Commander Keen IV: Secret of the Oracle

US box art.

Commander Keen IV: Secret of the Oracle is an action platformer game developed by id Software and published by Apogee Software for MS-DOS in 1991, originally as shareware. Although it is numbered as the fourth game, it's actually the fifth game in the series.

Personal

I first encountered this game because a special shareware version was included with the Gravis GamePad I bought around 1992. It had added support for the four-button controller making the game much easier to play than with the keyboard or a two-button controller.

Status

I used to own the special Gravis release of Keen IV on 3.5" floppy, but I have no idea where is is. I have beaten every map on easy difficulty, except the secret map.

Review

• Overall: 5/10
• Best Version: MS-DOS

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• The game is both fun and challenging.
• The graphics and animation are well-drawn.
• Bobby Prince's music and sound effects are great.
• The story is pretty funny.
• The game is quite large with a lot of levels to play.

Bad

• Like most DOS games, the EGA colors were way out of date compared to the consoles of the day, although the great art style makes up for it.
• Large sections of several maps, and even a couple of levels entirely, do not need to be entered in order to win the game. This is poor level design.
• Far too much of the game is based on expecting the player to collect treats to accumulate points for no reason.
• Movement with the pogo stick is pretty clunky and difficult to control, especially if you're using the keyboard.

Ugly

• Nothing.

Media

Box Art

• 

  Since this episode of the game was released as shareware, there aren't any professionally made boxes for the game. Instead, we see various cheap covers like this, with just a screenshot.

Documentation

• 

  Masters of Doom. Describes the development process.

Maps

• 

  Shadowlands.

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  Bean-With-Bacon Megarocket.

• 

  Border Village.

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  Slug Village.

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  The Perilous Pit.

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  Cave of the Descendents.

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  Chasm of Chills.

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  Crystalus.

• 

  Hillville.

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  Sand Yego.

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  Miragia.

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  Lifewater Oasis.

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  Pyramid of the Moons.

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  Pyramid of Shadows.

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  Pyramid of the Gnosticene Ancients.

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  Isle of Tar.

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  Isle of Fire.

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  Well of Wishes.

• 

  Pyramid of the Forbidden.

Screenshots

• 

  Title.

Videos

Longplay.

Speedrun, hard, any %, no glitches.

Download

Commander Keen is still being sold, but this episode is a shareware release. This archive contains shareware and demo releases for versions 1.0 to 1.4 for both EGA and CGA graphics.

• Download (Info) - All versions.

Links