Keen.Retodon8.net

Commander Keen
(Last modified: 2008-01-24)

Introduction

The Story So Far...

Billy Blaze, eight year-old genius, working diligently in his backyard clubhouse has created an interstellar starship from old soup cans, rubber cement and plastic tubing. While his folks are out on the town and the babysitter has fallen asleep, Billy travels into his backyard workshop, dons his brother's football helmet, and transforms into...

  COMMANDER KEEN--defender of Earth!

In his ship, the Bean-with-Bacon Megarocket, Keen dispenses galactic justice with an iron hand!

Personal

Good morning!
It is 2008-11-21, 01:20:32 (@055), Friday, week 47.

I remember having bought a Gravis PC GamePad , the original gamepad for the PC, so I could play games like my friends with "Nintendos" did. They put a yellow icon of a little, helmeted guy on the packaging; a game was included. I installed the game, plugged in my brand new gamepad, and got pleasantly surprised by an actually scrolling platform game on the PC, another first.

My little sister sat next to me the entire time, and together we finished the game the same evening. She played through the red, labyrinthine city on the East side of Mars, as I couldn't finish it at the time. I don't think we got to the secret level that first time we played.

Soon enough I got to play the other Keen games, and the later series were even better than the first. Many birthdays after that, Keen 4 kept our younger guests busy, though often fighting ensued over who would get to play the next level. Nobody can deny Commander Keen is a classic series of games, which helped introduce the masses to the concept of shareware.

Play

Online

Glen Rhodes remade Marooned on Mars in Flash so you can play it online using the cursor keys.
There is no sound, no world map (meaning you have to play the levels in a set order), you can't save, and there are some other bugs, but in general the game is almost identical.
glenrhodes.com Weblog - Commander Keen

On a recent system

Introduction

First of all, in order to make controlling the games easier, I suggest using a gamepad to control Keen more easily. If you have an older DOS or Windows ME/95/98 system, I suggest using the Gravis PC GamePad. On a more recent Windows XP/Vista system you'll probably want something a little bit more advanced so you can use it for other games as well. I personally use a Logitech Rumblepad 2, which is basically a PlayStation 2 controller. Do NOT get the Logitech Dual Action Gamepad, as many people experience problems with it; check Google!
Microsoft's Xbox 360 controller is a good choice as well.

The Commander Keen series was made to run under DOS, and therefore more recent OSs have difficulties running it properly. Windows 95 and 98 should work properly, but Windows 2000 and XP probably won't give you any sound. Of course there are also other non-Microsoft OSs you might want to run Keen on. Your best bet is to use DOSBox, a very good DOS emulator. Here is a step by step tutorial on getting the games to work under Windows 2000 or XP.

I assume you already have your game ready; otherwise download the episode of your choice from the Games section.

First of all, visit DOSBox' Download area. Look for Windows, and download the latest Win32 installer.
(In some cases older versions work better for some games, so you may also want to try out some of those.)

Now you can use DOSBox' own, more detailed explanation in their FAQ, or read on for my attempt.

For more links with information on DOSBox, see Links → Tools

What you see

After you install, you should have 4 shortcuts in your Start menu, including DOSBox and DOSBox.conf. The former is the main programme, the latter is a text file you can edit to change the different settings. Keen should run without any optimizing, so don't touch the .conf for now.

Once you run the programme, and you should see 2 screens. The first gives you info about the .conf file in use, info on sound devices, joysticks if available, that kind of thing. It looks similar to this:

The other screen is the main DOS emulation screen you will use, featuring a colourful block with some information, and a Z:\>_ prompt at the end. It looks similar to this:

At this moment DOSBox is limited to this internal virtual Z drive, and can't access anything on your real drives. In order to allow this, you need to mount an actual directory on one of your drives (it can't be the whole drives) to another virtual drive. ("Directory" is simply another word for "folder".) You can create extra virtual drives for every letter of the alphabet (minus Z). I will assume your games are installed on your C drive in a directory called Games, in other words: C:\Games\, and you want to be able to access all games through 1 virtual drive, C:.

What you need to do

Type: mount c: c:\games to accomplish this.
If you want to create a second virtual drive just for your Keen games, you could type: mount d: c:\games\keen

After that you can type: c: to go to your new, virtual C:, which will show a C:\>_ prompt on screen.
Enter any subdirectory by typing for instance: cd games, or cd games\keen, depending on your exact mount.
Now type a command like: keen4e to start the game.
If you are unsure about the command to type / file to start, type: dir *.exe, which shows all executable files.
You can also go back a directory: cd .., go back to the root: cd\, or quit DOSBox: exit.

Automating the process

I'll some information on how to have mounts automatically created, and/or create a quick and easy way to start different games.

