Commander Keen: The Armageddon Machine

The Story

Last episode, our hero Billy blasted off in search of the mysterious Shikadi, who serve "the Gannalech" and plan to destroy the galaxy! After a short delay, Keen rocketed to Gnosticus IV, only to find the Council Members missing! The Shikadi kidnapped `em!

Keen flew to the Shadowlands, faced horrible foes, and rescued the kidnapped ancients.

After Keen freed them from their imprisonment, the Immortal Council Members activating their source of galactic wisdom, the Oracle. The Oracle informed Keen that the Shikadi had nearly completed a machine to obliterate the galaxy!

This episode finds Keen in stealth mode, sneaking his Bean-with-Bacon Megarocket up to the Omegamatic. Securing his Attach-O-Ray to an exhaust port, Keen enters the Omegamatic and begins his most dangerous adventure yet!

Hints and Tips

First off, check out the Goodbye Galaxy! Manual

General Hints

• Don't use two button firing, it makes it even more impossible to do the "Impossible Pogo Trick" (which is done by running, and hitting the pogo and jump keys in rapid succession).
• To jump through a hole in the ground, look down and hit the jump key (this is known as the "Down Jump").
• If you just don't make a jump, you can usually grab the edge and hang on (as long as it's not on a diagonal slope).
• You don't have to pull up right away if you grab an edge, take a long breather if you want.
• To erase the high scores in Commander Keens 4 and 5, delete the CONFIG.CK4 and CONFIG.CK5 files respectively. You'll also have to reselect any changes to joystick or game settings, as this information is also stored in the CONFIG files.
• Save the game often, you'll be glad you did.
• If you're having jerky motion problems, or having "snow" fly across your screen, select the Fix Jerky Motion and SVGA Compatibility options on the Configure - Options screen.
• Read the Signs!

Specific Hints:

• There are NINE lives available in the first level (but don't expect them to be easy to find).
• The names of the two level designers, John Romero the Software Engineer, and Creative Director Tom Hall, are hidden in two of the levels.
• There are 30 000 hidden points near the start of Defense Tunnel Sorra.
• You can't destroy the Quantum Explosion Dynamo directly, you'll have to find something (or someone) to destroy it for you.
• It's possible to make Robo Red hover off the end of a platform. I'll leave it up to you to figure out though...
• You can stand next to Robo Red and not get shot (you can sometimes duck them too), but then you're next to him and that can't be good.
• Robo Red's hearing is very good, and if he hears a noise, he'll shoot first, and ask questions later.
• The way to the secret level is through the Gravitational Damping Hub, look down and translate.
• To see the real ending of Commander Keen 5, you have to do something on the Korath III Base.
• There are problems on Korath III if you're playing in the "Easy" difficulty level. In earlier versions of Commander Keen 5, after a few seconds of play in the secret level, the game would quit and you would get the error message `Goplat moved to a bad spot: 2114,1600'. In Version 1.4, it isn't possible to see the "Real Ending" because, well, you'll have to find out for yourself.
• You probably figured this out, but you break the fuses by using your pogo stick.
• You can duck the nearly invincible Slicestars and the rather vincible Volte-Faces, but not Robo Red. He's too big and evil!!!
• You can stand on the horizontal Sentry Guns to get to higher places.
• The Slicestars can be destroyed! The ones moving on a set path take 20 shots to be destroyed, but the Slicestars that just bounce around take 45 shots to destroy, and are hardly worth the time, energy, and ammo since they're easier to avoid then their slow moving counterparts.

The Ending

CONGRATULATIONS

You have completed "Goodbye, Galaxy!" Commander Keen has saved the day once again!

But things are still in motion..

With their Quantum Explosion Dynamo in ruins, the Shikadi rush to their getaway ship and hightail it back to their own galaxy. *Due to a freak fuse malfunction, they cannot take off and are arrested by the Korath III Police for double-parking.

Keen rummages through the control room of the QED for clues as to why the Shikadi wanted to blow up the galaxy. He stumbles upon a note written in the Standard Galactic Alphabet.

DEAR BILLY
YOU FELL FOR MY ANDROID
DUPLICATE PLOY IN THE MANGLING
MACHINE AND NOW YOUVE FALLEN
FOR IT AGAIN
IM BLOWING UP THE UNIVERSE NOT
THE STUPID GALAXY
THIS WAS JUST A BIG DISTRACTION
DODO
TAG YOURE IT
MORTIMER
PS GANNALECH IS HOW THESE DUMB
SHIKADI PRONOUNCE GRAND
INTELLECT
OR DIDNT YOU NOTICE THAT MISTER
THREE FOURTEEN

Keen takes the note with him to decipher on the long space voyage home, not seeing anything else of interest..

Back at home after having saved the galaxy, Billy feeds his rain-soaked parents ice cream and gently shakes them back to consciousness. Hopefully, this won't affect his allowance.

See you Christmas '92 when Commander Keen returns to battle for the universe! It'll be the biggest Keen ever! You won't believe your eyes!

Thanks for playing!

* When you do something special in the Korath III Base, this sentence is added.

Download

Goodbye Galaxy! Manual

This episode isn't shareware, so you'll have to Buy It!

Screenshots

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