NetKeen

NetKeen is a multiplayer game inspired by the Commander Keen series in which 2-4 players battle to the death in a traditional platformer setting. A video of what it plays like can be seen here (if you're reading this on the Pandora, open Minitube and paste the link into the searchbox).

It was created by Lemm, with most of the level design by Ceilick. The latest version is from 2011-03-15 (although the latest public one is from 2011-02-20)

This tutorial is based partially on Ceilick's.

Introduction

1. It is a DOS game, so you will first need to follow these instructions to get DOSBox working and assign the most common DOS action keys to the Pandora's 4 main face buttons.
2. You may want to keep these instructions open in the Links2 browser for reference. You can use any browser, but you'll need a lot of memory to play NetKeen and Links2 takes up very little memory. Lightweight2 and NetSurf are also acceptable options.

Running NetKeen (single-player)

1. Download NetKeen. Put all game files into the following directory: /media/[your SD card]/pandora/appdata/dosbox/games/netkeen
2. Download netkeen.conf. This file finetunes DOSBox emulation settings so as to optimize NetKeen performance (IPXNet is turned on, frameskip is set to 4, and all sound emulation except for Adlib is disabled. Also, fullscreen is disabled, because you must be able to use XChat to organize a game).
3. Place netkeen.conf into the following folder: /media/[your SD card]/pandora/appdata/dosbox/.dboxfe (if you can't see it, press CTRL and the "H" key to view hidden files in your file manager).
4. Set your Pandora's CPU speed as high as you feel comfortable doing. At least 800Mhz.
5. Start dboxfe. You should see a new "netkeen" profile. Click on it, then click "start".
6. type in cd netkeen to go into the netkeen folder.
7. type in either netkeen (for Keen 5 levels) or any of the following: netkeen -ext ck4 (Keen 4), netkeen -ext ck6 (Keen 6), netkeen -ext kdr (Keen Dreams)
8. Now the game should start. Music and sounds are turned off by default, so go turn them on. Make sure to go into the controls menu and assign the "throw" key to the "B" face button, which should be mapped to RShift in DOSBox if you followed these instructions. You can also give yourself a character name. All of these settings will be saved next time you start NetKeen. Keep in mind that these settings are individual for each "version" - so if you changed them in the "Keen 5" version, they won't be changed yet in "Keen 6".
9. There is not much to do in the singleplayer version of NetKeen, so our next step will be to set up a multiplayer match

Running NetKeen (multiplayer, internet)

1. Complete steps 1-6 from the previous section (it's best to have done #8 as well, so you don't waste time setting things up)
2. Minimize the DOSBox window. Enable WiFi.
3. Open XChat IRC on your Pandora (it's in the "networks" category).
4. Click "Add" to add a new network. Name it "Foonetic". Its servers are located at "irc.foonetic.net". (you only need to do this step one time)
5. Select the "Foonetic" network, click "C_onnect". Connect to the #pckf channel (you don't have to use this one, but this is where you're most likely to find others who want to play NetKeen).
6. If you find at least one other person willing to play, you need to figure out these 3 things:
   1. who's going to host it
   2. how many total players there will be
   3. which version you're going to play (Keen 4, Keen 5, Keen 6, or Keen Dreams)
7. If someone else is hosting, they will tell you their IP address (for example, xx.xx.xxx.xxx), and you need to type the following into your DOS window: ipxnet connect xx.xx.xxx.xxx 3140. If done correctly, you will receive a message that DOSBox is successfully tunneling.
8. If you are hosting, make sure you've set up your router beforehand (setting up your router can be done on your Pandora in a web browser - check the instructions that came with your router) so that UDP port 3140 is open, and it is assigned to your Pandora if you have more than one computer using your internet at home. In the DOS window, you need to type in ipxnet startserver 3140. If you've done this correctly, DOSBox will read "Ipx Tunneling Server started". Then you need to tell the other players your IP address so they can connect to you. You can find it out by going to whatismyip.com.
9. Once the server is started and 1 or more players have joined, the players who're not hosting must type netkeen -nodes X where 'X' is the number of players. For a 2 player game this would be netkeen -nodes 2 (for Keen 5 levels) or any of the following: netkeen -nodes 2 -ext ck4 (Keen 4), netkeen -nodes 2 -ext ck6 (Keen 6), netkeen -nodes 2 -ext kdr (Keen Dreams). The host must type the same thing, but also add -server onto the end.
10. Whoever has the lowest IP address gets to choose the game settings (such as # of lives, buffer, and map). If the game seems to be too slow, increase the buffer (this will make the controls more laggy, though). The fewer players there are, and the closer they are to you geographically, the better NetKeen will run. Also, levels with lots of moving platforms tend to run badly.
11. After a game has finished, you can talk in IRC about it and set up the next one. Also, rarely, a game might crash, in which case you can use IRC to ask everyone to exit.

Using NKLaunch

NKLaunch is an optional tool that allows you to start or join a multiplayer online NetKeen game with a little less typing.

1. Download NKLaunch.zip.
2. Open the zip file (for example, with Squeeze), and extract its contents into your NetKeen folder (located at /media/[your SD card]/pandora/appdata/dosbox/games/netkeen)
3. Complete steps 1-6 from the section above
4. Type in nklaunch into DOSBox. You'll then be prompted to type in:
   1. Whether you or someone else is hosting. If it's someone else, you'll need to type in their IP address. If it's you, you'll need to tell the other players your IP address. You can find it out by going to whatismyip.com
   2. The port number (3140, usually)
   3. The number of nodes (players)
   4. The version of the game (one of the following: "ck4", "ck5", "ck6", "kdr")
5. A game should now start. See steps 10 & 11 in the above section.

Running NetKeen (multiplayer, LAN)

(can the Pandora connect via LAN to other computers? I've never tried. Supposing it can...)

1. Follow steps #1 and #6 from the section "Running NetKeen (multiplayer, internet)"
2. If you're hosting, type in ipxnet startserver. Everyone else, type in ipxnet connect
3. Follow step #9 from the above section