Games

The series

• Invasion of the Vorticons (1990-12-14)
  • Commander Keen 1 - Marooned on Mars (Download from CC314)
  • Commander Keen 2 - The Earth Explodes
  • Commander Keen 3 - Keen Must Die!
• Keen Dreams (1991-06) (Download from CC314
• Goodbye Galaxy! (1991-12-15)
  • Commander Keen 4 - Secret of the Oracle (Download from CC314)
  • Commander Keen 5 - The Armageddon Machine
• Commander Keen 6 - Aliens ate my Babysitter! (1991) (Download demo from CC314)
• Commander Keen (2001-03) (GBC)

The PCKF has a thread with patches: Keen Official Games Thread.

MobyGames has info on the Commander Keen Series.
Wikipedia also has a page on Commander Keen.

Cancelled games

• Commander Keen - The Universe is Toast (Christmas 1992) (Supposed to be a new trilogy of 3D games "halfway between Super Mario 64 and Pandemonium ", never was because of Wolfenstein 3D (id).)
• Keen Chronicles (?) All DOS games packaged for the PPC, to be published by Softek International . Only the following logo designed by Industry Media remains:

Tom Hall getting the Keen rights

In order for the world to get another (proper) Keen game, it's pretty much necessary Tom Hall gets the right to the Keen IP.

Joe Siegler commented on the not uncommon idea about fans raising enough money to buy Tom the rights from id Software, stating money isn't the problem in this post. This means it is currently very unlikely there will be another Keen game (id Software isn't planning on making any either).

Freeware

Other games by id Software and Apogee have been released as freeware, so it's very possible eventually the Keen games will undergo the same fate. Of course the rights to Keen Dreams lie with Softdisk, and Keen 6 was distributed by FormGen, now Atari, which complicates things for those games.

Source code

Around 2005-10 John Carmack was interviewed on X-Play, about Quake 4 and the Doom movie among other things. He mentioned id Software isn't planning on making another Keen game, stating the Doom marine killed him in Doom II. He does want to release the source code, but nobody knows of any remaining copies, and it might very well be lost.

Developers

These are the credits of id Software as they appear at the time of the Keen games, when they called themselves Id Software.
See the Links → Developers section below for links to pages on the developers, as well as the other companies somehow involved with the series.

• Software Engineers
  • John Carmack
  • John Romero
  • Jason Blochowiak
• Artwork
  • Adrian Carmack
• Creative Director
  • Tom Hall
• President
  • Mark Rein
• Soundtrack composed by
  • Robert Prince

Characters

Main characters

Here is some information on characters related to Keen in one way or another. (Lesser enemies aren't listed here.)

• Keen's family
  • William Joseph Blazkowicz II / Billy Blaze - Commander Keen - Defender of Earth
  • William Joseph Blazkowicz / B.J. (1911-08-15) - Keen's grandfather, Allied Forces spy during WWII
  • Julia Marie Peterson - Keen's grandmother, moviestar
  • Arthur Kenneth Blazkowicz / Arthur Blaze - Keen's father, talk show personality in Milwaukee
  • Susan Elizabeth McMichaels - Keen's mother
  • Name unknown - Keen's big brother whose helmet Keen uses
  • Name unknown - Keen's little sister only mentioned in Eat Your Veggies
  • Spot - Keen's pet Yorp
• The good guys
  • Vorticons - Under control by Mortimer McMire's mindbelts hostile to Keen
  • Molly McMire - Mortimer's sister and Keen's babysitter
  • Gnosticenes - These 8 council members are guardians of the Oracle on Gnosticus IV
  • Princess Lindsey - Helpful person on Gnosticus IV
• The bad guys
  • Mortimer McMire / Grand Intellect (Gannalech) - Keen's arch enemy, from Earth
  • Boobus Tuber - King of Tuberia
  • Dopefish - Not bad per se, just the second-dumbest creature in the universe, from Gnosticus IV
  • Shikadi - Race of shadow beings from Korath III
  • Bloogs - Race of hungry aliens from Fribbulus Xax

