I came across one of my old blogs tonight and I couldn’t help smiling at how much I used to update. It motivated me to write about this past weekend. The original plan was to head to Jenns for a big hockey themed christmas get together with all of the ladies. Instead Jenns mom was amazing enough to rent out a gorgeous suite near the Old Port for all of us. When Mel & I arrived in the hotel we found the place completely decorated. A mini christmas tree was set up in the corner, decorated with TNC’s stickers, with 5 NHL cups on the table and christmas cookies everywhere. Being together just brings out the best in ourselves. When Lisa arrived, Mel & I ran to the elevator in our socks with Santa hats on an greeted her. I don’t even care what people think. If they think I’m nuts then they’re thinking the same thing about the four others and that makes it seem a bit normal. We all got ready together and headed out around 5:30.

After a brief meeting in Van Houtte, Mel & I went across the street to watch the soundcheck and interview “Commander Keen” aka Gil, Andrew & Shawns new band. The show was great. It was nice to be in a smaller venue surrounded by tons of people you love. I was surprised by how many friends were able to make it out for the show and I’m sorry it didn’t last longer. At the same time though it was hard to be such a massive group because I lost track of everyone ridiculously easy. I have trouble knowing where I am half the time so looking out for 15 other people got a bit frusterating. After that we all went for drinks across the street & caught up with friends and did a lot of laughing. We were walked back to our hotel and we spent 2 hours continuing the party. At around 5:30am we decided to go to bed and wake up early regardless to do the big Christmas exchange.

We spent an hour opening up over 65 presents. Everything ranging from Sharks calenders to Habs stools to Got Brodeur? shirts to Toronto Maple Leaf packages. I think we know each other better then anyone else so each and every present was perfect. We ended the weekend by blaring music and dancing like lunatics and laughing hysterically. The hardest part is saying goodbye. If life was perfect then the 5 of us would live in a huge suite downtown Montreal together. I hate when it comes to an end. I hate having to leave them. Maybe when we take over the world we can make it happen? Until then..I think DAHFA Christmas Part 1 was a complete and total success and I look forward to next years edition.

I came across this website today. Very interesting read if you like the Commander Keen range of games.

Welcome to Commander-Keen.com website. This website is made and maintained by a bunch of Commander Keen fans, who are trying to provide the best information and media for all the Commander Keen episodes.

You can visit the site by clicking here.

My life has always included some form of video game. This is the first one I remember:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Donatello, please.

I remember growing up, eating fuity pebbles, and playing PC games with my mom. (On the rare occasion, we would call the Sierra helpline.) I graduated to playing solo and still miss my trusty little 3 button joystick.

Here are some of the computer games I recall with fondness:

Willy Beamish
Even though the animated part with blood from a paper cut made me feel sick.

King’s Quest
Okay, props for Rosella. No props for the difficulty in finding the 1 way of saying “get the crystal ball from under the bridge.” I enjoyed this series up until the last one (VIII), which was just something else entirely and made me dizzy.

Space Quest
Oh, Roger Wilco and your tighty-whities. Don’t pick at it, you’ll only make it worse.

Eco Quest
Save bats and fight the polluters. No points for littering.

Monkey Island
Monkey Island gets my favoritism, no questions asked. Although, I don’t think I would ever date a Guybrush Threepwood. In case you are wondering, yes, the soundtrack is available for you to listen to here.

Loom
It was only slightly creepy.

Torrin’s Passage
I think I learned the word “bog” and “peet moss” from this game. You get to have a shape-shifting side kick named Boogle.

Indiana Jones
Classic. The Atlantis one made me nervous as a kid. In the most recent one, I always picked up Indy’s hat because I was afraid it wouldn’t come back.

Lemmings
Boring but addicting.

Raptor
I’ve played the demo version enough to still know where to move by memory.

Commander Keen
This made me want a pogo stick and hate slugs.

Tomb Raider
I had to try this one out with a girl being the main character and all.

Grim Fandango
I bought this one in college, actually, and never finished it because it froze and I couldn’t find the correct patch.

Thief
I’ve only played Deadly Shadows and it makes me want to learn to pick locks.

Myst
I never did like Myst.

Doom
Doom was too scary but I peeked over my dad’s shoulder sometimes.

