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-16: May 31, 2003 Working Title: Keen Community (C) 2002-2003 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 (we interview Keen forum members) [1.1] Djaser We Interview Him [1.2] Grelphy Tells Us Some Stuff [1.3] Frenkel Answers All [1.4] A Chat With Manboy [2] Fan Game Reviews [2.1] Real Keen Player III [2.2] Norp the Yorp 3: Brain Damage [3] Website Reviews [3.1] Public Commander Keen Forum [3.2] Grelphy's Commander Keen Page [3.3] S&F Prod. Site [4] Monthly Fiction [4.1] Chapter 7 of Chris' story [5] Keen Community News [5.1] Bazooka Wowbagger mod released! [5.2] Welcome to Fribbulus Xax! [5.3] Weird places... [5.4] Beyond the Pogo [5.5] Goodbye, Chasm of Strife! [5.6] Some fan game news... :) [5.7] Commander Keen episode Y! [5.8] New Keen levels coming... :) [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] Djaser We Interview Him CK-Newsletter: Could you tell something about yourself? (Hobbies, pets, country etc.) Djaser: Well my real name is Jascha de Ridder. I live in Holland. I have a dog, cat, and a annoying Rabbit. My hobbies are hanging around in the cafés and on the Keen forum ofcourse. I also love to draw some primitive pics on my comp. Question: When did you first played Commander Keen? :) Answer: This is a quote from the Keen forum; It was 1995 when I got my first computer and game: Crystal Caves the demo. I was obsessed I did nothing else than playing that game (yeah those were the (bad) days) . But there was a virus on the disk so I couldn't play it anymore. Around 1997/98 I started buying old cheap computer games (distributed by dutch companies like 'Linsoft'and Zoeff') from my pocket money. First game was: Commander Keen I Maaroned on Mars. Another obsession for me it was also the first game I finished. I wanted to get the other parts but I only could get my grumbly hands on Keen II. I drew a lot ugly Keeb pics (still own some) I lost both games! Later I lent Keen dreams. I loved the idea of Keen in his pyama. Later I got the game by some way of accident. I played the game a fair and moved to other games, So it was in 2000 when I got the games Keen 4,5, and 6 illegal on a disk. However I only cheated and couldn't play Keen 5. Later that year I saw Keen 3 and again cheated. In 2002 my obsession started again when I started to play the games again. I visited much Keen sites. Downloaded my missing parts of the series. And I even visited the forum some times though I didn't know how a forum worked at that moment. I started buying games Keen games legal I know have: Keen I (twice) , Keen II(twice), Keen Dreams (twice), Keen V, Keen VI(demo) legal. Some time later I registered on the forum. Question: How long do you plan to be in CK community? (Hopefully long, ofcourse!) Answer: Well I like the community, it's pretty small but that's not a bad thing. I like most members and mods so I have no plans to leave :-D Question: What's the best thing in the Keen circles (= community)? ;) Answer: You mean what I like best? Well the members are very creative and keep Keen alive. That's one reason why I'm making a Keen mod too, it'll be my tribute to the community Question: Hmmm, could you tell something about your upcoming Keen mod? (Story, other info etc.) Answer: Well I'm planning to make a trilogy, but I'm sure if I'll ever finish three mods, I'm really lazy you know :@. Well the story is not very original: Keen discovers that has poisened the sewers and a lot of mutants appear *sigh*. The story will be better in the next two episodes however. I'm not aiming on the story but on the graphics and I seem to be doing fine (c: Question: How much is done; how long we need to wait for it! :) Answer: Sprites 80% Backgrounds and other graphics 10% I need to install the stuff properly and start level editing. I hope to get the first mod ready for 10 December, but I can't promise anything. But I will only release it when it's really good. Question: Any plans for future Keen projects? ;) Answer: A Wolfenstein 3d mod, I had this idea before unfleex but I don't want to have two projects on the same time (c; Question: What you're going to do when you're older? Going to be police, fireman, programmer or maybe a rally driver? :) Answer: That's a weak point. I failed on my study again I don't know what will happen with me in the future )c': Question: What's your favourite thing in this world? Answer: I really don't know there is a lot great stuff in the world: Keen, other comis, nice buildings, animals, metal music ect. CK-Newsletter: Well, bye and good luck