Cameos

• Commander Keen
  • Pickle Wars - Keen is mentioned by the Arcadians in level 10
  • Paganitzu - Keen lost his helmet somewhere in the levels, and is in the high score list
  • Duke Nukem - Dr. Proton mentions Keen to Duke
  • Bio Menace - A hostage to be rescued in the Trash Dump level
  • Crystal Caves - Keen lost his helmet(s) in some of the green slime pits (for instance level 8), and is in the high score list
  • Doom II: Hell on Earth - Hanged ×4; in the secret level 32, all needed to be killed to open level exit
  • Jill of the Jungle 1 - Keen is mentioned (not in a nice way) in a textual news update before level 2
• Yorp
  • Paganitzu - A Yorp steals Al's hat halfway level 15, at the 3^rd switch
  • Bio Menace - In the Specimens Lab level a Yorp is experimented on by the Enforcer
  • Crystal Caves - Mylo Steamwitz' uncle owns a Yorp herding business
• Garg
  • Monuments of Mars - An enemy on Mars before Keen got there
• Dopefish
  • Commander Keen (GBC) - Technically a Keen game (not really), the Dopefish is jumping out of the water, and painted on a wall
  • Jazz Jackrabbit 2 - "spaz ate the dopefish" written on a sign in "A Diamondus Forever"
  • Wacky Wheels - Secret at start line
  • Anachronox - 1) Rho's lab, tank on the left 2) Moon Burger on Hephaestus, ball pit 3) Krapton Ship, in tank
  • Rise of the Triad: Dark War - The name is a command line parameter as well as "Eight Ways to Hell" level layout (in SGA)
  • Duke Nukem 3D - "Dopefish lives" hidden, written on wall at bottom of level 5, "The Abbys"
  • Max Payne - Chapter 1 Level 7, near basketball court during Gognitti chase
  • Hitman 2: Silent Assasin - There is a Dopefish bobblehead in the "Jacuzzi Job" level
  • Red Faction (N-Gage version) - The Dopefish is in an unknown place in this game
  • Doom 3 - Mentioned in log
  • Quake - In the "Crypt of Decay" level (E2L3) there is a secret entrance to "The Well of Wishes"
  • Quake II - The level "Cooling Facility" has a dead Dopefish hanging, as well as a live one painted on the wall
  • Quake III: Arena - It has an (ugly) appearance somewhere in the game
  • John Romero's Daikatana - In episode 1 through 4 Dopefish protect Manaskull invulnerability artifacts
  • Descent 3 - A pilot you can play is called Dopefish
• Stuff
  • Secret Agent - The Keen Teddy Bear is a bonus item here as well
  • Bio Menace - In the Apogee room in the Specimens Lab level you can find a selection of Keen items
  • Wolfenstein 3D (id) - The BAT cheat code gives you a message asking you why you are trying to cheat.
  • Wolfenstein 3D (id) - The little extra where morse code was included in one of K6' songs made a return. Keen's code is: "SOS SOS DE KEEN SOS SOS K." whereas Wolf's code is: "TO BIG BAD WOLF DE LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD ELIMINATE HITLER IMPERATIVE COMPLETE MISSION WITHIN 24 HOURS OUT"

See The Official Dopefish Home Page for more detailed descriptions of the cameos.
See Dopefish for another list of Dopefish cameos.
See The Apogee FAQ - Section [4.2.3]: Cameos for other Apogee cameos.

Look-alikes

Some of the characters in the Commander Keen series have look-alikes, although I admit some of them are a bit far-fetched.

• Games
  • Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure: Forbidden Planet There are purple slugs, similar to Keen 4's yellow Poison Slugs.
  • Crystal Caves There is a purple snake creature hiding in walls, similar to the Ceilick.
  • Crystal Caves There are walking stones, similar to Mimrocks.
  • Supaplex Murphy has his main features in common with a Bounder.
  • Jazz Jackrabbit & Jazz Jackrabbit 2 feature Sparks in the Tubelectric levels; an electrified set of eyes like Volte-Face.
  • The Secret of Monkey Island Guybrush Threepwood resembles a Shikadi when he is invisible to ghosts.
  • Super Mario Bros. 3 Big Bertha resembles a Dopefish in appearance and also has an instant kill/swallow ability.
  • Hλlf-Life A Barnacle acts slightly similar to a Ceilick.
• Films
  • Killer Tomatoes This film's Killer Tomatoes are very similar to Tomateeth.
  • Short Circuit This film's main character, Johnny 5, looks a bit like the Tank Robot.
• Other
  • Napster The Napster logo shares some features with Sprite.
  • AOL The AOL logo resembles the Bip somewhat.

Levels

Keen 1

Keen 1's maps don't have official names, so the following table only shows power-ups, statues, and some other info.
Technically Keen only has to retrieve his 4 missing ship parts, and exit their containing levels to finish the game.

CC314 has an interactive map.

Keen 1 level information

#	Info
1
2	Yorp statue
3	Battery
4	Joystick
5	Pogo
6	Yorp statue
7
8	Vacuum cleaner
9	Yorp statue
10	Yorp statue
11	Garg statue
12	Yorp statue
13	Secret entrance
14	Secret
15	Yorp statue
16	Everclear, Pogo, Vorticon Commander

Keen 2

The following table shows the designations as seen on the ship's hull (map level).
I added possible meanings in the case of acronyms.

There are 8 Tantalus Rays that need to be destroyed to finish the game.
The table shows the names of the Tantalus Rays as they are written on the signs in their respective levels.
The Moscow and Rome Tantalus Ray images were accidently switched.

CC314 has an interactive map.

Keen 2 level information

#	Level	TR
1	GB (?)
2	EB (Engine B)
3	EA (Engine A)
4	LONDON	LONDON
5	RC (Reactor Control)
6	CAIRO	CAIRO
7	SYDNEY	SYDNEY
8	HOME A
9	NEW YORK	NEW YORK
10	HOME B
11	PARIS	PARIS
12	WB (Weaponry B)
13	ROME	ROME
14	WA (Weaponry A)
15	MOSCOW	MOSCOW
16	DC	DC (Washington)

Keen 3

The following table shows the texts written on street signs (signs on poles) as level names, if available.

Technically only level 16 needs to be completed to finish the game, other levels are only necessary because they are in Keen's path.

