More worlds to publish so soon? It's almost as if I'm trying to stop having the queue break three pages! Let's go with a nice even ten files this time.
No real "theme" here, just 10 worlds on the queue that caught I saw and said "I will click on that".
When There Is No More Snow
Opting to start with the most notable, When There Is No More Snow is a recent release by DeadPhrog somebody who was around the ZZT/MZX community way back when and has provided us with some old CD and floppy backups of ZZT and MegaZeux files. This turned out to be especially important on the MZX side of things where a long-lost private beta version of MegaZeux v1.03 was discovered in the collection.
But that's the author. When There Is No More Snow is a visual novel done in ZZT inspired by a not entirely factual depiction of DeadPhrog's childhood dealing with split parents, the loss of a family pet, high school romance, UFO hunting, and caring for his sister. The game focuses heavily on the use of Zima to convert photographs and other images to ZZT boards giving it a very distinct look.
It also includes a bonus file with deleted scenes, and a travelogue of a recent cross country train trip taken while the game wasn't quite complete.
Lastly it's important to link When There Is No More Snow's Itch page! The world is freely available and DeadPhrog uploaded the museum's copy himself, but if you're interested I highly suggest downloading the game from Itch rather than here to better support the author.
ZZT Help (v1.1)
Here we have a third version of ZZT Help. This is the most recent version which is identical to an earlier release other than an updated e-mail address and some accompanying documentation.
The Mighty Adventures Of Timo
Look like an incomplete "wake up and save the world" adventure. Upon leaving your house your friends are mysteriously abducted by men in black that then teleport away! There's not a whole lot actually here, just a few boards.
The Martian Invasion
You run across plenty of shareware ZZT games that ask for payment for a full game that we have no idea if there ever was a full version even created. This is one of those more tragic tales where seventeen boards in you're told to register for more content, and then there are a good forty deleted boards in the world. There was a Martian invasion here. It's gone now.
Eternal Twilight: Where Day Never Starts And Night Never Ends
We've got a very cool title here at least. Despite the fancy title, flipping through I'm not getting much of a story. A basic adventure that starts with the ghost of one of the victims of an attack on Alpha Zone. Your job is to save the other zones.
Trying to dig up some story to learn what this is about did reveal something really neat though!
@SPHINX
#END
:TOUCH
WHAT DO YOU THINK IS MOST IMPORTANT IN
LIFE?
!Life
!Light
!Helping
!Liberty
!Happiness
#END
This multiple choice list works. Normally your lines would look more like !Light;Light. Here we are finding a way to save on memory from a lost game that's 25 years old! (It does have one downside, the choices in game will all be prefixed with an exclamation point as well)
Kate 1
Big fan of the company named "Oscar the Grouch Software". This one's title screen made me curious because it reminded me of another title screen to the point where I thought it might have lifted it wholesale and changed the name, but no, it's just that there are 1000 ZZT worlds with titles screens in this style with invisible lightning bolts and big lettering.
Flipping through the boards I get some Fred! and Code Red vibes. The latter even more so after flipping to an imported copy of the Code Red soundtrack board from Alexis Janson's Music Box...
The Blood War
Hi, You are Sgt. Eric Rosloff always ready for battle. The enemy threatans to destroy planet Bateljuce (Your Planet) and make the Bateljuceians become slaves. Now (the year 8072) is the time for the Batelfighters (the army you are in) to unleash their seceret wepon,YOU!!!!!!!!!!! Asisted by your companian Lt. Anthony Gram you must save Bateljuce, in the Bloodwar!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Captain Cosmo: The Interactive Galactic Story
Uh oh, this one starts on the wrong board.
Your mission is to find the mayor. This one looks kind of interesting as the quality of the boards looks to vary quite wildly.
PQ 1
Now this one has a story behind it. For years and years we had Police Quest, a notoriously bad ZZT world. Little did we know for all those years, that that version of the game was an unofficial edit! This edit unceremoniously drops a ton of ammo and gems around to make the game more manageable. (Since this game's discover, a few folks on the Discord have completed the unmodified game with far less generous supplies.)
Where it gets more interesting though, is that the modified version was used as the base for Mystery Science ZZTheater 3000: Police Quest immortalizing the edit. This is compounded even more by the fact that a patron had nominated the edited game for a Closer Look that was written in early 2020!
So now we've got two copies of this game where the non-pristine version has become a notable artifact in its own right!
It is still not a good game.
Splatterhouse ZZT Demo
And finally a ZZT game based on the Splatterhouse series! This looks like a pretty interesting action title that takes on strong horror themes and heavy violence. It's a pretty short demo (and a second text file in the zip makes it sound like a full version did exist and that this demo possibly overwrote it at some point.)
