 |
|
| The Commander Keen series |
|
|
In September of 1990, a group of game developers from
Softdisk, a computer software publisher in
Shreveport, Louisiana, moonlighted by working on a project utilizing an engine that Softdisk
didn't want used in their own games. Why? Because the engine didn't work in CGA, like the rest
of the company's games. That turned out to be a big mistake.
The Keen we all know!
The game the group had developed was released as shareware in December, and in January the
group left Softdisk based on the game's success to start their own company. The rest, as they
say, is history.
That little company was called
id Software; the company that went on
to produce such megahits as
Wolfenstein 3D,
DOOM, and
Quake. Their first game? Commander Keen!
Commander Keen is a pretty fine platform game in wich you play a boy genius, Billy Blaze. You
have to collect toys and candies. There are weird enemies in the game. The game isn't only for
kids, it's a true delight for gamers of all ages.
Keen in 'Invasion of the Vorticons'
History
A short history of the Keen series:
- 'Invasion of the Vorticons' (episodes 1-3) was published by
Apogee Software on December 14th,
1990.
- 'Goodbye Galaxy' (episodes 4 and 5) was also published by Apogee Software. This series of
Commander Keen was released sometime around June of 1991. There was also a special CGA edition
of Keen 4 and 5 made. The game is functionally exactly the same as the standard EGA version of
the game.
The first level of Keen 4
- 'Aliens ate my Babysitter' (episode 6) was distributed by FormGen and id Software. This
product is also sold by Apogee, but Apogee only resells this product, they don't actually
distribute it. FormGen also decided to put off-disk copy protection on the full version of this
game. Furthermore, FormGen also had a playable 3 level commercial demo available for perusal
before purchase. Apogee Software sells a version of Keen 6 in CGA.
Episode 6: Aliens ate my Babysitter
- 'Keen Dreams' (lost episode) was distributed by id Software and Softdisk. Keen Dreams has
a kind of an interesting story. Before the guys at id Software actually formed id, the majority
of them worked at Softdisk. The founding members of id Software left Softdisk to do the Vorticons
series of Keen (episodes 1-3) for Apogee Software. However, they were contractually obligated to
deliver another game to Softdisk, and since development had started on the Galaxy series, they
threw together a Keen game for Softdisk, and Keen Dreams was born. This game is not sold by
Apogee, nor does Apogee have anything at all to do with it.
Softdisk's Keen Dreams
Nintendo
The Commander Keen engine wasn't originally intended for Commander Keen.
Tom Hall, creator of Commander Keen, recalls the
first game made with the side-scrolling engine:
The first game was actually a joke. It was called
Dangerous Dave in "Copyright Infringement". John Carmack had
just gotten a little guy to move around over a tile map, and I looked over at the Nintendo in
the corner. I said, "Wouldn't it be funny to make the first level of Super Mario 3... tonight?"
Carmack smiled and said, "Let's do it!" I copied the tiles pixel for pixel and made a map out
of them while Carmack feverishly programmed the guy landing on ground tiles and getting coin
tiles. At 5:30 in the morning, we dumped that on John Romero's desk and went home to crash.
Romero played it all the next day, saying "This could make so much money!". It was pitched
to a friend of a friend at Nintendo, and
they liked it so much, they wanted a demo. We added Mario graphics and Koopas and stuff, and
sent it to them. It apparently got to the head guys at Nintendo, but they didn't want to enter
the PC market.
Softdisk didn't want to use the smooth scrolling trick Carmack had discovered (since it
didn't also work in CGA), so we thought, well, if they don't want it, we could do something
ourselves...
So we thought, hey, we'll make our own game. We needed a topic. I asked if they cared what
topic, sci-fi, fantasy, whatever. I think Carmack mentioned a kid that saves the galaxy or
something. I went off and fifteen minutes later, came back with the paragraph that you see in
Keen 1. I read it in a Walter Winchell voice (he's a nasal 40s radio/newsreel announcer). Carmack
clapped after I was finished, and we were off and running.
We got contacted by Scott Miller of Apogee, and once Keen was published, it was making enough
for us to live on, so we quit and formed id Software.
Imagine what would have happened when id Software had gone to work for Nintendo!
Why 'The Universe is Toast' never came out
If you played Keen 5, there was a screen that displayed: "See you Christmas '92 when
Commander Keen returns to battle for the universe! It'll be the biggest Keen ever! You won't
believe your eyes!". There was a picture of Keen smiling, with a Santa Claus hat on. At the
time, id Software was intending to do a third series of Commander Keen, tentatively entitled
"Commander Keen: The Universe is Toast". However, other projects came up
(Wolfenstein 3D,
Spear of Destiny and later
DOOM).
On a different note, Commander Keen, and artifacts from the Keen games have found their way into
other games. Commander Keen is listed in the default scoreboards of a handful of Apogee games,
mentioned in the instructions of one, and has made a few more prominent appearances.
Quake
Commander Keen also contains the public announcement of the game that would revolutionize online
gaming: Quake. This is from the previews section of Commander
Keen, and remember, this was 1990!
COMING SOON FROM ID SOFTWARE
As our follow-up to the Commander Keen trilogy, id Software is working on
'The Fight for Justice', a completely new approach to fantasy gaming. You start not as a weakling
with no food--you start as Quake, the strongest, most dangerous person on the continent. You
start off with a Hammer of Thunderbolts, a Ring of Regeneration, and a trans-dimensional
artifact. Here the fun begins. You fight for Justice, a secret organization devoted to
vanquishing evil from the land! This is role-playing excitement.
And you don't chunk around the screen. 'The Fight for Justice' contains fully animated scrolling
backgrounds. All the people you meet have their own lives, personalities, and objectives. A
256-color VGA version will be available (smooth scrolling 256-color screens --fancy that)!
And the depth of play will be intense. No more "whack whack here's some gold". There will be
interesting puzzles and decisions won't be "yes/no" but complex correlations of people and
events. 'The Fight for Justice' will be the finest PC game yet.
The title was renamed to Quake: The Fight for Justice, but the latter part was later
dropped. The Quake we all know isn't very much like the original description, but that's
probably a good thing.
Thanks to ClassicGaming.com.
|
DOS Games