CC314 has an interactive map.

Keen 3 level information

#	Level
1	VORTIVILLE
2	LOWER VORTIVILLE
3	WEST VORTIVILLE
4	VORTIVILLE / VALDEN PARK
5	NEW VORTIVILLE / CENTRAL PARK
6	THE BONKS
7	BEENS
8	HALS KITCHEN
9	FORT VORTICON
10	FORT CAVORT
11	FORT VORTA BELLA
12	Fort
13	Secret level
14	CAPE CANAVORTA
15	Mountain/caves
16	Mangling Machine

Keen Dreams

Levels 6, 8, 11, and 13 were cut from the final game, and all show the same dummy level.
The values in the WC column are Warp Codes which can be entered after using the Warp cheat (F10 + W) as described in Cheats.

The levels contain 24 Boobus Bombs total, twice of what you need to beat Boobus Tuber.

CC314 has an interactive map.

Keen Dreams level information

WC	Level	BB
0	The Land of Tuberia (map)
1	Horseradish Hill
2	The Melon Mines	3
3	Bridge Bottoms
4	Rhubarb Rapids	3
5	Parsnip Pass
6	Level 6 (not used)
7	Spud City	6
8	Level 8 (not used)
9	Apple Acres	6
1, 0	Grape Grove	3
1, 1	Level 11 (not used)
1, 2	Brussels Sprout Bay
1, 3	Level 13 (not used)
1, 4	Squash Swamp	3
1, 5	Boobus' Chamber
1, 6	Castle Tuberia

Keen 4

The values in the WC column are Warp Codes which can be entered after using the Warp cheat (F10 + W) as described in Cheats.
(Warping to level 0 isn't possible in version 1.4.)

CC314 has an interactive map

Keen 4 level information

WC	Level
0	Keen enters the Shadowlands (map)
1	Keen makes a run for the Border Village
2	Keen slips into Slug Village
3	Keen plummets into the The Perilous Pit
4	Keen plods down into the Cave of the Descendants
5	Keen shivers along the Chasm of Chills
6	Keen reflects upon entering Crystalus
7	Keen stumbles upon Hillville
8	Keen grits his teeth and enters Sand Yego
9	Keen disappears into Miragia
1, 0	Keen crawls into Lifewater Oasis
1, 1	Keen backs into the Pyramid of the Moons (secret entrance)
1, 2	Keen moves silently in the Pyramid of Shadows
1, 3	Keen reverently enters the Pyramid of the Gnosticene Ancients
1, 4	Keen hesistantly crosses into the Pyramid of the Forbidden (secret)
1, 5	Keen mucks along the Isle of Tar
1, 6	Keen blazes across the Isle of Fire
1, 7	Keen hopefully enters the Well of Wishes
1, 8	Keen launches into the Bean-with-Bacon Megarocket

Keen 5

The values in the WC column are Warp Codes which can be entered after using the Warp cheat (F10 + W) as described in Cheats.
(Warping to level 0 isn't possible in version 1.4.)

CC314 has an interactive map

Keen 5 level information

WC	Level
0	Keen purposefully wanders about the Omegamatic (map)
1	Keen investigates the Ion Ventilation System
2	Keen struts through the Security Center
3	Keen invades Defense Tunnel Vlook
4	Keen engages Energy Flow Systems
5	Keen barrels into Defense Tunnel Burrh
6	Keen goes nuts in the Regulation Control Center
7	Keen regrets entering Defense Tunnel Sorra
8	Keen blows through the Neutrino Burst Injector
9	Keen trots through Defense Tunnel Teln
1, 0	Keen breaks into the Brownian Motion Inducer
1, 1	Keen hurries through the Gravitational Damping Hub (secret entrance)
1, 2	Keen explodes into the Quantum Explosion Dynamo
1, 3	Keen faces danger in the secret Korath III Base (secret)
1, 4	(not used)
1, 5	Keen unexplainedly finds himself by theHigh Scores
1, 6	(not used)
1, 7	(not used)
1, 8	(not used)

Keen 6

The values in the WC column are Warp Codes which can be entered after using the Warp cheat (F10 + W) as described in Cheats.
(Warping to level 0 isn't possible in version 1.4.)

CC314 has an interactive map

Keen 6 level information

WC	Level
0	Keen attacks Fribbulus Xax (map)
1	Keen hops across Bloogwaters Crossing
2	Keen fights his way through Guard Post One
3	Keen crosses into the First Dome of Darkness
4	Keen dares to enter the Second Dome of Darkness
5	Keen foolishly enters the Bloogdome
6	Keen makes his way into Bloogton Manufacturing
7	Keen ascends Bloogton Tower
8	Keen hungrily enters Bloogfoods, Inc.
9	Keen smashes through Guard Post Two
1, 0	Keen seeks thrills in Bloogville
1, 1	Keen rockets into the Bloog Aeronautics and Space Administration
1, 2	Keen boldly assaults Guard Post Three
1, 3	Keen whoops it up in the Bloogbase Recreational District
1, 4	Keen purposefully struts into the Bloogbase Management District
1, 5	Keen bravely enters the Bloog Control Center, looking for Molly
1, 6	Keen warily enters Blooglab Space Station (secret)
1, 7	Keen returns to the Bean-with-Bacon Megarocket
1, 8	Keen is in the High Score Screen. Call Id!