]]> http://l33tch1k.wordpress.com/2009/10/30/retro-gaming/ Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:32:57 +0000 shadow_kat_au http://l33tch1k.wordpress.com/2009/10/30/retro-gaming/

As an eight year old I was first introduced to the world of PC gaming by my oldest brother who was studying computer engineering at university.

One year he brought home a computer he’d built and into our lives came Test Drive and Alley Cat.

The years passed, the computers changed and I met Jill of the Jungle (hmm now I know where my obsession with Lara Croft started!), Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and a myriad of 64-bit goodness.

I’m incredibly excited at the thought of playing all my favourites again on my Eee PC, first stop Wolf 3D.

Sweet memories

Fun! That’s what this weekend was.

I was there all 3 days – and all for free. I volunteered for 2 short nights (Friday & Saturday) at a D&D info table – basically, soliciting random people to play D&D and other roleplaying games.

I dressed up in the usual Commander Keen costume, and this time a lot of people tried out my pogo stick, and I even made an entire video for it!

I also got a good deal of photos. Not the best, I really should have gone outside and took some with better lighting and such. But the outside, it burns. Here’s my Photobucket picdump: http://s283.photobucket.com/albums/kk314/CommanderKeener/Fan Expo 2009/?start=all

Hope everyone who was there had fun.
It certainly was a great first Fan Expo for me. ^^

Homenaje al Paperboy, un videojuego de mi infancia bastante frustrante en el que uno controlaba a un chico que repartía diarios en bicicleta por un barrio con vecinos excesivamente negligentes. Empezó a partir de la idea de dibujar un gordito arriba de una bicicleta y por eso es más gordo de lo que se lo recuerda en el original… si bien estaba dibujado con aproximadamente 5 pixels así que no se puede suponer demasiado sobre su contextura.

You can find it on the “Writing” page. It’s about one of my favorite computer game series, Commander Keen.

I call him... Megakeen!

Yep.

I got nothin’.

Igår kväll kom jag att tänka på ett gammalt dataspel som jag spelade när jag var 5-6 år kanske, hemma hos en kompis till farsan. Minns att jag tyckte att det var så häftigt, då fanns det bara en diskettenhet i datorn och jag styrde gubben med en Joystick tror jag. Allt kördes genom DOS. Fina tider.

Hittade del 1 i spelet på nätet (de andra finns säkert också).

HÄR kan ni hitta det.

I went to Toronto’s version of Comic Con last month.  It was free to get in, so I figured I might as well check it out.
It was small as expected, all held in one huge room, so it was basically a lot of comic book and toy vendors set up, and with a small Artist’s Alley kind of thing, where artists sold and/or commissioned artwork.

I decided to recycle my Commander Keen costume and pogo-sticked around the place a bit… I’ve gotten waaaay better at pogo sticking, by the way. 90 jumps in a row is my newest record!

Retro video game characters, at MY comic convention? It makes no sense, but it's more likely than you think!

Is that maz? no wait... it's the Prince!

OK, I don’t usually play platformers… at least, not since the early nineties, when I was quite into Commander Keen for a while.

Lately I’ve tried a couple. Auryn Quest, a game based on The Neverending Story, which wasn’t supposed to be a platformer at all, but somehow morphed into one. American McGee’s Alice and Tim Schafer’s Psychonauts, because they both seemed conceptually interesting enough that I hoped that would override the platforming elements (and as a fan of Grim Fandango I had high expectations of the latter). But I couldn’t stick with any of them; gameplay based on running and jumping just doesn’t do it for me, no matter how pretty the graphics or intriguing the premise.

I enjoyed Assassin’s Creed, though, and have begun to hear reports that the new Prince of Persia from Ubisoft (confusingly named the same as the first game in what is now a long series) was more like AC than like a typical platformer. I’m really thinking of picking it up after the following conversation with my oldest online gaming friend, maz:

maz:
I finished Prince of Persia

Sri:
wow that was fast
any good?

maz:
It was the best Prince of Persia game yet
and the platforming was very accessible

Sri:
really? hmm

maz:
Yah
well, at least in my opinion it was accessible.

Sri:
you, being a multi-talented gaming expert

maz:
There were a few spots I had to think about it. But most of it was fairly direct.. Only one or two small spots with issues that were more bug-related I think..

