Your Favorite Keen Mods!

You can discuss anything about fan-made Commander Keen games here.
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KeenRush
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Post by KeenRush »

Always nice to see some people liking my mods enough to mention them. :) Cheers.

Randomized order: Clouds Unseen, Monkey Business beta, Birdman, Bazooka Wowbagger, Xky's One Level Mod, Episode X, Episode Null, Kidnapped Keen, Commander Keen 0 (elecdude's weird mod), Episode Dash. :dopekeen Edit: and of course Ceilick's K4 and K5 mods.

There are save states in DosBox now? Cool.
My newest mod - Commander Keen: Sunset: viewtopic.php?t=8568 | codename H.Y.E.N.A.
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Post by Dynamo »

Anything that doesn't come with frustrating jump tricks/traps that are impossible to avoid and that plays well.

I think my favourite mods are Keen X, hiding from the sky, and the TUIT unofficial series.

I still hate Genius314 for those spikes in the first level of clones of evil.
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mortimermcmirestinks
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Post by mortimermcmirestinks »

NO CONTEST! CEILICK'S "UNIVERSE IS TOAST" TRILOGY!!! CEILICK YOU ARE AWESOME!!!!!!!! sorry, i'm a little emphatic about that.
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tulip
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Post by tulip »

what really pisses me off about those "Ceilick's is the only good mod" opinions out there is that 90% of guys saying that haven't even tried any other mod yet.
Don't get me wrong, Ceilick's mods are awesome, and Ceilick is freakishly skilled in making mods, but there ARE other good mods too.
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XkyRauh
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Post by XkyRauh »

tulip wrote:what really pisses me off about those "Ceilick's is the only good mod" opinions out there is that 90% of guys saying that haven't even tried any other mod yet.
Don't get me wrong, Ceilick's mods are awesome, and Ceilick is freakishly skilled in making mods, but there ARE other good mods too.
Thank you for saying this. :) There are tons of mods that people put good time into creating!
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The Keen Commander
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Post by The Keen Commander »

@ Tulip:

I understand your sentiment, but bear in mind, Ceilick's Unofficial TUIT mods are what drew many (including myself) to the forum...naturally, they rank pretty high on my list, if only for that reason. Its not to say that I don't like other mods...but those are the ones that come to mind first, and there are still many I have not played. Plus, I'm also a much bigger fan of Galaxy mods as opposed to Vorticon mods, so that only makes them easier to appreciate.
I'd like to get a Futurama mod going. Here's what I've got so far:
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http://www.pckf.com/viewtopic.php?t=2152
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Syllypryde
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Post by Syllypryde »

XkyRauh wrote:
tulip wrote:what really pisses me off about those "Ceilick's is the only good mod" opinions out there is that 90% of guys saying that haven't even tried any other mod yet.
Don't get me wrong, Ceilick's mods are awesome, and Ceilick is freakishly skilled in making mods, but there ARE other good mods too.
Thank you for saying this. :) There are tons of mods that people put good time into creating!
I agree with both of you and that there are dozens of mods out there worth playing or at the very least checking out. But both of you also have to bear in mind the individual circumstances in which each Keener has been exposed to not only the original Keen games but also the mods and levelpacks. To the general public, PCKF, Garg's Maze, Bipship etc. are relatively unknown.

For anyone who abandoned the original games years ago and made their way back to Keen, or people who are just now discovering Keen are most likely going to get their information on Commander Keen through sites like Wikopedia or seeing various levels being played out on YouTube. On Wikipedia, the only mention of mods are Ceilick's Unofficial TUIT. On YouTube, again, the only unofficial levels I have seen in videos are Ceilick's vision of TUIT. So for causal fans of Commander Keen or people just getting into Keen, chances are the only mods they will have heard of are Ceilick's TUIT!!!

Assuming some of these people like TUIT enough to pursue further information on the original games themselves, this forum or where to download additional mods to play, chances are the mods many may download first are Ceilick's other mods. By this point if they are still playing Commander Keen regularly, eventually they will try the other mods. Like most modders, I would like to think Ceilick's primary intention was for his mods to be played by the Keen Community here and on the Modding Forum. Why Ceilick's Unofficial TUIT gained semi-mainstream exposure and everyone else's mods pretty much remained obscure, is certainly a mystery to me and perhaps others.

Another factor the two of you have to keep in mind is each individual Keener's preference in game engines. For those Keeners who prefer the Vorticons engine or do not care less either way (Keen is Keen!!!) there are 50+ mods for them to choose from as well as dozens of different modders to become fans of. For those of us (I fall into this category) who prefer the Galaxy Engine, for the most part, Ceilick is pretty much all we have! Galaxy mods and levelpacks are very scarce and most of what is available are 1-level or demos. I have pretty much played it all and as cool as many of them are, they will never come close to a full mod! Other than NY0123's Keen 6 mod Aliens Ate My Babysitter... Again (which I consider to be more of a levelpack rather than a mod, nevertheless I like it better than the original Keen 6 and play it frequently), the only full mods we have are The Keys of Krodacia and Dead in the Desert.

