_______ __ | _ | .-----. .--------. .--------. .---.-. .-----. .--| | .-----. .----. |. 1___| | _ | | | | | | _ | | | | _ | | -__| | _| |. |___ |_____| |__|__|__| |__|__|__| |___._| |__|__| |_____| |_____| |__| |: 1 | |::.. . | `-------' ___ ___ | Y ) .-----. .-----. .-----. |. 1 / | -__| | -__| | | |. _ \ |_____| |_____| |__|__| |: | \ |::.| . ) `--- ---' ______ __ __ __ | _ \ .-----. .--.--.--. .-----. | | .-----. | |_ | |_ .-----. .----. |. | | | -__| | | | | |__ --| | | | -__| | _| | _| | -__| | _| |. | | |_____| |________| |_____| |__| |_____| |____| |____| |_____| |__| |: | | |::.| | `--- ---' Commander Keen Newsletter Issue 25, "Special 3/14 Issue!" (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] Release Round-up for 3/14 [2.0] Keen news [2.1] Nice Keen art [2.2] Info about Shadowlands III [2.3] Mortimerish fan game [2.4] New mod started [2.5] Commander Keen 0 new release [3.0] Miscellaneous [3.1] Announcements [3.2] Credits ========================================>>>>>>>> >> [1.0] Articles << ---- [1.1] Release Round-up for 3/14 Once again, it's 14th March. Year 2004. This day is known as 3/14 and you know what number 314 means. That's right, Commander Keen's IQ number. Keen fans have released some really cool stuff to celebrate this day. This stuff should be in time order it's released to the public. Commander Keen: Episode Null ---------------------------- A great piece of modding by the famous Episode X maker, Xky. This was definitely worth of all the waiting. You can see this mod has been done really well. Levels, graphics - anything, it's just awesome. For me all that hard coded stuff in Keen 2 would probably cause problems that I couldn't solve, but Xky has perfectly harnessed the stuff to work with the story and so on. The story is very interesting, and shortly it goes like this. Friendly race called Narlns, who are very skilled space ship architects, have realized that Mortimer McMire must be stopped at all costs. Well, who's good for the job? Of course the defender of the universe. (I'm talking about Commander Keen now...) Narlns invite Keen on the ship they have made for training him. Your mission is to survive through the training camp to get ready for your next mission (which probably will be featured in the next mod by Xky). Read more, here: http://durdin.net/andy/keen/modding/viewtopic.php?t=255 ** Newsletter staff comments Yorpy: Fantastic mod, the sprites and art have a charm to them that I can't quite describe and they make a great mod seem even better. xtraverse: This is the best Keen mod I've ever played. It's use of color and level design are amazing. It never leaves you bored, it's not too hard, and it's not too easy. Simply, it rocks. KeenRush: Totally neat! Everything is so brilliant, try it out now!! Commander Keen in: Robot Rebellion ---------------------------------- MultiMania's first mod leads Keen to the world of robot(ic)s. It's the first part of the trilogy he is planning to do. The story is shortly this. Group of rebellious robots have formed a team and they are planning to destroy the planet (sorry, I couldn't find out what planet). Anyways, Keen must find and destroy four chips that give the robots their primary coding. They will protect them and not let you to take them very peacefully... Robot stuff is always interesting for a sci-fi/cyberpunk reader like me, and I like the story and atmosphere of the mod. It's all very colourful. The following episodes sound very interesting too, even more. Read more, here: http://durdin.net/andy/keen/modding/viewtopic.php?t=179 ** Newsletter staff comments Yorpy: Well, the mod has interesting choices of colors... but I think it also has a nice simplicity to it. xtraverse: This is a really weird mod. The levels seem very random, with pinkish backgrounds, and oddly constructed enemies. The levels are also very barren. I didn't really like this mod very much, it needs a lot of improvement to become worth playing in my opinion. KeenRush: I like it very much. Worth of a try! Dangerous Keen in the Haunted Mansion ------------------------------------- LevelLord has made really cool mod. It uses Dangerous Dave graphics, and probably the levels are similar to them too (I haven't played this Dangerous Dave episode). The story is pretty funny, basicly Keen goes in to the mansion to get stuff that Delbert's brother Dave has forgotten there. It all starts when Delbert (who is Keen's friend on this story) and Billy (Keen) are talking about the mansion and Keen wants to prove he has guts to go in the mansion. The stuff is fun, for example Dave's 'Lucky Ammo'. :D The enemies you will face there are quite scary, and this is the first Keen mod where you can see a lot gore. In case you're wimp like I am you can't get sleep on the following night after playing this mod. :) You've been warned. Ok, just kidding - I felt asleep easily. Visit LL's site to get it, she hasn't made any topic to release it, only one post. Here: http://www.freewebs.com/levellord_keen/ ** Newsletter staff comments Yorpy: It's a neat mod, interesting to have it in a mansion instead of some sort of space environment and it reminds me a bit of Monster Bash. xtraverse: This mod is very seamless. The graphics are wonderful, though I can't quite give levellord credit for them. Anyways, this is a fun mod, though a bit challenging from the sheer large amount of enemies. KeenRush: Very cool idea! Nice stuff. ModKeen 2.0 ----------- Keener adurdin did it again. Did what? Made the best Commander Keen tool ever, of course! *drool* This is probably the best thing released 3/14. This is just awesome. The new version of ModKeen tool, 2.0, lets you edit your Commander Keen 4-6 too! This is the long-wished modding tool that lets Keeners to start making Keen 4-6 mods. The tool is simple to use and those who