Commander Keen Retrospective
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- Опубліковано 26 лип 2024
- It's time to go back to a time when the PC sorely needed a mascot to match the dominance of the Sega & Nintendo platforms of the era, with an 8 year old Billy Blaze, also known as Commander Keen answering the call.
Chapters
00:00 - Overview
03:48 - Gameplay
08:59 - Presentation & Sound
10:59 - Conclusion
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/ azordash_games - Ігри
If you have not already, you need to read the book "Doom Guy" by John Romero. I was really fascinated by Romero's account of creating the Keen games.
Will need to check it out!
@@azordash_gamesThe audiobook is really good. If you got more time for audiobooks as if you got a lot of long distance driving going on or just general time to listen to audiobooks and check out Masters of Doom. Also an audiobook.
they started out as copying mario bros
There wasn't anything else like it on PC. Keen was a high-point of it's time.
Commander Keen was my Mario growing up
Thanks for reminding me of this childhood classic. Just went to GOG and bought the complete game for $5. It's working wonderfully on my Steam Deck. I had the shareware version of Goodbye Galaxy as a kid. Oh the memories! I wish this game would get the Nightdive Studios treatment. I don't really see it happening but I can wish.
That's a brilliant idea to play it on the Steam Deck!
If you enjoy that I highly recommend some of the fan made games! The universe is toast trilogy is especially great.
How does this video only have 8k views?
It deserves at least 100k!
Cheers for the kind words :D
No one would have expected this kid to eventually become DoomGuy's grandfather
and he in turn is BJ Blaskovitz’s grandson(in the OG continuity anyway)
This video has sent my mind on a wild ride back in my memory banks. I grew up on Commander Keen. Never owned a console as a kid, only PC. I was 1 2 when this came out and played the heck out of it.
I was very much the same! I had a low end PC, but thankfully it didn’t take much to run the Keen games back then. Glad you enjoyed the video.
A neighbor gave me a few floppy disks with some games when my family bought our first PC. Two of those games were Commander Keen, specifically episode 1 and 4. Now, by this time, I had already experienced the glories of 1990's 2D platforming in the form of Mario, Sonic, etc. Keen did not look very impressive by comparison, at least at first glance. I also did not possess a controller for the PC. And yet, out of all the games on those floppies, Keen was probably the second best after SimCity 2000. It was tough going at first, especially in the first game, but little by little I got better and better, got to move around more freely using the keyboard, discovering secrets and hidden passageways. By the end of it, I was genuinely impressed by how clever and well designed both 1 and 4 were. I especially loved that inch worm hidden puzzle in the one temple in 4. My younger siblings and friends also really loved the games and often watched me play over my shoulder.
It's a real shame the franchise has become forgotten. Probably inevitable, since, as you say, the PC was never really known for 2D platformers, and 8/16-bit consoles had no end of them. They never finished the second trilogy, the GBC game was too little, too late, and finally... a mobile game that was met with indifference if not outright negativity before it even came out. I don't think we'll be seeing Billy Blaze or his descendants in any titles anytime soon. Well, at least we'll always have the memories. I got the complete collection off GOG, but it's actually missing two titles (Aliens Ate My Babysitter and Keen Dreams). I'm sure I can just obtain a copy as they're practically abandonware at this point, but it's disappointing that this is the only legacy left behind for modern times.
One of the best games series. Remember playing this as a kid
These were so fun as a kid.
This game was everything. So much time spent playing this. Loved the graphics and characters. And on the later game, on the menu being able to play pong was a blast!
I spent way too much time playing pong than I care to admit…
And don't forget there are mods for the series, including a really well-done unofficial The Universe Is Toast trilogy, which uses modified versions of episodes 4, 6, and 5, in that order. The individual episodes being titled "The Keys of Krodacia", "Dead in the Desert", and "Battle of the Brains".
Shame on all parties that have let this beloved franchise die.