Whether you like it or not, Ceilick has the Galaxy mod market cornered for the time being. So for us Galaxy Keeners, until others step up and give Ceilick some competition, he will continue to be a favorite by many. There are several Galaxy mods that have been in production for a few years now. I cannot speak for others, but I am looking forward to the eventual release of these mods. I am sure I will enjoy them just as I have enjoyed TUIT.

One more factor both of you have to consider is the difficulty levels of the various mods available. As much as I have complained about Episode Smile and A New Dope in the past, in the overall scheme of things, I do really enjoy both games and I intent to never delete them off my hard drives! That being said, I have mentioned several times in the past I am more of a moderate player. So understandably, for the most part, I am going to play mods closer to my skill level. So other moderate Keeners and casual players are most likely going to be drawn to Ceilick's mods rather than the more difficult mods that will mostly be played by expert Keeners.

There are certain people who praise Ceilick's work and have not played anything else, but as a Keener who has played 20-30 different mods and have taken a quick glimpse at a dozen others, overall, Ceilick is my favorite modder, but that does not mean I do not play other mods and it certainly does not mean I do not appreciate the hard work and effort modders put into their work!

Patrick
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Post by StupidBunny »

I think this is one of those that goes both ways.

On the one hand, the TUIT mods are absolute fucling brilliance. Nobody is denying that. Also, they have the advantage of being the only really full-length Galaxy mods in existence, and as any poll throughout the forum's history show, if most Keeners are asked they will choose a Galaxy episode as their favorite. And it's likely that many people new to Keen will have discovered it through a Galaxy episode, making the Ceilick mods more accessible. This combined with their excellent composition, plus possibly the fact that they make a credible unofficial TUIT extension, make them a lot more noticeable (comparatively) to the mainstream of gaming. It's not terribly surprising to me, then--nor do I think it to be undeserved--that they receive the attention they do.

On the other hand, there are some absolutely fantastic Vorticons mods out there, and the beauty of modding Vorticons episodes is that it's so simple, and the modder has control over how basically everything looks and plays without needing a whole lot of advanced knowledge, so it's a lot easier in general for anybody with a vision or idea to put it to work in a solid gaming engine. I find that most of my favorite mods are actually Vorticons mods, just because they vary so much stylistically and in terms of gameplay and often exhibit amazing creativity. It isn't to say that the TUIT mods aren't creative and don't have style and good gameplay, but I think that modding for Vorticons is more intuitive and flexible and allows for a clever mind--of which the Keen community seems to have plenty--to create something with a totally different feel and atmosphere than the original games.

The TUIT mods, as I've said, are amazing, but it's unfair to declare it "no contest" without having played a variety of Vorticons mods first. You're missing out if you don't. :)
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RoboBlue
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Post by RoboBlue »

Lego Keen should be mentioned at least twice. :)
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Eddie Blake
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Post by Eddie Blake »

Ceillick's TUIT Mods.
The Mortimer McMire Mods.
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Post by Levellass »

I think a lot of what's happened is that Keen Galaxy is just > Keen Vorticons; your mod may be awesome, it may do things that are amazing with what it has, it may have taken months of effort. (Or in the case of some of our modders, months of ineffort.) but it is made with Vorticons, which has less enemies less graphics and is older than Keen Galaxy. Especially, a lot of people remember Keen 4, shareware and the first, sometimes only Keen they played.

Thus it is that Ceilick's mods have a nostalgic feel, a keenish feel to them for many people. Vortions mods may as well not exist to them.

The only thing that may change this is a patcher by the name of Lemm, who is pushing Keen Vorticons in amazing directions. Sadly, very soon he will depart for Galaxy modding himself.
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kuliwil
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Post by kuliwil »

Levellass wrote:I think a lot of what's happened is that Keen Galaxy is just > Keen Vorticons; your mod may be awesome, it may do things that are amazing with what it has, it may have taken months of effort. (Or in the case of some of our modders, months of ineffort.) but it is made with Vorticons, which has less enemies less graphics and is older than Keen Galaxy. Especially, a lot of people remember Keen 4, shareware and the first, sometimes only Keen they played.

Thus it is that Ceilick's mods have a nostalgic feel, a keenish feel to them for many people. Vortions mods may as well not exist to them.

The only thing that may change this is a patcher by the name of Lemm, who is pushing Keen Vorticons in amazing directions. Sadly, very soon he will depart for Galaxy modding himself.
Wow... you hit the nail on the head with that one!

Never occurred to me that it actually is nostalgic to play TUIT.

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Flyingmouse
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Post by Flyingmouse »

Keen X is my favorite... if only for the cute yorp replacement.
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