Public Commander Keen Forum

Scilicet · Vortininja Joined: 28 Dec 2010 Posts: 86

While playing Dead in the Desert with my sister, we had trouble with the lava falls in (I believe) the Molten Passage. We kept bouncing off the ceiling when trying to reach the platform between the falls. We made it eventually. I suppose there need to be a challenge, but I don't know if that could be modified to make it a little less of a challenge.
She thought the graphics were amazing and enjoyed "Robotic Keenery." The first stomper she encountered surprised both of us since I had not played the game in a long time. We made it past without killing or being killed. She was surprised by the anatomical antagonist; she thought she had not heard me correctly when I said there was a large bouncing nose in a certain spot on normal and hard.
As for me, playing through DitD again convinced me that it is my favorite game of the TUIT trilogy.

Edit: I noticed on the boss level, that when my sister shot the imposter Keen when it was by the ship, it levitated briefly and had a confused expression on its face. It dropped a short time later and resumed normal behavior.

Keeper · Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2011 13:09 Post subject:

Ah yes, when I play the different Keen games, I usually try to imagine what time of the day it is on the world map.

For DitD, I feel it is the late afternoon (15:00 - 17:00) when most creatures of Calidune are hiding from the heat or taking a nap in some dark and cool place under the surface. It is very quiet, except from the low distant humming of the Hydro Palace and the industrial facilities beneath it.

Calidune also feels somewhat lonely. I don't know why.
_________________
Keeper's Grand Collection of Games (both old classics and newer titles)

debiani386 · Grunt Joined: 03 Feb 2012 Posts: 12

Heres a few bugs I have found:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3493348/0205121628.jpg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3493348/0205121629.jpg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3493348/0205121629a.jpg

Sorry for the low quality images..my DOS computer doesnt seem to take graphical screenshots. Ive noticed that this seems to happen sporatically on different levels. Also, does the crater level have an exit? Ive been all up and down the level and havent seen an exit there.[/img]

Edit: This is with Keen 9 Beta 2

Ceilick · The Dude Joined: 22 Sep 2008 Posts: 1308 Location: Seattle

Those bugs are due to a problem with the Maintenance Droid and the way it pushes Keen. I'm not sure if it can be fixed without just removing those droids.

The Crater actually has two exits Diguised

_________________
The PCKF Rules
"More slippery than a buttered eel." -Levellass

debiani386 · Grunt Joined: 03 Feb 2012 Posts: 12

Not the crater, sorry, its the altaire station I meant

Edit: OH! Yes it does, im a total retard..sorry nevermind that part

debiani386 · Grunt Joined: 03 Feb 2012 Posts: 12

Now I do get this little "e" pop up message from time to time whenever I go to different levels of the game. It will do this sporadically on different levels. Pressing any key will return me to a dos screen with either garbled text or "Null Pointer". The system I am running this on is a 386 (clocked at 20 mhz), 12 mb ram (with emm386 and himem loaded..though it still does this w/o those running), MS-DOS 6.22 installation w/ windows 3.1 not running and no TSR's loaded.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3493348/0205122000.jpg

TerminILL · Skypest Joined: 23 Oct 2009 Posts: 588 Location: In a box.

12mb RAM just isn't enough, I think - IIRC BOTB needs a little more. Props for trying to run on original hardware, but I think DOSBox is probably your best bet.
_________________

debiani386 · Grunt Joined: 03 Feb 2012 Posts: 12

Actually, when I first fire up the game, it wont detect all 12 mb, only conventional memory and about 64k of extended ram (not certain why, but all versions of keen 4+ will do this..and only on this particular machine). I have another dos machine comming in with far more ram.

also, keen versions 8 and earlier work no problem and I do have different keen5e engines, all of which produce different results

debiani386 · Grunt Joined: 03 Feb 2012 Posts: 12

Just played the game through last night and it only does that on one level..thankfully that level isnt required to complete the game. Im really betting that it is just my particular system though (IBM PS/2 model 56 SLC). We will see when my more beefier dos computer comes in

lemm · Blorb Joined: 03 Jul 2009 Posts: 419

Keen is a real mode game. It can only use conventional memory (and the first 64 KB of extended memory).
_________________
A topic can solve everything!
-szemi

DHeadshot · Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 14:37 Post subject:

RetroKittycat · Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 19:00 Post subject:

The only bug I seem to notice in K7 is that Keen sometimes laggs when he walks/doing active stuff,
has that been fixed?