Sri:
I’d like to see the game you DIDN’T think was accessible

maz:
Prince of Persia 2.
that thing was a total bitch, buggy as hell, and mediocre because of it.
And the rendering engine used for PoP was awesome.
let’s see, what else.. Oh, and the end-game was a total trip
The thing with platformers is people often get caught up in the action and think it has to be fast twitch
And while there are a few spots like that – they are obvious and repeatable.
But most places people get frustrated with are not.
But the other places you can pause and take your time.
The combat was a bit meh, but it actually worked once you figured it out. But the game isn’t really about the combat.. On the other hand, the best combat in a PoP game yet in my opinion.

Sri:
the PoP I played was Sands of Time
that was the one where you could roll back the clock when you died

maz:
oh yah Sands of Time sucked.
well that is, I liked it, but it had a lot wrong with it
this PoP got rid of the special combos to move up weird platforms and stuff
very good improvement
in fact the last series of PoP was all around frustrating.
The new one really is designed so if you pay attention to the environment you know what you need to do and when to do it

Sri:
and a reasonable story eh?

maz:
story was the best PoP yet in my opinion
the ending is absolutely amazing
but there is only one ending, which took me a bit to get used to – most of them have alternative endings if you complete certain stuff in game.

Sri:
ahh, well that’s really OK with me, since I almost certainly wouldn’t replay a game like that

maz:
yah
well, usually you could just go back one save and go and complete a few things so they were in a different state
which gave you the new ending
or make the whole game more complete
It was a small tossup for me on how the game worked out with one aspect.. It had these light seeds that made you go through the area you just completed and look for crap all over..
It was cool, but it was like completing the area again, on easy mode.
but there were some cute “Okay, how the hell am I supposed to get THERE?” moments with that

PoP is built on the AC engine . . and in some ways you can’t really tell, because the layout is different.. but in other ways it was very obvious and very cool

So, yah.. PoP: Platforming: 8/10 (it gets easy and semi-repetitive after a while); Environments: 10/10 (they keep the platforming alive, really cool stuff); Dialogue: 6/10; Plot: 9/10 (I would give it a 10/10 but the dialogue pulls it down earlier on); Combat: 5/10 (It’s okay, but it isn’t the focus of the game, you can never die, it always rolls back time a random amount and lets you try things again); Unique Features: 10/10 (great platforming system, AWESOME dual-character use – in a way you are playing two characters simultaneously throughout, it is cool! and the ending is utterly worth it); Overall: 8/10 – good game, not perfect.

Commander Keen: Marooned on Mars

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Fusce vitae pede. Praesent ut leo eget augue sodales lobortis. Donec convallis, arcu ut sollicitudin rhoncus, purus lorem euismod ante, sit amet posuere metus eros at lorem. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Nullam nisl enim, luctus vel, consectetuer quis, ullamcorper vitae, quam. Phasellus lorem ipsum, porta varius, gravida quis, aliquam a, elit. Cras purus sem, tincidunt vel, ornare ut, cursus sit amet, lorem. Nulla facilisi. Phasellus in lectus. Mauris varius. Ut eget enim et erat feugiat vulputate. Ut pede lacus, auctor ut, auctor id, tristique laoreet, ligula. Vivamus sit amet neque. Donec consequat. Nulla convallis, lectus nec tempor tincidunt, sapien lectus pellentesque sem, sed accumsan massa nunc et mi. In elementum. Pellentesque commodo malesuada massa.

Aenean purus pede, ultrices id, accumsan et, sodales in, magna. Etiam elementum volutpat nisl. Nulla quam. Aliquam erat volutpat. Aliquam cursus sem vitae lectus. Aliquam erat volutpat. Nam suscipit. Nunc ante. Duis fermentum pharetra lectus. Suspendisse tristique nibh quis ipsum imperdiet porta. Vivamus eu pede eu nulla molestie placerat. Curabitur volutpat pede nec urna. Quisque non nisl.

So I’ve been playing Aquaria recently; it’s a great game, equal parts Metroid and Ecco the Dolphin, only without the unfortunate problem of drowning if you can’t find a pocket of air.

