This short page is being built to show some of the
unusual bloopers and little-known secrets in the Keen
games, so far only from Keen5.
Soon I am going to have a section for Keen and
Keen-stuff cameos that show up in other games
on this page as well.
Keen5
1.The Korath III base.
Thanks tons for this info to Nathan Wooden
(n_wooden@hotmail.com) for this cool info.
Start at the Korath III base (shown above). If you
don't know how to get there, see the Hints and Cheats
page, in the section titled- "Keen5- Secret Level"
Next, enter it and stand here, by the gate.
Pogo up into this secret passageway above.
Try to super-pogo here. But be careful of the slicestar!
See #2 for how to get rid of it.
Now pogo up here by the fuse.
You'll get this message
Now, finish the game.
Normally, during the ending sequence, you'd get this
message about the Shikadi.
However, after completing the above steps, you should
get this message. Cool, eh? It's not much, but it's
interesting and adds a little spark to the old game.
2.Slicestars
Slicestars- Seemingly invincible little stars that
move in systematic patterns. But the key word there
is seemingly invincible. The slicestars are
actually quite killable.
There are two types of slicestars- bouncing and regular.
The bouncing (d-uh) bounce, and the regular ones move
back and forth or up and down. To kill a regular one,
you must hit it with your neural stunner 20 times,
and with a bouncing one you must hit it with a neural stunner
shot 50 times. It is sometimes worth it for the regular
ones, but almost never would I advise to waste 50 shots
one a bouncing star- it's just a curiosity.
*POOF!*
Pass by in safety.
3."Fuse Strcture"
This is the only blooper I know of that has been made
in any of the Commander Keen games- it may not be a blooper,
however. These are the machines in the four main machine
levels:
Neutrino Burst Injector,
Energy Flow Systems,
Regulation Control Centre,
and
Brownian Motion Inducer,
The signs next to each of them, shown here
all have an incorrect spelling! In SGA the signs should read:
"Warning: Fuse structure fragile"
But instead they say:
"Warning: Fuse strcture fragile"!
Funny, eh?
4. Grand Intellect
This one isn't really very "Little Known", but I thought
it was worth mentioning.
As most of you probably know, The Grand Intellect, Mortimer McMire<
has left his mark around on the planet Vorticon VI- not only does
his picture appear on walls in many levels:
With the initials "GI" (Grand Intellect) on it, but his flag is also
flown from several prominent Vortiville locations. Just thought it was
worth telling about.
Keen and Stuff from Keen games make three appearances
in Bio Menace 2 alone-
Once in the Trash Dump Level as a hostage
Snake must rescue:
Thanks so much to Geoff
(Cerebral Cortex 314) For this image.
Several times in the Apogee/ID room, (Specimens Lab Level)
where the controllers of the games have stored items
from the Commander Keen games, including yorps, Boobus
Bombs, (Keen 3.5) and Keen scoring items, along with
tokens from other games such as Duke Nukem I and Bio Menace.
Once in the Specimens Lab where the Enforcer has placed
a 10-foot statue of a Yorp along with hideous
monsters in his inventory of "kamikaze mutants":
In Duke Nukem I, Mercury Mines level Dr. Proton
mentions Keen to Duke:
Keen's name also appears three times in the Paganitzu
high scores in Paganitzu (Once in each episode);
And reportedly his helmet shows up too but as of yet
I have not discovered it.
Four times in Doom II, in the secret level (#32) where
four dead keens hang around a little centre-post.
If you or the cyber-demon located there shoots them, they
will die in this fashion-
Thanks alot to Cerebral Cortex 314
for this image.
Well, anyways, here are some screenshots of the clones of
our beloved hero:
Keen's name appears three times in Level Ten of Pickle Wars,
Where the endangered Arcadians wish for his help:
Thanks alot to some guy for Pickle Wars
and info on the Pickle Wars keen cameo.
Billy's name is mentioned once in Crystal Caves I
high scores, right along with Snake Logan (Bio Menace)
Duke Nukem (Duke Nukem? d-uh...) and Captain James T.
Kirk of Star Trek, as well as "yorp-herding" being
mentioned in the storyline:
Keen's helmet also appears, very small, in Level Eight
of Crystal Caves II:
Once in Secret Agent 1, in the instructions:
Who knew the Teddy Bear was so popular?
Unlike other Keen-stuff cameos, This one actually has
something from Keen as a scoring item! This Keen1 item
gives you 1000 points when you find it in a level.
Keen is mentioned once (HERESY!!) in Epic's Jill of the
Jungle in Level 1 of the Shareware version (How easy
can you get?) as a mockery. And trust me, Keen FAR outrules
the shapely Jill:
Thanks loadsfor this cameo to Moonbuzz
Should we kill Epic for this vicious insult?
Perhaps the hardest to find and maybe the best Keen-
stuff cameo is located in Paganitzu 2, Level 15.
Because it's so difficult to find, I have included here
a short explanation of how to find it as well as explicit
screenshots (It was very difficult to get a decent, smooth-running
animation, so I quit while I was ahead.) Thanks tons to James
for info on how to get here.
OK, first of all, you have to complete the level (15) up until
the point where you are in the center of the level, by the switches.
Walk along the bottom row of switches till the third one.
The following sequence SHOULD occur.
Al falls over, his hat comes off, and a sign saying
"Out to Lunch" comes up.
A yorp comes down from the top and snatches Al's hat.
Al stands up, and starts talking about this dream he
had. Meanwhile, the Yorp is bouncing up and down, sticking
his tongue out at Al.
You got that one right, Al...
Then they return you to the game, and the Yorp vaporizes.
If you find any more Keen cameos,
PLEASE let me know ASAP. Thanks so much.
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