A trio of Commander Keens in the final room of Level 32: Grosse, in Doom II, one of which has been destroyed by the player. The blood stain and bullet holes on the wall are a feature in some source ports.
Commander Keen is a character named Billy Blaze from a series of eponymous platform games by id Software. An incarnation of the character can be found in the super-secret Doom II map, Level 32: Grosse, as an easter egg. In the final room of that level four hanged Commander Keen bodies are suspended from ropes by their necks around a metal cube containing the exit switch. The player must destroy the four hanged Keens to trigger the door that hides the switch.
The Commander Keen can be considered a monster in the technical sense as it counts towards the kills percentage, will respawn under the corresponding settings, and is not included when the -nomonsters parameter is used. It does not, however, pose any threat to the player as the true monsters do.
Technical
Internally "KEEN" is used as a prefix for sprites relating to Commander Keen. The type of the object inside the source code is given the name "MT_KEEN". The sounds "DSKEENPN" and "DSKEENDT" are used when the Keen objects are injured and killed, respectively. When all the Keens in a map are killed, any sectors tagged 666 will open as doors.
Notes
- According to John Romero[1], the hanged Commander Keens were Adrian Carmack's idea and execution. Preferring to work on dark and gory themes, he had his revenge against the cute character he had had to endure working with previously.
- The phrase in the prologue for Level 32: Grosse contains a reference to Keen's name, Billy Blaze: Congratulations, you've found the super-secret level! You'd better blaze through this one!
- The sounds used for the Keens are taken from the original Commander Keen games in that the Commander Keen death sound plays when you kill them.
Appearance statistics
The IWADs contain the following numbers of hanged Commander Keens:
| Game | ITYTD and HNTR | HMP | UV and NM |
|---|---|---|---|
| Doom II | 4 | 4 | 4 |
External links
- Commander Keen on Wikipedia
- Commander Keen wiki
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