Something I’ve noticed is that the world has its own alphabet; messages scattered around various areas of the world. Symbols outside the entrance to Naija’s home, symbols on a slate of rock at the entrance of the city of Mithalas.
I just spent around fifteen minutes to half an hour decyphering it. Most of it. I figure the earliest it’s possible to do so is in Mithalas Cathedral; earlier on, Naija translates the Mithalas sign for the player, giving us the meaning of the symbols representing ‘a’, ‘i’, ‘h’, ‘l’, ‘m’, ’s’ and ‘t’, but within the Mithalas Cathedral there’s a long message in a room with a save crystal that happens to be just about decypherable with only those known symbols, and a lot of logical guesswork. From seven known symbols, you end up with twenty-two symbols out of a possible twenty-six; the remaining letters never appeared in the message, and might not be used at all, for all I know.
I love those kinds of puzzles. The Mithalas Cathedral message – not the only one in there, but the only sufficiently long one properly translateable, as the other one has a corpse in front of some of the letters – is essentially the Rosetta Stone for the Aquarian Alphabet.

Aquaria is by no means the first game to have done this. Years ago, there was a series of platformers named Commander Keen, the eponymous protagonist basically being a kid whose cardboard box rocket actually worked. The Standard Galactic Alphabet showed up on signs all through the games, and the player either had to cheat and look online for the key (…I was only around ten at the time, I didn’t like these puzzles then) or completely decypher it from nothing, as I’m reasonably certain Keen never read any of the signs for us. He wasn’t supposed to understand them, either.
Perhaps more famously, Final Fantasy X had Al Bhed. Unlike the other two written languages mentioned here, though, they didn’t bother creating a new set of symbols, and just used the standard alphabet; it was pretty obvious it was just substitution when you were looking at it in text. The Aquarian Alphabet and the Standard Galactic Alphabet are basic substitution disguised with an alternate set of symbols, but they’re still just substitution. Final Fantasy X did go that little further and create rules for when certain words were translated or not, and how to pronounce the resulting mess of letters; it did sound like a new language, at least.

There are a couple of games to create (very small) constructed languages, with a small set of (known) words. Ultima Underworld had the language of the Lizardmen (22 words known) – and, come to think of it, the Ultima series had no less than three alternate alphabets AND the runes for magic, too – and Breath of Fire IV had you trying to talk to the Pabpab (27 words known); in these cases, a translation guide was always provided by an NPC.
Or the manual, in the case of Ultima’s magic runes. Those are an interesting case; each spell’s combination of runes roughly describe the effect of the spell.

Creating a language – complete with syntax – is a very difficult undertaking, so it’s no wonder the attempts at new languages are often very small. It’s far easier to just encrypt a message through substitution, whether replacing letters with your own scribbles, or with other letters.
(That’s how you decypher substitution with the English alphabet, by the way; assign every letter a number or non-Roman-alphabet symbol and work it out from there, as trying to decypher messages in a jumbled Roman alphabet is trickier, as you can lose track of what you’ve guessed and replaced thus far.)

So why the bother?
An alternate alphabet is the perfect way to sneak messages to the player; if it’s not necessary to translate it to proceed, at any point, then players who simply don’t care for the puzzle of decyphering such things can simply ignore it and get on with the game, whilst players who do love the challenge can spend time on understanding the meaning of each symbol.
Aquaria uses its alphabet to deepen its world. The message I spent time translating in the Mithalas Cathedral foreshadows the plot of the game, but doesn’t give too much away; it supports a conversation Naija has with someone else soon afterwards, if you complete that area. But in another place, the message scrawled into a wall hints at a fun though pretty useless recipe… and, again, shows someone yearning for ‘escape’. The same alphabet is present not only throughout the City and Cathedral of Mithalas, but outside Naija’s home, on the walls of caves, and under statues of ancient gods. Hence why I call it the Aquarian Alphabet, rather than the Mithalan Alphabet. It’s not, up to where I am, necessary to know the alphabet to continue, but it does add a lot to the world.
Meanwhile, Commander Keen’s Standard Galactic Alphabet, as far as I recall, usually described more concrete elements of the game; ‘pit ahead’, or ‘die commander keen’, for example. SGA’s purpose was primarily to look futuristic, and secondarily to point out things to canny players who could read it; it was rarely or never written by any character in the game’s past, as the messages in Aquaria are. They were really messages from the game and designer; sometimes friendly, sometimes hostile… a proto-GlaDOS.
Finally, in FFX, the Al Bhed language served to highlight the difference between the Al Bhed people and all other peoples in Spira; even the Guado, Ronso and the Hypello people, some of the less human-looking groups in the game, spoke Spiran. Through diligent searching, a player could find a Primer for every letter of the language, causing Al Bhed to be automatically translated in messages; even more diligent searching at the beginning of a game could reveal the method of transferring all those Primers to a new game, so you could understand all the gibberish at the beginning. As always, understanding the language is never necessary for much, and in Final Fantasy X, collecting all Primers is more of an easter egg or useless bonus, as most are pretty deviously hidden and some permanently missable. It’s a sidequest, though the translated language does tell you a little more about the Al Bhed talking, at least.

