(Link to video)
This is a heavily glitched tool-assisted speedrun of Commander Keen 5: The Armageddon Machine.

Grab the encodes: primary 10bit444

  • Best ending
  • Plays on the hardest difficulty
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Uses death to save time
  • Abuses programming errors
  • Manipulates luck
  • Heavy glitch abuse
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Genre: Platform

Movie information

The published movie ends input at the ending sequence; this run ends input at the high score screen. Different emulator settings are used, making loading times slightly longer.
JPC-RR v11.6 was used to make the movie.
This TAS uses v1.4 of the game. You can't locate a copy of it here.
Here is JPC-RR's ImageMaker's report on the disk image used:
 Type               : HDD
 Tracks             : 16
 Sides              : 16
 Sectors            : 63
 Total sectors      : 16128
 Primary extent size: 2744
 Storage Method     : 3
 Sectors present    : 1714
 Calculated Disk ID : F278BE6EE81B72D8D7B51F186AFF6834
 Claimed Disk ID    : f278be6ee81b72d8d7b51f186aff6834
 Comments section:
 Entry: N/A            N/A                                       4 /
 Entry: 19900101000000 d080b7c53b0b374813a7479b559d4eb4     101990 /AUDIO.CK5
 Entry: 19900101000000 d5598dcda25b02e61aeac17fcac9437b     573664 /EGAGRAPH.CK5
 Entry: 19900101000000 33ffac175c3fb8e33fc3dbdc0ab6b965      73721 /GAMEMAPS.CK5
 Entry: 19900101000000 075194c6617abf14e07cd78ea44e3266     106417 /KEEN5E.EXE

Tricks used

Impossible Pogo Trick

Tapping ALT and CTRL near-simultaneously while holding Left or Right allows Keen to perform a higher-than-normal pogo jump.

Continuous Vertical Pogo

When approaching a static soft platform from below under certain conditions, Keen can land on it without having to wait for gravity to deplete her vertical momentum.

Cornerboosting

Landing on corners and hitting them in midair can slightly boost Keen forward.

Slope mechanics

Keen moves forward 7/6 times faster when traversing a downward slope. When traversing a sharply downward slope, she moves forward 1/3 times faster. Conversely, she moves forward 5/6 times slower when traversing an upward slope and 2/3 times slower when traversing a sharply upward slope.

Death flag glitch

Saving and reloading a game causes the "you are dying" flag to be reset while still leaving Keen in the dying animation, allowing her to clip through walls. This is beneficial when done near the vertical edge of a level, as touching one will complete the level. Oracles and swimming gear cannot be touched with this glitch.

Midair Pogo

Pogo activation and deactivation in midair allows for greater control over jump height. Keen's pogo hitbox is shorter than her jumping one, which can enable her to jump farther and higher in constrained spaces.

Warp glitch

Being pushed under certain conditions, including while hanging onto a pole, causes the end of the level to warp you to the game's secret level, Korath III. This is useful as the exit from Korath III takes you to the segment of the overworld just prior to the second last level of the game (as the exit to the secret level is in that level), meaning, if it's done early enough, you can skip a considerable number of levels. This glitch only works in v1.4 of the game.

Stage by stage commentary

Boot

Adjusting the initial RTC time is the only way to luck manipulate Shockshunds and the Shikadi Master. It is set to a value that results in excellent positioning for both at the cost of worse enemy positioning on the first level.

Ion Ventilation System

Compared to the v0, three frames are lost due to worse enemy positioning.

Korath III Base

Nothing to see here.

Gravitational Damping Hub

Nothing to see here, either.

Of Hound And Man

The Shockshund pit was redone three times in total. Darling Keen must wait for that sound of electric hounds before crossing the big rainbow bridge to eternity. Wall turrets, moving platforms, Bouncing Pointy Things, Spinning Fiery Poles and Beam Hazards can't be manipulated. As such, the rest of the run is bound by them. Luck is manipulated in order to destroy the QED faster.

Special thanks to

  • Ilari: for making this run possible, writing the fabulous script, providing advice on JPC-RR usage, and following progress with devotion.

Suggested screenshots

[dead link removed]

Nach: Fantastic improvement, this is a TAS we can be proud of. Accepting as improvement to existing run.

