Commander Keen

We grabbed the brass ring.

Yeah, and then Commander Keen ended up in pretty much every household that ever had a computer ever, ever, ever.

Yeah, everybody that brought a gravest gamepad.

I

specifically wanted to talk to you.

I am Roberta's brother, Ames, sibling.

Commander Keen was our favorite game to play together when we were young from it.

We have played through it so many different times.

agree

so I read that you commissioned Boris and I'm going to probably mispronounce his last name Vajic for original Commander Keen cover art

yes so like he had it and i liked it and so i don't just use people's art like um he so i reached out to him was like hey uh can i borrow you know can i use this for my cover and i really like it because it's really good and he's like oh yeah you can use it i was like i'll make sure to give you credit you know because i wanted to do that so yeah it was really cool uh i always try to be respectful of people's um you know, art.

And I really want to give them the credit they need.

to mention that too, yeah.

And I remember like Commander Keen and the original Duke Nukem's, you know, I remember the share wares for those, you know, and you'd play like a level and then it would kick you back to DOS with a colorful screen.

If you want the full game, blah, blah, blah.

Yeah.

They were there for a little bit, they got sick of the weather, and then they moved eventually to Texas.

Their first title was Commander Keen in Invasion of the Vorticons, a 2D platformer in the vein of Super Mario Bros., where players took on the role of 8-year-old Billy Blaze, aka Commander Keen, who flies to Mars in his homemade spaceship, the Bean with Bacon Mega Rocket, which I mostly just put out there because it's a very cute name.

And he battles evil aliens from the planet Vorticon while platforming, collecting items, and solving puzzles.

Sorry, this is a real game? This is a real game.

And they did actually pitch this to Nintendo, and Nintendo said, no, thank you.

They were not interested in PC gaming at the time.

But they used that as the foundation for Commander Keen, and Commander Keen is a platformer that was built on that whole idea, which I think is kind of neat.

In fact, its software's output during its first year was nothing short of incredible.