for the future! :) Djaser: Thanks I need that (c; Oh, and Djaser forgot to say this: "I will release concept art (no screens they are a suprise) when I'm able to begin level editting." Sounds good! :) - KeenRush ---------------------- [1.2] Grelphy Tells Us Some Stuff CK-Newsletter: Everyone has a past, like where they grew up and how they came to be where they are. What is your past and how did you end up becoming a member at the Keen forum? Grelphy: I live in Pennsylvania in the U.S.A, I'm 14 years old, and I really like keen. But you knew that. =) I first started playing Keen 1 about 10 years ago. I did sort of badly and then newer games came out, and I forgot about it. Then, just a couple of months ago, I "rediscovered" it and started playing it again. Thinking that maybe there would be websites that at least mentioned it, I searched Google. The rest, as they say, is easy to figure out. =) Question: Do you go on vacations, those boring camping trips and stuff? Maybe you are one of those people who enjoy such things, anyway can you share some experiences? Answer: I don't really enjoy the outdoors (at least not as much as my parents tell me i should =). I prefer sitting at a computer, doing something. Anyway, I have a hard time forgetting the canoe trip where it rained all day... Question: When it comes to Keen and your life, do you have time for Keen related projects? Answer: Not as much as I would like =) I get about a half an hour a day playing Keen, although I spend quite a bit more doing other Keen related things like interviews. ;) Question: You have been around the Keen forum long enough to understand how things work. Can you please describe what is usually going on, and the kinds of posts you usually make? Answer: Hmm... There is often some sort of discussion and lots of cool Keen stuff to look at... As for me, my posting is usually fairly diverse. I typically look at the "unoficcial keen games" section first, though. Question: There is not a lot to look forward to in the way of Keen’s future, iD may never sell the Keen rights, so what is it that keeps you around stillinterested and hoping? Answer: They may. And besides, keen is fun! Question: Some people like rainy days others do not, could you please tell us which you are and why? Answer: Hmm... On rainy days I don't have to work in the garden =) But on the other hand, I like bright sunny days... Rain... sun... oh, well! Both! CK-Newsletter: It has been great talking to you, :) Grelphy: I'm happy to be here. - Forge315 ---------------------- [1.3] Frenkel Answers All CK-Newsletter: Who are you? Could you tell all kind of information about yourself? Frenkel: I'm Frenkel Smeijers and I'm 18 years old. You may know me from my website about classic games: "http://www.sfprod.cjb.net" I just finished college and I'm going to study Technical Informatics at the Eindhoven Technical University in the Netherlands, as I live there. I like playing computer games, playing the piano and watching action movies of the 1960's and 1970's. Question: How long you have played computer games? Since when you first time played Commander Keen? Answer: A long time ago my dad brought a MSX computer from his work to home. I can't remember much of it, but it had some games for kids, like something with Sesame Street and a game that was called something like Oom Jan (Uncle John). In that game you were somewhere in a forest and you had to pick some cherries and bring them to Uncle John and then he would give you milk and cookies. In 1992 my dad bought a 286 from his work. It had Windows 3.0 on an 40 MB harddisk. A friend of my dad installed Stacker on it so it could contain 80 MB, but it required more ram so less ram available for games. And that's when I learned how to change Config.sys and Autoexec.bat so I had enough ram available to play some other games that required more ram. The first time I saw Commander Keen 1 was in 1993. A friend gave it to me on a disc. My brother played it first and I thought "What is this?". Some months later a friend of my brother gave use Keen 4 CGA and Keen 6 demo. I thought "Is this the same Commander Keen?", because the isometric view made the game entirely different. Question: What are your favorite computer games? (Other than Commander Keens..) ;) Answer: I like (EGA) platform games like Commander Keen, Secret Agent, Bio Menace, Dangerous Dave, Duke Nukem. Actually all old Apogee, id Software and Softdisk games. I also like first person action shooters, but I don't play them very much, because sometimes I get motion sickness. I've played a