Commander Keen in Invasion of the Vorticons
1990 · Platform · PC/DOS
Overview
Commander Keen (1990) is the shareware platformer by the team that became id Software, whose smooth scrolling on the PC came from John Carmack's adaptive tile refresh.
Deep Dive
Eight-year-old genius Billy Blaze becomes Commander Keen to recover stolen ship parts, stop a Vorticon invasion of Earth and defeat the Grand Intellect. The game came in three episodes — Marooned on Mars, The Earth Explodes and Keen Must Die!, distributed as shareware.
Developer Story
Tom Hall designed it and John Carmack and John Romero programmed it, working as Ideas from the Deep. Apogee's Scott Miller commissioned an original game after seeing the Mario demo. The royalties let the team leave Softdisk and found id Software on 1 February 1991.
Did You Know?
- It began after the team recreated the first level of Super Mario Bros. 3 on the PC; Nintendo turned down the demo.
- Apogee had been taking about $7,000 a month; Keen brought in over $60,000 a month by June 1991.
Sources & further reading
- Commander Keen in Invasion of the Vorticons — Wikipedia