Depends on whether you accept that Commander Keen, Wolfenstein and Doom all occur in the same universe I guess. I think the family relation between BJ Blaskowicz in Wolftenstein and Doom and Billy Blaskowicz in Commander Keen has been officially acknowledged
@@Autotrope that’s cool and all, but I personally want new Commander Keen games with sharp graphics
I used to go to my rich school friends house after school and on weekends to play Commander Keen games lol
as a kid DOS gamer, the best guess for mascots for PC gaming at that time were Commander Keen and Duke Nukem pretty interchangeably for me
Definitely fair.... I think Keen was the more 'family friendly' option....
wow thats a real nostalgia trip i had forgotten about Commader Keen. Such a good game i really enjoyed it i think it was really the first proper platformer with interesting ideas that was free!
I used to look for floppy disk games whenever we were out and about. You used to be able to find them for a couple bucks here and there. So cheap that my mom almost never said no. We managed to find Commander Keen 1 and 4. I wouldn't play the others until years later when the internet made them readily available. I also remember greats like Kroz, Duke Nukem, Crystal Caves, Dark Ages, Clyde's Adventure, Secret Agent Man, Captain Comic, and Space Wars.
Ahhh the good old days of floppy’s. There was a brief period you could but a bulk lot from eBay and find some hidden gems there. I’ve got a Duke Nukem 1 & 2 video in the works in a new video format that I’m going to trial (not to replace the retrospectives, just to compliment them) so hopefully that’s something you enjoy!
As a kid I didn't see it, but now as an adult I notice the textbook item in Keen 1 says "Kant" on the cover.
I enjoyed this game as a child and I thought it was the best series to learn from when doing game design.
I can appreciate that, it definitely gets a lot of the basics right!
@@azordash_games Absolutely
I still play these pretty regularly late at night on the weekends after a blunt
Shikadi Master! And that psychopathic machine that shoots at everything... Gosh I was scared of them back then
Man I used to play the crap out of these classic games. Great retrospective!
Thanks for the kind words! Glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you for making this retrospective! And also thank you for not making it two hours long!
Cheers for the kind words, I try and make content I would enjoy watching… hence the shorter length!
These are definitely some cool games I've never had the chance to play. It's like Zombies ate my neighbors style, which is on Switch now, so I'm definitely gonna give that a go.
I've played these back in the mid 90's with my siblings and we only had the keyboard to play this. Other games we played were Secret Agent and Dangerous Dave. The later having that gory popup of your character dying.
Keen was a huge hit and sold fantastically well. It was a big validation of Scott Miller's episodic shareware model. id Software stepped onto the scene and blew everyone's minds. There wasn't anything like Keen on the PC before and it would be just the first time id Software showed up the rest of the PC gaming industry.
It's funny we are slowly starting to see the return of the shareware model with these "Play 3 hours free" models in some recent games...!
wolfenstein 3d, paper boy, commander keen, pack man, the incredible machine, the first sims games and a random F1 game were my childhood
and lemmings !!!!
Oh I had forgotten about The Incredible Machine... I recall my parents buying that for me under the guise it was educational.
Loved playing the Keen games also Jazz Jackrabbit. Sunk hours into replaying those games.
As well as all the commander keen games I also liked hocus pocus. In hindsight that wasn't as good a game but, still fun for teenage me
Most of the games are on steam, so easy to get. I had the two shareware games as a kid and loved them, they're still great fun today. I never found them difficult, then or now. Classics
The only important one for me that's missing from these packs is Keen 6... mainly because I have fond memories of being chased by those giant chickens with bats!
@@azordash_games keen dreams was also missing I think. Fun times with these, it was quite cool being able to play all them eventually.
I think Commander Keen was kind of fundamental in shaping the "PC style platformer" of the '90s, that differed in style compared to console platformers with games featuring larger levels, more exploration, a slower pace and a little more resource management.
Many of these game design quirks would carry over to '90s first person shooters, with features like keycards and secret doors being lifted straight from IDs 2D games.
That’s a really good point actually. When you think about it for the most part the console ones were all about speed. The PC not so much,
One of the earliest games I fell in love with. Shout out to my Dad showing me how to ftp and get shareware games bitd!