lot of Ski or Die, Balls of Steel, Civilization 1, Paratroopers, The Incredible Machine, Zany Golf, Worms 2, Dizzy, Blues Brothers, Arkanoid, Slordax, Supaplex, Lemmings, Street Fighter 2, Mortal Kombat, Prince of Persia, Gods, Bubble Bobble, Golden Axe, Stunts, Monopoly, Bart vs. the Space Mutants, Push Over, God of Thunder, Pinball Fantasies, Street Rod, Laser Light, Prehistorik. Most of these games aren't featured on my website, yet :). Lately I play a lot of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2. Question: When did you found the Public Commander Keen Forum, what do you think about it? Is it cool? Answer: I found the Public Commander Keen Forum two years ago, but I don't remember how I got there. Probably using a search engine (I think I used Altavista back then). I think PCKF is really cool, because so many fans still discuss such an old game. There are many other classic games (see answer 3) that also deserve such a forum. Question: Are you working on some classic games related project at the time? You seem to have written quite a big amount of game tweakin' tools.. :) Answer: I'm working on a program that will show the levels of Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure. I get all the tiles working, but it is really slow. Now I have to place all the sprites, so it will even be slower. I think I'm just going to make big pictures of the levels and distribute them. I'm also working on a program that will dump all the tiles and sprites of Prehistorik 2 in a bunch of BMP's. I just found out that it only uses 16 colors, just like Duke Nukem 2, nevertheless it looks very good. Question: What are good classic game sites or discussion places? Could you give some links? Also, do you know any classic game modding sites? :) Answer: This should be a topic in The Classic forum :). Here are some discussion places. I'll have to warn you, they aren't all good (or as good as the Public Commander Keen Forum :)). Apogee games http://www.3drealms.com/forums.html John Romero games http://rome.ro Every Pinball game http://www.pcpinball.com Prince of Persia http://www.princed.com.ar Rick Dangerous http://www.rickdangerous.co.uk Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure http://www.cosmofansite.de.vu Tyrian http://pub117.ezboard.com/btyrian Bitmap Brothers games http://bitmapmania.gamerzcity.co.uk/forum/YaBB.pl Supaplex http://www.elmerproductions.com/sp Stunts http://pub54.ezboard.com/bstuntsmessagecenter Street Rod http://www.streetrod3.com Sorry, but I don't know any classic game modding site. Question: Are you going to ever make a Keen mod? (Hope so of course..) Answer: I don't know, I'm not every creative. I was thinking about recreating Dangerous Dave in Copyright Infringement in Keen 1, but other projects came in. (similar with id, Universe is Toast and Wolfenstein :)). Question: Where have you learned to make those game editing programs? How long you have coded and what was your first program? Where did it all started? :) Answer: Years ago I rented a book about Qbasic programming at the library. There was one chapter about making a simple game called Catching Hearts. It was a fun game in which you where a little line at the bottom of the screen and you had to catch hearts that fell from the top of the screen to the bottom. Years went by in which I didn't program a thing. Until two years ago I saw something on the internet about graphics programming in Qbasic. With just six lines of code I could show Alabama Smith of Paganitzu. A few days later I could watch all sprites of Chagunitzu and Paganitzu. On the internet I also found how to show BMP files in Qbasic. That's how I learned to edit files. So again a few days later I could show the levels of Chagunitzu and Chagview was born. On Lon Matero's Apogee Page (http://www.apogeegames.com) I saw he was looking for an extractor for Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure. So I tried to make one and it worked, but slow. With a few modifications it worked on other games as well. That's why there are so many extractors at my site :). I learned to program EGA graphics by reading some articles on the Microsoft Knowledge Base :). Question: Any good tips for game tool coders? ;) Answer: Try making stuff for all kinds of different games. Every game uses slightly different methods for the same thing. In even less words: Get experience :). CK-Newsletter: Ok, thanks for the interview and keep up the good work and website! :) Frenkel: Thank you for interviewing me :). I hope I'll learn a lot at University, so I can make even better