Enemies

Enemies normally kill on touch, and follow Keen around if they spot him, sometimes relentlessly, sometimes alternating with some random movement.

Also see CC314's Enemies and Items.

I used the following abbreviations in the enemy lists:

Abbreviations used

S	Shoots or drops projectiles
H	Hits needed to kill (K123) or stun (KD456)
*	Only temporarily disabled, returns to normal soon
K	Kills Keen by touch
P	Pushes Keen
J	Jumps or hops
A	Airborne, flying or moving a set path through the air
F	Follows set path, in some cases with pauses to try and kill Keen
Y	Yes

Keen 1

Keen 1 enemy information

Name	S	H	K	P	J	A	F	Extra
Yorp		1		Y	Y			Temporarily stunned if jumped on eyestalk
Garg		1	Y		Y			Charges
Vorticon		4	Y		Y
Butler "Tin Can" Robot		∞		Y			Y	Oblivious to Keen's presence
Tank Robot		∞		Y
Vorticon Commander		99	Y		Y			Unique

Keen 2

Keen 2 enemy information

Name	S	H	K	P	J	A	F	Extra
Vorticon Grunt		1	Y		Y
Vorticon Youth		1			Y			Stuns Keen
Vorticon Elite	Y	4	Y		Y
Scrub		1		Y				Ridable, walks walls & ceilings
Guard Robot	Y	∞	?	?		Y		Doesn't follow Keen

Keen 3

Keen 3 enemy information

Name	S	H	K	P	J	A	F	Extra
Vorticon Grunt		1	Y
Vorticon Woman	Y	5	?	?
Vorticon Youth		1			Y			Stuns Keen
Meep	Y	1	?	?
Foob		1						Dies by touch as well
VortiNinja		4	Y		Y
Jack Ball		∞		Y			Y
Jack		∞	Y				Y

Keen Dreams

Keen Dreams enemy information

Name	S	H	K	P	J	A	F	Extra
Tater Trooper		*1	Y					Slash bajonet at Keen when close
Crazed Carrot		*1						Don't kill, but can push you in pits. Only jump over pits
Frenchy	Y	*1	Y
Squasher		*1	Y		Y			Jump at Keen
Apel		*1	Y					Climb poles
Tomatooth		*1	Y		Y
Broccolash		*1	Y					Stop running to headbutt Keen
Pea Brain	Y	*1						Shoot Pea Pods
Pea Pod	Y	*1	Y
Asparagusto		*1	Y
Sour Grapes		∞	Y					Don't move except for falling
Melon Lips	Y	∞	?					Don't move
Boobus Tuber		12	Y		Y			Only vulnerable to Boobus Bombs (24 in game)

Keen 4

Keen 4 enemy information

Name	S	H	K	P	J	A	F	Extra
Bounder		1		Y	Y			Ridable, steerable
Inchworm		0
Poison Slug		1	Y	Y				Leave poisonous puddles
Lick		1			Y			Don't kill on touch, but breathe fire
Mimrock		1	?		Y			Vulnerable when sneaking around, only kill when jumping
Mad Mushroom		∞	Y		Y
Arachnut		*1	Y
Berkeloid		∞	Y
Wormouth		1						Lethal and vulnerable when out of ground
Bird (?)		*1	Y					Walk and fly, fall down when shot
Treasure Eater		1	?	?	Y			Eat items and quickly teleport away
Skypest		∞	Y			Y		Squashed/killed with pogo
Cloud (?)		∞		Y		Y	Y	Don't kill, but fire lethal lightning
Sprite		0	Y					Underwater, never move
Schoolfish		0						Underwater, don't kill, can be collected as Dopefish bait
Dopefish		0	Y					Underwater, can be distracted by feeding Schoolfish
Mine		∞	Y				Y

Keen 5

Keen 5 enemy information

Name	S	H	K	P	J	A	F	Extra
Korath III guy		1		Y				Neutral character
Little Ampton		1		Y				Climb poles
Sparky		1	Y					Charge
Volte-Face		*1	Y			Y	Y	Don't follow Keen
Slicestar		20/50	Y			Y	Y	Don't follow Keen, bouncing/diagonal ones take more hits
Spindred		∞	Y		Y			Don't follow Keen, jump on ceilings as well as floors
Sphereful		∞	Y			Y
Spirogrip		∞	Y			Y		Don't follow Keen, launch themselves in random direction after spinning in place
Shelley		1		Y	Y			Jump at Keen and explode
Shikadi Mine		∞	?	Y		Y		Explode (suicide) when near Keen
Shockshund	Y	2	Y		Y
Shikadi		4	Y
Shikadi Master	Y	3?	Y					Send shock charges up poles and teleports
Robo Red	Y	∞	Y

