Commander Keen IV: Secret of the Oracle (DOS)

Commander Keen IV: Secret of the Oracle

Platform: DOS Year: 1991 Developer: id Software

For other games in the series see Commander Keen.

Commander Keen IV: Secret of the Oracle is a platform game for DOS where you play the role of Billy Blaze, a boy-genius with a penchant for saving the world. Your faster-than-light radio has intercepted some plans by the Shikadis to destroy the galaxy, so you hop in your Bacon-With-Beans Megarocket and head towards the planet Gnosticus IV where the Oracle will be able to answer some questions about the invasion. Unfortunately, when you arrive the Elders have been kidnapped and taken to the Shadowlands.

It is the first episode in the Goodbye, Galaxy! series and it was a major upgrade from the first Commander Keen trilogy. It has better graphics, improved sound, and many technical enhancements. The game features 8-directional smooth-scrolling EGA graphics, responsive controls, and a crisp look. It could have easily been seen on a console system, but it instead gave merit to the action PC games of the time. You can jump, pogo, shoot, climb, and swim your way through several levels in your attempts to save the Gnosticus Elders.

Screenshots

Title screen. Wandering the map. Shooting slugs in Border Village. Pogo-sticking in front of the slug statue. Swimming away from the dope fish. Idling in the Oasis.

Music

VGMPF Album Art

Commander Keen IVs music fits perfectly with the game. It's lighthearted and upbeat, just like the game itself. Bobby Prince wrote the music from ground up for the Sound Blaster FM synthesizer since the availability of true wave table synthesizers was uncommon at the time. He used Sequencer Plus Gold for the composing itself.

A couple of upgraded higher-quality MIDI files were made available on Bobby Prince's website and are included in the rip download.

The titles were conceived of and verified by Bobby Prince directly. For the unreleased tracks, the titles come from the file names of an archive supplied by John Romero.

Recording

#	Title	Composer	Arranger	Length	Listen	Download
01	Shadows Don't Scare Commander Keen!!	Bobby Prince	Bobby Prince	0:51		Download
02	You've Got to Eat Your Vegetables!!	Bobby Prince	Bobby Prince	1:56		Download
03	Too Hot to Handle	Bobby Prince	Bobby Prince	0:42		Download
04	Tropical Ghost Oasis	Bobby Prince	Bobby Prince	1:40		Download
05	Welcome to a Kick In Yore Pants In Good Ole Hillville!	Bobby Prince	Bobby Prince	1:15		Download
06	In a Land of Wonderment and Awe	Bobby Prince	Bobby Prince	0:35		Download
07	Unused ~ Bullfrog	Bobby Prince	Bobby Prince	2:12		Download
08	Unused ~ Dopey	Bobby Prince	Bobby Prince	1:13		Download

Credits

• Ripper: Andrew Durdin
• Recorder: Nuke.YKT
• Game Credits:
  • Composer: Bobby Prince credited as Robert Prince
  • Not Credited IMF Designer: Jason Blochowiak

(Source)

Game Rip

Format	Download
	Download (Info)

The IMF files were ripped from the Huffman compressed Audio.CK4 file, using the look up stored in the LZ Compressed EXE file. The IMF music was played with Nuked OPL3 emulator. The order of the music files matches the order in the game rip.

The archive also includes MIDI versions of several songs which are remakes arranged by the music's composer Bobby Prince to try and capture the originally intended sound before the FM Synthesis downgrade.

Audio Devices

Music
Sound

(Sources: Music, Sound)

Releases

USA Title: Commander Keen: Goodbye, Galaxy! Platform: DOS Released: 1991-12-15 Publisher: Apogee Software, Ltd.     USA Title: Commander Keen IV: Secret of the Oracle Platform: DOS Released: 1992-??-?? Publisher: Micro Star     USA Title: Commander Keen: Goodbye, Galaxy! Platform: DOS Released: 1993-09-?? Publisher: GT Interactive Software Corp.

Links

• mobygames.com/game/dos/commander-keen-4-secret-of-the-oracle - MobyGames.
• gamefaqs.com/pc/564721-commander-keen-episode-iv-secret-of-the-oracle - GameFAQs.
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commander_Keen_series - Wikipedia.
• commander-keen.com - Commander Keen: The Defender of Earth, fan site.
• shikadi.net/keenwiki/Main_Page - KeenWiki, a Commander Keen Wiki.

View Commander Keen
Commander Keen: Keen Dreams
Commander Keen IV: Secret of the Oracle
Commander Keen V: The Armageddon Machine
Commander Keen VI: Aliens Ate My Babysitter!
Commander Keen
Notable Songs	Too Hot to Handle • You've Got to Eat Your Vegetables!!
Notable Personnel	Bobby Prince
Notable Companies	id Software • 3D Realms