Commander Keen in Marooned on Mars

Commander Keen
Commander Keen in Marooned on Mars	1990
Commander Keen in The Earth Explodes	1990
Commander Keen in Keen Must Die!	1990
Commander Keen in Keen Dreams	1991
Commander Keen in Secret of the Oracle	1991
Commander Keen in The Armageddon Machine	1991
Commander Keen in Aliens Ate My Baby Sitter!	1991

Key points

Also known as Commander Keen: Episode 1

Use F5 to save in-game

Available for free as shareware

General information

Commander Keen wiki

Public Commander Keen Forum

Commander Keen Fan Site

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		Commander Keen in Invasion of the Vorticons
GOG.com		Commander Keen Complete Pack. Pre-packaged with DOSBox.
Steam		Commander Keen Complete Pack. Pre-packaged with DOSBox.^[1]
Publisher website (unavailable)		Commander Keen in Invasion of the Vorticons. Pre-packaged with DOSBox.

A free shareware version is available.

Version differences

Commander Keen in Invasion of the Vorticons

The retail release of the game, which includes the first 3 episodes of the series: Commander Keen in Marooned on Mars, Commander Keen in The Earth Explodes, and Commander Keen in Keen Must Die!.

Commander Keen Complete Pack

A compilation pack containing the entire Commander Keen series (excluding the final episode Commander Keen in Aliens Ate My Baby Sitter! and the "lost" episode Commander Keen in Keen Dreams).

All games in the pack are pre-configured to run with DOSBox.

Essential improvements

Patches

Unfortunately Keen was from an era of computing before downloadable patches were a norm. Instead, a fully patched version of the game would be sent in the mail. The old version had to be uninstalled and deleted and the updated copy installed in its place. As the update is already the full game, it would be illegal to distribute it. Luckily this particular episode is shareware and can be freely distributed (latest version is 1.34). Alternatively, Several dedicated fans have made homebrewed patches to update (or downgrade if you want) every official keen game. These patches edit the files to make the changes, no warez used! The original discussion thread for them can be found here.

An unofficial fan fix that fixes additional issues not addressed in the latest official patch can be found here.

Episode launcher

A launcher for the entire Keen series can be found here (runs in DOSBox). For a modified version of this same launcher that also supports Keen Dreams (for people whom don't have the native Steam version), try the following:

Episode launcher

@ECHO OFF

:MENU

CLS

REM All episodes must be in the same folder contrary

REM to the original launcher this one was based on.

ECHO.

ECHO  ===========================================================================

ECHO  ======================= COMMANDER KEEN COLLECTION =========================

ECHO  ===========================================================================

ECHO.

ECHO         Invasion of the Vortices (1-3):

ECHO.

ECHO     1 - Commander Keen 1 Marooned On Mars (1990)(Apogee Software)

ECHO     2 - Commander Keen 2 The Earth Explodes (1990)(Apogee Software)

ECHO     3 - Commander Keen 3 Keen Must Die (1990)(Apogee Software)

ECHO.

ECHO         Goodbye, Galaxy! (4-6):

ECHO.

ECHO     4 - Commander Keen 4 Secret Of The Oracle (1991)(Apogee Software Ltd)

ECHO     5 - Commander Keen 5 The Armageddon Machine (1991)(Apogee Software Ltd)

ECHO     6 - Commander Keen 6 Aliens Ate My Baby Sitter (1991)(Formgen)

ECHO.

ECHO         Other (The Lost Episode):

ECHO.

ECHO     7 - Commander Keen Dreams (1991)(Softdisk Publishing)

ECHO.

CHOICE /c1234567q/n Choose a number (Press Q to Quit):

IF ERRORLEVEL 8 GOTO EXIT

IF ERRORLEVEL 7 GOTO KEEN7

IF ERRORLEVEL 6 GOTO KEEN6

IF ERRORLEVEL 5 GOTO KEEN5

IF ERRORLEVEL 4 GOTO KEEN4

IF ERRORLEVEL 3 GOTO KEEN3

IF ERRORLEVEL 2 GOTO KEEN2

IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO KEEN1

:KEEN1

CLS

ECHO Starting Commander Keen 1...

call keen1.exe

GOTO MENU

:KEEN2

CLS

ECHO Starting Commander Keen 2...

call keen2.exe

GOTO MENU

:KEEN3

CLS

ECHO Starting Commander Keen 3...

call keen3.exe

GOTO MENU

:KEEN4

CLS

ECHO Starting Commander Keen 4...

call keen4e.exe

GOTO MENU

:KEEN5

CLS

ECHO Starting Commander Keen 5...

call keen5e.exe

GOTO MENU

:KEEN6

CLS

ECHO Starting Commander Keen 6...

call keen6c.exe

GOTO MENU

:KEEN7

CLS

ECHO Starting Commander Keen Dreams…

call kdreams.exe

GOTO MENU

:EXIT

CLS

exit

The executable names (keen*.exe etc.) may have to be edited to fit your particular version of Keen. There are many versions. You could also replace the executable calls with CKPatch scripts if you wish to keep a customized aspect of the game always that way when you run it.

