CCCC OOOO M M M M AA N N DDD EEEE RRRR CC OO OO MM MM MM MM AAAA NN N D D E R R C O O M M M M M M M M A A N N N D D E E R R C O O M M M M M M AAAAAA N N N D D EE E RRRR CC OO OO M M M M M A A N NN D D E R R CCCC OOOO M M M M A A N N DDD EEEE R R K K EEEE EEEE N N K K E E NN N KKK E E E E N N N K KK EE E EE E N N N K K E E N NN K K EEEE EEEE N N COMMANDER KEEN NEWSLETTER :) Issue-8: February 28, 2003 Working Title: Fan Fiction (C) 2003 by Joseph Burke all rights reserved. All trademarks are properties of their respective owners. Warning: This document may not be distributed without permission. ----------------------------------------------- Newsletter Homepage: http://www.commanderkeen.net/cknews/ Newsletter Index: [1] Featured Articles [1.1] Chris Interview [2] Fan Game Reviews [2.1] (nothing this month) [3] Website Reviews [3.1] Commander Keen Geologist [3.2] UnFleexable Software Website [4] Fan Fiction [4.1] Chapter 4 of Chris' Story [4.2] (review) The M-Files: In the Essence of True Love... [4.3] (review) A Delirious End to the Begining [5] Keen Community News [5.1] It's Keen time! [5.2] There is a way to get Keens easily - even a legal way! [5.3] New Isis II demo! [5.4] Some other game news... [5.5] Something stuff... [5.6] Talking about Keen levels? [5.7] Fan art, cool as usually! [5.8] Please observe the no smoking and seatbelt lights have... [5.9] Sesame Street Connection? [6] Miscellaneous Stuff [6.1] Fan Art [6.2] Announcements [6.3] Credits ----------------------------------------------- [1] Featured Articles (We aren't looking for a permanent "Featured Article" writer at this time, but if you want us to publish an article for you, we'd be most obliged. Email us at "info@commanderkeen.net" about this.) [1.1] Interview with Chris (who writes the monthly fiction that been in the newsletter) CK-Newsletter: How do you come up with ideas to write? Chris: The key to coming up with a great idea is often to try not to think of an idea. You can't just sit on a chair, in front of your computer, with your hands poised above the keys, thinking "Any minute now, a great idea is going to shoot out of my fingers". I'm not sure exactly where the idea for this fanfiction came from... it was probably an idea I had for a fangame that seemed too boring to be worth making, but was worth writing out. Question: What length do you think your fan fiction will reach? Answer: Not sure. To be honest, I've been somewhat making it up as I go along, and even I don't know exactly how it will end (although I do have a basic plot in mind). It will probably go between 11 and 15 chapters. Question: In your fan fiction, Keen is two years older, why? Answer: Partly out of necessity; the longer that Keen and Spot have known each other, the more of a connection they have. Besides that, though, you have to admit that, if we include all the fan- made stuff about him, Keen has saved the universe an awful lot for an eight-year-old. It's only reasonable to think that there's only so many times you can save the universe in one year. Question: Do you have any pets? If you do, can you reason how this would affect the way you write about Keen and Spot's relationship? Answer: I don't have any pets right now, although in my lifetime, I've had a cat (Figaro), two budgies (named Tweet and Twit), four turtles (Flippy, Floppy, Freddy, and Pearl), about 50 goldfish (they were in the same tank as the turtles, the turtles ate them... oops), two other cats (Chokky and Pepe), and a dog named BJ. The one I felt closest to was BJ. I'm not sure if a lot of my experience with pets relates to this story, but it's probably the reason I decided to go in a different direction with Spot's character, and make it so that Spot and Keen CAN'T communicate (just like you can't with your pet dog or cat). Having Spot know how to speak English would make the story less realistic, and making the story seem more real is important. Question: Will Keen and Spot be melded together for most of the story? Answer: Ooooh... for reasons that I can't entirely explain, that's a hard question to answer. You'll understand when you read Chapter 5, but the short answer to your question is no, they aren't merged for very long at all. Question: Is there any plans to follow up this story (once it's done) with another one? Answer: I doubt it. At the very least, I can tell you that I haven't thought of any other Keen-based story ideas worth writing. Question: In your own words, how do you feel about your fan fiction? Answer: To be honest, I don't know. I think I started writing it just to see if I could, since I haven't really written many stories before, and this is my first fanfic. I enjoy how it's going so far, and there's a plot twist coming up that will make everything much more interesting. :) A nice thing about writing this is that I can blend in ideas I had for other games and things, too. For instance, I talk about the mincachia plant (the glowing yorp cabbage). That idea was originally designed for my fangame "Rule of a Yorp's Supper". One of the point items in the game was going to be a yorp hamburger, who's toppings were mustard, relish, and "glowing yorp cabbage". I liked the way that phrase sounded, so when I had an opportunity to use it again in this story I took it. :) Question: So far as I know, there isn't an official name yet for your fan fiction; is this true? Answer: