How did you find Keen?

Here, you can get help with anything or just chat about the original Commander Keen games.
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Deltamatic
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How did you find Keen?

Post by Deltamatic »

I discovered the Commander Keen series via a series of amusing conversations between Zeek (a yorp) and Jeeto (a garg) on a mainly humorous website which has now sadly been shut down. After Googling about yorps and devouring the Keencyclopedia several times, I was hooked.
What about you?
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KeenRush
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Post by KeenRush »

When I was really young, like 3 or 4, my dad asked me if I would like to play a game on computer. I had never used the computer before and did not know what playing a game on it even meant. I had not heard of 'virtual' games before. Keen 1 started. Soon I was hooked, managed to move the character and outshine dad, who couldn't get past the first level. :)

By the way, check this topic's number. :mortlol
My newest mod - Commander Keen: Sunset: viewtopic.php?t=8568 | codename H.Y.E.N.A.
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Deltamatic
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Post by Deltamatic »

Something evil is going to come out of this topic, somehow... :eek
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Syllypryde
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Post by Syllypryde »

Back in '91, strangely enough, Keen 1 was on the computer I had received. Most of the computers I have owned have been hand-me-downs from my father. For whatever reason he must have downloaded it and played it, which is strange since my dad does not like video games. When I completed the game that is when I found out it was part of a trilogy. I was unable to find Keens 2-3 and eventually lost interest in Keen. In '96 I stumbled across Keen 4. I played it religiously and eventually downloaded Keens 5-6. After beating all 3 of these games on easy and began playing them on normal. I found Keens 2-3 and downloaded them as well. After beating them I found Keen Dreams. I hardly played it because at the time I just did not find it fun.

2 years after that, my computer crashed and none of my Keen games were backed up, so I lost ALL of my Commander Keen. Shortly after, I got a new computer and went to download all the Keen games again. Sadly, I could only find Keens 1 and 4. When I searched all over the Internet for the other Keen games, I could not find them. I finally did after a few months, but if I downloaded them, I would have to do it illegally. I was going to download them anyway, but decided it was not worth it because Keens 1 and 4 would not play right on my computer. I now had Windows 98 on my computer and since Commander Keen is a DOS game, the graphics would not display properly and the games would constantly screw up and crash. So once again, I gave up on Keen.

Around this time last year I discovered DosBox and decided to give the Commander Keen games a try again. Once again, Keens 1 and 4 were only offered as shareware and the other games were illegal to download. At the time I did not realize they could be purchased, so I decided having illegal copies of Keens 2-3, 5-6, and Dreams were better than not having them at all. I was permanently layed off from my job of 11 years in August and then began a new job as a temp in September. In December, I found KeenWiki and began lurking around there. I eventually became a member there, and then began lurking here. Through both sites I found out that the Commander Keen games could be purchased legally. Just before Christmas I was going to purchase legal copies, but before I could, I was layed off indefinitely again, and I have been unemployed ever since.

Right now paying my bills and keeping my house is more important than buying Commander Keen, but once I am working again, I definitely plan on purchasing all the games. I just hope they are still available by then.

Patrick
.niarb ym fo
snoitulovnoc eht tuaba
selbbarcs ssensuoicsnoc
rehgih a ekil smees
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Maruyama
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Post by Maruyama »

I was first introduced to Keen when I about 3 or 4. A friend offered me to play the Keen 6 demo and I was so scared of that first Bloog that I had the game turned off.

Cool story, huh.
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Post by tulip »

I played Keen first on my fathers 386/25, back when there was no Keen 4. Later my Uncle purchased Keen Galaxy and I played that a lot. After that I discovered Keen 6 demo, and I beat that hundreds of times as far as I remember, until finally I got the full version. Keen Dreams was Shareware so that turned up anywhere among my schoolfriends back then. I played that a lot, but I needed so much practice to get through that one... :dead
Keen 2-3 where the last ones I got, probably sometime around '92 , and I didn't play them to much back then, but I do now.

I found out about mods relatively late, maybe 2005. Xtraverse's site was the first one I visited regularly. When updates became scarce there I started visiting Keen:Modding.
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Post by Syllypryde »

Cerebral Cortex was the first Keen site I visited regularly. In the last year, I now go to DosClassics, Bipship, Keeniverse, KeenWiki, and of course this site. Even though I do play modern video games such as Grand Theft Auto and Guitar Hero: Metallica, I also like older video games such as Commander Keen and Chip's Challenge.

Patrick
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snoitulovnoc eht tuaba
selbbarcs ssensuoicsnoc
rehgih a ekil smees
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Post by Galaxieretter »

I was 3. I couldn't read at the time.

The year was what? 1990? The date was sometime in December but before Christmas.

