The 1988 shareware game The Adventures of Captain Comic was one of the first attempts at a Nintendo-style platformer for IBM PC compatibles.[1] It inspired Commander Keen, released by id Software in 1990, which became the first MS-DOS platformer with smooth scrolling graphics.[2] Keen's success resulted in numerous console-styled platformers on the PC, including Duke Nukem, Duke Nukem II, Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure, and Dark Ages all by Apogee Software. These fueled a brief burst of episodic platform games where the first was freely distributed and parts 2 and 3 were available for purchase.