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: November 30, (dec 1) 2002 Working Title: Mr. Flash Keen (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 [1.1] Interview with Ilsoap (Chris Hendrix) [1.2] Using TileInfo [2] Fan Game Reviews [2.1] Rule of A Yorps Supper [3] Website Reviews [3.1] Screenhog Multimedia [3.2] Quest of Commander Keen [3.3] Keen Signs [4] Monthly Fiction [4.1] Two Heads Are Better Than One [5] Keen Community News [5.1] Keen art!! [5.2] Some Keen modding news... [5.3] Pac-Keen website! [5.4] Some Keen games... [5.5] New graphics in Public Commander Keen Forum!! [5.6] Talking about TileInfo... [5.7] #keeners channel moved! [5.8] Getting Keen rights back to Tom Hall... :D [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 Ilsoap CK-Newsletter: What's your history with computer games, how many systems have you owned? Ilsoap: My first computer system was a good old Commodore 64 when I was 4. Black & white screen, no sound (not even a PC speaker). We only had one game for it, entitled "Gorf". You've probably played a version of it... it was one of those games where you are a plane at the bottom of the screen, only moving left and right and shooting. You have a couple rows of aliens above you moving back and forth, the more aliens you shoot, the faster the rest of them go. If the aliens reach you before you're able to shoot them all, you die. It don't sound like much, but back then, it was AWESOME! :) My next computer was a 286 when I was about 9. It was good enough to do homework from and play games, but old enough to still have one of those 5 1/2 black floppy drives (I still love those things) and only use DOS. It had about 20 games on it; titles you might recognize include Hugo's House of Horrors I, Dangerous Dave, and my favorite at the time, Commander Keen 1. The first time I saw Commander Keen 1 I thought "Whoa!!! This is just like Mario Brothers!". Hey, I was 9, what did I know? When I was 13, we finally got an up-to-date (at the time) system with a COLOR monitor. Pentium 150, Windows 95, 16 MB RAM, and 2.0 (count 'em 2.0!) Gigs of HD space. Ohhh, yeah, baby. I bought quite a few games for it, but I was never much of a 3D games fan, and stuck mostly with sidescrollers (although I was halfway decent at Mechwarrior II at one point). I still use this computer, by the way. It still has a great sound card on it... it's the computer that I record all of the voices and music for "Shadowlands". Last year, I got a computer that was finally worthy of doing animations and complex stuff. For all the nerds out there that actually care (and I mean that in the nicest possible way), it's a Pentium 300, Windows 98 (I don't want to switch to Windows ME, you can't make me.), 196 MB RAM. Not a 3D-gaming marvel, but great for what I need it for. And it plays all the Commander Keen episodes just fine, thank you very much. :) Question: Your game ROAYS, which is on indefinite hold, but how much of the rest is planned out? Answer: I planned out a great deal of it, actually. I think I posted my complete plans for the game on the message boards several months ago, but to quickly recap: - Norp finally gets to talk to Messie. They talk about Keen's disappearance, and Messie promises to help however possible. He gives Norp a special device that will transport him anywhere he's needed. Norp thanks Messie, heads back to the BwB, they fly off towards the Kavicious system. - Along the way, Norp and the janitor guy recieve a message on the BwB radio. It's Princess Lindsey, and she's in some kind of emergency. Norp informs her that Keen is missing, and as soon as Keen is found, they'll help her out. Lindsey says to please hurry. - BwB arrives at the Kavicious system. The world map here is three small planets, each with 3 or 4 levels on them, and each with two transporters. The planet's names are Muk (sticky planet), Mech (factory planet), and Mango (jungle planet). The transporters are what moves you between the planets (like Keen 1). One of the levels on each planet is a level with a big switch. If you hit the switch, that level is destroyed. If you destroy all three of those levels, the planets start breaking up! - One-third of each planet breaks off. They join together in the center of the three planets to make one. Norp, fortunately, is one of the big pieces, and so is now on a planet made up of parts of all three worlds. He goes through two more levels, before coming to an ocean that he can't cross. Fortunately, he brought that little device with him that transports Messie, so he presses it, and Messie appears. Norp rides on Messie's back to the other side. On the other side of that ocean is a sinister-looking cave. Norp has to get through it, and if he does, he reaches the spot where Mortimer McMire is holding Keen. This part cuts to a scene that's all animated. - Keen is strapped to a table. Some funny-looking laser is pointed at him. Mortimer McMire is laughing about his success so far. Neither of them have seen Norp yet. Mort - "Any last words Keen?" Keen - "Not a chance, Mortimer." Mort - "That will do." - Mortimer presses a button, and a countdown sounds as the laser powers up. 10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... Norp - "Nooooooo!!!" - He runs in front of the laser just as it blasts. The laser zaps Norp instead of Keen, Norp falls to the ground. Mort - "That wasn't supposed to happen?!!! No, no, no!!!" (He blasts off... I'm editing this for time.) - Keen is shocked, but before he can say anything Norp suddenly turns all white, and is transformed into... into... a garg! Apparently, the ray was not built to be hit by yorps, and it caused an unusual reaction in the Martian. Norp takes Keen down, and they both go off to help Princess Lindsey. In episode 2, Norp the Garg starts getting wobbly and sick. Keen figures that it's probably due to the ray that hit him, that Norp isn't stable as a Garg. He lands on the nearest planet and searches for a cure for him. Keen, in the end, finds the cure, and it further transforms Norp into a new alien form. The BwB continues on its mission to help Princess Lindsey. If you want to see what Norp would look like in Episode 3, go into the hall of statues and look at the very last one. That's him. Episode 3... rescuing Lindsey. Don't know how that would go. I figured if I got that far, I'd just make something up. :) Wow... I really gotta start using shorter answers here. These last ones were long! *gets drink of water* Question: What do you hope to achieve with your art abilities? Answer: In short, I would love to be as influential in animation as Chuck Jones was... and give me about 200 years, I might be able to do that. (Chuck Jones, by the way, was basically THE main guy in creating Looney Tunes... brilliant man.) Basically, I wouldn't mind getting famous for what I do (art, music, animation) but I'd want to be famous for making wholesome stuff that doesn't make you dumber after you've been exposed to it. Most of television is like that now... it's sad. Question: You do contract work through your website, what experiences has this provided? Answer: Some great, some not so great. It's great being able to do stuff for other people, so that when they look at it, they say "Cool!". It's been surprising, though, just how often that DOESN'T happen... there are times when the clients hate your stuff. That's frustrating. Question: Are you going to do anything with the character Ilsoap in the future, can you tell our readers what I'm talking about? Answer: Ilsoap is the name of the cartoon character that I started as a doodle in 1995. Think Bart Simpson with a larger nose, half the attitude, and less points on his head. From him sprung a whole comic series that I started and worked on for about 3 years. I created over 700 newspaper-size comics about him and his pals in a comic strip I called "Teenagers". So what am I doing with him and the rest of the guys from that comic strip? Well, if you've seen all the animations on my site (www.screenhog.com), you've seen some of them already. "Flit's Problem" an animation I'm working on about a bird and a mosquito, uses three of the characters in that series. And Ilsoap has gotten a face-lift, I've redrawn him so that he would be more appealing to watch moving around. You might see him too, in a little series I've been thinking about called "Frogman". But, then again, you might not, so I'd rather not give any details about that. Question: What are some colors you like and why do you like them? Answer: Yellow, red, and orange, simply because they're "warm" colors. Question: Where are you from, do you have siblings? Answer: I'm from British Columbia, Canada. I've lived there all my life, and it's great! I happen to live in an area of Canada that frequently is the warmest place in Canada during the year, so I don't quite fit the Canadian stereotype (wearing fur coats, riding dog sleds... yeah, I've heard all the jokes). I have two half- brothers. One is 3, and the other just turned 1. Now THAT'S been fun. Question: We all get our nerves raised a bit, perhaps while studying hard or a relationship problem, what antidote does Ilsoap use to calm himself? Answer: Step 1: Find a mallet. Step 2: Carefully aim for a location on your skull... Just kidding. Real answer... God. I am a Christian (for all that don't know... now you do), and whenever I have problems that are beyond what I can humanly take - and believe me, I've had some - I go to God about it. Yeah, I'm sure there are a few groans from the people reading this right now, but I can tell you, the happiest times of my life are when I'm closest to Him. I could go really far and deep into that... I won't. I'll just say this... over the last few years, I've tried to be as unbiased as possible, comparing everything I see to what I had learned from childhood, and seeing if I had been misinformed all these years, that this whole God thing is really a hoax, that Jesus was just a "nice guy". I even started from scratch and asked myself the question "How much could I prove about the existence of God, using only what I see and straight logic?". I ended