Play the Commander Keen "Invasion of the Vorticons" trilogy (episodes 1, 2, 3) directly in a web browser. 100% client-side — no server, nothing uploaded.

▶ Live: https://awkto.github.io/keen123/

This is the js-dos baseline ("Path 1"): the real DOS game binaries run under js-dos (DOSBox compiled to WebAssembly), entirely in your browser tab.

• Keen 1 — the freely-redistributable shareware v1.31 ships with the site, so it plays instantly with no setup. See games/ for the redistribution notice.
• Keen 2 & 3 — commercial. Buy them on GOG / Steam, then drag-and-drop your own data files onto the page. They are assembled into a .jsdos bundle in-browser and never leave your machine. (The same picker also accepts your full retail Keen 1 files.)

The Vorticons games are a folder of files, not three combined files like the later Galaxy games. Select (or drop) every file in the episode's folder — at minimum:

…plus the rest (SOUNDS, FINALE, CTLPANEL, STORYTXT, …). When in doubt, just select all files in the folder — everything you pick is bundled.

• Keyboard (Keen defaults): arrows move · Ctrl = jump · Alt = pogo · Space = fire.
• Touch (phones/tablets, or force it in Settings): the screen splits — game on top, an on-screen joystick + Jump/Pogo/Shoot buttons on the bottom.
• Settings (on the launcher): aspect ratio (As-is, 1:1, 5:4, 4:3, 16:10, 16:9, Fit-to-window), crisp vs. smooth pixels, and the touch-controls mode (auto/on/off).
• Saves persist automatically in your browser (IndexedDB, per episode) and survive reloads.

When the site is served by the container (not a static host like GitHub Pages), an optional ☁ Server sync card appears. Turn it on to keep your saved games on the server too, so they outlive the browser and can be shared across devices. Each browser gets a short 4-character sync key (legacy longer keys still work); copy it to another device (or paste one in via Link another device) to share the same server-side saves. Saves are tracked per episode with a 3-way state, so nothing is silently overwritten: when both sides have saves, linking asks which set to keep, and starting an episode whose cloud save diverges prompts which to play. Stop syncing disconnects while keeping both copies. The feature is opt-in (off by default) and hidden entirely on static hosts.

Saves are stored in SAVE_DIR (default /saves) scoped by sync key — mount a volume there so they survive container updates: -v keen123-saves:/saves.

index.html        launcher UI
css/app.css        styling
js/app.js          launch logic + in-browser .jsdos bundle builder
js/fflate.min.js   vendored zip library (assembles bundles client-side)
games/keen1.jsdos  prebuilt Keen 1 shareware bundle (redistributable)
ROADMAP.md         Path 2: Omnispeak/Commander Genius → WebAssembly (native engine port)

A container image is published to Docker Hub as awkto/keen123 by GitHub Actions on every v*.*.* tag (:latest tracks the newest release).

docker run -d --name keen123 --restart unless-stopped \
  -p 127.0.0.1:5024:80 \
  -v /path/to/keen-data:/data:ro \
  -v keen123-saves:/saves \
  awkto/keen123:latest

The -v keen123-saves:/saves volume keeps server-side saves (see Server sync) across updates.

Server / kiosk mode: mount a directory of your own Keen files at /data. On startup the container detects each episode, builds its .jsdos bundle, and writes games/manifest.json — the launcher then shows only the available games as one-click buttons and hides the upload UI. Layout under /data can be flat or one subdir per episode:

/data/EGAHEAD.CK2 EGALATCH.CK2 EGASPRIT.CK2 LEVEL01.CK2 … KEEN2.EXE   # flat, or…
/data/keen2/EGAHEAD.CK2 EGALATCH.CK2 EGASPRIT.CK2 LEVEL01.CK2 … KEEN2.EXE

Keen 1 falls back to the bundled shareware if /data has no Keen 1. Commercial Keen 2/3 data is never baked into the image — it only ever lives in your mounted /data. With no /data, the container runs in normal bring-your-own-data mode.

See ROADMAP.md. Short version: this js-dos build is Path 1 (fast, authentic, emulated). Path 2 is a native-web engine port (e.g. Commander Genius, which reimplements the Vorticons engine) compiled to WebAssembly for crisp scaling, modern controls, and no DOS-emulation layer. Path 2 will be developed on a separate branch.

python3 -m http.server 8087   # then open http://127.0.0.1:8087

(js-dos requires http://, not file://.)

• This launcher code (everything except games/ and js/fflate.min.js) is MIT — see LICENSE.
• js/fflate.min.js is fflate, MIT.
• js-dos is loaded from its CDN under its own (GPL) license; it is not redistributed here.
• Commander Keen is © id Software. Only the freely-redistributable Keen 1 shareware data is included. Do not commit Keen 2/3 data to this repository.