_______ __ | _ | .-----. .--------. .--------. .---.-. .-----. .--| | .-----. .----. |. 1___| | _ | | | | | | _ | | | | _ | | -__| | _| |. |___ |_____| |__|__|__| |__|__|__| |___._| |__|__| |_____| |_____| |__| |: 1 | |::.. . | `-------' ___ ___ | Y ) .-----. .-----. .-----. |. 1 / | -__| | -__| | | |. _ \ |_____| |_____| |__|__| |: | \ |::.| . ) `--- ---' ______ __ __ __ | _ \ .-----. .--.--.--. .-----. | | .-----. | |_ | |_ .-----. .----. |. | | | -__| | | | | |__ --| | | | -__| | _| | _| | -__| | _| |. | | |_____| |________| |_____| |__| |_____| |____| |____| |_____| |__| |: | | |::.| | `--- ---' Commander Keen Newsletter Issue 26, "The Newsletter Returns!" (c) 2002-2003 all rights reserved. All trademarks are properties of their respective owners. WARNING: This document may not be distributed without permission. Check out also our site at http://www.spatang.com/cknews/ ========================================>>>>>>>> >> In this issue << [1.0] Articles [1.1] The humans of the Keeniverse [2.0] ReviewCorner [2.1] Commander Keen Fan Site [2.2] The Dos Vault [3.0] KeenFiction [3.1] [4.0] Keen news [4.1] Birdman demo! [4.2] Xky moddin' [4.3] Totally new Beyond the Pogo [4.4] A patchwork mod [4.5] The PCKF Show [4.6] commander-keen.com [4.7] New RocketJess art *drool* [4.8] 3D Keen Dreams [4.9] Some news about dopefish mod [4.10] One piece of official Keen art never used! [4.11] New Djaser art [4.12] You know you're obsessed with Keen when.. [4.13] Humanitarian Keen Challenge [4.14] Forge's gone [4.15] The Last Moon [4.16] Atlantis.Keen [4.17] Some Spleen progress [4.18] keengrid.net slowly progressing [4.19] Keen Animation! [4.20] Where does Mort live? [4.21] Where the doors go.. [4.22] Where is the newsletter? [5.0] Miscellaneous [5.1] Announcements [5.2] Credits ========================================>>>>>>>> >> [1.0] Articles << ---- [1.1] The humans of Keeniverse This is a small article about the humans, or human-like creatures that can be seen in the Commander Keen universe (that is called Keeniverse in some circles). Of course, all this information written here is not probably valid, or more specific, probably not what the iD Software (or Tom Hall) meant. I'm assuming many things. So. What makes something creature human-like? I'd say overall figure, look and behaviour. Probably all that one can look and say "that looks pretty much like human" or actually think as human, purposefully or not. For example in some sci-fi movie if there is humans in a galaxy far away and so on, and even if it isn't said they actually are humans, if they just look like humans or are played by real human actors, we automaticly think they're humans. And if we see some human-like android, we think "that machine's almost like real human" or something. Or well, depends. But enough of that, it is hard to tell what is human or not to mention defining humanity. And some people value those things more than anything -- and on the contrary, some people think one human 'race', defined by skin colour for example, is better than another one and don't care anything about the other human 'races'. And some don't care a garg about those "mental wimps". I repeat once more, humans (or human-like creatures) listed here aren't necessarily humans (or human-like). Things can really be surprising and different, but we don't know since The Universe Is Toast still isn't released... So, let's start with the most obvious one -- Commander Keen, the defender of the Universe. We all know Commander Keen is an alter-ego of eight years old genius, Billy Blaze. Billy's pretty smart, with IQ of 314 points. At least since the last tests. It probably has increased on his adventures, so it might be a lot more in Omegamatic than it was on Vorticon IV. Keen (I use 'Keen' instead of 'Billy') lives in a quiet suburb, with his parents, older brother and little sister. It isn't said much about his brother, only that Keen dons his football helmet to his adventures. And Keen's sister isn't mentioned anywhere else than in "Eat Your Veggies!"-lyrics made by Bobby Prince. But Keen fans generally think Keen has this sister, since she has been mentioned in those lyrics, and Prince made music for these games. Keen's folks are mentioned more in the story, and you can even see Billy's rain-soaked parents in the ending screens of Keen 5 (and a bit of them in Keen 4 ending as well). Next, Mortimer McMire. Keen's villain that annoys and teases Billy because his IQ is one point bigger than Billy's 314. This Mr. 315 hates basicly all forms of life, "mental wimps", and wants to destroy the whole Universe. Good thing Keen tries to stop him. Bad thing is that The Universe Is Toast isn't yet released and we haven't seen the extra funky ultimate battle between those two geniuses... On some fan fiction Mortimer has been a shikadi, a scary evil energy shadow being from the far side of the Galaxy. That would be interesting twist in the story, and would fit very well since Mort has connections with the Shikadi... Much isn't known about Mortimer's family. Only that he has big sister called Molly. Molly happens to be Billy's baby-sitter! (I wouldn't wonder if she is just some android built to gather information about Billy's life...) Next, the Gnosticine Ancients. They live on Gnosticus