
COMMANDER KEEN!

Commander Keen is eight year old genius that featured in a series of games made between 1990 and 2001. The series contains 7 dos EGA games for the PC and one GameBoy Color game.

The games are of such quality and interest that a large devoted fan community has developed. Starting with the release of Id Software's Original Keen Editor, fans began modifying the games. Soon a more user-friendly editor was written, Keen Wright, by Andrew Durdin. (My hands and mind are more suited to repetitive work in Keenwright than for mouse work in Kmo, Kmo2, iKeen or even TED5).

Tools were invented to edit the levels, graphics, text and many other attributes and components of the game. All these utilities are available to download on the Internet.

A new type of project has emerged: The Mod. What you have just downloaded is a Mod. This means either the complete files of a Commander Keen game, with Modified graphics, levels, text and other things, or all the files necessary to be copied into a folder containing the Keen Game in question.

The rights to Commander Keen are owned by Id Software. The Characters were created by Tom Hall, but he is no longer working for Id and doesn't have the rights to the game. However non-commercial mods are perfectly legal to distribute.

In 1992, having completed Keen5, Id Software planned a new series of Commander Keen Games, called "The Universe Is Toast". It was never made. The Mod KeenX by Xkylyr Rauh is a speculation of the scenario of The Universe is Toast. It sets the standards for mods to live up to.

There was even a plan to make a Commander Keen movie, but they abandoned the plan. Still, someday there will be Keen7, Keen8, Keen9, Keen10, Keen11 and so on forever! Maybe the old ID crew could make a mod. That would be counted as an official game!!!!

Keen 1, 4, 6 Demo and Keen Dreams, are Freeware. The other Keen games must be purchased, though Keen6 is no longer available, except Second Hand on EBay.

The best way to learn about the origins of Id Software is to play Flaose's mini-mod, Dangerous Dave in Copyright Infringment.

BENVOLIO!

I am Benvolio and I'm a long-term Keen fan. I love modding and have made five mods. The first two are mods of Keen1 and the third is a mod of Keen2, constituting the Revenge Of The Shikadi trilogy. This is a sequel to the first trilogy.


~ THWARTING MORT ~

Version 1.0

Uses Keen1 Version 1.31

This Zip Contains:

Readme4.txt
CK1PATCH.EXE
Egahead.CK1
Egalatch.ck1
Egasprit.ck1
ep4.ck1
Color.bat
Finale.ck1
Keen.tli
Keen1.exe (Unlzexe'd, but unmodified - complying with law)
LEVEL02.ck1
LEVEL05.ck1
LEVEL06.ck1
LEVEL08.ck1
LEVEL09.ck1
LEVEL10.ck1
LEVEL11.ck1
LEVEL12.ck1
LEVEL15.ck1
LEVEL80.ck1
LEVEL81.ck1
LEVEL90.ck1
Unlzexe.exe
PREVIEW2.CK1
PREVIEW3.CK1
PREVIEWS.CK1
SOUNDS.CK1
STATUS.CK1
STORYTXT.CK1



All these files are necessary to use this game.

To play, please open Epsilon3.bat, or for DOS users, type in Epsilon3.bat and press enter.

MEMORY PROBLEMS

There are known to be memory problems with Commander Keen on some systems. There is no definite remedy. The way I found to overcome Memory problems on my Computer was to create a boot disk (in Windows 98). In addition to the files that Windows puts on the disk, create an Autoexec.bat and a Config.sys.

Into the Aotoexec.bat, type or copy the following:

@echo off
path=c:\;c:\windows\desktop\;c:\windows\command\;c:\windows\;
doskey

Into the Config.sys, type or copy the following: 

dos=high
device=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.sys

With any luck, rebooting the computer with this disk in your drive should give the system the extra memory it needs (it allowed me to play Norp The Yorp 3 and Zapping The Zot, but I was only able to play Bazooka Wowbagger without the patches in use, because Britney Spears was so big!).