up proving quite a bit, at least to my satisfaction. I wouldn't trade my relationship with God for anything. Question: Do you have a philosophy for living, something like "eat drink and be merry" or something more complex? Answer: See question 8. If you want my personal motto: "Let love and faithfulness never leave you, bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man." Proverbs 3:3,4. That's one of my favorite Bible verses. Question: How did you discover Keen, and what happened so that you ended up in the Community? Answer: I already mentioned my discovering of Keen up in question 1. As for the Keen community... when I got the Internet, it didn't take me long to figure out "I wonder if any of my favorite games have more information about them?". That was about 4 years ago, and the site that had the most information, by far, was Cerebral Cortex 314 (run at the time by Geoff Sims). Back then, the messageboard was on InsideTheWeb, and the main problem on the board was constant posts by someone named "Peter Heardgahna" or something like that. (All you Keen old- timers say "Mmm-hmmm.") Well, when I discovered there was a community, I started posting here and there... I guess I just got hooked. :) Question: I consider playing Commander Keen a favorite past time, is there something you like doing occasionally as such? Answer: Playing piano is a big one. I'm at a Grade 8 level in piano, which means that I could officially start piano teaching as my job if I wanted to. But it's fun just plunking on it for 20 minutes, picking out songs, discovering chords you never knew were possible. Question: Would you please explain shortly (or longly) the process that goes into making one of your animations? Answer: Oooh. OK. First of all, all animations are different, and not all of these steps are always followed to the letter, but here's the basic idea: Concept: Think of the idea, and rework it, and rework it, and rework it. Think of a great idea and make as few flaws in your idea as possible, because you don't want to animate something for 10 hours only to discover that you can't use it anywhere. Storyboards (scripts that look like comic strips) are very helpful here. Also, before you finish the animation, FIGURE OUT HOW IT WILL END!!! Ending the animation right is the single hardest thing to plan for, because the feeling that the audience gets when the animation finishes is exactly how they'll remember it later. Draw: Get out a pencil, and draw out some of the characters. You can draw straight on computer if you want to, but in most cases, drawing by hand is the best. Test animations: These are animations that test how a character moves. For instance, in Shadowlands, I had to test animate the Shikadi a couple times to see just how it would work, find out how to animate an energy being, seeing how heavy I could go on their special effects before it bogs down the computer. Most of the test animations I did for Shadowlands did actually get into the first episode, by the way. Animate: There's only so much testing you can do before you just have to go to it and animate. Work on a small scene first. Sometimes it's helpful to draw the background first and then the characters on top, sometimes you have to draw the characters first and then fit the background to work with them. Either way, just plug at it. Also, if you can get your hand on a device called a tablet, GET IT! It allows you to draw on the computer screen as if you're using a regular pen... the best thing for a serious animator. Voices and lip syncing: Many people wonder how voice is put onto animations... do you animate first and put the voice on later, or do you do the voice first and then animate the lip movements? The answer is the second one... the voice is done first, and then you animate the character and the character's mouth to the expression in the voice. This is incredibly time-consuming, but if you get to the point where people say "I can watch your movie with the sound off and still figure out some of the words they're saying" it's worth it. Sound Fx: I'm not very organized when I do this. You're supposed to put sound fx on after the animation is all finished, but I just like hearing them as soon as possible so that I get the feel of the movie as soon as possible. Either way works. Watch: Once you're done, watch it over and over to see if you can find any little flaws (color that doesn't match, backgrounds that need more detail). Then, hopefully, you're done! And a great wave of satisfaction shall wash over you. Question: What elements from the world influence you artistically, how do you use these influential elements? Answer: Everything will influence me in some way. The music on a car advertisement might inspire a piece of music. Watching the behavior of animals may influence the way I animate a creature. I have a character on my site named Keeko that is currently a blend of Timon from the Lion King, the walk of a cat, the eyes of a frog, and the tail of a squirrel. But there are some specifics: - Veggietales: wonderful animated video