IV, and they can operate the machine of ancient wisdom, Oracle. In Keen 4 they are captured and trapped to Shadowlands, to make sure they couldn't operate the Oracle. They are very old, and impossible to kill or harm physically because they are immortal. They can walk through flames and breathe under the water. They are members of High Council. In the Oracle chamber they are helped by Council Page. That Council Page can't remember name 'Commander' and calls Keen always 'Captain Keen'. Billy doesn't like that... Probably there are also more humans or human-like creatures in the city the Oracle is located. Then, no other than the mysterious princess of Shadowlands, Princess Lindsey. Lindsey is probably some years older than Billy, and on many fan fictions it is common that Keen has a small crush on her... Lindsey gives useful tips, and seems to know Shadowlands very well. She can either turn invisible or do somekind of teleportation -- I don't know which one it is. More info isn't known. Is there more? If there is, I can't remember at the moment. Also, as I said this article was short. This is interesting subject in my Keen opinion, and I would like to write more. But not this time, since I'm busy and lazy. But you can be sure, some time I will write more about these things. Billy says: "Crush?! Lindsey? No... She's just nice. I mean I don't know her!! Erh, I meant that... Um... Why do you think... Uh... I don't even..." *blush* --KeenRush ========================================>>>>>>>> >> [2.0] ReviewCorner << ---- [2.1] Website Review: Commander Keen Fan Site Rating System Horrible (1-2) Bad (3-4) Okay (5-6) Good (7-8) Excellent! (9-10) Quality - 8/10 Originality - 4/10 Keenishness - 8/10 Overall - 7/10 http://www.commander-keen.com/ This is a site that seemed to come out of nowhere, nobody really knew about it until KeenRush made a post on the forum mentioning it. The people that made the site didn't even know this whole community existed. It's a rather basic site, with info on each of the games, downloads, enemies, cheats/tips, and screenshots. There are midi songs and a guestbook with quite a few entries that is pretty much a conversation between like three people. Probably the only unique thing on the site are the screenmates, which I'd never seen before. There's a mimrock one and a dopefish one and apparently they're those things that move around on your desktop, providing amusement when you're bored. Visually the site looks very nice. The design is simple and it's really easy to navigate around with the links on the left. There's not really any searching around to find a link to a different page, its all there. It's a good site to visit, though you'll probably have seen everything that's on the site before. Still I can see this site growing and becoming more interesting. --Yorpy ---- [2.2] Website Review: The Dos Vault Quality - 4/10 Originality - 5/10 Keenishness - N/A Overall - 5/10 http://dosvault.sphosting.com/ This isn't really a Keen site, but most people who like Keen like other old Dos games so this site is of interest. It offers downloads, info, and reviews for several Dos games. There is also a forum which gets some activity and might be worth a visit. Links are also provided to programs Dos fans would find useful like DosBox and ScreenTheif. The site first offers the choice between HTML and Flash. I don't have a clue how well the flash version looks because I have dialup and after waiting ten minutes with nothing happening, I gave up. The HTML version is really plain, with links on the left. The colors chosen for the site seem to work well so it's easy on the eye. A glaring problem with the site is the fact that 'featured' games on the main page link to local files. Also, some of the colors chosen for pages in the games section weren't great (yellow on white?). So, worth a visit if you're looking for some of the common dos shareware and freeware games out there. --Yorpy ========================================>>>>>>>> >> [3.0] KeenFiction << ---- [3.1] FanFiction Maybe next time. ========================================>>>>>>>> >> [4.0] Keen news << Hello everyone! Finally a new issue after some delay or whatever. Keep in mind we're busy with all kinds of 'stuff'. :) Oh, and seems that I'm spending summer vacation at the moment, wohooo! Ok, ok, let's go! ---- [4.1] Birdman demo! :O This is neat. As you know, Keener adurdin released ModKeen 2 on 3/14. After that, not much time, Br1ck released the first Keen 4 mod! It's small mod showing some stuff that can be done in Keen 4 and awesome piece of modding. It's pretty clever, I suggest you to check it out by yourself: http://durdin.net/andy/keen/modding/viewtopic.php?t=266 ---- [4.2] Xky moddin' Xky has started working on his third mod! That's right, can't wait to see what kind of coolness he's mixing up there this time. He has made a topic about it at Keen: Modding. You can read there about his progress, and even see some graphics! Gotta say the graphics are once again very detailed, and going to be better than in his previous mod (if that even can be possible)! Check out the topic here: http://durdin.net/andy/keen/modding/viewtopic.php?t=272 ---- [4.3] Totally new Beyond the Pogo Xtra has recently updated his Keen site. Gotta