreamcast. It was also ported to the PlayStation Portable
PlayStation Portable
The is a handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Corporation Development of the console was announced during E3 2003, and it was unveiled on , 2004, at a Sony press conference before E3 2004...
in February 2006, the Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
in October 2008 and the Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
in November 2008. Commander Genius or Clone Keen Plus continues the effort.
In the years since the release of utilities to modify the levels and graphics in the original Keen series in early 2002 , more than fifty mods
Mod (computer gaming)
Mod or modification is a term generally applied to personal computer games , especially first-person shooters, role-playing games and real-time strategy games. Mods are made by the general public or a developer, and can be entirely new games in themselves, but mods are not standalone software and...
have been made, most of which feature Commander Keen as the protagonist. Popular among these efforts is The Universe is Toast trilogy by Ceilick, based on the concepts of id's canceled trilogy of the same name. The tools and utilities used to modify the games, as well as a body of accumulated knowledge of the Keen code, continues to be updated, improved, and discussed on the Keen Modding Forum.
NetKeen is a multiplayer fangame created by Lemm in 2011 by reverse engineering the Keen Galaxy/Wolf3D code and combining it with the Doom IPX network code. The game supports LAN and Internet play using DOSBox IPX tunneling for up to four players with eight playable characters to choose from. Game modes include deathmatch, team deathmatch, and treasure race. Custom arenas have been created for Keen episodes 4, 5, 6, and Dreams.
Warros Padulosos!!! is a remake of Keen's wrist computer mini-game, Paddle War! It was made available for Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
Android phones as a freely available public beta in November 2010.
Seen in other games
- The DopefishDopefishThe Dopefish is a fictional fish that originated in the fourth Commander Keen video game, Secret of the Oracle, released in 1991. The character has since evolved into a PC game industry in-joke, making appearances in games from Apogee's 1994 Wacky Wheels as well as titles as recent as the 2006 SiN...
, an enemy character from Secret of the Oracle, has become one of the biggest video game in-jokeIn-jokeAn in-joke, also known as an inside joke or in joke, is a joke whose humour is clear only to people who are in a particular social group, occupation, or other community of common understanding...
s and appeared in many games over the years (such as in all Quake games except Quake 4Quake 4Quake 4 is the fourth title in the series of Quake first-person shooter computer games. The game was developed by Raven Software and published by Activision. Raven Software has collaborated with id Software, the creators and historical developers of preceding Quake games...
) and continues to make hidden appearances in modern titles. - Keen appears as a hostageHostageA hostage is a person or entity which is held by a captor. The original definition meant that this was handed over by one of two belligerent parties to the other or seized as security for the carrying out of an agreement, or as a preventive measure against certain acts of war...
in Apogee's Bio MenaceBio MenaceBio Menace is a 2D, side-scrolling, platform game both developed and published by Apogee Software in 1993 for DOS. It was built on a licensed version of id Software's Commander Keen game engine, and was known as Bio Hazard during production...
episode 2, level 6. In the same episode in level 10, a yorp is seen in one of the incubators. Also in the same level there is a room filled with items from Bio Menace, Commander Keen and Duke NukemDuke Nukem (computer game)Duke Nukem is a platform game developed and published by Apogee Software , featuring the adventures of the fictional character Duke Nukem. The game was released on July 1, 1991.-Story:...
.
- Commander Keen makes a cameo appearanceCameo appearanceA cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
in level 32 'Grosse' (a secret level) of Doom IIDoom IIDoom II: Hell on Earth is an award winning first-person shooter video game and second title of id Software's Doom franchise. Unlike Doom which was initially only available through shareware and mail order, Doom II was a commercial release sold in stores...
(not in German releases). He is displayed as hangedHangingHanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
with a nooseHangman's knotThe hangman's knot or hangman's noose is a well-known knot most often associated with its use in hanging. For a hanging, the knot of the rope is typically placed under or just behind the left ear. When the condemned drops to the end of the rope, the force is supposed to break the neck...
and the player can shoot him, making him explode in blood and authentic PC speakerPC speakerA PC speaker is a loudspeaker, built into some IBM PC compatible computers. The first IBM Personal Computer, model 5150, employed a standard 2.25 inch magnetic driven speaker. More recent computers use a piezoelectric speaker instead. The speaker allows software and firmware to provide...
sound effects. At least two Commander Keen skins have been created for the Doom source portDoom source portA Doom source port is a source port of id Tech 1, the game engine used by the video game Doom. The term usually denotes a modification made by Doom fans, as opposed to any of the official Doom versions produced by id Software or affiliated companies.-Doom source release:The source code for the Doom...