series put out by Big Idea (www.bigidea.com). Virtually every character in the series has neither arms nor legs, so it helped a great deal in figuring out how to animate licks, mushrooms, and slugs. - Looney Tunes: great comic timing, wonderful humor... you can't not like at least ONE character from Looney Tunes. - Commander Keen: well, obviously! Parts of Episode 1 and/or 2 were also inspired by little bits of "The Simpsons", "Animaniacs", "Powerpuff Girls", and believe it or not, "The Weakest Link". Question: When did you first take the idea of making a Keen flash animation seriously, and begin to ponder it? Answer: Shadowlands began as a fictional story of mine called "The War of Lick-Poo" on the "Lickology" site (one of Quest King's -ology sites, all you Keen old-timers say "Mmm-hmmm" again.). According to the story, several years before Keen ever visited Gnosticus IV, licks were the rulers of the planet. But then the Shikadi show up, drop the slugs off on the planet, the slugs and licks argue about who's planet it is, each side gets some allies among the aliens on Gnosticus, and they fight a war. A cute little story, and I was quite happy about it. A couple months later, I was considering the idea of creating some sort of Keen screensaver with "The Games Factory". But what to do? Of course! The War Of Lick-Poo! I'd divide the aliens in Keen 4 into 3 sides (licks, slugs, and neutral), and make little scenes where they fight it out. Needless to say, I never actually made it. Then I discovered Flash animation. As soon as I had finished a course in it, I knew I wanted to animate something Keeny. But what? Of course! "Keen vs. The Pizza Planet!" Seriously. That was my first animation idea. Plot: Commander Keen gets a distress call from Gnosticus IV. All of the Mad Mushrooms have disappeared! They have been kidnapped by the Mozzas of the Pizza Planet, who are trying to make toppings for the perfect pizza! I had made characters, too. The King, Mozza Giganticus (a.k.a. the Big Cheese) and his Olive Stampeder troops, Anchovy Squad, clouds made from oregano, and even fighter ships that looked roughly like pizza boxes. Aren't you glad some of my Commander Keen friends talked me out of that one? :) But then the Lick-Poo idea came back into my head. I experimented with it, drew out the rough storyboards for Episodes 1 & 2, and realized "Hey... this could work!" And it has. Question: In your animation the Licks and Slugs are at war, did Mort do something to them so that they'd work together to kill Keen? Answer: Actually, no. The Shikadi place the Slugs on Gnosticus IV just to get them out of the way. They don't care about what happens on Gnosticus IV at first. What they want is something specifically on Slugaria, the Slug's home planet. Question: Flaws, the not so perfect animation in the corner that nobody notices but drives you crazy, is there any? Answer: Always. You always see stuff you want to tweak. In Ep. II, for instance, I've had the most annoying time trying to figure how Inchworms and Wormmouths look like when they're talking. It sounds simple now, but animating those guys convincingly has proved surprisingly difficult. I also wish I could have done more effects with the Shikadi in the first episode, and that I had had time to add a few "deleted" scenes (stuff I had to remove from the original script). Question: After your done creating Keen Flash animations, will you still contribute art to the Keenness that is? Answer: Done creating Keen Flash animations? Is that possible? CK-Newsletter: It's been great doing this interview with you, thanks from the Newsletter team. Ilsoap: You're welcome. I'm very happy that this newsletter has continued for as long as it has. ---------------------- [1.2] Using TileInfo To make any use of this article you'll need to have read the previous article about modkeen and tileinfo, that was in last months October issue. It's located at our website: www.commanderkeen.net/cknews/ Open tileinfo and load the default tiles from Keen1, and import the information of these tiles. We'll now talk about how to set the behavior of these tiles. Block Behavior This is pretty self-explanatory but I'll explain a little. Select the behavior you want the block to have from the drop down menu. Then push in any of the buttons around the tile's picture to set what sides it'll be impassible from. (By selecting the behavior of the tile you made it impassible from the top already.) General Behavior There's a limit to the general behavior, you can only set one, so you can't have Keen collect a point and it give him a message too. Another limit is that not everything in this menu can be used in Keen1 or will work correctly with it. The Ankh from Keen3 or the light switches from Keen2 are good examples. The light switch will work but the Vorticons wont stop jumping -- drat! Then the Ankh, (I think) causes the game to crash, ouch! The first thing on the selection is "kills," so if you want your tile to harm (putting it lightly) Keen, use this. Only two other selections are of use to us right