User talk:Quillax
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Release dates of old fan-games
Hi Quillax, a note about the fan-game release dates you added: Very old games like Bloog Dunking Booth existed long before DOS Classics. The dates shown on that site are only the upload dates. Since it is unlikely that the exact release date is still available, the file modification dates are the only reference (1999-09-06 in case of the Bloog game). --Grandy02 (talk) 16:33, 6 July 2019 (UTC)
- Hi Grandy02, I do know that the file modification dates exist, but I wasn't sure if it's fine to use them for the release date, so I decided to look for when the games were released on the Internet. I suppose, though, that using the file modification dates makes more sense in this case. So, I just went ahead and made them more accurate. :) Quillax (talk) 16:58, 6 July 2019 (UTC)
- Good point. Fortunately, in many cases there is proof that those old games existed before 2004. Bloog Dunking Booth is mentioned at the 1999 fansite Vorticon VI (if a link is broken, uncapitalise the file name, e.g. discontinued instead of Discontinued). The same guy later created the Keencyclopedia, which had a comprehensive list of fan-games (oldest and latest archived versions). For some reason, Adventures of Commander Keen is not included, but it is mentioned in a CK Newsletter issue from November 2002. --Grandy02 (talk) 18:32, 6 July 2019 (UTC)
"New" levels by Eazyjay?
Hi again. Some days ago, I added a link to an older version of the Keencyclopedia to your talk page. I took a look at the Add-Ons page and noticed a level pack by a certain Eazyjay. I don't remember that I ever saw that name on KeenWiki or in the downloads section of DOS Classics. I found a review of the pack in CKN issue 21, section 2.1. A file name is also mentioned, "kopievankeen1.zip". Surprisingly, it's still available. I performed a search for "Eazyjay" through my saved PCKF pages and learned that the same user released another pack ("karsaanpas.zip") in 2003, which is still online, too.
You tested and described a lot of Vorticons level packs (By the way, thanks for that!). If you have the time, could you take a look at the following two packs? I'd like to know whether they are "new" level packs or just known ones released under a different username. I checked other 2003 levels and didn't find an equivalent.
--Grandy02 (talk) 14:46, 10 July 2019 (UTC)
- I have tested these two levelpacks out, and from what I can tell, these seem to be "new" levels, which haven't been documented in the KeenWiki yet. I do have level maps for the first one extracted! :) Quillax (talk) 19:59, 15 July 2019 (UTC)
- Cool, thanks! :-) It's a little odd that the packs were never added to the database of Beyond the Pogo/DOS Classics. Anyway, it's nice to "rediscover" such old stuff (and at least some of those levels appear to be darn hard). I'll upload the ZIPs to shikadi.net later this week (and maybe the discussions, too). --Grandy02 (talk) 16:45, 16 July 2019 (UTC)
- Alright! I have created pages for the two levelpacks! I kinda skimmed through just a few levels in Karsaanpas (the levels were too sadistic for my taste), so I have might have skipped over anything that might be worth noting. It's indeed interesting that these were never put into DOS Classics, or even CC314. :/ Quillax (talk) 00:36, 18 July 2019 (UTC)
- Great, thanks again! :-D I guess the non-inclusion was an oversight. Yeah, "sadistic" is the right word for the "Karsaanpas" levels, which were originally intended to be part of a mod (I'll add the PCKF threads and info tomorrow). By the way, some time ago I noticed another level (firstlevel.zip) which is most certainly not included in the KeenWiki as of now. It was created by Forge, the original webmaster of the CK Newsletter. It seems that the level has only been available at his long-abandoned site CKInfo. --Grandy02 (talk) 21:03, 19 July 2019 (UTC)
- Hey, you're welcome! I took a look at Forge's 1st Level quite a while ago, and I just created an article for it today! If you find any more once-thought-to-be-lost Keen levels, feel free to let me know! :-)
- (In the meantime, though, could you please take a look at this: File talk:LEVEL90.CK1.png) Quillax (talk) 21:49, 27 July 2019 (UTC)
- At the moment, I'm not aware of other downloadable "forgotten" levels from the days of the old PCKF. As a side note, Eazyjay/Ezjay seems to be Keen Q creator Joriz. --16:39, 29 July 2019 (UTC)
- Whoa! Thanks Malv! I played through them and made their pages! They are rather incomplete at the moment, but I at least have the Keen 4 level maps extracted. The status is left blank since I couldn't really figure it out. (I found out that one Keen 5 level is impossible to complete due to a tiling error and one Keen 6 level is also impossible, with a gem holder that crashes the game.) Quillax (talk) 22:52, 2 August 2019 (UTC)
- I think "Abandoned" is appropriate. In the 2006 thread, the author stated that he is working on more levels (including the incomplete Miragia replacement) for all three packs, SupFanat also acknowledged the gem holder error in the Keen 6 level which would have been fixed in the next release. However, there never was one. --Grandy02 (talk) 07:28, 3 August 2019 (UTC)
- I've added three Vorticon packs released by shikadi in February 2008. Their names are from an archived version of bipship.com. I was able to download them by simply changing "bipship.com" to "zapzot.net" in the URLs. On first glance, there are no other missing levels in the Bipship list (again, A.A.'s 1st Levelpack and Psycho Keen are duplicates). --Grandy02 (talk) 09:58, 13 August 2019 (UTC)
- Thanks! Again, nice work. :-) I found those by searching for the term "level" (as part of a topic title) in lists of older threads. I was also surprised since the KeenWiki already existed at that time, especially in the case of shikadi's levels. It was the once very productive KeenWiki editor Tulip who uploaded them to the Bipship (after asking shikadi about them since the download links were already broken). He was able to obtain quite a few missing works back then, too bad Tulip isn't active anymore. --Grandy02 (talk) 10:28, 16 August 2019 (UTC)
- One of the earliest Galaxy levelpacks is back. About a month ago, I read a thread from July 2002 and learned that ChargingMoose released an unfinished levelpack then. While the download link is gone, CM's page at the web hosting service 50megs still exists, so I searched for a way to contact him. Eventually, I found the man behind "ChargingMoose", he was both pleased and surprised to learn that he is still remembered in the Keen community. I'll post the whole story in the PCKF soon. Anyway, the levels are available again. :-) Since the pack lacks an official name, I called it "ChargingMoose's 2nd Levelpack". The extension .CMM has to be changed to .CK4 before it can be opened with GalaxyView. --Grandy02 (talk) 17:03, 5 September 2019 (UTC)
- Thanks again! I noticed that the foreground tiles cover the sprites in the maps uploaded by you. Does GalaxyView have a feature for this or does it have to be done manually? I've to admit that I didn't pay attention to it when I added the maps for Keen 4 Ultimate Edition. --Grandy02 (talk) 18:45, 16 September 2019 (UTC)
- You're welcome! I got the foreground tiles to cover sprites manually with MSPaint and GIMP. I also did the same thing with SupFanat's level packs, if you haven't noticed already. The level maps for the official Keen games don't really show items hidden inside passages, so I thought it'd be nice to the same thing with these maps. :) Quillax (talk) 19:50, 16 September 2019 (UTC)