Ahh the good old days of ftp and Bulletin Boards!
I remember this game fondly. In my computer classes in junior high in the mid to late 90s, I had a friend who did a lot of online stuff before the internet was really well known, he programmed games on his computer, and would play Wolfenstein or Doom all the time. In the computer lab at my middle school, he installed shareware versions of Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, and Commander Keen, among others, and I would play them periodically when I would get a free moment where the teacher wasn't looking over my shoulder. Commander Keen was a pretty decent game, but I was raised on consoles, and the NES and Sega Genesis, and the Super Nintendo afterwards, spoiled me for what a good platformer should be, so I felt that the controls were pretty clunky in Commander Keen compared to Mario or Sonic. Still, Commander Keen was a solid game from a superpower of a studio in Id Software.
Oh I’m with you, going from this even to Sonic 1 or Mario on the NES was night and day. I think one of the challenges is they likely designed and play tested this on a keyboard as opposed to the console controllers.
@@azordash_games Yeah, definitely. The computer keyboard is a lot more versatile than a controller for complex RPGs, flight simulators, or even FPS games, but platformers are just much more fun with a D-pad or analog stick than a keyboard, haha!
Dopefish lives
I loved the commander keen series
Great job 👍
I recently replayed a few of the Keen games, tried to do it with a keyboard like I did only 286 as a child, yep, like you said, that skill is totally lost. Thank goodness for Joy2Key.
I honestly have no idea how I played these games with a keyboard back in the 286 days! Clearly out hands have evolved for Smartphone keyboards over the years!
We really need some Commander Keen remasters, not those terrible mobile stuff, like an actual HD remasters or maybe even a reboot. A TPS/Platformer Commander Keen game would be fun.
Another great platformer of the era was Prince of Persia. I know it was originally released on the Apple II, but the PC DOS version is the one that I have fond memories of playing (and never completing!)
I actually never completed the original… I must go back to it!
I definitely enjoyed these back in the day, but if we're being honest ID definitely made the right call pivoting to Doom.
100%
Oh bloody hell memory lane
This series was great got it on steam as complete collection but its missing keen dreams and aliens ate my babysitter played it heaps when i was a kid fun times and still a fun game to play to this day that commander keen ios game thats been delisted i did find an app years ago for ios that had commander keen 4 ipad iphone sadly that too has long been since delisted as well
Quality video, totally forgot about this game
Cheers for the kind words! Glad you enjoyed it!
I had a NES and Genesis as a kid, but i still enjoyed the heck out of commander keen. Most of Apogee's other shareware titles too. Even with keyboard controls, there was just something about playing console style games on PC that was appealing.
In my mind the PC had better graphics… but I’m not too sure if that was just my young mind or reality!
God mode, flying, no clipping. Easy game.
I was 8 when this came out and my dad pirated it for me lol I need to go buy all those old games.
I was about the same I think!
4,5 and 6 have definitely aged more gracefully!
The first one is imprinted on my brain but once wolfenstein 3d came out my platformer days were done so I dont actually remember the other Keen games sadly @@azordash_games
great video, I loved how you did your homework about the series and you genuinely enjoyed the series like we did, along with the love for shareware
Thanks for the kind words! Bring back Shareware!
There was an attempt to bring this series back with a trailer from 2019, but with the gameplay not like Commander Keen & also the fact that it's a mobile game, it was cancelled. I wish they could try this again, but better. At least the two main characters are pretty interesting.
I’m at the stage where I’d probably take a mobile game as long as it wasn’t weighed down with micro transactions… even something like the GO games by Square could work…
Another absolute classic! I bought this again recently on Steam and it definitely wasn’t as enjoyable as I remember. 🤣
Haha as I said… it hasn’t aged particularly well!
Exactly! Your points were all spot on!!
Was obsessed with these games as a kid and played them all again a couple years ago, they're still a ton of fun IMO and the delay on inputs makes them pretty punishing still if you don't abuse quick save. Have Robo Red and Dopefish t-shirts, absolutely some of my favorite games ever made. This series, Super Metroid, and Sonic 2 were the beginning of my addiction to side scrollers. Oh and a game called Captain Comic.
