Back On Mars

Back On Mars

Modded episode	Keen 1
Protagonist	Commander Keen
Author(s)	CHOCOLATE MILK
Status	Complete
Release date	2020-12-13
Discussion(s)	PCKF (development) PCKF (release)
Number of levels	4
Secret levels	0
New gameplay?	No
New graphics?	Some
New levels?	Yes
New sounds?	No
New music?	No
Download	newest
Vote	0.00 (0 votes)

Old Times 1: Back On Mars is a Keen 1 levelpack by CHOCOLATE MILK, which released on December 13, 2020, a day before Keen 1's 30th anniversary. There are four levels, with each having its own distinct theme, as well as modeled on its respective level entrance tiles from the world map. The levelpack comes with a new story, where Keen time travels back to the past with his Lean-Keen-Time-Machine, a ship that comes with a unique set of ship parts to retrieve.

Story

As seen in the in-game story section:

8-year-old genius Billy Blaze is lounging around watching cartoons when he starts thinking about where his arch-nemesis Mortimer Mcmire could be. Billy last encountered him after a rather awkward journey to stop him from reusing the Omegamatic for destructive purposes, but Mortimer has never been seen since. As his show finishes, he decides to check Mortimer's room for clues. After convincing Mortimer's older sister Molly that preventing the destruction of the Universe is more important than her brother's privacy, Billy gains entry to Mortimer's room. The only out of place object in Mortimer's room is a video tape labeled "I win" in Standard Galactic Alphabet. Immediately worried, Billy rushes to his clubhouse with the tape and shoves it into a VCR.

"Hello CAPTAIN CLOWN! I assume that since I've gone, you've decided to search for clues in my room and found this on my desk, but you're too late! I am always one step ahead of you, and now I have passed the finish line! Ever since I enslaved the Vorticons, I have been working on my universal toaster device, and you let me complete it! If you even try to stop me, the universe will be toast in an instant! Goodbye Three-fourteen!"

Billy smiles, dons his brother's football helmet, and transforms into Commander Keen! "Mortimer thinks he's one step ahead of me, but I'm not stupid this time. I have just completed the Lean-Keen-Time-Machine! I just have to go back in time to stop Mortimer's distractions, and then I'LL be one step ahead!" Keen hops into the yellow rocket and blasts off to his next adventure.

Commander Keen decides to stop himself from getting marooned on Mars, allowing himself to immediately stop the Vorticon Mothership and ruin Mortimers plans. Keen activates the time travel mode on the L-M-T-M and blasts back to Mars the day before he got marooned. Keen finds four Vorticon ships flying to an area of Mars that he has never visited before. Keen lands in a clearing and sees one of the Vorticon ships next to a cliff side. Keen eyes a giant rock on the cliff and, thinking quickly, pogos up to it, uses his new Pogo-Power-Push upgrade, and shoves the rock straight onto the Vorticon ship, crushing it as his pogo goes flying the other direction. Keen chases after his pogo, but suddenly, a garg snatches it out of the air and runs off! Keen mumbles as he returns to his rocket, only to find that it's four vital parts have been stolen! "So much for not being stupid this time. here we go again!"

Items

Aside from the ship parts and one of the keycards, all items remain unchanged.

• 
  CHOCOLATE MILK

  Ship part required to finish the game.
• 
  Chimney

  Ship part required to finish the game.
• 
  Control Stick

  Ship part required to finish the game.
• 
  Flux Capacitor

  Ship part required to finish the game.
• 
  Keycards

  Keycards used to unlock doors.

Levels

• 

  1: Yorp City

  Required? Yes

  Points 48,000

  Ammo 3

• 

  3: Treasure Dome

  Required? Yes

  Points 83,300

  Ammo 3

• 

  7: Double-Environment City

  Required? Yes

  Points 119,000

  Ammo 7

• 

  14: Vorticon Invaded City

  Required? Yes

  Points 153,500

  Ammo 7

• 

  80: Mars (world map)

  Required? Yes

  Points 0

  Ammo 0

• 

  90: Title screen

  Required? No

  Points 5,000

  Ammo 0

Technical Information

• Part of the unfinished Old Times trilogy
• Graphics: mostly unchanged, with a modified title screen and some new tiles by CHOCOLATE MILK
• Levels: 4 levels, 1 world map
• Tools used (incomplete list): CKPatch, Mindbelt, TileInfo