id Software released its first game 35 years ago today, John Carmack’s breakthrough side-scroller engine — Commander Keen title brought smooth scrolling to PCs

10 months ago by Agent_Karyo to c/pcgaming

Apogee shareware model would set the stage for early 90s PC gaming with Wolfenstein 3D, and Doom to benefit.

LazyGit 33 points 10 months ago

Oh, the memories. What impressed me most back then was that this was the first time I ever saw an idle animation. If you didn’t move for a while Commander Keen would sit down and read a book 🤯

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altkey 3 points 10 months ago

What, read a book? Don't they, like, have a smartphone? Commander Been they are.

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dukatos 2 points 10 months ago

Boulder dash from 1984 had it, too. The character would tap its foot if idle.

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ivanafterall 19 points 10 months ago

There was something so magical about the shareware version of this. I remember spending a bunch of time just on the little brick breaker mini game.

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frunch 18 points 10 months ago

My grandmother actually introduced my brother and I to Commander Keen! She was a teacher at the time and had a pretty good grasp on computers when many had never even interacted with one in person. Whenever we went to their house, we always wanted to play on her computer. It made our Nintendo seem like a toy in comparison. She even had some other games too including Quasimodo and another one i could swear was called Arabian or Arabian Nights...

Shareware really was so cool back then 😎 happy memories!

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Alcoholicorn 13 points 10 months ago

The platforming mechanics aged like milk btw.

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FishFace 10 points 10 months ago

The pogo stick was... interesting

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bjoern_tantau 6 points 10 months ago

Those games made me want to get a real pogo stick. I still have it lying around somewhere.

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48954246 5 points 10 months ago

Please, think of your knees before you find it

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FishFace 2 points 10 months ago

I think we only had the shareware version, not the full one. I remember the screenshots from the full version when you completed it, and really wanted to play the rest!

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bytesonbike 4 points 10 months ago

I honestly didn't play any non-RPGs on the PC until a couple of years ago.

I finally tried Commander Keen after it was compared to Nintendo Super Mario Bros 3.

It did not age like Super Mario Bros 3. At all.

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mkhopper 8 points 10 months ago

35 years, and it seems like it was yesterday.

https://www.playdosgames.com/...

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dream_weasel 8 points 10 months ago

This game was hard AF.

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hopesdead 7 points 10 months ago

I’ve lived my entire life reading about this in Masters of Doom but never seeming a single screenshot.

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Windex007 3 points 10 months ago

The second screenshot in the article is not from keen 1, it'd be 4,5, or 6. There was an engine revamp.

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S_H_K 1 point 10 months ago

I played it, wasn't very good really somewhat repetitive and lacked a hook.

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hopesdead 10 points 10 months ago

There is a whole fictional language in the game.

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Zarxrax 4 points 10 months ago

I remember playing this in the early 90s from a shareware cd, but even then I didn't really think much of it. Compared to platformers on consoles, even older ones from the NES, it just seemed like it wasn't on the same level somehow. A lot of that might have to do with the horrible experience of trying to play it on a keyboard, though.

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Iunnrais 2 points 10 months ago

My friends and I played this a lot when I was little. Spent hours on it. The extremely extremely limited ammo system hasn’t been used much since— probably for good reason. The controls weren’t the greatest either, iirc.

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