I'm posting this on behalf of a friend, ColaPoweredGamer, who is having a problem at opening a new thread despite having a positive reputation. So this is the appeal:

"Hi,

today is the 29th birthday to the original Commander Keen game, the “Invasion of the Vorticons” trilogy. Originally released Dec 14, 1990, this was the game that started id Software!
While I have the Commander Keen Collection on Steam, it's missing two games: Keen Dreams and Aliens Ate My Babysitter.
While there are other id Software games on GOG, I feel like Commander Keen is desperately needed on GOG, with hopefully all of the games in the collection. There should be no longer be any issue about who the rights holder is, as the games are already on Steam.
Anyway, here is the link for GOG wishlist, and please vote for it and spread the word, so that we can finally have this gem on GOG!

Link:
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/commander_keen_series
Thank you!"

What is the fun story? Night Dive won't tell us why it's gone last I checked. Or was it the stuff about the previous re-release more people know about?

Keen Dreams was removed twice from Steam. The first time, it happened after its publisher went all Digital Homicide on their customers and GabeN booted his ass from the store. Afterwards, It was rereleased by Night Dive only to be removed again, this time for reasons as of yet unknown.

The sixth episode has never received a digital release, probably because it was published by a different company from the other 5 episodes.

As for the 5 episodes currently sold on Steam (and 3D Realms), I suspect that a release in other stores might not be so straightforward, due to complications arising from the game being released by id on Steam before they were bought by Bethesda and sharing publishing ownership with 3D Realms. It would explain why the game can't be found on key-selling stores like Humble, Fanatical, GamersGate, etc. The Heretic/HeXen series is also in a similar position (released by id on Steam before they were bought by Bethesda, sharing ownership with another company, not for sale on other key-selling stores), with id confirming that the shared ownership was definitely a roadblock to the return of the series.

All in all, the parties involved with a possible GOG release have their work cut out for them.

I assume that NightDive didn't actually have the rights to re-release the game.

Sums it up just as well as I or anyone else could.

Probably close to the truth as well though we'll likely never know for certain because the business and legal end isn't always on full disclosure to the consumer.

Spear of Destiny was published by the same company. No problem there.

In theory, anyway. In practice, one is and has been available on Steam and other stores for many years, while the other one is still stuck in abandonware hell for many years.

Goodbye, Galaxy...

I don't see what's the problem with getting Commander Keen on GOG. Ok, so maybe GOG can't get all of the games in the series, but at very least they can do the same thing as Steam did, and offer us Commander Keen 1-5.
I would be okay with that, and I already own the Commander Keen Collection on Steam, and will happily buy it if it was available on GOG.

They'd need to get all rights holders to agree to it and make the games playable out of the box for gog users/test them on newer OSs/etc.

Also steam might have the IP holders locked into an exclusivity deal of some sort for a set number of years(they do that in some cases), or the IP holders might not want to release here for some reason(they might want to sell it themselves or remake/remaster it and then sell it).

As would I.....as would I.

Wasn't the source port of Keen released semi-recently or am I remembering it wrong?

If you're referring to this then no, it wasn't that recent.

I had already voted for that but i agree with the OP.

Have the incomplete collection on Steam, would like to have it here as well. Specially if they updated with the missing games.

In these days there's only certain places you might find the whole collection, sadly... but yes, would absolutely be thrilled if it came to GOG :D

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