Keen 6

Keen 6 enemy information

Name	S	H	K	P	J	A	F	Extra
Babobba	Y	1	Y		Y
Bobba	Y	∞	Y		Y
Blooglet		1		Y				Come in 4 colours, may carry corresponding key
Bloog		1	Y
Blooguard		3	Y					Stun Keen by hitting floor
Nospike		3	Y					Charge, can fall off edges
Flect		1		Y				Reflect shot if shot in teeth
Gik		∞		Y				Ridable
Orbatrix		∞	Y	?
Bipship		1	?	?				Eject Bips when shot
Bip		∞						Squashed by walking over
Blorb		0	Y			Y
Fleex		4	Y
Ceilick		1	Y					Don't move, vulnerable when out

SGA

Standard Galactic Alphabet

The Standard Galactic Alphabet is a simple substitution cipher invented by Tom Hall. To make the Exit signs in the Keen games look alien he changed the letters a bit. He ended up completing the set of 26 letters, and other signs were added.

The following images show the SGA as it appears in Keen 3 (Secret Level) and Keen 6 (Blooglab Space Station) respectively.

There are 4 SGA TTF fonts you can download that I know off, some of which can coexist due to their different names.

SGA fonts

Name	Author	Download
Standard Galactic Alphabet 8	Retodon8 (me)	SGA8.ttf (Under construction!)
Standard Galactic Alphabet	Unknown	sga.ttf (3D Realms - Downloads)
Standard Galactic Alphabet	medeepblue	SGA.ttf (medeepblue on deviantART)
SGA2	Adurdin	sga2.ttf (Yet another Commander Keen page :))
SGA Rounded	Malvineous	SGARounded.ttf (shikadi.net)

Cheats

Cheats really take all the fun out of the games, and with the right difficulty setting, practice and occasionally saving, you should be able to do without. They are still useful for fooling around once you completed the games, so here they are.

Invasion of the Vorticons

Press the following keys:

Invasion of the Vorticons cheat codes

Code	Cheat
G + O + D	Toggle God mode for current level (invincible, fly with pogo, no clipping on map)
C + T +   Space	Get Pogo, all keycards, and 100 charges
⇧Shift + Tab↹	Walk through blocking levels on map

Keen Dreams

Press F10 in combination with the following keys:

Keen Dreams cheat codes

Key	Cheat
G	Toggle God mode for current level
J	Toggle Jump mode
I	Items (Flower Powers, Bombs, points)
S	Toggle Slow motion mode
P	Pause game
W	Warp to a level (see list of Levels)

Goodbye Galaxy! & Aliens ate my Babysitter!

Command line parameters

GG! & AamB! command line parameters

Parameter	Cheat
tedlevel X	Practice level X with infinite lifes (locks up game when exiting)
nowait	Activate debug keys beforehand, removes splash screen

Cheat codes

GG! & AamB! cheat codes

Code	Cheat
F9	Boss key; shows fake DOS prompt C:>_ until you press Esc
B + A + T	Set ammo to 99, get all keys, and an extra life
E + N + D	End the game and view the ending sequence
A + 2 + ↵Enter	Activate debug keys

Debug keys

Press F10 in combination with the following keys after activating debug keys:

GG! & AamB! debug keys

Key	Cheat
G	Toggle on God mode for current level
J	Toggle Jump cheat
N	Toggle No clipping
S	Toggle Slow motion mode
I	Free items! (99 ammo, Key Gems, map items, 3000 points)
P	Pause game
E	Finish current level (Without Council Member in K4!)
W	Warp to level (1-18) (see list of Levels)
Y	Scramble solid tiles to reveal secret passages
B	Set border colour (0-15)
V	Add (0-8) VBLs (Less frames/s)
D	Record demo from level 0-21) / Save demo (0-9)
T	Display Sprite Test (Arrow keys cycle through level's sprites)
M	Display Memory Usage
C	Display number of Active & Inactive Objects

Tech

Values & facts

In this section over time I'll add information useful for editing the Keen games.

• Tile dimensions: 16 × 16 px
• Resolution: 320 px × 200 px (1.6 : 1), 16 colours
• Resolution: 20 × 12.5 tiles
• K123 sprite height: 23 px
• KD456 sprite height: 32 px
• K123 max jumping height: 3 tiles
• K123 max pogoing height: 6 tiles
• KD456 max jumping height: ? tiles (? in Easy)
• K456 max pogoing height: ? tiles (? in Easy)
• Light comes from above left in K123, and from above right in KD456

Keen is 1.4 (32/23) × as high in the later games as he is in the original trilogy, meaning everything else depicted is also scaled by that amount.

Colours

The Keen games were written for EGA which can show 16 different colours (out of a 64 colour palette). The colours used in Keen differ slightly from the default EGA palette, and olive was exchanged for brown, but they are in the default order. Despite the difference and with the exception of brown, I used a default naming convention for ease of use.
The 4^th column shows the game code, decimal values ranging from 00 - 63 (multiply by 4 for regular decimal values), for each of the RGB channels.

