In Commander Keen 6: Aliens Ate My Baby Sitter!, id Software took their smooth-scrolling platform engine to store shelves, trading shareware episodes for a commercial box. The setup sends eight-year-old genius Billy Blaze to planet Fribbulus Xax to rescue his kidnapped babysitter Molly before the local Bloogs turn her into dinner.
Retail box status did not save the engine from brutal bugs
By 1991, programmers John Carmack and John Romero had refined their side-scrolling tech to handle sloped surfaces and parallax backgrounds. Despite the technical polish under the hood, this entry shipped with noticeable collision bugs. You will frequently watch Billy clip right through solid platforms or slide through concrete walls during a tight pogo jump.
The notorious "Impossible Bullet" glitch can ruin a clean level run without warning. Even worse, saving your progress in specific spots on the level map can lock up the executable, crash to DOS, or warp Billy into an unintended tile. It gives the platforming an unintended layer of hazard that original players remember all too well.
If you get jammed behind geometry or lose your keys to a save crash, a quick keyboard sequence offers relief. Typing B + A + T instantly awards 99 raygun shots, an extra life, and all four keycards. For thorough debugging, holding F10 and G activates god mode, while F10 and N lets you noclip straight through corrupted scenery.
Stunning Bloogs and bouncing past the Flects
Overhead map navigation leads straight into traditional side-scrolling platform stages. You walk Billy across Fribbulus Xax to pick levels like Bloogton Tower, First Dome of Darkness, and Bloogfoods, Inc. Certain paths stay locked off until you find specific equipment, like using a grappling hook to get past map barriers.
Once inside a level, survival relies on two tools: a raygun and a trusty pogo stick. The raygun fires stun shots, but ammunition is strictly limited across the map. The pogo stick lets you bounce to ridiculous heights, which is vital for reaching high ledges or dodging instant-death drop pits.
The native wildlife on Fribbulus Xax demands constant attention. You have to deal with several distinct enemy types on your way to the exit:
- Blooguards: Heavy, club-wielding guards that require multiple stun shots to disable.
- Flects: Annoying creatures that reflect your raygun shots right back at you off their teeth.
- Nospikes: Aggressive monsters that charge full speed the moment you enter their line of sight to impale you.
To survive these hazards, you gather collectibles scattered across every stage. Finding small bird-like Vivas rewards an extra life once you collect 100, while picking up a rare Queen Viva grants an extra life on the spot. You also need color-coded gems to pass security doors before reaching the exit sign.
Secret Morse code and Twilight Zone jokes on Fribbulus Xax
Designer Tom Hall loaded the game world with secrets and odd visual gags. Inside Bloogfoods, Inc., keen players can spot a book written in the Standard Galactic Alphabet titled To Serve Man, an explicit nod to the classic Twilight Zone episode. If you explore the Blooglab Space Station, you can locate a hidden passage that contains the complete cipher translation key for the alien alphabet.
Composer Bobby Prince provided the soundtrack, which even hides messages inside its audio tracks. The background music playing in the Bloog Control Center contains synthesized Morse code that spells out "SOS SOS DE KEEN SOS SOS K".
Unlike earlier episodes distributed free through shareware, publisher FormGen, Inc. handled this release as a standard commercial boxed product. The commercial strategy hurt overall exposure, as casual players missed out on the initial shareware hook that drove sales for earlier chapters.
Why Commander Keen 6: Aliens Ate My Baby Sitter! marked the end of an era
This entry ended up as the final main PC installment for Billy Blaze. Shortly after release, developer id Software, Inc. pivoted their technical focus toward first-person 3D projects like Wolfenstein 3D and Doom. Plans for future platforming sequels were permanently shelved.
As a classic action game, it holds up thanks to tight jump physics and imaginative level art, even if collision glitches occasionally ruin a jump. The smooth sloped surfaces and high-flying pogo mechanics still feel snappy once you master the momentum.
How to play Commander Keen 6: Aliens Ate My Baby Sitter! right now
You can play Commander Keen 6: Aliens Ate My Baby Sitter! online right here in your browser. It runs the full Commander Keen 6: Aliens Ate My Baby Sitter! MS-DOS game directly in your window with zero software setup required. Try learning the pogo height mechanics early, and keep an eye out for those reflecting Flect teeth!