Hmmm... I guess I never did put the title on it. Well, when I started, the working title I had in mind was "Two Heads Are Better Than One"... I guess I was waiting for a better idea for the title, but never thought of one. That'll be the title, then. Question: Do you have a favorite game quote, from Keen or something else? Answer: "What can you say about a society that says God is dead and Elvis is alive?" - Irv Kupcinet. CK-Newsletter: Been great talking to you again! Chris: You too. Congratulations on the first anniversary of your newsletter! ----------------------------------------------- [2] Fan Game Reviews (if you want your game reviewed please email "forge315@commanderKeen.net") Nothing this month. ----------------------------------------------- [3] Website Reviews (If you want your website reviewed, please email "yorpy@commanderkeen.net") Rating System Horrible (1-2) Bad (3-4) Okay (5-6) Good (7-8) Excellent! (9-10) [3.1] Commander Keen Geologist Site Rating: Good! Quality - 7/10 Originality - 10/10 Keenishness - 10/10 Overall - 8/10 http://www.commanderkeen.net/keencyclopedia/archive/geologist/ I think this is an older Commander Keen site as it has been archived by the Keencyclopedia. The site focuses on the geology of the Shadowlands, mainly the mimrocks. Its a simple site with three sections of information to read on the not so friendly rocks. On the site you can read about how Keen discovered this rocks, how they interact with each other and their environment, and their anatomy. Its sorta disappointing that most of the graphics on the site didn't get saved but its still a neat read. - Yorpy ---------------------- [3.2] UnFleexable Software Website Site Rating: Good Quality - 8/10 Originality - 7/10 Keenishness - 8/10 Overall - 7/10 http://keenco.cjb.net/ This is the website for a company (well not a real company :) ) that is making some unofficial keen games. Their current release is: Commander Keen in... The CartoonRealm! Episode 1 : The Four Golden Crystals! and it can be downloaded on the site. - Yorpy ----------------------------------------------- [4] Monthly Fiction [4.1] Chapter 4 of Chris' Story Chapter 4 Keen jumped into the pilot's chair of his Bean-With-Bacon Megarocket, and blasted off of the surface of Io, heading towards Mars. Due to the closeness of the planet, he did not need to use his hyper-vacuumic pump, the device he invented that lets him sail through the Milky Way Galaxy several thousands times the speed of light. Instead, he opted for his auxilliary Everclear injector pump, which was much slower, but created a much smoother ride. Too much use of the hyper-vacuumic pump, and Keen developed a little seasickness. "Not that I need to worry about looking green," Keen chuckled. The dust settled around Keen's landing spot as he jumped out of his ship and hurried towards North Yorp Gardens, the absolute best location on Mars for getting mincachia. It grows naturally there, and requires less watering, which is a good thing, because yorps don't hold watering cans very well, what with their lack of arms. The owner of North Yorp Gardens is a close relative of Spot's, although Keen never figured out much more than that, since the yorp language was quite hard for even Keen to figure out. Keen walked through the gate to the garden, and spotted Spot's relative immediately, looking over his mincachia plants. Spot's relative looked up. "Hey, round-headed white-faced guy! Back for more mincachia for Norp?" the yorp asked. Keen stopped, and stared at the yorp. The yorp came closer. "Whoa, I wonder what happened to you? You aren't white-faced guy any more... and I could have sworn you had another eye somewhere there." "I... I... I understand you!" Keen exclaimed. The yorp jumped back, "You just talked back! None of that garbly stuff that comes out of your mouth, either, you actually talked to me! What gives?" "It appears something else has changed... I can understand yorps now." Keen said to himself. The yorp was jumping up and down, excitedly. "Wow, not only do you save our planet, but you've finally learned to talk to us! Oh, mister round-head green-face, let me be the first to thank you for saving our planet so many months ago! After the Vorticons left, the gargs have been so much nicer to us!!!" "Okay, um... first of all, my name is Commander Keen." Keen replied. "As catchy as 'round- head green-face' is, I'd prefer you used that name. And the reason I look like this is because my body got microscopically combined with Spot's." "Spot? Who's Spot?" the yorp asked. "Oh, that's what I named that little yorp I took home to be my pet." "Really... well, I suppose Spot works. Back when he was living here, his name was Norp." The yorp came closer and sniffed Keen. "You sure that you and Norp combined? I can't smell a trace of him on you." "Well, since we're all mixed together, I don't imagine either of us smells the same." Keen replied, with a questioning look on his face. "Why do you ask?" "Ah, each of us yorps has a distinctive scent so that yorp families can tell who's a part of their clan and who isn't. We all look alike, you know, so this is the only easy way to identify one of us. And you..." The yorp sniffed again, "...don't smell a bit like Norp. I'm his cousin, you know." "Yeah, I had figured you guys were relatives. What's your name, again?" Keen asked. "Hermuk." the yorp