Dopefish

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Several poses of the Dopefish, accompanied by its far less famous cousin, the Schoolfish.

The Dopefish ("dope" referring to stupidity, not drugs) is a dimwitted fictional fish that is one of the enemy characters in the fourth Commander Keen video game, Secret of the Oracle, released in 1991. He appears in the level The Well of Wishes. The character has since taken on a life of its own as a PC game industry in-joke, making hidden appearances in games from Apogee's 1994 Wacky Wheels down to titles as recent as the 2006 title SiN Episodes: Emergence, and has started something of an Internet following.

Physically, the Dopefish is a large green fish, with buckteeth. It is described in Keen 4 as "the second-dumbest creature in the universe" (a reference to the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the dumbest) and its thought patterns reportedly go "swim swim hungry, swim swim hungry". Although the Dopefish will eat anything that moves, its favorite diet is heroes like Commander Keen. id Software's Tom Hall later gave it its fake scientific name: Pisces swimeatus.

Tom Hall first invented the Dopefish as one of 24 potential characters for Keen 4. In his words, "I just drew this stupid little fish". Apogee webmaster Joe Siegler since became the Dopefish's staunchest fan, starting up the Dopefish.com web site as an archive of all things Dopefish-related. Siegler also supplied the voice, a burp, for the Dopefish in Wacky Wheels, Rise of the Triad, and Anachronox.[1]

[edit] The Dopefish in video games

[edit] Appearances

This zombiefied Dopefish appears as an Easter egg in Quake III Arena

Not including the Commander Keen games or fan-made add-ons. In rough chronological order, in various forms from images to actual fish, and often inexplicably with the words "Dopefish lives!"

• Wacky Wheels, at the start line after a special maneuver
• Quake
• Quake II, partly disemboweled, hanging on a hook
• Quake III Arena, wall texture of a "zombified" Dopefish
• Battlezone, typing "DOPEFISH" in a success screen of Red Odyssey reveals a little introductory text about the Dopefish
• Daikatana
• Anachronox
• Max Payne, as a poster
• Hyperspace Delivery Boy!, as a statue
• Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, as a little desktop toy
• Red Faction (N-Gage version)
• SuperTux
• Congo Cube
• Eternal Daughter, the only fish in the game are called Dopefish
• Psychonauts, alleged — a round, green fish very similar in appearance to the Dopefish appears stuffed at a dock
• SiN, an alternately skinned "tropical fish" [2]
• SiN Episodes: Emergence, numerous instances in secret areas
• Fortress Forever, currently appearing very briefly as an easter egg in a trailer of the game
• M.U.G.E.N, a famous character that can kill opponents in one attack [By eating them]

[edit] References

Although the Dopefish does not actually appear in these games, there is text mentioning him somewhere.

• Rise of the Triad
• Duke Nukem 3D
• Shadow Warrior
• Jazz Jackrabbit 2
• Descent III (Creating a new pilot with the name "Dopefish" reveals a photo of a fan in a Dopefish Halloween costume)

Although for a short period of time a rumor circulated the fish shaped object found in a Doom 3 pentagram was intended to be a Dopefish, in fact, when asked by Joe Siegler, id Software confirmed this was not the case. [3]

[edit] External links

• The Official Dopefish Homepage, a site run by Joe Siegler of Apogee, describing the Dopefish phenomenon and cataloguing its known appearances
• Dopefish.com Forum, The official forum
• Category at ODP