The first episode of the Goodbye Galaxy series, Secret of the
Oracle (Keen IV) was an immense hit, and featured another young
character who was playing the part of a the Dopefish in Keen IV, a
large, green fish with buck teeth.
However, Mr. Dope E. Fish, in his role as the Dopefish, was
discontent with playing such a small part in the game and yearned for
higher status.
Refusing to appear in any further Keen titles, Dope E. Fish
instead went looking for work in other computer games. It wasn't until
many years later that he would achieve his dreams.
After making many unpaid and humiliating cameos in id Software and 3D
Realms games (such as Whacky Wheels, Quake and Shadow
Warrior), it all started to pay off for Mr. Fish. With the 3D gaming
world explosion in the mid-1990's, more and more 3D shooter addicts
stumbled upon the hidden cameos of the Dopefish. Before you could say
"swim, swim, hungry" Dopefish's popularity had escalated to near mass
hysteria, elevating him to cult status.
"Yes, well, I suppose one such as myself might be horrified to
learn that after all my years at Varsity, my success has come from a
completely different direction than one might expect, but I'm
versatile; this is, after all, what I've always wanted. Did
you know, in Texas they have founded an actual church in my
name? 'The Church of the Dopey Fish'! Splendid. It's just phenomenal.
Oh, but I'm not foolish enough to let it all go to my head, no-o! I
intend to continue utilizing my fame to bring happiness and hope to
others, especially those of us who are less fortunate than the
majority."
"Hm? You want me to - No, no. No, I'm not going to - oh, for Pete's
sake, all right then! Swim, swim, hungry! There, I said it. Are you
happy? Blimey, people are so easy to please these days...
simple-minded (mutter mutter mutter)..."
Meanwhile, with the June 1992 release of Keens V and VI, The
Armageddon Machine and Aliens Ate My Babysitter
respectively, young Billy Blaze, now 12 years old, was the number one
poster child all across America and around the world. Billy, and to a
lesser degree, his nemesis Mortimer McMire, played by Terence
Chalmers, were displayed on billboards, magazines and cereal boxes the
world over.
It seemed that Commander Keen's success would never end. Billy
Blaze and Robert Prince, composer of the Commander Keen soundtrack,
produced a record of the songs from the Goodbye, Galaxy series.
Titled Eat Your Veggies, it gave Commander Keen fans a taste of
their favourite computer game songs, but with lyrics.
Yet another series was planned for the next year: The Universe
is Toast. However, due to development of other computer games such
as Wolfenstein 3D and Duke Nukem II, this was put on
hold. Keen-mania began to fade like the dehydration of a dollop of
Poison Slug slime.
"Oh yes, I remember telling young Billy when the Duke Nukem
games were becoming just as successful as Keen, I said to
him, I said, 'Billy darling, you just simply do not survive
in the big, bad world of computer games if you don't reinvent
yourself every one in a while. Take me, for example. I started out
fighting the sinister Doctor Proton, and after that it was aliens,
and then mutants and different aliens, and so on. And I always got
new weapons with every game. But as for you, Billy,' I said to him,
'silly Billy, you're always fighting to save the planet or the
Galaxy or the Universe from Mortimer McMire. It's hardly
entertaining after seven episodes, dear."
But Keen-mania did not fade quickly; Billy Blaze was still at the
height of his fame as Commander Keen, and was still changing the world
in big ways. In 1991, after the fall of the Soviet Union, Billy met
with the United Nations in a special conference on Russian-American
relations and surprised everyone by pushing his own agenda, suggesting
that pogo-stick racing be made an Olympic sport. Sure enough, the
men's 200 meters pogo-stick race was trialed as a one-off event at
the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
America's Robert Hammond came first in this event, followed by Igor
Andreievich Oslov of Russia and Pierre Dubois of France. Despite the
smoothness and minimal accident content of the pogo-stick racing
event, it has never been included as an Olympic sport since.
And Billy Blaze was about to learn that the metaphorical pogo stick
race of the Commander Keen series had been axed as well.