TASVideoAgent
They/Them
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Editor, Skilled player (1402)
Joined: 3/31/2010
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Nice to see you producing another run so quickly. This one was short, but nice. Yes vote
Dwedit
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Joined: 3/24/2006
Posts: 692
Location: Chicago
Player (26)
Joined: 8/29/2011
Posts: 1206
Location: Amsterdam
Very cool, especially the part where you pogo past the Shockshund. I can attest that doing that is utterly impossible in a normal game.
mklip2001
He/Him
Editor
Joined: 6/23/2009
Posts: 2224
Location: Georgia, USA
The only concern I have is: how acceptable is it to adjust something like +INITIALTIME in a DOS run? It's not as extreme a setup choice as starting from customized RAM, but it seems a little controversial to me. Outside of that, very nice job! The play seems pretty nice, and the change with the Shockshunds is extremely noticeable and daring. Thanks also for the encode!
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically. Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.) Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html) Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature! Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.
Editor, Experienced player (851)
Joined: 8/12/2008
Posts: 845
Location: Québec, Canada
Great improvement, turska! Voting YES.
Editor, Experienced player (607)
Joined: 11/8/2010
Posts: 4012
The publication text for the currently published run says Keen is a boy, while you say Keen is a girl. Not sure which is right. Anyway, nice improvement! Voting Yes.
Emulator Coder
Joined: 3/9/2004
Posts: 4588
Location: In his lab studying psychology to find new ways to torture TASers and forumers
CoolKirby wrote:
The publication text for the currently published run says Keen is a boy, while you say Keen is a girl. Not sure which is right.
His name is Billy. He's named after his grandfather.
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
Experienced player (508)
Joined: 11/2/2010
Posts: 359
CoolKirby wrote:
The publication text for the currently published run says Keen is a boy, while you say Keen is a girl. Not sure which is right. Anyway, nice improvement! Voting Yes.
Keen is an eight-year-old boy genius purported to have an IQ of 314 (a reference to π). Keen is the grandson of William Joseph "B.J." Blazkowicz (the Allied war hero of Wolfenstein 3D).
Editor
Joined: 3/31/2010
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mklip2001, +INITIALTIME sounds to me, like the time of day you either Start the game or Turn the PC on. More likely the Game start time. The Nethack run uses the time/day to manipulate the game. CoolKirby, Keen is a boy. As for this run, yes. It's faster and abuses harder.
When TAS does Quake 1, SDA will declare war. The Prince doth arrive he doth please.
Joined: 9/27/2011
Posts: 207
Location: Finland
hegyak wrote:
CoolKirby, Keen is a boy.
I always thought Keen was a boy as well, but you know how you sometimes call ships and whales "she" without actually having took the time to find out? Oh and Dwedit's post in this thread is only going to encourage others to call all male game protagonists "she" just in case Dwedit's reading their comments. In all fairness, not all languages have gender, so Finns must be excused. The run is very clutch.
Active player (372)
Joined: 9/25/2011
Posts: 652
Great run, and amazing job with the Shockshund. Absolute yes vote. :)
Emulator Coder, Skilled player (1140)
Joined: 5/1/2010
Posts: 1217
hegyak wrote:
mklip2001, +INITIALTIME sounds to me, like the time of day you either Start the game or Turn the PC on.
The emulator initializes the CMOS clock from seconds part of INITIALTIME (the + in the front is not part of the name). The subsecond part sets the phase of CMOS clock increments (since CMOS time only increments once per second). So it is date/time of initial poweron.
Editor, Skilled player (1936)
Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3239
I give up. This run looks almost like the perfect run of Keen 5 I imagined.
Joined: 5/12/2010
Posts: 38
Short and confusing, just like a good glitched TAS should be! :D Made me want to play through the series again. I wonder if I still have it somewhere.... Definite Yes.
Joined: 2/7/2012
Posts: 15
Nice getting past the Shockshunds so efficiently, especially compared with the previous run.
N._Harmonik
She/Her
Joined: 8/27/2006
Posts: 502
Location: Canada
What would a glitchless version be like?
Why, oh, why do I even <i>try</i> to understand my own species?
Editor
Joined: 3/31/2010
Posts: 1466
Location: Not playing Puyo Tetris
N. Harmonik wrote:
What would a glitchless version be like?
Much like the last level, only more of them. Though it won't be as slow as that last level.
When TAS does Quake 1, SDA will declare war. The Prince doth arrive he doth please.
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
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This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [1977] DOS Commander Keen: Episode 5 - The Armageddon Machine by turska in 02:02.46
Joined: 10/14/2013
Posts: 335
Location: Australia
Here are some extra encodes of this run. Higher resolutions are based on the game's native resolution and are scaled at 2x: Direct Downloads: 10bit444 MKV: 480p, 960p Compatibility MP4: 480p, 960p Torrents: 10bit444 MKV: 480p, 960p Compatibility MP4: 480p, 960p To download the direct download links, you may have to right click on the link and select "save link as" (this option may be named differently depending on your web browser).
I'm not as active as I once was, but I can be reached here if I should be needed.