It’s Friday again, so it’s time for another flashback. Commander Keen: Invasion of the Vorticons is the reason I bought a Super VGA monitor for my PC, and there’s good reason for it.  Commander Keen is one of the best classic platformers, and my number one pick for the game I’d love to see come to the Xbox Live Arcade.

Invasion of the Vorticons was a three part trilogy was a shareware game by iD Software and published by Apogee.  The idea of shareware was that the first episode was free to download and upload (from dialup text-only BBS systems before the internet), copy, and share with all of your friends.  If you enjoyed the game, the rest of the episodes could be purchased by phone or by mail from Apogee, who would mail you the episodes on disk.

The trilogy starred the 8 year old genius Billy Blaze, who built a spaceship out of household parts.  He dons his brother’s football helmet, and defends Earth from the forces of evil in the galaxy as Commander Keen.  Part one finds Keen marooned on Mars, where he must find various parts for his spaceship so he can make his way back home.  In part two, the Vorticons have a cannon aimed at Earth, and Keen must go to the Vorticon mothership in order to stop the destruction of his planet.  Episode three ends concludes Commander Keen’s fight with the Vorticons, as he explores the caves of the Vorticon planet, does battle with the top Vorticon ninja fighters, and descovers the secret of the Grand Intellect.

At first, Keen can only jump over creatures or jump on top of the weaker ones.  If he tries to hop on a strong creature, Keen loses a life.  The weaker creatures are only stunned, and snap out of it momentarily.  These weaker creatures just push Keen forward, while the stronger ones kill him on contact.  There are hazards on the levels, such as pits, fire, and spikes, which also cause Keen to lose a life upon contact.  Once Keen finds a laser gun, he can shoot laser shots until he runs out of ammunition or finds another gun.  Located throughout each level are candy treats and soda, as well as things like teddy bears.  Collecting these adds to Keens points, and at certain score levels Keen recieves more lives.

Later on, Keen also finds a Pogo stick, which lets him jump higher when the pogo button is pressed, which can get Keen to higher platforms and collect more treats.  Some levels require exploration, as there are doors that can only be opened by finding the correct colored key (a gameplay concept that iD will later incorporate into it’s popular first person shooting games).

The later games in the trilogy keep the gameplay mechanics of the first (only now Keen has the pogo stick right away).  The stages in the games become tougher as they go on, with more hazards and stronger and higher concentrations of enemies.  The games sported great graphics at the time for the PC, which were on par with the graphics on the Nintendo Entertainment System.  The music, however, is non-existant.  The games were made at a time when most PCs did not have sound cards, and sounds came from the PC speaker, which produced pretty terrible sound.  So, there are only bloops and bleeps in here for the jumping and shooting sound effects.  These sound effects are not bad though, and the game is engrossing enough that even playing through the game again recently, I didn’t notice the lack of music.

Commander Keen: Invasion of the Vorticons is a definite classic.  The storyline is interesting, the graphics are nice, and the gameplay is superb.  There’s no doubt in my mind that iD would have a great seller on their hands if they ported this game to the Xbox Live Arcade, especially if they added some music into the game.

Final verdict: Four and one half out of Five

Having played games from the late 1980’s through to the current day and age, I’ve come to love a lot of games and game genres for that matter. A certain genre that’s always had a place close to my heart, is the 2D side-scroller (aka platform games). At the mere mention of the name “side-scroller”, images of Commander Keen and the Vortigons come to mind. Along with Dangerous Dave, Crystal Caves, the original Ghosts n Goblins, Duke Nukem 1 and 2….the list goes on and on.