Doom Legacy, cementing Keen's connections with Doom in a more positive light.
- In Apogee's Duke NukemDuke NukemDuke Nukem is a video game series focusing on its protagonist, Duke Nukem. Originally created by Apogee Software Ltd./3D Realms as a series of video games for the PC, the franchise expanded to games released for various consoles by third party developers...
episode 1 level 7, Dr. Proton briefly mentions Commander Keen while threatening DukeDuke Nukem (character)Duke Nukem is a fictional character and action hero who has been the protagonist in over a dozen video games.The character first appeared in the 1991 video game Duke Nukem developed by Apogee Software...
. - In Apogee's Crystal CavesCrystal CavesCrystal Caves is a trilogy of side-scrolling platform games, developed and published by Apogee Software, released on 23 October 1991. The three episodes have the titles "Troubles with Twibbles," "Slugging it Out" and "Mylo Versus the Supernova."...
Keen's helmet appears in levels 8 and 10 of episode 2, and in episode 3 level 2. Yorp herding is mentioned in the story. - Commander Keen's Teddy BearTeddy bearThe teddy bear is a stuffed toy bear. They are usually stuffed with soft, white cotton and have smooth and soft fur. It is an enduring form of a stuffed animal in many countries, often serving the purpose of entertaining children. In recent times, some teddy bears have become collector's items...
from episode 1 is in Apogee's Secret Agent as a bonus item. Commander Keen himself is mentioned in the instructions that describe the Teddy Bear. - The Gargs from Episode 1 closely resemble enemies in Monuments of MarsMonuments of MarsMonuments of Mars is a third-person puzzle platform video game developed by Scenario Software and published by Apogee Software. The game consists of four 20-level episodes, the first episode being shareware, the rest being commercial software...
. - In Apogee's PaganitzuPaganitzuPaganitzu is a tile-based, CGA/EGA computer game created by Keith Schuler and published by Apogee Software in October, 1991. It is the sequel to Chagunitzu. The game is a 2D puzzle game comparable to Chip's Challenge. It requires the player to solve various puzzles to complete the game.Paganitzu...
episode 2 level 15 there is a yorp. - Keen is mentioned if the code "BAT" is entered in Wolfenstein 3DWolfenstein 3DWolfenstein 3D is a video game that is generally regarded by critics and gaming journalists as having both popularized the first-person shooter genre on the PC and created the basic archetype upon which all subsequent games of the same genre would be built. It was created by id Software and...
and Spear of DestinySpear of Destiny (computer game)Spear of Destiny, often also called Spear, Wolfenstein 3D: Spear of Destiny or just SoD, is a 1992 first-person shooter computer game developed by id Software and published by FormGen Corporation, and is the prequel to id Software's Wolfenstein 3D...
. - Keen is on the default high score list of Apogee's Monuments of MarsMonuments of MarsMonuments of Mars is a third-person puzzle platform video game developed by Scenario Software and published by Apogee Software. The game consists of four 20-level episodes, the first episode being shareware, the rest being commercial software...
, Crystal CavesCrystal CavesCrystal Caves is a trilogy of side-scrolling platform games, developed and published by Apogee Software, released on 23 October 1991. The three episodes have the titles "Troubles with Twibbles," "Slugging it Out" and "Mylo Versus the Supernova."...
, PaganitzuPaganitzuPaganitzu is a tile-based, CGA/EGA computer game created by Keith Schuler and published by Apogee Software in October, 1991. It is the sequel to Chagunitzu. The game is a 2D puzzle game comparable to Chip's Challenge. It requires the player to solve various puzzles to complete the game.Paganitzu...
