h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Believe it or not, I spend whole working days in antique structures with no internet connection, saying hello to tourists and answering their questions about the antique structure. I have my laptop, but no internet tubes. So tetris.org is unfortunately out of the question. Thanks anyway.

Hmmmm ...

You could save the SWF file onto your computer ...

Or you could set common sense on fire and shell out USD$10 for a version of Tetris which requires 512MB of RAM, 65 MB of disk space, and has *loading times* ...

Now find the hidden cities in the other Commander Keen games, Yar.

That'll be the hard part.

I saw that offer online. Bloatris, I calls it.

Heh, yeah, hence the "setting common sense on fire" part.

A quick update on Commander Keen: I probably would be playing it a wee bit more often if the last city in The Earth Explodes did not have deadly stuff with which the paths to the various macguffins and switches are PACKED, and making even ONE mistake will result in having to restart the WHOLE THING OVER AGAIN ARGH ARGH ARGH. I went off on a huge rant about this sort of thing with respect to Rayman 2 once -- although, in Commander Keen's defense, the gameplay of HIS last level does not consist SOLELY of piloting an unfamiliar vehicle with deliberately-awkward controls (I mean, there's the pogo stick, which is in fact deliberately awkward, but you have it for the whole game, you aren't forced to ride it constantly, it's easier to control than the flying shell in Rayman 2, and mere contact with the walls, floor, and ceiling won't cause it to explode). Still, it doesn't matter how far you've progressed, you're immediately forced to redo EVERYTHING ALL OVER AGAIN if you mess up once, and it's reasonably long and complicated without the end ever even coming in sight. And for the record, I've never beaten Rayman 2.

I have that complaint about the last level as well. If it's your first time through the game, that level is a nightmare.

Thanks to all the many modders of the CK games out there, thankfully, I eventually aquired an "alternate worldmap" that moved the last level to one of the first spots. I was able from then on to get the last level over with first (or whenever I chose) so that it wouldn't become so aggravating.

And after having that last level come first for so many years, I'm proud to say that I can get through that level with relatively few problems now.

Modders, huh ...? [imagines making his own CK games, such as "Commander Keen versus Predator", etc]

People've been making mods of the CK games for years now. Possibly a full decade or more, but don't quote me on that.

Last I checked (a few years back) editting and modding software were both readily available for the original trilogy, and some groundbreaking work was happening with the "Goodbye Galaxy" games.

Update on Commander Keen:

I somehow managed to beat Earth Explodes. In Keen Must Die, I stumbled upon the mountain and the Grand Intellect's fortress more or less by accident, then spent about an hour wandering aimlessly through the mountain and getting killed ...

... until I finally gave up and discovered that to get to the other side easily, you're supposed to climb *over* the mountain.

I think Mortimer McMire would've been a bit more of a "surprise" if he'd already been an established character or something. (But I'm going to wait a bit for "Messie" to come along and take me to the hidden city there ...)

Ah, Messie...

I actually like the fact that Mortimer McMire is introduced right out of the blue. It adds to the tongue-in-cheek "hey, it's a serialized space opera!" feel of the series. Ludicrous plot twists, etc.

Have fun waiting. Messie is, I think, randomized, and can take a while to get to pick you up.