I had to Google Captain Comic but I remember it…! Good memories as well, thanks for the reminder!
aaaah i remember playing "keen 4"
Did you mention Keen Dreams? While its technically #4 it's quite different in nature where if my memory serves, Keen throughs dream bombs around that turn enemies into plants (for limited time) and had quite a different graphic style than the other two main sequences?
Oh don’t worry I still remember having nightmares as a kid (who at the time didn’t like vegetables) about vegetable’s coming to life.
Haha also I take back what I said about different graphics - in Googling the game it looks much the same as Keen 5 (weird that my memory says its waaay more cartoony looking)@@azordash_games
I remember the shareware version of Episode 1 coming bundled with the Gravis PC GamePad, which at the time was one of the most elegant controller options for the PC.
I always wanted a Gravis… sadly it was out of my reach as a kid!
@@azordash_games It wasn't a hard sell to my grandma. "Look, it comes with a free game!"
Keen doesn't need much more than a tightening up of the controls, and the diagonal shooting from Super Metroid. (And some bosses)
Definitely needs better control for bosses!
got my sub and notification 👌
how you don't have a million subs beats me.....
You're too kind! Thank you!
Mentioning both DOOM and Wolfenstein in the first minute of a Commander Keen video... I see what you did there. ;)
Also I liked Keen 4 better than Keen 1 just because of the controls needed to use the pogo stick; Keen 1 saw me so often shooting instead of pulling out the stick.
Also also - I was *very* young when I played these games and had little trouble with Keen 1 and Keen 4, though later Keen 4 levels I had problems with on Hard difficulty.
I really wish someone would do something with the Commander Keen IP. He's long overdue a 3D installment, something akin to a Super Mario Galaxy but with pogo sticks. 🤣
It’s a tough one… while I would love to play a modern keen. I don’t think any developer is going to take the risk… we all saw what happened to my boy Alex Kidd 🫠
I played the ever-loving hell out of the second Keen saga (episodes 4 thru 6.) I probably should see if I can get a complete set of the entire saga on PC...
As for that reboot focusing on Commander Keen's twin kids... I thought it never took off because it was buried at the bottom of Microtransaction hell and fans were pissed at Bethesda for going that route.
The 4-6 ones are definitely the ones that have aged a lot better!
The keen collection on steam is a nice play on the steam deck.
It's sherbet, clearly
I don't agree that Keen is like a metroidvania, metroidvanias have a large, sprawling, contiguous world with gated off areas, using new abilities to access said areas. They have an emphasis on exploration, and are non-linear. Keen is a fairly linear game (despite the keyhunting and labyrinthian level design), that is level based, and no new abilities that double as keys. While there is exploration, and you can play some levels in the order of your choosing, it follows the game design of Mario more closely than Metroid, except with the focus being on finding keys, and locked doors, instead of platforming, which was typical of PC platformers.
With that said, I loved Keen as a kid, it definitely was the best PC platformer of its time, although the first 3 games are very dated, Keen Dreams, 4, 5, and 6 still hold up. The key hunting stuff though got tiresome, as all PC platformers used that style, and labyrinthian level designs are not as fun as platforming focused ones, which was the focus of console platformers.
Still, I'd love to see a new Keen game. There are some fan games that are essentially romhacks of Keen 4, 5, and 6 that are worth checking out. Some unofficial sequels as well.
You raise some very good points. What I should have said was that 10 year old me thought they were similar to Metroid :)
I definitely agree with the later games holding up much better. I'll have to do some reading up on those unofficial sequels!
Mid-90s as a kid I used to play this all the time on our shared PC... only the shareware version however! (Secret Agent and Duke Nukem shareware games too....) Parents weren't gonna fork out the money for the full games when I could not even finish the free versions 😂 Especially not to some American company they'd never heard of.