now, the "Masked" and "Foreground". Selecting the "foreground" will make the tile appear in front of Keen, this is used for some pillars in the last level of Keen one. However if you want part of this foreground translucent or see through like then use "masked". Masked Tiles A masked tile is like the one in this picture: http://www.commanderkeen.net/cknews/screens/misc4_a.bmp The left side of the image is well -- the image, and the right the masking information. In the right image the color black is use to represent what areas of the left image you want to be in the foreground, and the color white represents what areas will be part of the background. So if Keen were to walk into this tile (as he does in Keen3) he would appear to stand behind the tree branch and in front of the blue sky. To use masked in tileinfo only give the masked setting to the left image, and leave the right one with no settings whatsoever. You can apply an additional affect with masked tiles by using colors other than black or white. I can't tell you exactly how this works, but if you have time to experiment it could yielded an interesting effect and liven up your MOD a bit. Animation Frames You can only have two or four frames in an animation, and there's no way to change the rate at which these frames pass. Supposedly each frame of an animation has to have the same blocking behavior and general behavior, never tried anything else but that's what Andrew said. (Andrew made this program.) A limit of animations is that they can't be masked, so Keen can't stand behind a swaying tree branch. Though you can set it to foreground, just remember each frame must have the same properties. Lets put our new abilities to the test, (stop sweating) go ahead and take away the harming attribute of the flames in Keen1. Then save these attributes, and name the file "bob". Okay so now you've save the file, but how do you use it? Well we'll need two things, "ck#patch.exe" to import the new tile information and a "bat" file to execute this process. We use the "bat" file so we don't waist time typing in something like "ck1patch.exe bob.pat" every time we want to test the new tile attributes. You already have the patching utility; it's located in the "tededit.zip" file you downloaded last time. It's location is: tededit.zip\ckpatch051.zip\ck#patch.exe Copy the file "ck1patch.exe" and put it into a folder with a copy of Keen1, make sure that the "keen1.exe" in the folder is the decompressed one. You could probably use the same folder that you used last time with ModKeen, since it had all the Keen1 files and a decompressed "keen1.exe". Place a copy of the two files called bob into this folder too. The next thing on our list is to make a file with the "*.bat" extension. To do this open a Command Prompt window, and exit out of any directories you're in; if you don't remember how this is done type, "cd\". (You need to know this stuff!) Now type "edit" this should take you to a blue screen. Then we type in what we need the "bat" file to do. We need it to run the patch program, which works by typing in it's name and the name of the file it should run. So go ahead and type, "ck1patch.exe bob.pat". Now you need to save this line of text, you can use you mouse to select the "file" option from the menu and then the "save as". Now type what you want to name this file, I picked "mars-bob.bat". Press enter or return to save. Then from the file menu select exit. (Alternatively this can also be accomplished by renaming a text with the bat extension. Aren't I wicked!) Copy the bat file you just created into your Keen1 folder, but don't run it. A little change needs to be made in the "bob.pat" file first. You can do this in notepad, so open the file and you'll see some text. What we're interested in is this text: %version 1.1 %patchfile 0x131F8 bob.tli %version 1.31 %patchfile 0x130F8 bob.tli The two sections are for two different version of Keen1. We need to delete the one that we don't have, else this pat file wont work! There are two ways to find out what version of Keen1 you have. If your computers really slow than you can read what version you have when the program loads, this isn't likely. So I suggest opening it up in notepad and doing a search for the word "version". Once this is done delete the appropriate text. Run the "mars-bob.bat" and go to a level with fire, then proudly walk through and declare yourself the fire god of Mars. If you have any trouble post them at our forum: www.commanderkeen.net/ckforum/ Next month we'll finish up these articles. By discuss the ending screens for Keen1-3, more limitations of Keen1 tiles, and how to design tiles. - Forge315 ----------------------------------------------- [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] Rule of A Yorps Supper Game Rating Good (8/10) Quality - 7/10 Originality - 9/10 Keenishness - 9/10 download game: http://www.commanderkeen.net/cknews/files/game29_1.zip Declared the best TGF/CNC type game by many, ROAYS stands a distance from the average CNC type game. Even eK (project leader of