Movie Information

Keen Dreams is shareware and can be downloaded here: ftp://ftp.3drealms.com/share/keendm.zip
The game runs at 70 frames per second internally, but only refreshes the screen every 35 frames.
  • Emulator: JPC-RR r11.8 rc1 (syncs on r11.7)
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Uses death to save time
  • Uses hardest difficulty
  • Genre: Platform
Image info:
Type: HDD
Tracks: 16
Sides: 16
Sectors: 63
Total Sectors: 16128
MD5: 2331702ee0c778dc8281e772d266760c

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This is Keen Dreams! Nicknamed by fans "Keen 3.5", Keen Dreams was developed between the release of Keen 3 and 4 but not released until after Keen 6. The goal of the game is to defeat King Boobus Tuber. To do so, Keen must collect and use 12 Boobus Bombs. There are many bombs spread across the land of Tuberia, but thankfully 2 levels in close proximity to the castle hold 6 each! Only 4 of the 10 levels are actually required to beat the game, but a 5th is visited in this run in order to grab a slightly more efficient key. Keen trades his stunner for Flower Power, strange pellets that temporarily change enemies into flowers. His signature pogo stick is also not present.
It should be noted that the RTA (real time attack) timing used by speedrunners for this run would be 4:26.

Glitches used

Death exit

If you die next to the right side of a level, part of you clips out of the level and the game awards you the exit. This is the most significant time-saving glitch and is used to make 2 levels quicker.

Enemy dropping

If an enemy is stunned with a pellet while exactly on the edge of a platform, the flower will fall off. This trick is used in the first level to set up a death exit.

Hazard jumping

The harmful effects of floor hazards such as glowing slime and fire can be avoided by simply setting up an auto-jump before landing on it (releasing and then holding Ctrl before impact).

Level comments

Setup

The "/comp" command line extension turns on SVGA compatibility and is needed to prevent flickering. Hard difficulty minimizes the time that enemies are stunned; since the first level depends on a death exit from a stunned enemy, hard difficulty is actually the quickest.

Overworld

Overworld travel is fairly straightforward, but it is possible to use specific corners to gain slight boosts which saves a handful of frames throughout the run.

Horseradish Hill

The first level is completed with a death exit by dropping a potato from a floating platform. It's not possible to stun one immediately from below; you actually have to see them first in order to be able to hit one of them. An extra pellet is grabbed here, which ended up not being necessary, but didn't waste any time to get.

Melon Mines

The sole purpose of this level is to grab a key. Keys are kept between levels and this one will be used in the final level. The final level does contain two keys, but one is very inefficient to grab so this key ends up being slightly better (by around 1.5 seconds). There are 3 bombs on this level but they require the key and are simply not worth it.

Spud City

This is the longest level in the run. It contains 6 bombs: 3 underground and 3 on a floating platform near the beginning of the level. There is actually an extensive network of secret passages under this level, but only a fraction of it is required to get to the bombs. This level showcases the Frenchy's odd behavior. If you get too close to them, they don't throw anything at you and would rather run away, giving the appearance of you chasing them. They are quite fast so it's the best enemy to use to set up another death exit.

Apple Acres

Apple Acres contains another secret with 3 bombs. Thankfully the 6 bombs are near the exit so this level is actually very quick.

Castle Tuberia

The goal of this level is to collect 2 keys and use them to exit near the top of the castle. Since we already have one, the key outside the left of the castle is skipped.

Boobus Chamber

12 bombs are hurled as quickly as possible to complete the game.

Thanks

  • Xarthok: Came up with the RTA route, which ended up being the fastest for a TAS as well!
  • Ilari: Helped me get the game working properly in JPC-rr, also I cannibalized his Jetpack LUA script for the purposes of this game.

Nach: This movie isn't very entertaining. A lot of jumping around behind the walls where you can't see anything, and normal play is rather dull and uneventful. Nor was reception that good either. All that being said, the game was played well. Accepting for vault.


TASVideoAgent
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Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 15580
Location: 127.0.0.1
This topic is for the purpose of discussing #4186: slamo's DOS Commander Keen: Keen Dreams in 04:40.12
Editor, Experienced player (570)
Joined: 11/8/2010
Posts: 4036
I'm glad you made this. Now we just need someone to run Keen 3 and we'll have a complete set. Enjoyed seeing the death tricks and precise movement (and that fast final boss fight), so here's a Yes vote.
Patashu
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Joined: 10/2/2005
Posts: 4043
Nice work! Now only Keen 3 left :)
My Chiptune music, made in Famitracker: http://soundcloud.com/patashu My twitch. I stream mostly shmups & rhythm games http://twitch.tv/patashu My youtube, again shmups and rhythm games and misc stuff: http://youtube.com/user/patashu
Emulator Coder, Skilled player (1113)
Joined: 5/1/2010
Posts: 1217
Patashu wrote:
Nice work! Now only Keen 3 left :)
Well, out of official Commander Keen games, there's also Keen GBC. But that one is kinda crappy.
Editor
Joined: 3/31/2010
Posts: 1466
Location: Not playing Puyo Tetris
You beat my childhood. Gratz.
When TAS does Quake 1, SDA will declare war. The Prince doth arrive he doth please.
Player (26)
Joined: 8/29/2011
Posts: 1206
Location: Amsterdam
Ilari wrote:
Well, out of official Commander Keen games, there's also Keen GBC. But that one is kinda crappy.
La la la I can't hear you :P
Editor, Skilled player (1439)
Joined: 3/31/2010
Posts: 2108
Real nice run. Voting yes.
Tub
Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 1377
Nice death exit glitch, but otherwise it's a pretty uneventful game. Barely any enemies are met, the movement isn't as varied as, say, super metroid, and the final boss fight looks like standing there with autofire. I recognize the nostalgia for those who played it back in the day, but the interesting-to-uninteresting-ratio is kinda zelda'ish. meh.
m00
mklip2001
He/Him
Editor
Joined: 6/23/2009
Posts: 2227
Location: Georgia, USA
I enjoy Commander Keen, but no music and no pogo stick does make it more dull. You did manipulate enemies as well as you could, but there are still some pretty noticeable delays for the side-exit glitch. I think you did your best, but this is just much more of a Meh game in the Keen series.
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically. Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.) Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html) Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature! Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.
Joined: 9/27/2011
Posts: 207
Location: Finland
It's true that it's gonna be a meh compared to other keen games but it's only 5 minutes so I didn't feel "cheated" by any means: yes! GJ DJ
NitroGenesis
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Editor, Experienced player (556)
Joined: 12/24/2009
Posts: 1873
Voting meh. The game lacks the charm of 4, 5, and 6. The inferior graphics, little to no sound, and lack of a pogo stick really hurt this one, and it seems a bit straightforward.
YoungJ1997lol wrote:
Normally i would say Yes, but thennI thought "its not the same hack" so ill stick with meh.
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
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This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [2531] DOS Commander Keen: Keen Dreams by slamo in 04:40.12
Editor, Experienced player (570)
Joined: 11/8/2010
Posts: 4036
Very nice movie description! (You know who you are.)