Commander Keen

Commander Keen is the main character in a series of computer games developed by id Software in the early 1990s, which were successful at replicating the side-scrolling action of the NES Super Mario Bros. games in MS-DOS. The cartoon-style platformers are notable for their pioneering use of EGA graphics and shareware distribution, and because they were the first games by id Software, who went on to develop blockbusters like DOOM and Quake. The games were also exciting to the PC gaming community of the time because of John Carmack's revolutionary smooth-scrolling graphics engine. Although developed by id, most of the Commander Keen games were published by Apogee Software, an already established PC shareware game publisher.

History

John Carmack, a game programmer at Softdisk, found a trick that would allow smooth-scrolling graphics in PC games, but only with the 16-color EGA graphics card. Softdisk rejected the technology because they wanted to continue to support customers who only had 4-color CGA cards.

Carmack and several of his colleagues used their own time to put together a pixel-perfect clone of the first level of Super Mario Bros. 3, except for the hero, which they replaced with Dangerous Dave, a character from some of their games for Softdisk. They called it Dangerous Dave in Copyright Infringement and approached Nintendo with the demo, but the latter declined to enter the PC market at that time.

The developers still thought their game technology had potential, so they left to form what would become id Software. The developers got in touch with Scott Miller of Apogee, who put up the money for Commander Keen's development, starting a profitable business relationship that would last until id self-published DOOM.

id's contract with Softdisk required them to write several more games for the company, one of which became Keen Dreams, called the "Lost Episode" of Commander Keen because it was not sold by Apogee as the others were.

The story

Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.

Billy Blaze is an eight-year-old boy genius (purported to have an IQ of 314) who has constructed a spaceship in his backyard from old soup cans and other household objects, called The Bean-with-Bacon Megarocket. When his parents are out and the baby sitter falls asleep, he dons his brother's Packers helmet and becomes Commander Keen, Defender of Earth.

At the end of the third game, his rival, Mortimer McMire (also known as the Grand Intellect, purported to have an IQ of 315), is revealed as the mastermind behind the original game's Vorticon attempted attack on Earth. He goes on to lead the Shikadi, a race of energy beings, in Keens 4-5, attempting to destroy the galaxy with the Quantum Explosion Dynamo, but yet again fails. However, his true intentions are made clear - to destroy the universe (a highly improbable task that would immediately kill Mortimer in the process).

It is later revealed that Billy's full name is William Joseph Blazkowicz II, and that he is the grandson of William Joseph "B.J." Blazkowicz, the Allied war hero of Wolfenstein 3D. His father had changed his last name to Blaze for show biz.

The Keen games

Seven official Commander Keen games were released for the PC. They are:

Commander Keen in Invasion of the Vorticons

1. Marooned on Mars (first released on as shareware on December 14 1990)

While Commander Keen is exploring Mars, the Vorticons steal four vital components of his ship and hide them in Martian cities, each guarded by a Vorticon soldier.

2. The Earth Explodes

Keen returns to Earth only to find the Vorticon mothership hovering above, with its ray cannons locked on to eight of Earth's greatest wonders.

3. Keen Must Die!

Keen travels to the Vorticon homeworld in search of the mysterious Grand Intellect that has directed the Vorticons toward Earth.

The "Lost Episode"

3.5 Keen Dreams (published by Softdisk, not Apogee)

After refusing to eat his vegetables, Keen falls asleep, only to awaken in a strange vegetable kingdom led by the evil Boobus Tuber, who has imprisoned other sleeping children there.

Commander Keen in Goodbye Galaxy!

4. Secret of the Oracle (first released as shareware on December 15 1991)

Keen's newly finished homemade faster-than-light radio picks up a plot by the Shikadi to destroy the galaxy. He rushes to the planet Gnosticus IV to consult the Keepers of the Oracle, but discovers that they have been taken captive by monsters.

5. The Armageddon Machine

After getting information from the Oracle, Keen lands on a massive Shikadi space station, the Armageddon Machine, and seeks out the mysterious Gannalech.

And a stand-alone episode:

6. Aliens Ate My Babysitter (published by Wolfenstein 3D and then DOOM.

Some years after the above episodes, Activision published a completely new Commander Keen game for the Game Boy Color, simply titled Commander Keen. The game, although developed with id's permission, did not involve any of the original Keen developers.

Keen in other games

Commander Keen made a cameo appearance hanged with a noose in level 32 (a secret level) of DOOM II, a later id game. This has been interpreted as id pronouncing Keen "dead"; i.e. they don't intend to ever make any more Keen games.

Keen also appeared as a hostage in Apogee's Bio Menace; other elements from Keen can be found in the Apogee games Paganitzu, Crystal Caves, Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure, and Secret Agent. The first Duke Nukem game includes an offhand reference to Keen, and numerous other Apogee games have Keen on their default high score lists.

Apogee arch-rival Epic Games' Jill of the Jungle includes a news bulletin taking a swipe at Keen, who it claims has been forced into retirement by "those cool Epic heros [sic]".

The Dopefish, an enemy character from Secret of the Oracle, has appeared in many games over the years and continues to make hidden appearances in modern titles. See the Dopefish article for more details.