say it's pretty neat; the design is very Keenish and flexible, everything's clear and really easy to navigate. You can see how many times something stuff has been downloaded, and comment the news that are posted by xtra there. On the right-up-corner you can see cool Keen pictures changing randomly. There's even a feature that allows you to see what different maps in different mods look like! :O Woaaah! Check it out, right now: http://www.spatang.com/ck/ ---- [4.4] A patchwork mod LevelLord had an interesting idea for making a mod. In it one could send some stuff for her, and then the stuff is put together into a mod for Keen 1. There has been some troubles on making the project (computer virus attacked LL) and stuff like that. But hey, it's now done! :) Check out the topic here: http://p072.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumfrm17.showMessage?topicID=950.topic Also, try the mod. Some people have even said it's good! ---- [4.5] The PCKF Show UnFleexable had a nice idea of making somekind of show. This show uses Sims characters, that are made to look like some members of the board, or at least to have their personality a bit. :) I hope we'll see some crazy stuff. Read more here: http://p072.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumothercommanderkeenstuff.showMessage?topicID=892.topic ---- [4.6] commander-keen.com Wow, recently I found couple of Keen sites I haven't ever seen before. The most important of those was http://www.commander-keen.com/. It's pretty recently opened Keen site. It has very basic Keen content at the moment (info about the original games and so on), but gotta say it's one of the best looking sites I've ever seen. Hopefully they'll add some Keen modding related content and stuff like that. :) It was very nice surprise, thank you Cibok (the site owner). Hope to see more Keen related domains in web. :) Check this topic about this site and some other: http://p072.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumothercommanderkeenstuff.showMessage?topicID=897.topic ---- [4.7] New RocketJess art *drool* Very skilled Keen art drawer, RocketJess, has posted some new Keen related art. Impressive as always, go the check out the drawings right here: http://p072.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumothercommanderkeenstuff.showMessage?topicID=894.topic ---- [4.8] 3D Keen Dreams :) Keener called thenewmoonsidianX has started to work on a Keen Dreams 3D port. The project sounds pretty interesting IMKO. He will use 3D Game Studio. You can help the project by making Keen Dreams models. Read more info here: http://p072.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumfrm17.showMessage?topicID=960.topic ---- [4.9] Some news about dopefish mod BBalazs and his brother are working on a dopefish related mod. You can read some things about the project on this topic: http://p072.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumfrm17.showMessage?topicID=958.topic ---- [4.10] One piece of official Keen art never used! :O Frenkel has spotted interesting thread in rome.ro. You can see a three frame animation of Billy Blaze sleeping and waking up really fast! It's pretty cool, it was going to be used in Keen Dreams, but wasn't. Be sure to check it out here: http://rome.ro/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=3;t=000554#000013 Or here, at PCKF: http://p072.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumtheoriginalcommanderkeenga.showMessage?topicID=734.topic ---- [4.11] New Djaser art :) Djaser has made some nice looking Commander Keen related art. Pretty well coloured in my opinion. You can check out a topic here: http://p072.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumothercommanderkeenstuff.showMessage?topicID=902.topic Oh, and don't go if you DON'T want to see a yorp giving you the finger(s). :) ---- [4.12] You know you're obsessed with Keen when.. I started one wacky topic where Keeners are supposed to post fun Keen related things. You've probably seen this kind of stuff on different message boards. Go to check it out I've been laughing like happy dopefish for that stuff. :D Here: http://p072.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumothercommanderkeenstuff.showMessage?topicID=890.topic ---- [4.13] Humanitarian Keen Challenge Keener Ilsoap has made interesting challenge. In that you have to try not to hurt enemies the way they can't "continue". So, it means you can't shoot them, unless they're invincible. For example you can't shoot a yorp, but you can jump on it since it gets back on track after being stunned for couple of seconds. In this challenge it doesn't matter is the enemy/creature robot or not. You can't shoot a robot unless you know it's invincible. And you can for example shoot arachnuts, since they won't be stunned more than temporarily. Also, scaring foobs to some ravines or other stuff like that isn't allowed. You only need to finish the levels that are vital for finishing the game. No cheats. Select your favourite episode and try, or all of them. :) Read more here: http://p072.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumtheoriginalcommanderkeenga.showMessage?topicID=737.topic ---- [4.14] Forge's gone :( Forge315, on his last Keen community days known as JosephBurke, has left the Keen community. This is really sad. He has said he wants to move on and so on. Read more here: http://p072.