Adurdin made a palette changing patch for K1 which you can read about here.

Palette colour list

Default palette		Keen palette
Colour	Hex	Colour	Hex	Code
Black	000000	Black	000000	00 00 00
Navy	000080	Navy	0000A8	00 00 42
Green	008000	Green	00A800	00 42 00
Teal	008080	Teal	00A8A8	00 42 42
Maroon	800000	Maroon	A80000	42 00 00
Purple	800080	Purple	A800A8	42 00 42
Olive	808000	Brown	A85400	42 21 00
Silver	C0C0C0	Silver	A8A8A8	42 42 42
Gray	808080	Gray	545454	21 21 21
Blue	0000FF	Blue	5454FC	21 21 63
Lime	00FF00	Lime	54FC54	21 63 21
Cyan/Aqua	00FFFF	Cyan/Aqua	54FCFC	21 63 63
Red	FF0000	Red	FC5454	63 21 21
Magenta/Fuchsia	FF00FF	Magenta/Fuchsia	FC54FC	63 21 63
Yellow	FFFF00	Yellow	FCFC54	63 63 21
White	FFFFFF	White	FCFCFC	63 63 63

Tiles (Keen D456)

The games have horizontal floors (1:0), slopes angled 45° (1:1) and 22.5° (1:2), and vertical walls (0:∞).

Despite appearances, KD456 uses the same 2D tile system as K123 with the addition of sloped floors and ceilings. Horizontal floors (both regular and jump-down-through) consist of 2 rows of tiles. Keen stands right on top of the bottom one, whereas the top one is basically only background detail. The tilted effect is achieved through lines angled 67.5° (2:1)

The following tiles blueprint, for which I looked at Keen 5's tiles, is zoomed in 200%, and is obviously under construction. The yellow lines highlight the top row and left-most column of pixels of every 16 px tile.

The rest

Pretty much everything else you might need can be found at Keen: Modding.

Links

See Retodon8.net → Links → Games for more general gaming links.

Developers

See Developers for more information on Keen's developers.

The companies

id Software - Team The company that created K123D456.
3D Realms Site - Personal Bios, Plan Files As Apogee , publisher of Keen 1 - 5 (minus KD).
Softdisk Creators and publishers of Keen Dreams.
FormGen Distributers of Keen 6. Eventually turned into Atari:
→ GT Interactive (1996-06)
→ Infogrames (1999-11-15)
→ Atari (2003-05-07)
Gamer's Edge Publishers of Keen Dreams. No longer exist.
David A. Palmer Productions Creators of Commander Keen (GBC).
Activision Publishers of Commander Keen (GBC).
Nintendo Commander Keen (GBC)'s platform.

Monkeystone Games John Romero & Tom Hall worked here, but it closed in 2005-01.
Midway Games John Romero & Tom Hall worked here.
KingsIsle Entertainment Tom Hall joined 2005-02.
Industry Media This company designed the cancelled Keen Chronicles logo.

The people

Links behind names points to current companies, where job descriptions may be different.

Armadillo Aerospace (IMDb) John Carmack (id), Software Engineer.
Planet //ROME.RO → , smugmug (IMDb, GT Profile) John Romero (MsG), Software Engineer.
No website (IMDb) Jason Blochowiak (Midway), Software Engineer.
No website (IMDb) Adrian Carmack (id), Artist.
TOMTOMTOM.com (IMDb, GT Profile) Tom A. "Organon" Hall (MsG), Creative Director.
No website Mark A. Rein (EG), President.
bobby prince Music - bobby prince Music (IMDb) Robert C. Prince III (Music Wrights Publishing) Composer.
rieger art+design Ken Rieger is the creator of the K6 box art and the Apogee logo.

Community & info

(Semi) official

Commander Keen Help 3DR's official tech support.
Commander Keen FAQ Bill Amon's 3DR-hosted FAQ.
The Really Big "Unofficial" Commander Keen FAQ Dave "Flaose" Allen's 3DR-hosted FAQ.
commander-keen.startkabel.nl A page full of links.
Commander Keen series - Wikipedia Article on the Keen series.
A Look Back at Commander Keen Keen 10 years later.

Personal

Cerebral Cortex 314 A site on Commander Keen by "Cho'gall", "eK", & "Flaose".
Frappr! - Keeners Keen community map.
Commander Keen Fan Site Includes all the basics, by a bunch of fans.
Reinier Spruijt - Keen's Outpost Reinier Spruijt's info on Keen.
Commander Keen Nexus Keen information by "Vidar Flak" and friends.
Commander Keendom Keen news by James.
DOS Classics - Beyond the Pogo "xtraverse"'s site featuring:
- Commander Keen Newsletter ("Yorpy" & Joseph "Forge" Burke),
- Keencyclopedia ("xtraverse" & Travis Lauver)
UnFleexable Software → A fan site by "UnFleexable".
Commander Keen Galaxy By "KeenRush".
Keen Galaxy "keengalaxy"'s fan site.
discoduck - commander keen Another keen fan site.
DivoBlaze "DivoKeen"'s site.
Apogee Central Peter van Haaften's site on Apogee games.