The genre kept evolving with new games being released adding more elements and twists to the play. One such release that really stood out, was Abe’s Oddysee in 1997. A fresh take on platform adventures with beautiful environments to travel through, an interesting world and story and a control system that worked. The year after saw the release of the second game in the planned five game series, Abe’s Exoddus. Continuing the success and innovation of Abe’s Oddysee and allowing gamers more time with the unlikely hero, Abe.

But all of that is irrelevant, really. It just serves as a means of showing that I’m a big fan and follower of the genre. And one of the favorites being the original arcade Bionic Commando and the NES version.

When the announcement came that they were making a 3D Bionic Commando, I was actually not that thrilled. Bionic Commando is like a fragile piece of equipment in a shop. It’s the mentality of “You can look, but don’t touch! You’re probably going ot break it”. Even more so when they announced there will also be a re-make of the original game. But as time went by and the trailers and screenshots started floating about the internet, I started to relax a bit more. It looked like they were doing a pretty good job. And what else would I have expected from the creators of the original game.

Thrilled was I, when I purchased the game over the weekend for PC and started the download. Words like “agony” come to mind when I think of how I watched the progress meter fill up. But all of that is in the memory box now. The one that I keep under the bed in the darkest corner. In it’s place, are warm, fuzzy feelings. Feelings of nostalgia reborn. Feelings of “happy as can be”.

Bionic Commando Rearmed (BCR) lives up to it’s promise. The promise of being a re-make of the original game. When playing the game, it feels like you’re playing the old one…..but not really. It’s a strange feeling indeed. Everything seems familiar, yet new at the same time. The arm is there, the jump isn’t there and the frustration is there, yet it’s all coated in a beautiful layer of coloured pixels. The graphics are eye-wateringly beautiful. And I don’t mean the colours are so bright they make your eyes water. I mean tears spring to one’s eyes when looking at BCR and seeing how Private Spencer is all grown up now…..*sniff*.

Bionic Commando Rearmed in action

The gameplay is a ton of fun, yet just like the original, completely unforgiving. For some of the later levels, you really need to have mastered the bionic arm, dodging, blocking bullets, shooting and swinging all at the same time. The game can get pretty intense (specially if you bump up the difficulty) so hardcore gamers will be pleased with the difficulty. Specially the Challenge Rooms scattered through the game (which you can access from the main menu once you’ve unlocked them). They truly are challenge rooms. They’re simply a scenario you’re presented with and your objective is to get through it as quickly as possible. Based on your time, you get a rating between 1 and 5 stars. And if you can beat the time of the creator of the level, you get a nice badge to show that you’re the king.

The game also supports a multiplayer mode which I’m keen to try out. Swinging around like a bunch of monkeys trying to shoot each other with powerups dropping all over the show sounds like the formula for fun, if you ask me. And doing it all in a gorgeous looking environment like the one BCR presents to you, it can only be a pleasure to play.

The overall feel of the game can be summed up into one word, “Complete”. It doesn’t feel as if there’s
anything wanting from the title. You’re never left feeling “I wish they did that”, or “It would have been nice if they added feature <insert feature here> to the game”. This game is well-rounded, well-executed and well-everythingelse.

The only negative thing about the game, is not about the game itself. It’s about the state of current gaming affairs. Most gamers are used to being spoonfed when it comes to gaming and difficulty settings that rarely challenge. In this regard, BCR is every bit as difficult as the original was. It’s not an impossible game at all, but the try-try-again nature of it is going to frustrate more than a few gamers. And proof of this is already spreading across the internet with people moaning about how difficult it is.

But in my books, that just seals the deal. Capcom wasn’t scared to stay true to the original game. They stuck to their guns (and experimental arms), and produced a proper re-make of a classic, loved game. If you’re feeling a) up for a challenge, b) nostalgic, c) in the mood for something fun or d) a really good game, give Bionic Commando Rearmed a try. I’d recommend it on any platform it’s available on. Even though the PC version is $5 more expensive than the console versions, I’d still say it’s a steal for the amount of game you get for your money. It more than outweighs the price.

So get swinging, rolling, shooting and jumpi running and get your copy of Bionic Commando Rearmed. It’s charms will grow on anybody and will have you coming back for more punishment =)

Sydney ghetto ambient group Seekae (pronounced ‘C’ ‘K’ in homage to platform pioneer Commander Keen) are the new Enya. Our taxi driver told us this, and although his argument for such a ridiculous assertion was Richie-thin, we believe he has a strong point.