and faster programs with more options and which are (more) useful, in a language with more respect than Qbasic for an operating system other than Dos :). - KeenRush ---------------------- [1.4] A Chat With Manboy AKA Christopher Tyerman CK-Newsletter: Tell us a little bit about yourself like your hobbies and such. Answer: Well, I'm South Australian, 5'10" and somewhat saucy. I went to an agricultural highschool with the noble intention of becoming a fish farmer. I envisioned myself leaning on my shepherd's crook, staring into the middle distance as I tended my flock of trout. It was not to be, though, and I enrolled in architecture at Adelaide uni. At the end of the fourth year of my studies, I realised I liked making the pretty pictures with the computers more than the buildings they illustrated, so I stopped architecture to concentrate on 3d graphics. Hey, Dr Seuss, Pink Floyd and Monty Python were all ex architecture students, though I'd rather not associate with the last two. I like snorkelling and dogs and getting caught in the rain. Question: How did you get interested in Commander Keen? How did you find the PCKF? Do you enjoy being a part of the community? Answer: Sadly, I was brought up by parents concerned about the quality of my edumacation and I missed out on stuff like morning cartoons. More importantly, any computer-sorta-thing had to be in the house under the pretext that it could be used to, ugh, learn or, euugh, go outside with. So no nintendo. Or C64. Or Master System. Up till I saw Keen 1 (in 1991, I think), the most advanced thing I'd played on the 286 we had at the time was Mother Goose and Zsoft Paintbrush. Needless to say, it blew me out of the water. I couldn't stay up late, so I'd get up at six to play it. I'd smother the computer with a blanket to stop its booting waking my parents. I gradually amassed all the episodes and nurtured my hope for "The Universe is Toast"'s release right up until Id made Quake. Then I sort of figured they'd got sidetracked with this 3d shooter thing. I don't see it going anywhere, personally. I happened upon the PCKF after some whimsical keen-related Googling and thought it was swell to find a bunch of other Keen freaks in the one place (I've actually found quite a few ones in real life; and not from any forums. It's surprising how many Keen addicts there are out there when you run into them; it's a bit like Roger Ramjet fans). I'd made a Garg in 3ds Max some time ago and had a joke CK shirt done with a friend (http://members.ozemail.com.au/~styerman/tshirtbig.gif -Print it out and wear it like a champ!) so I thought I'd make an impression and introduce myself that way. I love the PCKF forum; you're all keeping the dream alive in your own way. I remember how my heart was all a flutter when I first fired up Keened (marry me Andy) and how I'd grab the mods and the levels by the armload with a ruddy grin. It's marvellous to see so much stuff being made..animations, mods, comics, 3d stuff, all of it. I'm glad I'm here for the Keenaisance. Question: Where do you get inspiration for your 3D artwork? Answer: Well, that depends on what it's of, natch. Keen-wise, I like the MoM characters the best. There's something perfectly manic about a garg, and perfectly cute about a yorp. And besides, they're easier to model :). Have had a crack at the dopefish, though, with pleasing results. Much of that yorp/garg stuff was kind of inspired by a baaaad happy techno song (I like it, strangely enough) called "I Can't Stop Raving" by DJ Liquid. I had these visions of yorps mining candy on mars and then dropping everything to go to a big Mars rave where the garg diva would be singing. Still working on that one. Generally speaking, I'm right into stylised 3d graphics. I'm excited about the merging of traditional looks and feels like stop motion and cel animation with the capabilities of CGI. Excited enough to make it my honours topic at least. Question: What is your favorite piece of work that you have done and why is it your favorite? Answer: Probably the tank bot (go to http://members.ozemail.com.au/~styerman/folio.html and find what I'm talking about. Please.). I just like its 'tude and the composition as a whole. I'm fond of the ice skating scene, but it's a bit rough around the edges. It's hard work burying gargs in snow, you know. The dopefish animation is also something I like, but probably only because it's the most finished :) Question: Where do you expect your talents to take you? What would be your future dream job? Answer: Making music videos! Or maybe cartoons or