Commander Keen Takes a Negative from Nintendo to Create a Classic on Computers – Today in History – December 14th, 1990 by triverse

games · @triverse · Dec 17 '19

$1.62

Commander Keen Takes a Negative from Nintendo to Create a Classic on Computers – Today in History – December 14th, 1990

What do you do when you have spent a lot of money and time creating a pretty damn good rendition of <em>Super Mario Bros 3</em> but for PC?  First, you shop it out to Nintendo and when they say no, you take your superior engine and rework the graphics and levels to make something new and unique.  This is exactly what John Romero and the rest of the team at IFD (soon to become id Software) did with their PC rendition of <em><a href="http://retrogamingmagazine.com/2015/12/14/super-mario-bros-3-for-pc-shown-by-john-romero-created-25-years-ago/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Super Mario Bros 3</a>.</em>  Nintendo, of course, said no to the port and Romero and the team had to do something so they reworked things and created another iconic classic called <em>Commander Keen</em>.  This all happened at the tail end of 1990, 25 years ago, folks.
![Commander Keen.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQma9jvm3J1RNERovswPqDCxcnFRybdfMubTHHaEYxQ2rDZ/Commander%20Keen.jpg)
<em>Commander Keen</em> was quite a change of pace from the demo of <em>Super Mario Bros 3</em>.  This is probably to help distance the port from Nintendo’s intellectual property.  What we got in <em>Commander Keen</em> is still a classic platforming title that showed PC gamers that DOS could do more than we were being led onto believe.  There is an overhead map between levels, 2D sidescrolling action platforming centric levels with enemies.  You can jump on the enemies or avoid them and collect lots of things.  Quite similar to the basics of <em>Super Mario Bros 3</em> on the Nintendo Entertainment System.

<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/l9_zTHf2KGw" width="420" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

The story of <em>Commander Keen</em> is told through eight separate releases.  Seven of these appeared on DOS for PC’s while the eighth is exclusive to the Game Boy Color.  Id Software has kept the <em>Commander Keen</em> series alive and well on modern platforms through compilation releases.  These releases have appeared on physical media and on digital distribution services such as Steam.

<em>Commander Keen</em> is a classic series that most hardcore retrogaming fans know quite well.  We would like to thank John Carmack, John Romero and Tom Hall for their work on Commander Keen.

Grab <em>Commander Keen</em> on <a href="http://&lt;a target=&quot;_self&quot; href=&quot;http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?icep_ff3=9&amp;pub=5575120518&amp;toolid=10001&amp;campid=5337791921&amp;customid=&amp;icep_uq=Commander+Kee&amp;icep_sellerId=&amp;icep_ex_kw=&amp;icep_sortBy=12&amp;icep_catId=1249&amp;icep_minPrice=&amp;icep_maxPrice=&amp;ipn=psmain&amp;icep_vectorid=229466&amp;kwid=902099&amp;mtid=824&amp;kw=lg&quot;&gt;Ebay&lt;/a&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;text-decoration:none;border:0;padding:0;margin:0;&quot; src=&quot;http://rover.ebay.com/roverimp/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?ff3=9&amp;pub=5575120518&amp;toolid=10001&amp;campid=5337791921&amp;customid=&amp;uq=Commander+Kee&amp;mpt=[CACHEBUSTER]&quot;&gt;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Ebay</a>, on <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/9180/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Steam</a> or <a href="https://amzn.to/35nym6C">with Prime</a> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/s?k=commander+keen&amp;i=videogames&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;linkCode=ur2&amp;linkId=70d506d60c5a58af5004e76eaffe4f75&amp;tag=cwilliams0a-20">from Aamzon</a> and enjoy a true classic.

This article was originally published on <a href="http://retrogamingmagazine.com/2015/12/14/commander-keen-takes-a-negative-from-nintendo-to-create-a-classic-on-computers-today-in-history-december-14th-1990/">Retro Gaming Magazine</a>, a gaming website I own.

👍 curie, minnowbooster, smjn, blewitt, therising, postpromoter, steemed-proxy, tombstone, nateaguila, redpalestino, mmmmkkkk311, matt-a, gamegiveaways, shaka, goblinknackers, wackou, vact, darth-azrael, slobberchops, hendrikdegrote, tarekadam, justtryme90, playfulfoodie, spacecadet1, richardfyates, free999enigma, pladozero, loreshapergames, ambyr00, ibt-survival, snarf, carlgnash, archdruid, louis88, johnquake, stayoutoftherz, djlethalskillz, kryptik.tigrrr3d, epicdice, c-squared, steemjet, dacx, chris4210, sarez, revo, blueorgy, travisung, lays, musicvoter, macoolette, mahdiyari, eyedrip, adamada, joshmania, musicvoter2, katamori, saboin, eric-boucher, jlsplatts, lusce, healthexpert, darth-cryptic, mhm-philippines, velourex, and 179 others

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