Keen Dreams in progress

2005-07-17 01:34:45 pm

aw crikey!

Yes, I know Keen Dreams (which is available in its entirety as shareware) is the bastard child of the Keen series, lacking anything that could possibly make it a cool platformer except the art, but it's also a fun game to speedrun because it's so open-ended, and because you have to go through some of the more difficult portions in order to gather ammo to beat the final boss.

Right now my route is Horseradish Hill -> Bridge Bottoms -> Rhubarb Rapids and Grape Grove -> all the way back to Apple Acres and Spud City -> Castle Tuberia and final boss.

While I'm going on Normal to get an idea of the total time, it's definitely possible on Hard, losing <10sec in the Rapids where you have to kill some enemies twice. With a perfect run, I'm thinking 10 minutes should be possible.

If anyone knows how to get the second set of bombs in Spud City or Apple Acres (the underground ones), please tell me. Right now I know how to get to the Spud City ones, but I can't get back up, and I think the Apple Acres ones are just there to taunt you.

Thread title:

Yes, I know Keen Dreams (which is available in its entirety as shareware) is the bastard child of the Keen series, lacking anything that could possibly make it a cool platformer except the art, but it's also a fun game to speedrun because it's so open-ended, and because you have to go through some of the more difficult portions in order to gather ammo to beat the final boss.

Right now my route is Horseradish Hill -> Bridge Bottoms -> Rhubarb Rapids and Grape Grove -> all the way back to Apple Acres and Spud City -> Castle Tuberia and final boss.

While I'm going on Normal to get an idea of the total time, it's definitely possible on Hard, losing <10sec in the Rapids where you have to kill some enemies twice. With a perfect run, I'm thinking 10 minutes should be possible.

If anyone knows how to get the second set of bombs in Spud City or Apple Acres (the underground ones), please tell me. Right now I know how to get to the Spud City ones, but I can't get back up, and I think the Apple Acres ones are just there to taunt you.

Robyrt

2005-07-19 10:16:48 pm

aw crikey!

I've timed a perfect run on Hard so far:

start to rhubarb: 0:50
rhubarb to grape: 1:15, could be improved
grape to castle: 3:05
castle: 2:00
boobus: 0:10

making the total time almost exactly 7:30. Each time you miss the jump in the Rapids, or each time you die against the final boss, you lose about 10 seconds.

I haven't been able to do it all in one segment yet (stupid castle and those psychic jumps into enemy fire), but I should have that done within a couple weeks.

Lag.Com

2005-07-20 12:14:25 pm

sda loyalist

I am looking forward to this, bastard child or no. Throwing seeds at things always seemed so... kitsch. I like short game completions, especially on the oldies.

blaat

2005-07-20 12:52:01 pm

I'm dying to see your run, I loved playing the keen games Cheesy

Adam19

2005-07-21 07:06:07 pm

Commander Keen was like the first real game I ever played. I never beat any of the seven games though =(

Robyrt

2005-07-26 10:39:51 pm

aw crikey!

Update: Using the right-edge-death glitch (die against the right side of the screen, you instantly finish the level) to beat Parsnip Pass in ~20 sec means that I don't have to go through the endless jumps in Spud City - I can go to Squash Swamp instead. This cuts the theoretical time to about 7 minutes flat.

Lag.Com

2005-07-27 10:37:55 am

sda loyalist

I'm not sure if that's an allowable glitch on SDA... sounds like the definition of a 'death warp' to me. Smiley

CannibalBob

2005-11-15 02:49:28 am

Just wondering on the progress of those runs being converted to AVI or something... I'd love to see them!

Faskalia

2005-11-15 07:05:50 am

My game always crashed during the castle Sad

This is why I really want to see that run. Though I am assuming, that you wake up in the end, anyway.

Robyrt

2005-11-15 01:24:07 pm

aw crikey!

I'm still stuck on how to record these runs. Fraps doesn't seem to like me. Maybe I'll borrow a laptop with S-Video out and try to hook it up to a VCR.

I've found a number of smaller optimizations in Keen Dreams: more precise jumps, better consistency with polejumping and the exact location of the enemies in Rhubarb Rapids. (Although enemy behavior is random, they are triggered only when they come onscreen, so there's limited predictability except at the end of the castle.) Unfortunately, the random fry guy at the top of the Castle still ruins over 50% of my runs. It's hard to fight your doppelganger with three of the deadliest enemies also on screen, and virtually impossible to even jump onto that screen if he's guarding the entrance.

And yes, this run does include two instances of death abuse. It's simply a more interesting and fun run with that in there, because it means I don't have to spend a full 100 seconds (out of a sub-7-minute run) platforming in Spud City. Instead, I focused my energy on nailing the death warp every time on the first jump.

I'm still stuck on how to record these runs. Fraps doesn't seem to like me. Maybe I'll borrow a laptop with S-Video out and try to hook it up to a VCR.

I've found a number of smaller optimizations in Keen Dreams: more precise jumps, better consistency with polejumping and the exact location of the enemies in Rhubarb Rapids. (Although enemy behavior is random, they are triggered only when they come onscreen, so there's limited predictability except at the end of the castle.) Unfortunately, the random fry guy at the top of the Castle still ruins over 50% of my runs. It's hard to fight your doppelganger with three of the deadliest enemies also on screen, and virtually impossible to even jump onto that screen if he's guarding the entrance.

And yes, this run does include two instances of death abuse. It's simply a more interesting and fun run with that in there, because it means I don't have to spend a full 100 seconds (out of a sub-7-minute run) platforming in Spud City. Instead, I focused my energy on nailing the death warp every time on the first jump.

Enhasa

2005-11-25 05:40:20 am

everybody wanna tell you the meaning of music

Was this the one that was released after all the other ones? Like Keen 7 or something? If so, it was alright, but no uh... 4 I think. It's been a while. Although I do seem to remember some evil broccoli.

CannibalBob

2005-11-25 03:28:36 pm

It uses the Keen 4 engine, so obviously it was released after Keen 1, 2 and 3. I'm not sure when it came out relative to Keen 4, 5 and 6 though. The engine doesn't seem as "polished" as in 4, 5 and 6 so it could've been an early "beta" or something.

Robyrt

2005-12-07 02:32:42 am

aw crikey!

I've been practicing up in Keen 1, and recently got 4:30, which is close to perfect with the route I'm using. There are some fun optimized pogo jumps, and you have to get moderately lucky with the enemies, but in general it's not too bad. I take the top route in the Emerald City both because it's really safe and because it gets me some ammo, which I need to finish the game if the Vorticon jumps. (You need 5 shots to finish the game and I only collect 5 except for that pack.)

CannibalBob

2005-12-07 05:44:00 am

4:30 for the whole game? o_O I gotta see this!

Radioactive Jellyfish

2005-12-07 11:16:17 am

Isn't it cute?

I LOVE Commnader Keen! First platformer I ever played! Never got to play anything more than 1, 4, Dreams, and the free demo of 6. Does anyone know where to get the others?

YautjaElder

2005-12-07 11:20:26 am

Speed is the key.

Quote:

I LOVE Commnader Keen! First platformer I ever played! Never got to play anything more than 1, 4, Dreams, and the free demo of 6. Does anyone know where to get the others?

Try [url]www.isohunt.com[/url]

search for commander keen and see what pops up. I´m not sure if there will be any seeders though. Roll Eyes