have used the first ModKeen will get into this very quickly. I won't start explaining the use of it here, but there is good instructions on its readme. With this you can edit the same Keen 1-3 stuff you could with the first ModKeen, but the most important thing is that it can handle Keen 4-6 graphics! Yep. Tiles and sprites can be changed now. Other pictures as well. But that's not all, this can also let you edit in-game texts, demos etc... Whatever you wanted to change Keen's shirt, make Shikadi Soda gray or get your own recorded demo working, it's now possible. The new chapter in modding has begun. Read more, here: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumothercommanderkeenstuff.showMessage?topicID=855.topic ** Newsletter staff comments Yorpy: Can't wait to see all the cool things that the really talented people in this community will make with this. xtraverse: I'm drooling so much looking at this tool I'm almost drowning. This is an amazing tool that will allow great things to come from the Keen community. I'm in awe. KeenRush: Awesome tool, can't hardly wait what people can come up with it! You rule adurdin! Keen 1, CGA version ------------------- This one's really cool. Keener called Zorath has made a complete CGA version of Keen 1! It looks awesome, just like the official CGA Keen 1 probably would be if there was one. Keen feels even more classic with this little mod. :) Try it out! Read more, here: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumothercommanderkeenstuff.showMessage?topicID=856.topic ** Newsletter staff comments Yorpy: It's fun to play for a little while, and its funny to see all the yorps being purple instead of green. xtraverse: While I don't see a reason to play the CGA version if you have the EGA version, this is still a pretty cool tool. KeenRush: Heh, cool job Zorath! *thumbs up* -- KeenRush, xtraverse, Yorpy ========================================>>>>>>>> >> [2.0] Keen news << Hmmm, here are some news for this special issue. Special this is about the stuff released on 14th March. Well, what's so special about that? Well, if you turn the month before the day and change it to number, it is 3.14. or 3/14. And 314 is the IQ of Keen like you know. :) So, this is special Keen day, usually called just 3/14. :) By the way, on this news section you won't find news about the stuff released on 14th, you can find info about those on the other sections of the newsletter. See you in the next issue... ---- [2.1] Nice Keen art Keen fan called RocketJess has drawn some very good looking Keen art. Or actually, there is Mortimer McMire too! Be sure to look at this topic and check the pics: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumothercommanderkeenstuff.showMessage?topicID=849.topic Here's another cool piece of art: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumothercommanderkeenstuff.showMessage?topicID=846.topic ---- [2.2] Info about Shadowlands III Too bad the third episode of Shadowlands won't be seen on this 3/14 day... :( You can read what Ilsoap said about it, here: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumothercommanderkeenstuff.showMessage?topicID=837.topic Main thing is that you won't see it for a while, and that the name of the episode is "Swim, Swim, Angry". It will feature our favourite fish, the dopefish. :) It sounds very exciting, and Ilsoap said the episode will be happening around 60% underwater, in the depths of Three-Tooth Lake. He has said that movie "Finding Nemo" has helped a lot in the developing of the fish-animating-technique, and the biggest reason of delaying episode 3 is because it took time to plan how the dopefish could play part in the episode. :) Can't wait the results! *drool* Good luck! ---- [2.3] Mortimerish fan game I'm usually not waiting fan games very eagerly, but this one's exception! Mortimer McMire in Megabrantis Melee (M4). The game will feature Mortimer instead of Keen, and it features lot's of cool stuff. It's really interesting to play as Keen's worst enemy and so on... You can see some neat screens on the topic as well. Well, check it out here: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpimentogamedevelopment.showMessage?topicID=909.topic By the way, yes, this was going to be a mod but the author (Dr Villain) decided to do a fan game instead because that (of course) gives him a lot more freedom on the game making... ---- [2.4] New mod started BBalazs has started to make a Keen 1 mod with his brother SkypestB2. There's interesting ideas on it and it will feature the dopefish. :) Read more here: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpimentogamedevelopment.showMessage?topicID=920.topic ---- [2.5] Commander Keen 0 new release One of my favourite modifications, Commander Keen 0, has been released. If I understood correctly it's now finished. Anyways, read more here: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpimentogamedevelopment.showMessage?topicID=910.topic Visit its site here and download it there: http://www.angelfire.com/games5/keen0/ Good job ElecDude33, this mod is awesome! :) --KeenRush ========================================>>>>>>>> >> [3.0] Miscellaneous << ---- [3.1] Announcements This is just a small issue for the celebration of 3/14. We hope that it was helpful in finding out all the spiffy things that were released for that day. And thanks to all the keeners who put so much work into their mods and tools for mods, without them this wouldn't have been a very exciting 3/14. --Yorpy ---- [3.2] Credits Yorpy - composition, comments on releases MRC Marky - website, graphics KeenRush - news, release roundup writeup xtraverse - hosting, working on HTML issues, comments on releases Forge315 - started this newsletter ========================================>>>>>>>> * swim swim hungry *