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Oh man Commander Keen was such a lovely little game. I gotta find a way to run it again. BTW. Recommendations how to run this? As a "grown up" I haven't used w

Oh man Commander Keen was such a lovely little game. I gotta find a way to run it again. BTW. Recommendations how to run this? As a "grown up" I haven't used windows in about... 20 years? How do I play this on Debian?

nick_ 3y ago
Dosbox is my guess
elteto 3y ago
You can start playing right now: https://archive.org/details/msdos_Commander_Keen_1_-_Marooned_on_Mars_1990 https://archive.org/details/msdos_Commander_Keen_1_-_Maroone...
- thristian 3y ago
  The Internet Archive's browser emulation is an excellent way to scratch a nostalgic itch over a lunch-break. If you'd like something a little more local, Commander Genius¹ is an open-source engine that plays all the Keen games (and apparently Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure, too). ¹: https://clonekeenplus.sourceforge.io/index.php https://clonekeenplus.sourceforge.io/index.php
lagniappe 3y ago
you can run it in the broswer
benatkin 3y ago
I disagree. It was for kids who for some reason had access to a computer but not a Nintendo (computers cost 10x what a console costs back then, so it was usually due to strong opinions by adults about what kids should be doing). It is lacking soul compared to all the NES and Genesis games. I liked it at the time, but I recently tried it in DosBox and realized that it pales in comparison.
- vunderba 3y ago
  I think it just depended on your family's circumstances. My father was a mechanical engineer, so we naturally had a computer in the house for his work. As a child, I couldn't convince my family to splurge on a dedicated entertainment device, but it was trivial to get a hold of a copy of the shareware version of commander keen and install it on the computer.
  - benatkin 3y ago
    Hopefully you still got to play a lot. I played at arcades, and at other kids' houses, and we rented an NES a couple times, including when I was recovering from getting my tonsils removed. I really liked Mario 1, Mario 3, Super Mario World, NBA Jam, Duck Hunt, Ninja Turtles on NES, Sonic, and some others I'm not thinking of right now. I see online that there aren't a lot of negative reviews about Commander Keen (like you would find about bad movies), and I suppose it makes sense. I mean, it was still fun. I would put it below Mario 2 though, and Mario 2 was the one I would leave out of a list like the one above. On the PC, there were a lot of great games too, but side scrolling was definitely something to play on a console.
    - bee_rider 3y ago
      Keen had item collecting, lots of verticality in the maps, and some backtracking IIRC. It seems like a better comparison to Metroid, than Mario. Anyway, most games are not as good as Mario, it is a genre-defining series. I think it is not a great comparison—what does it tel you that I’m slower than Usain Bolt?
- qbasic_forever 3y ago
  The later keen games are legitimately good platformers, even in comparison to some of the best of the genre at the time like Mario 3. The levels in keen games are enormous and way bigger than a NES could handle or even think of loading in its tiny RAM. I do agree the first few keen games are pretty luke warm compared to consoles.
  - 3y ago
qbasic_forever 3y ago
Dosbox runs old VGA games really well and on any platform, including right in your browser: https://archive.org/details/msdos_Commander_Keen_1_-_Marooned_on_Mars_1990 https://archive.org/details/msdos_Commander_Keen_1_-_Maroone...
kebman 3y ago
Commander Keen and Jill of the Jungle was my introduction to PC's back in the day. Such lovely memories!

nick_ 3y ago

Dosbox is my guess

elteto 3y ago

You can start playing right now: https://archive.org/details/msdos_Commander_Keen_1_-_Marooned_on_Mars_1990 https://archive.org/details/msdos_Commander_Keen_1_-_Maroone...

thristian 3y ago
The Internet Archive's browser emulation is an excellent way to scratch a nostalgic itch over a lunch-break. If you'd like something a little more local, Commander Genius¹ is an open-source engine that plays all the Keen games (and apparently Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure, too). ¹: https://clonekeenplus.sourceforge.io/index.php https://clonekeenplus.sourceforge.io/index.php

lagniappe 3y ago

you can run it in the broswer

benatkin 3y ago

I disagree. It was for kids who for some reason had access to a computer but not a Nintendo (computers cost 10x what a console costs back then, so it was usually due to strong opinions by adults about what kids should be doing). It is lacking soul compared to all the NES and Genesis games. I liked it at the time, but I recently tried it in DosBox and realized that it pales in comparison.

vunderba 3y ago
I think it just depended on your family's circumstances. My father was a mechanical engineer, so we naturally had a computer in the house for his work. As a child, I couldn't convince my family to splurge on a dedicated entertainment device, but it was trivial to get a hold of a copy of the shareware version of commander keen and install it on the computer.
- benatkin 3y ago
  Hopefully you still got to play a lot. I played at arcades, and at other kids' houses, and we rented an NES a couple times, including when I was recovering from getting my tonsils removed. I really liked Mario 1, Mario 3, Super Mario World, NBA Jam, Duck Hunt, Ninja Turtles on NES, Sonic, and some others I'm not thinking of right now. I see online that there aren't a lot of negative reviews about Commander Keen (like you would find about bad movies), and I suppose it makes sense. I mean, it was still fun. I would put it below Mario 2 though, and Mario 2 was the one I would leave out of a list like the one above. On the PC, there were a lot of great games too, but side scrolling was definitely something to play on a console.
  - bee_rider 3y ago
    Keen had item collecting, lots of verticality in the maps, and some backtracking IIRC. It seems like a better comparison to Metroid, than Mario. Anyway, most games are not as good as Mario, it is a genre-defining series. I think it is not a great comparison—what does it tel you that I’m slower than Usain Bolt?
qbasic_forever 3y ago
The later keen games are legitimately good platformers, even in comparison to some of the best of the genre at the time like Mario 3. The levels in keen games are enormous and way bigger than a NES could handle or even think of loading in its tiny RAM. I do agree the first few keen games are pretty luke warm compared to consoles.
- 3y ago

qbasic_forever 3y ago

Dosbox runs old VGA games really well and on any platform, including right in your browser: https://archive.org/details/msdos_Commander_Keen_1_-_Marooned_on_Mars_1990 https://archive.org/details/msdos_Commander_Keen_1_-_Maroone...

kebman 3y ago

Commander Keen and Jill of the Jungle was my introduction to PC's back in the day. Such lovely memories!