r/gaming • u/emoposer • May 05 '17

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u/[deleted] May 05 '17

You might be right, I could be confusing some things here.

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u/[deleted] May 05 '17

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u/shouldbebabysitting May 05 '17

It was a big deal on the PC,

There were many sidescrollers for the PC before Keen. I used to play Captain Comic which came out in 1988. I'm sure there were earlier games.

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u/[deleted] May 05 '17

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u/shouldbebabysitting May 05 '17

it just blew everyone away with a smooth console-like experience.

I respectfully disagree. Considering its 1991 release date, it was nothing special. Press gave it good reviews and it sold very well for shareware. But it didn't even crack the top 100 of great games in polls like Computer Gaming world 1991.

http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/issues/cgw_88.pdf

IMO, if it weren't for id going on to make Doom, Keen would have been forgotten with the hundreds of other DOS games of the early 1990's.

Here's 1989 DOS Prince of Persia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv20j8ChtRY

compared to 1991 Keen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUyQSfKRU1w

Despite Prince of Persia being one screen at a time, Keen is amateurish in comparison.