Difference between revisions of "Commander Keen IV: Secret of the Oracle (DOS)"

Revision as of 17:12, 24 August 2010

Commander Keen IV: Secret of the Oracle

Platform: DOS Year: 1991 Developer: id Software

Commander Keen IV: Secret of the Oracle is a platform game for DOS where you play the role of Billy Blaze, a boy-genius with a penchant for saving the world. Your faster-than-light radio has intercepted some plans by the Shikadis to destroy the galaxy, so you hop in your Bacon-With-Beans Megarocket and head towards the planet Gnosticus IV where the Oracle will be able to answer some questions about the invasion. Unfortunately, when you arrive the Elders have been kidnapped and taken to the Shadowlands.

Commander Keen IV was a major upgrade from the first Commander Keen trilogy. It has better graphics, improved sound, and many technical enhancements. The game features 8-directional smooth-scrolling EGA graphics, responsive controls, and a crisp look. It could have easily been seen on a console system, but it instead gave merit to the action PC games of the time. You can jump, pogo, shoot, climb, and swim your way through several levels in your attempts to save the Gnosticus Elders.

Screenshots

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Music

Commander Keen IVs music fits perfectly with the game. It's lighthearted and upbeat, just like the game itself. Bobby Prince composed the music originally in MIDI format using Sequencer Plus Gold. The MIDI files were then downgraded to IMF to play on an AdLib board.

A couple of the original higher-quality MIDI files were made available on Bobby Prince's website and are included in the rip download.

Recording

Credits

• Ripper: Andrew Durdins
• Recorder: TheAlmightyGuru
• Game Credits:
  • Composer: Bobby Prince credited as Robert Prince

(Source)

Game Rip

The IMF files were ripped from the Huffman compressed Audio.CK4 file, using the look up stored in the LZ Compressed EXE file. The IMF music was played with AdPlug 1.7, and recorded with Winamp. The order of the music files matches the order in the game rip. The music titles come from various sources including an archive by John Romero, the MIDI files from Bobby Prince's archive, and the Meta Data from Bobby Prince's archive.

Audio Devices

Sound		File:Icon - PCSpeaker.png	File:Icon - SoundBlaster.png
Music			File:Icon - SoundBlaster.png

Releases

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Links

• Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commander_Keen_series
• Fan Page: commander-keen.com - Commander Keen: The Defender of Earth, fan site.
• Fan Page: shikadi.net/keenwiki/Main_Page - KeenWiki, a Commander Keen Wiki.