All the levels should work, because there are only 16 levels - the standard number for Keen1.

Many mods have been made, including:
NORP THE YORP 1
NORP THE YORP 2
NORP THE YORP 3
KeenX
KeenY
XkyKeen2 Episode 
XkyKeen3 Episode -
Lego Keen
ROBOT REBELLION
ZELDA II
Shadow Keen 1
Shadow Keen 2
Shadow Keen 3
Monky Business
Bazooka Wowbagger
Kidnapped Keen
The Patchwork Mod
Vanished To Venus
Stopping The Skypest
Exiting Epsilon
Yorphius II
Planet Destruction
The Search For The Sentinel
Lego Keen
Dangerous Keen
Bad Dreams
Zapping The zot
Bunny Basher
Thwarting Mort
The Four Golden Crystals
The Last Moon
Episode Smile


MAKE A MOD!
If you don't feel up to it, but want to do something, donate art/patches/levels to Community Pass-the-Parcel Mods at Keen: Modding.
NOW GO PLAY KEEN!!!!!!

(C) September-January 2004/2005 Benvolio.
Please Distribute This Zip (As It Is Only).
Please Re-Use My Graphics
Please Credit Me if you do.
Commander Keen, the Engine, and the Concept (C)1990 Id Software, Distributed by APOGEE Software.
Many Thanks to Andrew Durdin, Xky Rauh, Xtraverse, Multimania, Grelphy, and Levellord for Ideas and Patches and Utilities.
I got most of my patches from Xky's KeenX, Commander Spleen's Monky Business, Ceilick's Kidnapped Keen and many other mods.
Andrew Durdin created Modkeen, Finaledit, Tileinfo, KeenEdit and several important patches. Many Thanks!!!
Admiral Bob aka Bryan Rogers created CK2patch.exe.

GET STUFF TO MAKE YOUR OWN MOD AT:
www.durdin.net/andy/keen/modding
www.spatang.com/ck
http://www20.brinkster.com/xtraverse

GET OTHER MODS AT:
www.durdin.net/andy/keen/modding
www.classicgaming.com/cc314
www.maguidhir.com/benvolio
www.spatang.com/ck

INFORMATION ON KEEN4, 5, 6, 6DEMO, KDREAMS MODDING.

Modkeen 2.0 has been released and it works on Keen 4-6. At the time of writing, the only Keen4 mod is the BIRDMAN demo, which is really just a new sprite and one level, not to mention a few neat patches in the ending sequence.

I was at one stage planning to create a Keen4 mod, but I found it too big and hard. There are a lot more things to edit and modify and replace in Keen 4, 5, 6 than in Keen 1, 2, 3. I hope some good Keen4 projects are completed soon.

No KeenDreams Editor has been created yet. There was a hoax on 1 April, and everyone was excited... and fooled. The format is completely different to Keen4, despite similarities in the appearace of the games.

As for Keen6 demo level Editing, while Andrew Durdin has modified TedSetup to work on Keen6 demo, there is no CK6DEMOPATCH utility as of yet.

But still, Keen1, 2, 3 editing has huge potential and capacity.

COPYRIGHT INFO

Keen1 is freely distributable, provided the EXE file isn't modified. Therefore, this mod was available as a whole product that required no purchase.

PLEASE DISTRIBUTE THIS ZIP AS PROVIDED, WITH ALL THE FILES PRESENT AND NO "EXTRA" FILES.

ALSO AVAILABLE FROM BENVOLIO:
Bunny Basher
Vanished To Venus
Stopping The Skypest
Exiting Epsilon v1.1 (False Ending)
Exiting Epsilon v1.2 (Alternative Ending Leading To This Mod)
CHRISTMAS SPECIAL MOD in partnership with Levellord

NOTE:
Benvolio will now retire from modding to persue the art of games programming, carrying with him much inspiration and many ideas.


AGAIN, GO PLAY COMMANDER KEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;-)