movies...I'm really excited by where I can go with 3d. Actually, how about a lead modelling and animation job on a 3d keen game? It'd still be in the spirit of the first six (let's not speak of Keen Dreams, or the gameboy title about an unrelated tanned boy in a red shirt) seeing how, you know, Tom Hall would be working with me. In this dream job. I'd take any of the above, really. Question: Thanks for doing this interview with us! Answer: It's been a pleasure! I feel all famous and stuff. See you around the forum and expect something big in October. - Yorpy ----------------------------------------------- [2] Fan Game Reviews (if you want your game reviewed please email "forge315@commanderKeen.net") Rating System Horrible (1-2) Bad (3-4) Okay (5-6) Good (7-8) Excellent! (9-10) [2.1] Real Keen Player III Game Rating: Excellent Quality – 9.5/10 Originality - 10/10 Keenishness - 7/10 Overall - 9/10 download game here: ? I’ll admit that when I first downloaded Real Keen Player 3, I was thinking it would be pretty bad. It is the sequel to RKP 1 and 2, which had, in my opinion, horrible engines, and boring gameplay. I opened up the program, and came to a menu screen that looked just like the Keens 4-6 one. I sighed, because I hate games that steal art from the original Keen games. But that’s really one of the few things I can criticize it on. Everything got better from there. First let me comment on the intro—that has got to be the coolest intro to a Keen game I’ve ever seen, it is humorous, looks great, and must have had a lot of time spent on it. Now let’s talk about the engine. It’s genius, a true work of art. Keens 4-6 have a style of graphics called oblique, which gives the player a minor perspective experience. RKP III did that to a much higher extent: the skew of the platforms depends on Keen’s position relative to them. This gives a true element of 3D in a 2D platform game. therealdopefish also bothered to add all elements of movement the original games had, excepting the Impossible Pogo trick. To the game itself—the map world is not the prettiest creation ever, but the levels make up for that. They all have something original that makes them very cool. For example: the ability to raise and lower the height of the water in a level, riding around in a little train cart, having lighting elements, weather effects, and much, much more. I loved how the bosses were in semi-3D environments. The game’s enemies are really cool as well, a lot of them can move in the background and foreground which is cool, and other’s have interesting abilities. One of my favorite enemies is the cone thing that shoots bullets that explode, mainly because it makes such cute noises every time it shoots. The game also has what is called a “Trophy System” where you try to collect all 350 or so trophies by beating levels, finding secrets, doing good on minigames (which reminds me, the game has four excellent minigames), and other various things. The trophies are mostly creatures from the original Commander Keen games and all fangames, and a few other things. It’s very cool, but for cheaters, the file is rather easy to hack. A few critiques—the platforms sometimes have small holes where you can see the background on the sides, but the rest of the game masks that very well. Some of the levels are pretty mono-directional, but the variety in levels makes up for that as well. Also, there are areas of some levels that look rather boring, but those are sparse as well. I will warn you though—although there are three different difficulty settings, even on easy you will not be able to beat the game in one sitting. In fact, you probably won’t beat the game in five sittings, because it is outrageously hard, and quite long with 34 different levels. The game wasn’t fantastically Keenish in my opinion either. The levels had a different style than those of the original games. In the original games, the levels were more focused on exploring, but in RKP III they are focused quite a bit on avoiding obstacles, and thinking fast. Don’t get wrong, that still is really cool and fun, it’s just not quite as Keenish in my opinion. Then again, everyone has a different idea on what Keenishness really is, so my judgment might be completely different than yours. Overall: PROS: fantastic engine, great levels, really cool special effects, fun minigames, great enemies, awesome trophy system CONS: insanely hard game, levels had some boring areas, some minor graphic bugs On the whole, this is probably the best complete Commander Keen fangame I have ever played, a vast