Dopefish

The Dopefish is a dimwitted fictional fish that was one of the enemy characters in the fourth Commander Keen computer game, released in 1991. 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 2002 Hitman 2, and has started something of an Internet following.

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Physically, the Dopefish is a large green fish, with buckteeth and an idiotic expression on its face. 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.

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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.

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Character: In general, a character is a distinctive significant mark or feature. The word originates from the Greek word via the Latin word character, an instrument for marking or graving. The word is used in several specific senses:...

Commander Keen: Commander Keen is the main character in a series of computer games developed by id Software in the early 1990s, which were successful at replicating the side-scrolling action of the NES Super Mario Bros. games in DOS. The cartoon-style platformers are notable for their pioneering use of EGA graphics...

Computer game: REDIRECT Personal computer game...