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumother.showMessage?topicID=1626.topic He sent his Keen collections and files for me. I'll upload the files to net, or at least some of them, at some point of time. You can check out this topic and read that the stuff got here and what was in the box: http://p072.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumothercommanderkeenstuff.showMessage?topicID=925.topic Farewell Forge, we'll miss you. ---- [4.15] The Last Moon Keener allstories has been working on his Keen mod. The mod's called Commander Keen - The Last Moon. I can hardly wait this mod. He has posted some screenshots, and the graphic is very good looking. Some even thought it's a new Keen fan game, since it looks totally new. Check out some screens here: http://p072.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumfrm17.showMessage?topicID=970.topic ---- [4.16] Atlantis.Keen Keener ian_kloro is currently working on a Keen 3 mod called Atlantis.Keen. He has posted some screenshots and I think the mod looks promising. The story is unknown to us, but what is said is that Keen will be in underwater, Atlantis and there will be sea monsters! Can't wait, judging by the screens it looks surreal and really what I like! Check the topic: http://andy.durdin.net/keen/modding/viewtopic.php?t=309 ---- [4.17] Some Spleen progress Keener CommanderSpleen has been working on his Commander Keen: Monky Business for a while and I've been waiting the mod, since the screens I have seen and text I've read tells that the mod is going to be wacky and full of surprising and other cool stuff. :) Spleen is working on title screen and you can check some concept art in this topic: http://andy.durdin.net/keen/modding/viewtopic.php?t=315 Give good tips and suggestions if you have! ---- [4.18] keengrid.net slowly progressing My Keen site at keengrid.net is slowly progressing. I have a new computer and internet connection which should be good, but this connection doesn't work at all like it should, so my work on the site has been slower than I want. But progress has been made, and some day you'll see it ready -- and hopefully pay a visit. I changed the http://www.keengrid.net/ main page design, hope you like it. ---- [4.19] Keen Animation! A new member Dreamer has joined the PCKF, and posted info about the project he is working on. This project is an animation. He is going to make a Keen animation, which will be pretty good when it's done, I think. Check out this topic: http://p072.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumothercommanderkeenstuff.showMessage?topicID=917.topic There you'll find plans and one pretty cool picture he has made. ---- [4.20] Where does Mort live? Here is interesting topic where several Keen fans discuss about Mortimer; where he lives and so on. Check out if interested: http://p072.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumothercommanderkeenstuff.showMessage?topicID=913.topic Also, there was on some topic interesting talk about bips and Xax, but I can't remember the topic and find it. Try if you want, the PCKF search is not-so-good. ---- [4.21] Where the doors go.. Here's one Keen 4-6 level editing related trick that is extremely confusing in my opinion. CK Guy explains it, go here to read more: http://p072.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumtheoriginalcommanderkeenga.showMessage?topicID=744.topic You can also check out this topic: http://andy.durdin.net/keen/modding/viewtopic.php?t=183 There you can read the latest news of the progress that is happening with his Keen 5 level pack, which is excellent too, IMKO (In My Keen Opinion). ---- [4.22] Where is the newsletter? Due the delay of this issue, some of our readers have wondered what is going on the newsletter press. Here: http://p072.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumothercommanderkeenstuff.showMessage?topicID=924.topic Keener LevelLord and her brother and that brother's girlfriend and that girlfriend's friend have done some Commader Keen Interim Newsletter. :) It's quite cool, I think. Be sure to read it, here: http://www.freewebs.com/gannalev/Jun24.txt --KeenRush ========================================>>>>>>>> >> [5.0] Miscellaneous << ---- [5.1] Announcements So its been awhile, we were all pretty busy with school and such so we didn't really have much time to devote to putting an issue together. Hopefully, the next one will come with much less of a wait between issues. Anyway, as you read in the news Forge finally left the community for good. It's sad to see him to but he's probably moved on to bigger and better things. He's the one who really got this newsletter going and did most of the work, and I enjoyed working with him. Once again, I remind all you punks out there that you should feel free to submit a story or article you would like to be in the newsletter. And well that's it, until next time! --Yorpy ---- [5.2] Credits Yorpy - composition, website reviews MRC Marky - website, graphics KeenRush - news, article xtraverse - hosting Forge315 - started this newsletter ========================================>>>>>>>> * swim swim hungry *