improvement on RKP 1 and 2. - xtraverse ---------------------- [2.1] Norp the Yorp 3: Brain Damage Game Rating: Excellent Quality – 10/10 Originality - 10/10 Keenishness - 8/10 Overall - 9/10 download game here: ? This is the best game yet in the Norp the Yorp series. Good story, great level design, and quality art! But it is not specifically these things that make it that way, instead it is because they were fitted together so seamlessly. The basic story this time is Norp ends up in Mort’s brain and has to destroy brain cells in an attempt to get out. Yeah I said in Mort’s brain, makes you wonder about the game creator xtraverse, does not it. Anyway it is creative, weird, and fits in with past two games. Seamless level design, seamless did I say? Well basically, the levels are very creative and no two are alike; go figure. Though the most predominate feature in them is their hardness; these levels are hardest Keen ones I have ever played and I could not even beat some of them. So if you have to cheat to complete the game, go ahead, I did. ;) Just like the past two Norp the Yorp games, the graphics have been improved. They will make you raise an eyebrow though, it is not everyday you fight off white blood cells and travel through membranes. The opening and closing graphics were good; in fact the only time you might have a complaint about the graphics is if your sensitive to say seeing a dead Yorp. You will know what I mean if you play this game. *lol* You might as well play this game, I would not credit it as being the top of what I consider Keenish, but it is of the utmost high quality. This MOD is the most seamless I have seen yet. Is it even possible to get seamless? Pros: Awesome level design, quality graphics, and a good story. Cons: Very hard levels, but we can cheat! :D - Forge315 ----------------------------------------------- [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] Public Commander Keen Forum (Ed: Where is the rating? *rolls eyes*) http://pub128.ezboard.com/bpubliccommanderkeenforum Chances are if you're reading this that you already know about the forum but I imagine there are some lurkers wandering around that haven't heard of it. It is really the center of the community and where you can find other fans that use their talents for Keen related projects. It is the place to go if you want to announce a fangame or mod that you're working on or even ask for help with it, there is always someone willing to offer help. Or if you have some sort of artwork devoted to Commander Keen its a place you can use to show it to other fans. There is also a section for discussion on other classic computer games and a book club but that hasn't gathered much interest. In the miscellaneous sections interesting debates take place sometimes. - Yorpy ---------------------- [3.2] Grelphy's Commander Keen Page Site Rating: Good Quality - 8/10 Originality - 8/10 Keenishness - 6/10 Overall - 8/10 http://nweb.pct.edu/homepage/student/BOYWIL61/ This is a simple site made by Keen fan Grelphy. It is easy to navigate with a frame on the left site with links to the different sections. The sections include levels, mod, and secret area guides. In the levels section you can download several levels made by Grelphy and the secret area guides is a great project where the whole level is mapped out with the secret areas shown. The mod section has screens and downloads for the Episode Y mod. Updated frequently the site is a good way to find out about Grelphy's projects. - Yorpy ---------------------- [3.3] S&F Prod. Site Site Rating: Excellent Quality - 10/10 Originality - 9/10 Keenishness - N/A Overall - 9/10 http://www.sfprod.cjb.net/ This site is mostly a general site for classic computer games. In the Commmander Keen Section there is an fun little online game to play, a sound player for Keen 1-3, level hexediting, a patch to play as the dopefish, cheats, and a Doom skin. There are many other sections for other classic games like Cosmo and Biomenace so the site is worth looking at for general and technical info on these games. - Yorpy ----------------------------------------------- [4] Monthly Fiction [4.1] Chapter 7 of Chris' story Chapter 7 Keen, K-2, and Norp entered the Bean-with-Bacon Megarocket. "So where are we headed again?" Keen asked. "Dimorphius II." K-2 answered. "Have you heard of it?" "Yep." Keen replied. "Do have any idea where it is?" "Where else? The other side of the galaxy." "Mortimer's kinda predictable that way, isn't he?" "Always has been. Probably always will." Keen and K-2 both rolled their eyes. Norp