My brother connected to an "internet" thing called "LAB." Command line local text based server / BB. I don't know I only know what's been told to me. That's where we got all our games from at the time. (We got them all as soon as they were released.) He got a game called "Commander Keen."

I was hooked ever since.
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Post by Ceilick »

I was four or five, heard strange noises coming from the basement, went to investigate and found my dad playing keen 4, level Crystalus, pogoing around for the soda points. I watched my dad play that night and the next day tried it for myself; I was hooked.

Later found Keen 1 on a "awesome arcade games!" compilation cd, and oddly I don't think it even occurred to me that it was a completely different style than keen 4, I loved it all the same. Convinced my dad to order the floppy disks of keen 1-3, and 4-5. I recall theorizing what awaited Keen in Keen 2 while doing yard work with a friend, waiting for my dad to finish installing the game (which was a long process for some reason :confused ). Also reading the "hints and tips sheet", I suspected the Grand Intellect to be Keen's father or some kind of relative.

A friend told me about Keen Dreams when I was around 13 or so, I thought he was pulling my leg or that it was some kind of hoax, guess I was wrong, but can't really say I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn't a bad game, just not the Keen I knew.

Didn't play get or play keen 6 until I was seventeen (I think), which is one of the reasons its not my favorite.
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Post by DaVince »

Around 1998, we finally got a 386 or so, which is a vastly underpowered computer even for that year. Then I found some diskettes with games on a market and bought them.

Quite a late introduction to Keen, eh? I must have been around 10!
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DSL
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Post by DSL »

This topic comes up once in a while, why not make it sticky?



Anyway, i was introduced to Keen when i was about 7-8 something.
It was my friends computer, Keen 1 and 4.

Memories of PC speakers and fans buzzing on warm summer days still keeps me hooked to the games, and places like this forum.

I'm glad i was introduced to the world of PC games at a very early stage. Many of my friends was hooked to NES and SNES, PCs were not common back then (as video games.) Later they jumped directly to Playstation and PS2/Xbox so many missed the golden days of good PC gaming.

Much thanks to my early adventures with games i'm quite retro in my taste for games. Everything that reminds me of the good old days (like upcoming game Fez, or Knytt/Knytt Stories) is highly regarded simply because of that fact.
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Re:

Post by IMA3HDDMNKY »

KeenRush wrote:By the way, check this topic's number. :mortlol
?
DSL wrote:This topic comes up once in a while, why not make it sticky?
Good call.
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DSL
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Re:

Post by DSL »

IMA3HDDMNKY wrote:?
viewtopic.php?t=[b]666[/b]

Satan lives.
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Post by Genius314 »

I think I've always had Keen 1 and 5 (which we got from my grandpa). I don't remember ever *getting* them, just playing them.
Keens 4 and the demo of 6 I got from a friend when I was like 5 or 6 years old. They came on a CD together, along with a bunch of other games that I didn't care about.

Around 2002-03 I started to play the games again, figured out SGA, and found the secret levels in 4 and 5 (I had always known where the level in 1 was). We had Internet access by then (well, the kind where you didn't have to pay by the minute), so I decided to Google Commander Keen. That's when I found all the fan sites, information about the other games, mods, etc.
I didn't get Keens 2 and 3 until I bought that 1-5 CD from Id in like 2002. I bought them mostly because I wanted to mod them, and wanted to play the mods of them.

I downloaded Keen 6 like 2 or 3 years ago.
Ceilick wrote:waiting for my dad to finish installing the game (which was a long process for some reason :confused ).
Gee, I wonder why... :p
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Post by shikadi »

in 1997 or so my parents bought a cd-rom with about 100games on it, One of them was keen, and it was i think the third or fourth most played.

a year later, my parents bought another cd-rom but with 80games, again a keen game, keen4, and we got a disc with keen2 on it (and another game), when we bought newer computers, the gamers no longer worked and were abandoned

Until somewhere in 2007, when i was thinking about games that we played first, supaplex and keen were the ones that came to my mind, but i first explored the first one and got out to find igor the time machine, a upgraded version, later, i found somehow a keen6 demo and that reminds me again, be the loss of all things were keen was one, i downloaded them all.

but i only found out till keen6, i was wondering, weres 7, i googled and found keys of krodacia, i was then thinking it was the real, readin blablabla mod, blablabla music, Blablabla.... ok i download and try not understanding anything of it. after a while i found it its behaviour was exact the same as keen4, just recolored and other levels.

i tried again to get more info and got after a while on the old plublic commander keen forum, then the new one and modding, i became member of both of them, but somehow lost the PCKF mail so i couldn't post for a year(till keenrush activated it). Rest of the story i problably known (about starting with lvlpacks, then 50% mods, till dttv3)
nothing usefull here
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