CKPatch

CKPatch is essentially a tool needed to load some mods (such as total conversions, or even just simple hacking) into the Keen engine. It does so by "patching" the engine in memory, hence it's name. For simple single script patches for Keen 1, look here.

If loading of a mod/script fails, you may have to uncompress the keen executables using UNP or UNLZEXE.

Source ports

Three reversed engineered source ports are available.

CloneKeen

Commander Genius

Chocolate Keen

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
DOS
Windows	<path-to-game>\base1^{[Note 1]}<path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)^{[Note 2]}
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/9180/pfx/^{[Note 3]}

Save game data location

System	Location
DOS
Windows	<path-to-game>\base1\SAVED.CK1^{[Note 1]} <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)*^{[Note 2]}
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/9180/pfx/^{[Note 3]}

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution		320x200 only.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed		For DOSBox toggle with `Alt`+`↵ Enter` (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)		For DOSBox use an unofficial build (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		24 fps cap.^[2]

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		Press `F3` to alter keymaps.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus		No mouse support.
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support		Press `F4` to toggle on joystick support. Press `F3` to toggle on keyboard support.
Full controller support
Controller remapping		For DOSBox use the DOSBox Mapper (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers

DualShock 4 controllers

Generic/other controllers
Button prompts

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Make space-bar fire

In the earlier keen games you had to press both the jump and pogo buttons in order to fire, some find that inconvenient.

Use a CKPatch script^[3]

Copy the following into a plaintext editor and when saving be sure to give it a .pat extension.

%ext ck1
#Change the controls to Space, shoot; Enter, status. 

%patch $1251  $5048W
%patch $7FA3  $5048W
%patch $3B23  $90 $90 $90 $90 $90 $90 $90 $80 $3E $5065W $00 
%patch $3C4E  $90 $90 $90 $90 $90 $90 $90 $80 $3E $5065W $00 
%patch $3DB9  $90 $90 $90 $90 $90 $90 $90 $80 $3E $5065W $00 
%patch $3DCC  $90 $90 
%patch $3E6D  $90 $90 $90 $90 $90 $90 $90 $80 $3E $5065W $00 
%patch $3FFC  $90 $90 $90 $90 $90 $90 $90 $80 $3E $5065W $00 
%patch $40AA  $90 $90 $90 $90 $90 $90 $90 $80 $3E $5065W $00
%end

Some Keeners consider this cheating as it makes firing much easier, removing challenge from gameplay.

If you wish to utilize these changes in mods you will have to integrate this script into the mods' included script.

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Press `F2` to toggle on/off sound.
Surround sound		Uses only PC Speaker for audio (mono channel).
Subtitles		Everything is text-based.
Closed captions		See note above.
Mute on focus lost		For DOSBox change the `priority` background value in the DOSBox configuration file.
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
DOS video modes	EGA

System requirements

DOS
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	2.0	2.11
Processor (CPU)	8088 / 8086 5 MHz	80286
System memory (RAM)	640 KB (565 KB free)
Hard disk drive (HDD)	1 MB (Shareware)	3 MB (full release)
Video card (GPU)	EGA

Windows
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	XP, Vista
Processor (CPU)
System memory (RAM)
Hard disk drive (HDD)

Notes

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 File/folder structure within the installation folder reflects the path(s) listed for DOS game data. For the GOG.com release, file changes in DOSBox are redirected to <path-to-game>/cloud_saves/ even if GOG Galaxy is not used (this folder contains all redirected files, so some files in the cloud_saves folder might be temporary files or other files that do not contain saves or settings).
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/9180/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (9180) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References

↑ Commander Keen Complete Pack · Commander Keen · AppID: 9180 · Steam Database
↑ Verified by User:Quiet Bob on 2021-02-12
Tested in DOSBox with output=openglnb
↑ http://www.shikadi.net/keenwiki/Patch:Keen_shooting_(Vorticons)

[gamedir-2] 1.0 ^1.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

[DOSBox_mounted-3] 2.0 ^2.1 File/folder structure within the installation folder reflects the path(s) listed for DOS game data. For the GOG.com release, file changes in DOSBox are redirected to <path-to-game>/cloud_saves/ even if GOG Galaxy is not used (this folder contains all redirected files, so some files in the cloud_saves folder might be temporary files or other files that do not contain saves or settings).

[Proton_path_note-4] 3.0 ^3.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/9180/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (9180) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

[1] Commander Keen Complete Pack · Commander Keen · AppID: 9180 · Steam Database

[5] Verified by User:Quiet Bob on 2021-02-12
Tested in DOSBox with output=openglnb

[6] ttp://www.shikadi.net/keenwiki/Patch:Keen_shooting_(Vorticons)

[1]

[Note 1]

[Note 2]

[Note 3]

[2]

[3]

Developers

	id Software
Publishers
	Apogee Software
Europe	Precision Software
Release dates
DOS	December 14, 1990
Windows (DOSBox)	August 3, 2007
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Side view
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Platform
Themes	Sci-fi
Series	Commander Keen