Commander Keen at 30: Id's Debut

If you want a pioneer of computer gaming, Id Software has to be up there. Before the first person shooters after another that revolutionized a lot of things, they imitated Super Mario. Their first games were Commander Keen. The original trilogy, Invasion of the Vorticons, made its first episode debut back on December 14, 1990. It was a basic platformer. Completing objectives depending on the title. Fighting bosses. Death defying jumps. Standard fare.

You have to understand where computers were in 1990. The biggest games were point and click games and a couple other genre. They didn't have what was seen on the NES and Sega Master System for years. And the Sega Genesis and Turbografx-16 were beginning their runs. A lot of it comes down John Carmack mostly and Tom Hall. It started with recreating Super Mario Bros. 3, then the hot new title on the market. A sample size, but they got it to scroll. Nintendo liked what they saw, but declined to want a computer port.

Stuff like that is why Nintendo has been in bad situations for the last 25 years or so. Because Apogee became Id's publisher for a couple years and Keen was a huge hit. Part of it was the engine. That's why Duke Nukem came into fruition and several other titles. Developers and publishers could learn a thing or two and craft their work. Apogee had their own range of side scrollers. Epic Games had the Jazz Jackrabbit games. Of course, it allowed Id to look at how to make computers look cool and attractive to buy. Especially when they bigger than ever with Wolfenstein 3D in 1992 and Doom in 93.

I don't have any big memories of playing any of the episodes as a kid like I do with Wolfenstein and Doom. The only thing I remember was at some point in the mid to late 90s one of my family members playing a shareware version of Vorticons and doing okay. Back when floppy disks were prevalent. Shareware was actually not a bad idea before CD's became the norm. If you were impressed by the first episode, you could buy the rest the of the trilogy or set if you wanted.

It may not get the love now these days, but Commander Keen should be saluted for making Id a recognized company and for getting PC's to do much more than a couple genres.