Isis II) says it may be better than "Isis II". Why is ROAYS thought of so highly? Well it doesn't suffer constant from the same bugs that plague every game made with TGF. There are still problems though, and I'll try and list the ones I found in this review. The plot conceived for this game was probably the first of it's kind. Let the star of the game be Norp, (or Spot) Keen's pet Yorp. For the record Keen Yorpy's official name is Spot, but Norp is well favored among fans. So it's suppertime and Norp's food bowl is empty, it shouldn't be empty because Keen was just gonna feed his pet. But Keen seems to have just disappeared! Not knowing what to do Norp goes to Mars for a talk with an elder Yorp, this is where I shut up (about the plot) and the game starts. If there's sound or music in the game it doesn't work for me, though from the likes of Ilsoap you can expect the best. (The game will be marked down because it didn't work or had none though.) The animation and graphics in the game are topnotch in my opinion. The animation of one foe found in a hole located on the planet "Gnosticenes IV," impressed me. It has a round head with two tentacles sticking out of it's bottom, one green the other red, given enough time these two tentacles will spin and the creature will float. Additionally about the foes is that each level or area seems to have unique selection of creatures, all well drawn. The graphics are simple in approach and don't try to wow you with many colors but are very well done. A good example will be the water level, decorated with anchors, old boots, and sea life. The background of the level fit it nicely, and didn't interfere with game play as a game like Cosmo's does. This level however has the most aggravating bug, if you die the game shows you a menu asking if you want to continue or go back to the world, you can't select either choice in this level and so must start all over again. It's a short demo so that's not much trouble but if you die again you may get my point. Creativity in level design is limited and perhaps the lowest part of the game. There are no collectible point items in this demo; though there are point objects. (This is abandoned but the final release should have points.) You can lick objects using the "Shift" key, and depending on the object it will take away points or give you some, points are also given when you kill a foe. The level I would highlight is a level that has a drilling device of some kind; Norp can hop onto this vehicle and lay waist to any foe in his path, you are also protected from the level's spiky ground. There was a bug in this level that made it impossible for me to beat it the normal way. I'll say one more thing, this game is driven by a good plot and Keenishness, not collecting points or level design. What are the pros and cons? Cons: no sound, some bugs, and basic level design, which may be crutched by an overbearing plot. (the plot controls the level) Pros: great graphics, nice plot, and in this case the lack of many bugs is good. - 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] Screenhog Multimedia Site Rating: Excellent Quality - 10/10 Originality - 10/10 Keenishness - N/A Overall - 10/10 http://screenhog.com/ This is Ilsoap's site. He is the creator of the popular Shadowlands animation series. The site is visually appealing. Flash is used on the site very well. It provides cool little animations without overtaking the site. Also it loaded very quickly even on dialup. Features include animations, sounds and puzzles. The "Quickies" don't take long to load and are fun to watch. There's lots of stuff to on this site to keep you entertained for a while so its definately worth a visit. - Yorpy ---------------------- [3.2] Quest of Commander Keen Site Rating: Excellent Quality - 8/10 Originality - 9/10 Keenishness - 10/10 Overall - 9/10 http://www.angelfire.com/pq/quest/ Here is a classic Keen site. It hasn't been updated for awhile but much of the information presented on the site is still valid and useful. Most useful on the site are the sections explaining different hints and cheats that make playing the game easier. There are step by step directions on how to get to the secret levels in each of the games. And explainations for the SGA signs and the yorp statues in Keen 1. This site would be an execellent resource for someone wanting to know more about the Commander Keen games. Sadly many of the graphics do not work, it seems like it would have been cool to see the screenshots from the descritpions given of them. - Yorpy ---------------------- [3.3] Keen Signs Site Rating: Good Quality - 9/10 Originality - 10/10 Keenishness - 8/10 Overall - 8/10 http://come.to/keensigns/ This website is perfect for those of you who have trouble memorizing the SGA and are always wondering what those signs that are all over the place say. For each of the Keen games there are pictures of the SGA signs with the translations along with a few other pictures scattered about. It looks like there was once a SGA translation guide but the link does not work. This