replied. "So, did you come to get some more of our mincachia plant?" "Yeah," Keen said, sheepishly. "Normally I hate eating my veggies, but ever since I got merged with Spot... er, Norp... I've had a huge craving for some of that glowing cabbage of yours." Hermuk smiled. "Mmm... how much you want?" "As much as can fit in my ship over there. I gotta have enough to feed my new yorpish appetite while I'm off saving the galaxy." Keen answered. "All right, let's load up your ship. I'll get Tankor to help me out." Hermuk whistled, and a tank-like guard robot drove out of a nearby shed, pushing a large wheelbarrow. Keen tensed up, knowing from past experience how vicious they were at doing their job. "You sure that thing is safe?" Keen asked, hesitantly. "Tankor?" Hermuk replied. "Nah, he's harmless. Reprogrammed him myself." "Tankor!" Hermuk yelled. "Pick two wheelbarrows full of mincachia, will ya? And make it snappy!" Tankor immediately and efficiently began picking the leafy vegetables and tossing them in the wheelbarrow. Within a few minutes, the mincachia was loaded into the Bean-with-Bacon Megarocket. "See ya, Hermuk." Keen said. "I'll visit again when Spot and I are in seperate bodies again!" Hermuk waved back with his eye (how else would a yorp wave?), and Keen left the surface of Mars. Keen turned his vehicle in the direction of Dimorphius II. "Time to blast off!" Keen said to himself. He put his hand where the hyper-vacuumic pump button was, and... There was no hyper-vacuumic pump button. "What in the world?" Keen wondered. He got down on his hands and knees and opened up the panel near the floor underneath his navigational controls. "This isn't right," Keen said. "The wiring is all messed up! This cable should go over here, that set of wires should go over there, I've never even SEEN that thing before..." Keen came to a sudden realization. He opened up another panel. "This is wrong, this is all wrong!" Keen went to his portable bathroom unit. "That's wrong, too... I distincly remember buying 2-ply toilet paper, not that extra thin stuff... and now that I think about it, this entire ship seems a little smaller..." Keen stopped, and for the first time since his merge with Spot, his face went white. "THIS ISN'T MY SHIP!!!!" TO BE CONTINUED… - Chris (c) ---------------------- [4.2] The M-Files: In the Essence of True Love... (By KeenEmpire) Fiction Rating: Excellent Quality - 8/10 Originality - 10/10 Keenishness - 9/10 Overall - 9/10 Can be found at: http://www.classicgaming.com/cc314/ Ah … this is a nice story. Billy Blaze’s school is going to have a dance, and just about everybody going to it – except Billy of course. He has little interest in such things and decides to stay home, where he’s relatively bored, till he catches a sight of something conspicuous at school through one of the spy cameras he has placed there. Unsure of what to exspect Billy Blaze dons his brother’s football helmet and becomes Commander Keen. This story brings to light from the author’s view of Billy Blaze many elements of Billy’s life, a fresh sense of Commander Keen’s world spirals around beckoning the reader to continue. The atmosphere, expands beyond what we could ever possibly know about Keen and stays true to the sense of it. A few mistakes, or perhaps I missed something, exist in this story’s plot. Such as someone dying and then, pow their alive at the very end, no explanation. The story is about Billy or a kid, and I think the attitude of the grownups isn’t caught completely because of this. Before you go off and read this story, I should warn you, it has some bloody scenes and hints of things worse. Nothing I’d disapprove of, but to each his own. Anyway despite blood or whatnot, this one Keen all the way, a must read! - Forge315 ---------------------- [4.3] A Delirious End to the Begining (By Neil McRae) Fiction Rating: Good Quality - 6/10 Originality - 9/10 Keenishness - 6/10 Overall - 7/10 Can be found at: http://www.classicgaming.com/cc314/ This is a pretty weird story. The plot doesn’t seem to be very discernible, many different things happen to Keen, and there isn’t always something understandable about them. In the end though, everything, for the most part is explained. There’s one or two parts in the story where bad grammar makes it impossible to follow the story, if you pay attention you should be able to follow the plot at places like these. There are grammatical errors throughout the story, misspent words, and ‘very long’ paragraphs. A nice amount of creativity is laced into the story, such as well varied characters, subtle landscapes that intrigue, and the story’s in strange ways shows creativity. I wont tell you anything about the plot directly, but I’ve always enjoyed this Keen fan fiction. This story isn’t perfect and could use a good working over, however it’s enjoyable if you can get pasts the only real problem in it, very big paragraphs. - Forge315 ----------------------------------------------- [5] Keen Community News Lot's of cool stuff this month. [5.1] It's Keen time! Check out what the mastermind behind this newsletter (Forge315) found! A Commander Keen watch, how cool is that? http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumtheoriginalcommanderkeenga.sho wMessage?topicID=534.topic ---------------------- [5.2] There is a way to get Keens easily - even a legal way! The maker of those