We won’t get into that. Of more interest is how you can claim you’re ‘ghetto’ and then mention that you incorporate the glockenspiel into your routine. That ain’t fly.

They popped into Underground (every THURSDAY 10pm-12am FM99.3) because they’re on the cusp, the verge, and the edge of whatever follows being on the cusp, the verge, and the edge of something. Audio of the entire interview to be posted REAL SOON. Highlights included:

*admission that they’ve recently scored the theme to groundbreaking film ‘The Willpower’

*Alex regularly has his hair permed at The Salon for Hair – Turramurra (proud sponsors of North Shore FM99.3)

* they actually don’t know when or who will be releasing their forthcoming debut album

* they’re pretty sure that have a show scheduled at Will and Toby’s Supper Club, September 4

* George spent a night in with K.D. Lang during her recent Australian tour

* they’re the new Enya

* their plans to split and then reform for 2010

* the addition of DJ Meatbrick to their live act

some of the above is truer than other parts but importantly, new music was played, we dug into their live performance, some of their inspirations, and all up a good time was had.

2nd HALF OF INTERVIEW AND PODCAST OF ENTIRE SHOW TO BE POSTED MAD SOON

Seekae UG interview part 1

After reading Sloane Crosley’s essay on her Oregon Trail gaming experience (a million thank yous, Eddie), I couldn’t help but fondly remember my own childhood glories with free PC games (that ran in MSDOS – oh was I a geek, but I knew how to access my games and those were all the commands I needed).  The adventure I frequented was none other than Commander Keen’s mission to return home from Mars (the first episode – probably the best one, although epsidoe IV is certainly worth mentioning).  Equipped with a pogo stick (which when I later discovered cheat codes and shamelessly employed them to my delight, basically allowed him to fly) and alien ray gun, subsisting on candy bars, lollipops, and soda, Billy Blaze is transformed into superhero Keen.

I was pretty clumsy at first – the pogo stick had a mind of its own sometimes.  And at first I watched my dad play (he was the bigger geek) and I would fight to do the easy levels where there were no big bad wolves, just pesky green one-eyed Martians that were mostly harmless, unless they pushed you into a pile of fire or sharp things.  The two-eyed ones, well those you gotta watch out for.  And I was very careful in jumping over the purple flapping shells (whatever they were – see screen capture for reference).  Sometimes I was extra ambitious and wanted to get every goodie the level had to offer.  This required some precarious situations for my poor hero and I killed him off many, many, many times.  Possibly the keenest memory (hehe pun intended) I have is of this big bad wolf.  I hunted for an image but no luck.  What made him so scary and big and bad was that he jumped all over the place!  How was I to shoot this leaping monstrosity!  So what ensued was that when I knew he was coming, I frantically scrambled under the table and made my dad kill him off and I wouldn’t emerge until I knew things were safe (thankfully, I have for the most part learned not to run away from my problems these days).  We chuckle about it now, but as little me, I was genuinely scared of the wolf!  [All right, I just got the strangest deja vu - have I written about this before?!]

Soon enough, I was able to forge my own way through each level, and I became a pretty damn good shooter.  No Martian was getting past me.  I would cackle gleefully when I sensed the wolf’s presence and also his imminent doom.  Even the Galactic language started to make sense.  I leaped over fires, tricked pushy robots, and jumped higher than I thought possible.  I sent him home safely.  And again.  And again.  And had even more fun upon the discovery of cheat codes.

Other notable games in my repertoire included Cosmo’s Cosmic Adventures (oh those bonus rounds were a delight!), Secret Agent, Crystal Caves, and Duke Nukem (the original of course) – yeah I was a fan of Apogee.  I never really made the transition from these nice little 2d enhanced side-scrollers and I still think they are the best games.

So some decade and years later, perhaps I am still fighting these wolves and monsters and aliens and trying to jump to that high block only to fall right off the edge a dozen times.  They’re just in disguise, that’s all.  And hopefully at the end, I’ll send myself to my place, triumphantly, battle scars and all.