, Realms of ChaosRealms of Chaos (computer game)Realms of Chaos is a platform game written for MS-DOS, published by Apogee Software .Realms of Chaos is distributed as shareware. It consists of three episodes, with only the first episode playable in the shareware version...
and StargunnerStargunnerStargunner is a horizontal scrolling shooter computer game developed by Apogee Software. It was released on November 19, 1996, and it has the distinction of being the last title sold under the Apogee brand name.-Overview:...
. - Redwood GamesRedwood GamesRedwood Games was created about 1990 by Karen Crowther . Named after the Redwood Trees of Mendocino California, the company is now located on Maui. Games developed at Redwood Games include Math Rescue, Word Rescue, Talking ABC's, Pickle Wars and Rescue the Scientist. Math and Word Rescue were...
' Pickle WarsPickle WarsPickle Wars is a platform DOS game created in 1993 by Karen Crowther through Redwood Games and published by MVP Software. The script was written by Ellen Beeman. A planet gets invaded by aliens . The player goes on a journey to find hidden weapons...
mentions Commander Keen in Episode 1 Level 10. - In Apogee's arch-rival, Epic MegaGames' Jill of the JungleJill of the JungleJill of the Jungle is a trilogy of platform computer games released in 1992 by Epic MegaGames. It was intended to rival computer games from other shareware companies such as id Software and Apogee Software, Ltd....
, episode 1 includes a news bulletin taking a swipe at Keen, who it claims has been forced into retirement by "those cool Epic heroes". - In the computer game Guild WarsGuild WarsGuild Wars is an episodic series of online 3D fantasy role-playing games developed by ArenaNet and published by NCsoft. Although often defined as an MMORPG the developers define it as a CORPG due to significant differences from the MMORPG genre. It provides two main modes of gameplay—a cooperative...
, the fourth rank of the commander title track is "Keen Commander". - In Epic MegaGames' Jazz Jackrabbit 2Jazz Jackrabbit 2Jazz Jackrabbit 2 is a platform game produced by Epic MegaGames, now known as Epic Games. It was released in 1998 for PCs running Windows, and later for Macintosh computers. It is the sequel to Jazz Jackrabbit....
, a signpost in one stage proclaims that Jazz's brother, Spaz Jackrabbit, ate the Dopefish. - In Wolfenstein RPGWolfenstein RPGWolfenstein RPG is a mobile and iOS game developed by id Software. The two versions are nearly the same, but the higher end version has better graphics and one extra level involving driving a car.-Features:...
, a character named Commander Keen aids B.J. Blackowitz in his journey. - In AnachronoxAnachronoxAnachronox is a 2001 third-person computer role-playing game produced by Tom Hall and the Dallas Ion Storm games studio. It offers gameplay in the style of console RPGs, such as Chrono Trigger and the Final Fantasy series...
, apartment C3 of the Tenements belongs to a 'B. Blaze.' - Programmer Markus PerssonMarkus PerssonMarkus Alexej Persson is a Swedish indie game developer and founder of Mojang AB. He is best known for creating the sandbox building game Minecraft.- Biography :...
of Mojang Specifications and lead developer of MinecraftMinecraftMinecraft is a sandbox-building independent video game written in Java originally by Swedish creator Markus "Notch" Persson and now by his company, Mojang, formed from the proceeds of the game. It was released as an alpha on May 17, 2009, with a beta version on December 20, 2010...
, utilizes the SGA for the Enchantment Table introduced in Minecraft Beta 1.9 Prerelease 3.
External links
Official Apogee Pages:- Commander Keen: Invasion of the Vorticons Official Apogee page
- Commander Keen: Goodbye Galaxy! Official Apogee page
- Commander Keen history Official Apogee page
By the Keen Community:
- Public Commander Keen Forum – Where fans gather and discuss everything about Commander keen
- Keen Modding Forum – A forum for discussing and developing Keen mods, utilities, and understanding the Keen code
- KeenWiki - Commander Keen dedicated Wiki
- Commander Keen Fans – Site dedicated to creating and hosting fan works of Commander Keen
- CloneKeenPlus – Interpreter for Commander Keen 1-3 and galaxy in near future
- Beyond the Pogo – Site containing content created by the Keen community; has not been updated in some time
The shareware games can be downloaded from the Apogee pages above or the following sites:
- DOSome Games: Commander Keen Windows install