couldn't understand what exactly they were saying, but he recognized the name Mortimer, so he rolled his eye too. "Shall we blast off?" K-2 asked. "Don't see why not... wait a minute, we're forgetting something!" Keen suddenly looked alarmed. "We have to hide that fake Megarocket that you landed in our backyard in! If anyone sees it, I'm going to have a lot of explaining to do!" Keen and K-2 both raced outside. K-2 got in the cockpit, and in a matter of seconds manoeuvres the ship into the secret area under the clubhouse where the Bean-with-Bacon Megarocket was. The outer doors open, and K-2 walks back out. "Man, your yorp half must be messing up your flying skills, it took you 72 seconds to get that ship in there! I could have done it in under a minute, easy!" Keen said, jokingly. "Well, I probably could have done that quicker if I hadn't have banged my elbow on a control panel when I walked in." K-2 stated. K-2's left elbow was bleeding slightly. "Too bad the thick skin on your feet wasn't on your arms, too" Keen said. He pulled out a paper towel and wiped off the excess blood. "Strange..." said K-2, "it's bleeding, but it doesn't hurt. Yorps must have a high tolerance for pain." "Come on, let's get back in the ship. Times a-wasting!" Keen took the paper towel into his clubhouse, then came out a moment later, and both Keens entered the real ship once more (bringing with them a few pails of glowing yorp cabbage for the trip). They blasted off towards Dimorphius II. Keen set the BwB to AutoPilot. "So how far away is this planet again?" K-2 asked, while staring back at Earth. "About 65,000 lightyears away." Keen answered. K-2 winced. "Great... how are we gonna pass the time?" "We do what we always do. Invent stuff!" Keen smiled. "Let us commence building the Yorp-to-Terran-Translate-a-Tron!" K-2 looked at Keen funny. "The WHAT?" "The Yorp-to-Terran-Translate-a-Tron! A collar that we can put on Spot... er, Norp... that will automatically translate whatever he says! After all, he's been living with us for two years without understanding us, and he's getting kind of bored." The Keens both look over at Norp, who is sitting by himself in a corner, mumbling some sort of Martian tune. "What's he singing, anyways?" Keen asked. K-2 cupped his hand around his ear to hear it better. "I think it's the yorp equivalent to 'One Thousand Bottles of Vorti-Soda on the Wall' ". "Ok, in any case, are you willing to give the translator a shot?" "Absolutely!" The Keens immediately got to work. I suppose I could describe in intimate detail the process behind the creation of the Yorp-to-Terran-Translate-a-Tron (which we'll call the YTTT from now on), but to be honest, it was pretty boring. If you've ever been in a room with a bunch of computer geeks, you'll know what I'm talking about. It was 7 hours straight of devising a way to turn Martian dialects into English, but being the perfectionists that they were, they had to develop their own programming language, and then K-2 began recording his yorp voice in a microphone, saying various words and phrases with their translations. Then came the beta testing and tweaking to give it sufficient adaptability to their current situation... to make a long story short, about two thousand lines of code, 634 circuit connections, 492 "if...then" clauses and 4,300 rudimentary sentence fragments later, the YTTT was complete. Keen placed the device around Norp's eye-stalk, then pressed the On/Off button. "Can you understand me, Norp?" he asked. The little yorp perked up. "Hey!" he said. "It works! I can hear what you're saying, and it's not that weird garbled language of yours!" Keen and K-2 gave each other a high-five. "A job well done." K-2 said. Keen nodded. "I couldn't agree more! However, let's hold off the celebration for a couple of minutes, I really gotta go to the bathroom!" As Norp and K-2 started chatting about Norp's family, Keen walked to the back of the ship, where the washroom was located. He stepped inside, and after relieving himself, quietly began typing on his ComputerWrist. The ComputerWrist is his portable computer/wristwatch/arcade game player, and Keen was using it to remotely contact an experiment that Keen had left running at home. "Ah, I see my experiment is finished." Keen thought to himself. "Let's see if my suspicions are true." Keen pressed Enter, and a single name flashed on his mini-computer's screen. Keen's face fell. "K-2... I think we need to have a little chat." TO BE CONTINUED... - Chris (c) ----------------------------------------------- [5] Keen Community News