site is very simple but does provide a way to easily look up the signs and their translations. - Yorpy ----------------------------------------------- [4] Monthly Fiction [4.1] Two Heads Are Better Than One Chapter 1 Jupiter. Famous for two things: it's the largest planet in our solar system, and it has a gigantic swirling hurricane on it that has been nicknamed "The Big Red Spot". Voyager XIX, an unmanned space probe, slowly passes by the bulky planet taking pictures and scientific readings before moving on towards Saturn and the outer gas giant planets. However, had Voyager XIX been focused on one of Jupiter's moons instead, it just might have caught a glimpse of another Spot. "Hey, Spot! Fetch the stick!" A small, one-eyed yorp scampers after a small tree branch flying through the air. Looking quite funny with its stumpy legs and wide triangular body, it nevertheless manages to retrieve the stick before returning the way it came. It's owner is, of course, none other than intergalactic hero Billy Blaze, better known as: COMMANDER KEEN!!! DEFENDER OF THE UNIVERSE!!! However, on this day, Commander Keen is not saving the universe, or the galaxy, or even a solar system. He's just playing fetch with his pet yorp. Spot has been one of Keen's best friends since Keen found him two years ago, but one of the challenges of having a space alien for a pet is the matter of giving it proper exercise. Keen of course can't take it to any normal park on earth due to its appearance, so once a week, Keen brings Spot, along with his favorite stick, into his homemade interstellar spaceship, flies to Jupiter's moon, Io, and lets it run free for a few hours. The yorp has no trouble breathing the toxic air of Io, but Keen had to improvise by wearing one of his inventions, nicknamed the "Ankh Bubble" after a device he found on a previous adventure. It works like a protective magnetic field, shielding him and filtering the air. After Spot gets his exercise, it's back home they go, just in time for supper. And so it goes, week after week, running around and playing fetch, until one day, Spot did not bring back his favorite stick. "Whatcha got there, boy?" In his rather large mouth, Spot held a heavy metal object. It had a small green light blinking on it, but was otherwise just a dull grey slab of metal. Keen reached forward to grab the object and look at it closer, but as soon as his hand touched it, a bright light blinded Keen, and he fell down unconscious. Within a minute, Keen came to. He shook his head a bit, then slowly looked around. All seemed to be normal, he didn't have any bruises, and Spot was... gone!! Keen quickly got up, ran to look for his friend, but tripped on a crack in the ground. Getting back up, he began running again, but tripped once more. Odd, he thought, I may be a science nerd, but I'm still usually more coordinated than this... maybe I'll have more of a chance of spotting him from my ship. Keen turned to walk back to the ship, but again fell over. "What in the galaxy is wrong with me?", he said out loud. Slowly, and with great determination, he finally made it to his ship. He shut the door behind him, and laid down on the floor, confused. "Having problems, Commander Clown???" said a voice over the ship's intercom. Keen knew who it was. His continual nemesis, Mortimer McMire was behind this!! "What did you do to me? And what have you done with Spot?" Keen demanded. "I would answer your questions for you, and the answer to both of those questions is one and the same. But, as we all know, Keen, a picture is worth a thousand words. Just look in a mirror, and I think you will begin to understand." A mirror? Keen slowly got up and walked to the reflective surface of his ship's control panel. "AAAAAAAAUUGH!!!!" Keen stared, then felt his face with his hands. Everything was the same, save one detail. He only had one eye. ...TO BE CONTINUED - Chris (c) ----------------------------------------------- [5] Keen Community News Hi all, another month has just rushed over us... Soon comes X-Mas, just have to wait some more time. Well, here's your news for this month! :D [5.1] Keen art!! On this month Keen fans have done some really cool looking 3D Keen related pictures. There's bird, Robo Red and some others in 3D. Check them out! Ofcourse some stuff from Xtraverse, bird and inchworm: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumothercommanderkeenstuff.showM essage?topicID=512.topic Robo Red model with Gmax, made by scalloped llama: http://www.geocities.com/scalloped_llama/RoboRed.jpg More stuff from Xtraverse, this time Robo Red model: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumothercommanderkeenstuff.showM essage?topicID=502.topic Sphereful from Keen 5, made by Killspy: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumothercommanderkeenstuff.showM essage?topicID=503.topic Afternoons in Border Village, made by Killspy: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumothercommanderkeenstuff.showM essage?topicID=505.topic Keen 5 Sparky, by Killspy, check it out