A little shareware went a long way that's for sure! I'll be releasing a video on Duke Nukem soon so keep an eye out... another Shareware wonder!
I would say - however - that a potential mascot prior to Commander Keene may have been King Graham of Sierra fame
Overall, though, I loved this video and concur with your assessments - I loved this game growing up :-)
Ahhh I haven’t played Kings Quest in years… I’m currently working on a video on a game that was similar to Keen but I will definitely think about covering Kings Quest in the future!
Cheers for the kind words too!
my fave was keen 5
This guy just described Keen 5 as Keen 4.
To answer your question, I can think of another game in this era with level selection: Jill of the jungle! I fondly remember Keen, but it's just not compelling enough to revisit the game. Also, I remember some levels far too well...
Ahhh I remember dying a LOT in Jill of the Jungle…. 😮💨
Does anybody else remember in the first Keene game. The Escape from Mars one, where if you hit like f4 - F9 or somewhere it would basically crash the game into this weird repeat level of where you get the pogo stick and then when you finished the level Keene would be walking on the none path part of Mars? Was that a cheat a hack or intentional? I never could figure it out
Never heard of that one... sounds about right for the time though... play testing wasn't quite what it was today!
Can you put some time stamps of which game was plsying? I am trying to get some of the games of my youth, but dont know which are which
Just decided to try and beat the first game, and boy is it hard. I'm not sure if there's something I'm missing or what, but I've only managed to get to the "maze" level before my patience runs out.
The controls have not aged well and greatly inflate the difficulty… I highly suggest you start at game 4 - while far from perfect the controls are much better…
Its a shame, I really would want to start the series at the start, but much like the Ultima series I just can't scrounge up the energy to play the earlier installments. @@azordash_games
Oh, yeah, it's hard. Never finished Episode 3 without cheating. Have finished the rest, though not for many years.
Really wish I had the patience to beat it, its been in my backlog for ages.@@Roxor128
The games have an alien alphabet that you can learn and decode the signs with (it's just english encoded as alien letters)
Ohhhhhh I always wondered what those “I can’t read this” signs were for!
@azordash_games the galactic standard alphabet is common in Commander Keen. Tom Hall wanted this to make hints with letters look alien. Every door has a sign that reads exit using this alphabet.
4:39 Cheater!
Loved the games, but I was always terrible at them- I mostly watched other people play. Are you playing in vga in the later games?
Yes that’s right, I used DOS box to play them as if they were on the highest specification possible at launch.
I feel like I was better at them as a child… but I can’t actually prove that, maybe I was just amused far easier!
sad ya never brought up the language used in the game SGA (Standard Galactic Alphabet), it was later used in Minecraft's enchanting table ^^
Oh I knew about the language but I never knew it went on to exist in Minecraft!
Didn’t Alex Kidd also use a pogostick occasionally?
I've tried to block most of that game from my memory... All I remember is a car & that terrible rock paper scissors game...
I loved these games. I also love Doom I but I'm still upset they scrapped The Universe is Toast in favor of getting Doom I done faster. I would have preferred The Universe is Toast coming and Doom I coming in early 94 even if my parents had let me play Doom I at launch.
Sadly Doom on my PC at the time was a bit of a slideshow…. So Commander Keen hung around for me for a while longer 😬
It would help if the video matched what you're talking about at each moment. It's more work, I know.
Appreciate the comment, I'm still relatively new to all of this & trying to improve with every video. Stay tuned for more content soon.
I played Keen Dreams first and went back to the earlier games and immediately got frustrated with the pogo stick mechanics.
Yeah they are not great….
It's a pretty neat retrospective, but a bit on a brief side. As a long time commander keen fan I'd like to pinpoint a few things :)
I find it quite amusing that you're using cheats to show gameplay (Keen 4 and 5, I didn't saw any Keen 6 footage). 4 & 5 are really not that hard. Playing with a keyboard is the preferable way for many keeners as it gives you much more precise control over what you're doing. For example, you can quickly switch between the impossible pogo jump and ledge grabbing.