Hello! Now when you're reading this, I should be on summer vacation (from school). :) Happy June to all! [5.1] Bazooka Wowbagger mod released! Ah, the mod I have been waiting for, is released! And gotta say, it's really cool! Go to check out this topic for more info: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpimentogamedevelopment.showMessage?topicID=763.topic ---------------------- [5.2] Welcome to Fribbulus Xax! This is cool! Xtraverse has done a very cool 3D place again, this time it's the place we all know from Keen 6, Fribbulus Xax! Well, check out this topic for more info: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumothercommanderkeenstuff.showMe ssage?topicID=685.topic ---------------------- [5.3] Weird places... Heh, Keen fan called keensback has posted some pics he has taken with his camera. Check them out, here: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumothercommanderkeenstuff.showMe ssage?topicID=688.topic ---------------------- [5.4] Beyond the Pogo More cool stuff by Xtraverse, he has totally redesigned his page! And, what is more important, he has opened an awesome Commander Keen page! The site is really big, you can find there a lot games with screenshots, art, mods, levels, tutorials and tools. Did I forgot something? I hope not.. Check the site out right now! http://www.xtraverse.tk/ ---------------------- [5.5] Goodbye, Chasm of Strife! That's right, too bad.. Chasm of Strife has stopped updating making and so on, but will be still there as archive for older Chasm stuff and so on.. But don't worry, TMST will still be in the Keen circles and now he has started to make really cool comics to This Strife. The theme of the comics is video games. You will see there familiar video game characters, for example Duke Nukem! :) Check out This Strife right now: http://www.thisstrife.com/ ---------------------- [5.6] Some fan game news... :) This month Commander Keen Masked Crusades: Asino's Uphail is released. Find more info here: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpimentogamedevelopment.showMessage?topicID=764.topic New game, Internet keen game, has been under work by keensback. The game will be text based internet game, sounds good to me. :) Well, find more here: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpimentogamedevelopment.showMessage?topicID=760.topic ---------------------- [5.7] Commander Keen episode Y! Yikes, gotta write something about this before it totally forgots! Well, Grelphy has released a very cool beta of his upcoming Keen 1 mod, episode Y. Yep, it will be sequel to XkyRauh's mod Commander Keen episode X. :) The beta is very well done and it has some clever never-before-seen stuff! Read more about it here: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpimentogamedevelopment.showMessage?topicID=761.topic ---------------------- [5.8] New Keen levels coming... :) A new Keen fan in the community, called The Candyjunk, has posted that he is currently making some very cool looking Keen 4 and 5 levels! It's great to get finally some new levels to those newer Keens... He has posted some screens and the levels look very good. Check out this topic for more info: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumtheoriginalcommanderkeenga.sho wMessage?topicID=574.topic ---------------------- See ya again in the next month! - KeenRush ----------------------------------------------- [6] Miscellaneous Stuff [6.1] Fan Art A Keen1-3 box, this is not an offical box because Keen1-3 did not have one, however a box was used in one release of the games. This box is in thanks to Flaose. Keen1-3 Box: http://www.commanderkeen.net/cknews/arts.php ---------------------- [6.2] Announcements This issue was about the Keen Community; we talked to some Keen forum members and asked them about themselves and the Community. In doing this, a weakness came to our sight. Despite each issue having a title, the title does not always explain wholly what the issue is about. A solution, the newsletter may start to have a little section at the top of each issue briefly stating what that month’s theme is. - Forge315 ---------------------- [6.3] Credits Too Much Spare Time: Some proofreading KeenRush: The news, two interviews MRCMarky/AEWorld: Doing some stuff Yorpy: Website reviews, an interview Forge315: Game review, an interview Other thanks: Thanks xtraverse, for reviewing RKPIII! Thanks to all the wonderful Keen forum members we interviewed! Keep posting! ----------------------------------------------- "Swim swim hungry, swim swim hungry. This is never funny!"