here: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumothercommanderkeenstuff.showM essage?topicID=495.topic Yorp music video trailer, see what Manboy has been working on: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumothercommanderkeenstuff.showM essage?topicID=493.topic And the last one, VERY DISPLEASED WITH YOU ALL, by Manboy: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumothercommanderkeenstuff.showM essage?topicID=507.topic Woah, I hope that was all... Keep up the good work, Keen modellers! ---------------------- [5.2] Some Keen modding news... If you like Keen mods as much as I do, here's some good news for you! I asked in the Public Commander Keen Forums something about Keeners' modding. Check out this topic: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumothercommanderkeenstuff.showM essage?topicID=508.topic Two words from XkyRauh2001, no other info: Keen Xtreme. Something from Xtraverse too, Norp the Yorp in: Diffusion. And Ceilick has started to make part two of his mod trilogy. And I haven't been jobless too... :) ---------------------- [5.3] Pac-Keen website! Keen fan called Keengamer has opened a site for his upcoming Commander Keen fan game called Pac-Keen. You can find info about the game and ofcourse some screenshots! Check it out from: http://www.freewebs.com/jawawars/pac-keen/ ---------------------- [5.4] Some Keen games... Here's some Commander Keen fan game news, not in any order, as usually. :) Keen fan called Cobra189 has started a new Keen game, find more here: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpimentogamedevelopment.showMessage?topicID=629.topic Keen fans have asked about Isis II on Public Commander Keen Forum: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpimentogamedevelopment.showMessage?topicID=599.topic Some Adventures of Commander Keen news can be found here, if you're interested: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpimentogamedevelopment.showMessageRange?topicID=614.t opic&start=1&stop=20 New member in the forums called Bloogaurd has started a new Keen game called Star Blooglet, where you have to control blooglet(!!): http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpimentogamedevelopment.showMessage?topicID=607.topic Keener called sinistercreature (from Quasar Software) has started a new Keen game called Commander Keen in: Ancient Rivalry. More can be found here: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpimentogamedevelopment.showMessage?topicID=612.topic Hope I didn't miss any... :) ---------------------- [5.5] New graphics in Public Commander Keen Forum!! The hub of Keeners, http://pub128.ezboard.com/bpubliccommanderkeenforum, has received some new graphics made by Too Much Spare Time, read more here: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumothercommanderkeenstuff.showM essage?topicID=498.topic ---------------------- [5.6] Talking about TileInfo... For those who are interested about Keen modding, there could be some info: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumothercommanderkeenstuff.showM essage?topicID=513.topic ---------------------- [5.7] #keeners channel moved! For those who like to talk about Keen via IRC, the new channel can be found from irc.mircx.com, there join channel #keeners. ---------------------- [5.8] Getting Keen rights back to Tom Hall... :D We had this kind of topic in PCKF, it can be fun reading for someone: http://pub128.ezboard.com/fpubliccommanderkeenforumtheoriginalcommanderkeenga.sh owMessage?topicID=474.topic ---------------------- Well, see you again in the next issue! ;) - KeenRush ----------------------------------------------- [6] Miscellaneous Stuff [6.1] Fan Art So I don't think there was any fan art last month, but this month there is at least in the way in which we consider to be fan art. And that include box scans and manuals; and that's what we have. Game Boy Color Keen – Box Scan http://www.commanderkeen.net/cknews/art28_b.zip Game Boy Color Keen – Manual (missing pages 8-9) http://www.commanderkeen.net/cknews/screens/art29_b.zip I'll put the missing pages of the GBC Keen manual in by next month. Also we should have a scan of the Keen4-5 box and the little manual that comes with it. - Forge315 ---------------------- [6.2] Announcements I lost Internet access for about half a day, so if you're wondering that why the September issue has been released on the first of December that's why. The Newsletter team will be working hard to bring you a new design of our website by the next issue. There will be some more sections, but basically it'll be just new graphics. And if you skipped it there was a fan fiction this month, :) - Forge315 ---------------------- [6.3] Credits Too Much Spare Time: Some Proofreading KeenRush: The news MRCMarky/AEWorld: Did new design (can't see it yet!) Yorpy: Website reviews Forge315: Newsletter composition Other thanks: Well Ilsoap was just gonna contribute the fan fic, but we didn't let him get away! ----------------------------------------------- "Swim swim I see a turkey, And he makes me hungry!" BuRp!