For Keens 1-3, I would not say that the gameplay aged badly. Most people get frustrated with the mechanics, which is fine, but I'd rather say these games are hard to master rather than aged badly. Once you master the mechanics, they're quite fun to play. People liking some more challenge could also play and improve their skills with the many Keen 1-3 mods and level packs, which unfortunately you did not even mention.
Keen 4-6 are much better, of course, and the ability to save at any point makes them much easier.
There are unofficial Keen 7-9 games and some keen mods that even improve the framerate (like playing on a much buttery smooth 70fps).
You also forgot to mention some "minor" details, like who made these (legends like Tom Hall, John Romero, and John Carmack) and who distributed etc..
In my keen opinion, the games are pretty good! I'd say classics even. But sadly, we are now living in a tik-tok age, where kids and adults have a very short attention span. And that's a problem. People are less likely to invest their time in such classics.
Thanks for your feedback! I wanted to take an opportunity to try and answer as much as I can... With regards to the cheats for the video, I won't use cheats when I play a game for personal enjoyment, the challenge is something I enjoy. However, in the case of creating this retrospective, the difficulty curve was so high to me, and I was not playing it for personal enjoyment, so that to create this project in any reasonable time, I used Keen's cheats throughout some of the media collection. I reflected my thoughts on the difficulty in the video which went some way to explain this - as you have picked up on.
My objective was to deliver an informative retrospective, not a no damage run or other type of run, which naturally I would do unaided.
With regards to the actual content, this was the 7th video I actually ever made - having only started this channel in July 2023 with no background in this type of thing, so there's certainly areas for improvement as you point out. I like to think that in my most recent video's I've improved on some of these things.
I'm with you on the Tik Tok age... but I guess I'll be thankful that we haven't ended up with some type of pay to win Keen mobile game!
Cheers again for the feedback, & thanks for watching the video.
Do Duke Nukem.
It's in progress... with a twist :)
I didn't beat this game
It’s a challenging one for sure!
You didn't lose the skill. Emulator lag sucks. Get a DOS PC and your input won't be so laggy.
When space permits, I will resurrect my mighty 386 SX25!
....assuming the CMOS battery has not fried the MB oncourse...
Back in the day, having played 'Keen' and loving it, I couldn't fathom why people played and liked those awful boring left-to-right no-exploration 'Mario' games on the consoles. And I still don't. No level design or creativity went into those overrated turds. Why weren't games more like 'Keen'?
The poor NES could not draw in very much parallel scrolling I suspect! 😬
Ehh, i dont think Keen aged poorly. Its controls are tight, just not beginner friendly, not in the slightest.
Instead of the game aging poorly, its player expectations that changed.
Back in those days players had very few games, so they either banged their heads against the wall and kept trying again until they got the hang of it, or, what else? Going outside? Pfft, nah. None of us did that.
Nowadays there's a huge oversaturation of the market, which means players dont feel the need to put in the effort to learn something. Any amount of resistance from the game is usually met with the playerbase disappearing, the only major exception being the from soft games, of course.
Im kinda bummed players dont put in the effort. There are so many good games that are not being played because the entry level difficulty starts high
Yeah you could be onto something there... 30 years ago we didn't have Steam, Gamepass, etc etc but then again 30 years ago I had a lot less responsibilities and more time to invest in learning something well... I think it's a balance.
@@azordash_games Fair enough but the younger generations right now dont have that many responsibilities right, and for the record, im not blaming them for giving up on games, i blame modern game development for dumbing everything down to the bare minimum, which made people approach games differently.
Games like Dark Souls and dont starve are just the torchbearers of better times
New Sub! Detroit, Michigan, US
KEEN1.EXE on a Shareware Disk from my Uncle, with a Packard Bell 286: This was my First PC & PC Game!
KEEN1 for Life, None of that 4-6 Grafix Crap lol
Ahh the mighty 286!
@@azordash_games Came with MsDos 5 & Win 3.0 MME, 286 with a CD-Rom...
Didn't have any CDs but I played the Hell outta Wolf3d & Keen1