Commander Keen foi uma série de jogos em plataforma que fez muito sucesso nos robustos computadores 386 do início dos anos 90, o game foi um dos pioneiros a usar gráficos coloridos padrão EGA e ser distribuído como shareware (softwares que eram distribuídos gratuitamente para apreciação). Commander Keen foi produzido pela id Software, a mesma responsável por clássicos como Doom, Quake e Duke Nukem.

Foram lançados 6 jogos oficiais do Keen para DOS, eles eram divididos em capítulos, como se fossem episódios de uma série. Um sétimo jogo foi lançado no ano de 2001 para o Game Boy, e em 2007 foram re-lançados os jogos 1 a 5 pela Steam, emulado no Windows pelo DOSBox.

_____________________________________

Episódios

Commander Keen in Invasion of the Vorticons (1990)

1. “Marooned on Mars”

O primeiro jogo da série traz Keen em Marte, lutando contra aliens e robôs à procura de componentes roubados da sua nave. Os componentes estão guardados por quatro guerreiros chamados Vorticons.

_____________________________________

2. “The Earth Explodes”

Keen retorna à Terra e descobre uma nave Vorticon apontando 8 canhões para lugares distintos no planeta. Keen precisa encontrar e desativar os 8 canhões para evitar que monumentos como as Pirâmides do Egito, a Casa de Ópera de Sydney e o Coliseu em Roma sejam destruídos.

_____________________________________

3. “Keen Must Die!”

Aqui Keen viaja para o planeta dos Vorticons, o interessante desse capítulo é que, na cidade Vorticon, o jogador pode aprender a ler no idioma local, podendo assim decifrar placas pela cidade.

_____________________________________

3,5. “Keen Dreams” / The “Lost Episode”

Esse episódio é diferente dos demais, aqui Keen não tem sua pistola de plasma e nem o lendário Pogo Stick, Keen usa sementes que transformam seus inimigos em flores… e tudo acontece em um sonho, os inimigos são vegetais, o chefe final é uma batata… os produtores fumaram muito antes de criar esse.

_____________________________________

Commander Keen in Goodbye Galaxy! (1991)

4. “Secret of the Oracle”

Keen inventa um receptor de rádio e termina captando uma mensagem alienígena; guerreiros da raça Shikadi pretendem destruir a galáxia, Keen então deve partir para libertar 8 lideres aprisionados para impedir o plano malígno. Esse episódio é um dos mais extensos, com uma variedade de inimigos bem maior.

_____________________________________

5. “The Armageddon Machine”

Nosso herói chega em uma estação espacial Shikadi e sua missão é desativar uma arma chamada de Omegamatic.

_____________________________________

Commander Keen in Aliens Ate My Babysitter!

6. Aliens Ate My Babysitter!

A babá de Keen, Molly, foi abduzida por aliens Bloogs… oh céus! Resta a você viajar para o planeta Fribbulus Xax e resgatar a moça. Esse é o último episódio da série original.

_____________________________________

Downloads e Links

Para quem quer re-viver ou matar a curiosidade de como era esse clássico, os games podem ser baixados gratuitamente (shareware) na página da 3D Realms

Clique aqui para baixar episódios 1 a 3 – “Invasion of the Vorticons”

Clique aqui para baixar episódios 4 e 5 – “Goodbye Galaxy”

KeenWiki – a própria enciclopédia da série.

_____________________________________

Fonte: Wikipedia, Moby Games

A few days ago, the Spore Creature Creator trial version leaked.
Since then, I’ve bought the full creator for 10 bucks and have been having some fun!

Here’s a few of the things I’ve made so far, with a download to the .png file if you want to play around with it too! (just drag the .png file into your Creature Creator – unfortunately, you may need the full version for it to load up some of my newer ones!)

Mudkip was one of the first things I made, because I herd u liek sum things. I sure do! It took a fair bit of tweaking, but I got it to look how I wanted, and tried to make the colours match up completely with the actual Pokémon. Here’s a video of it dancing!

The next are a bunch of things from the Commander Keen series that I recreated:

And some characters from the Katamari Damacy series:

Here’s some animated gifs:

And all the .png files for your own use:

So, as you can see I’ve been having fun!
I was surprised at how many DOS-related characters were already up on the Sporepedia (basically, you can choose to share your creatures once you’ve made them, and it’s a huge gallery of what other users have made). I found a Cosmo from Cosmo’s Cosmic Adventure and ended up making my own too. This is such a neat program, and the full game will be awesome!