Tools

General

DOSbox, SourceForge - CVS (old: ) Lets you play Keen, with sound, on recent Windows systems.
DOSBox changelog See the features added to the latest CVS.
CVS Compile, English Page Sites offering compiled CVSs.
OpenGLide, SourceForge The OpenGL wrapper DOSBox uses.
Szevvy's little corner of WWW Wombat Game Tools lets you view and extract resources from Keen and other games.
RDOS/Dimension: RAC, RDOS/Dimension: RdosPlay Roman Dolejsi's RAC (RDOS Adlib Catcher, captures RAW files) & RdosPlay.
Adlib Ripping System Beta Software Edits Adlib DRO files ripped with DOSBox.
Adlib development Information on Adlib grabbing/ripping, hosts RawEdit.
VDMSound / VDMSound Sound support on recent Windows systems.
Mo'Slo If it's too fast, this slows down your CPU.
AdPlug, SourceForge Free .imf (and more) song player.
AdPlug Winamp plugin download site.

Controls

Software Room - JoyToKey English Version Lets you emulate mouse and keyboard with your joystick.
Brad's Butt Kickin' WinDoze Utility MegaSite WinKeyKiller disables the Windows-keys.
WingMan - WingMan Gadgets Numerous joystick tools, including the handy DXTweak 2.
FreewareWeb - Utilities: Keyboard & Macros More keyboard utitilities.

Editing, mods & fanstuff

Keen: Modding Andrew "Adurdin" Durdin's forum is basically the place to start with Keen editing.
Patch list Levellord's list of patches.
S&F Prod. - Commander Keen → Sander & Frenkel Meijers' "utilities, cheats, downloads, hints, add-ons, Easter eggs, links and more for some of the best classic computer games ever".
Yet another Commander Keen page :) Andrew "Adurdin" Durdin's site has editing info and forum.
Gnosticus VII Mod reviews by Dylan "Allstories" Gallagher.
Keen stuff "KeenCommander" hosts an IMF to MID convertor. Also check NewWolf.
Commander Keen Music CC314's selection of music.
Keito's Site - Commander Keen music IMF-turned-MID-turned-MP3 songs.
OverClocked ReMix - Commander Keen 4, Commander Keen 5 Keen remixes.
VGMix.com - Keen Commander Nostalgy '96, Swim Swim Eat More Keen remixes
Blegd and Smeeg Andrew Stoltzfus's comic about a Yorp and a Garg.
The Chasm of Strife Peter Bridger's weird, Keenish comics.
Shadowlands - The Animated Series Flash movies by Chris Hendricks.
The JimSoft Lair - Commander Spleen's Land of Commander Keen, Victor's Clapstatic Keen Keen mods by Stephen J. "Commander Spleen" Currie & Victor.
Commander Keen And The Grand Intellect "Creative madman"'s game.
KeenKoncepts Zach's game.
Benvolio's Workbench "Benvolio" is author of more than 1 mod.
NicksSoftware's Main Website Nick created a few fan games.
Perry Scanlon's Homepage - Commander Keen's Dungeon of Mystery! 1 big puzzle level by Perry Scanlon.
glenrhodes.com Weblog - Commander Keen Play Marooned on Mars online thanks to Glen Rhodes.
CloneKeen, SourceForge Open source CK123 clone by Katy "rogueeve".
Commander Keen CLONE, SourceForge A clone in very early stages, by Andre "firebyte" Kreis & nlite.
Commander Keen 1-3 for Unix Port/Clone Project Page Anders Gavare's abandoned project.
Shadowlands 3D A 3D interpretation of Keen 4.
UltimateQB.com Kevin Wellwood remade Keen 4 and called it Keen 7.

SGA

SGA My own section on SGA.
Omniglot - Standard Galactic Alphabet "A guide to writing systems".
Ultrazone.org - SGA Converter Convert text to SGA.

Dopefish

The Official Dopefish Home Page Swim, swim, hungry! (Joe "Dopefish" Siegler)
A Cup of Joe, 3D Realms Bio, .plan, IMDb (3DR Profile) () Joe "Dopefish" Siegler (3DR) creator of Dopefish.com.
Wikipedia - Dopefish Wikipedia's Dopefish page.
Dopefish Ring Collection of sites.
Yahoo! Groups : dopefish No longer updated.

Other

Keen's gear, BWBMR & other technology

Packers.com Keen wears his brother's Green Bay Packers helmet.
Converse Shoes Keen wears red Converse hi-tops.
Pogo Stick Keen uses a Pogo to jump higher than normal.
PONG-Story The Computer Wrist's Paddle War is a Pong clone.
Nintendo The BWBMR has a Nintendo joystick in its cockpit.
Everclear (alcohol) This is the BWBMR's fuel.
George Carlin.com One of his routines inspired the name for the BWBMR.
The Get Smart Page The second biggest sandwich and the second dumbest creature.