cool Keen games, iD software, has updated their site. Now it's possible to buy Keen again! But it's only downloadable, when you pay it, you get something link or something where you can download the game! Good way to get game legally, only the bad thing is that you won't receive those cool boxes and manuals. Head over http://www.idsoftware.com/ and get yours today! ---------------------- [5.3] New Isis II demo! The Isis II team has released a new demo of their upcoming Commander Keen game! It containts one level to play, lot's of goodies, enemies, and all kinds of cool stuff! There's also one extra level they released, so you can get two levels to play! Head over to this topic: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpimentogamedevelopment.showMessage?topicID=694.topic ---------------------- [5.4] Some other game news... Also, like usually, there's lot's of Commander Keen fan game news this month too! Here are some... Keener called therealdopefish has posted a topic about his cool fan game called RKP3. You can see some really cool screens there! http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpimentogamedevelopment.showMessage?topicID=691.topic Keens Watch V1.1 released: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpimentogamedevelopment.showMessage?topicID=710.topic Day of the Alien Version 2 is released: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpimentogamedevelopment.showMessage?topicID=705.topic Some Keen fan games that come later that expected: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpimentogamedevelopment.showMessage?topicID=713.topic http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpimentogamedevelopment.showMessage?topicID=711.topic ---------------------- [5.5] Something stuff... I started one topic in PCKF, where you need to use as much of emotikeens as possible. Check it out here: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumothercommanderkeenstuff.showMe ssage?topicID=616.topic UnFleexable has started something Keen related project, and needs help. Check out the topic: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpimentogamedevelopment.showMessage?topicID=708.topic He has also started his own CK related magazine: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumothercommanderkeenstuff.showMe ssage?topicID=612.topic And making something animated Keen related stuff: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumothercommanderkeenstuff.showMe ssage?topicID=598.topic ---------------------- [5.6] Talking about Keen levels? Check out this topic that Grelphy started... It's about Keen 4-6 level making and stuff like that: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumothercommanderkeenstuff.showMe ssage?topicID=603.topic And something about that TED5 level editor too: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumothercommanderkeenstuff.showMe ssage?topicID=613.topic ---------------------- [5.7] Fan art, cool as usually! Grelphy has made a nice looking shikadi master picture: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumothercommanderkeenstuff.showMe ssage?topicID=618.topic Keener called cybernetic dream has made a cool Keen picture: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumothercommanderkeenstuff.showMe ssage?topicID=617.topic Many cool pics by Scizor CT! Check them out here: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumothercommanderkeenstuff.showMe ssage?topicID=594.topic And a very cool 3D dopefish picture by Manboy! * swim swim hungry * There's also a small video! Check it out right here: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumothercommanderkeenstuff.showMe ssage?topicID=606.topic ---------------------- [5.8] Please observe the no smoking and seatbelt lights have... Xtraverse has done something really cool again! This time he has modelled a very cool 3D Shadowlands! Now this is art! http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumothercommanderkeenstuff.showMe ssage?topicID=608.topic ---------------------- [5.9] Sesame Street Connection? Look what Too Much Spare Time has done again! http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumothercommanderkeenstuff.showMe ssage?topicID=601.topic Oh, and remember to check his site at http://www.thisstrife.com/sluggy/, because there you can often find some cool stuff, like this time too! ---------------------- Well, see you in the next issue! http://images.packers.com/images/homephoto/020830walker.jpg I bet you have seen that helmet... Bye! - KeenRush ----------------------------------------------- [6] Miscellaneous Stuff [6.1] Fan Art There's a very cool version of the Keen6 box this month, thanks to Yorpy for it! Next month we'll have a scan of the only Commander Keen watch in existence. Keen6 box: http://www.commanderkeen.net/cknews/screens/art33_2.jpg ---------------------- [6.2] Announcements Eh hello, we don't wanna say much now. Though it's our one year anniversary, thanks you. - Forge315 ---------------------- [6.3] Credits Too Much Spare Time: some Proofreading KeenRush: The news MRCMarky/AEWorld: internal comments guy Yorpy: Website reviews Forge315: Newsletter composition Other thanks: Chris, for doing another interview, and the soon to come Shadow Lands episode two. ----------------------------------------------- "Swim swim hungry, swim swim hungry. I’m gonna eat a monkey!"