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║ ── │ October 1995 │ v │ ^ ║
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║ ┌──┐ ┌──┐ ┌──┐ ║
║ │ \ │ │ │ │ For Windows 95 ║
║ │ \│ │ │ │ NOT! ║
║ │ │\ │ │ │ ║
║ │ │ \ │ ┌─┐ │ └────┐ ┌─┐ ║
║ └──┘ └──┘ └─┘ └───────┘ └─┘ ║
║ ──────────────────────────────── ║
║ ║
║ Volume 2 "The Next Generation" ║
║ ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════╝
ZZT-MZX Newsletter Issue 3 (The Issue for Windows)
Head Of Staff: NL KSDOS
Vice Heads Of Staff: ChrisK2018, NL Aric
Official Game Critic: NL KSDOS
Official Game Reviewer: ChrisK2018
Official Game Previewer: NL Aric
───────────────────────────
┌───────────────────┐
│ PACK-IN'S include │
╔═════════════════╧═══════════════════╧═══════════════════╗
║ - Preview: Survival for ZZT from Shattered Perspectives ║
║ Games ║
╚═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
NL KSDOS: Welcome to another edition of the NL. Since school's back in
session things here have incredibly slowed down big time. Less conversation
time here as we all can see. Here are this months articles:
SSSSSS EEEEEEE ZZZZZZZZ MM MM EEEEEEE !
S E Z M M M M E !
S E Z M M M M E !
S E Z M M M E !
SSSSSSS EEEE Z M M EEEE !
S E Z M M E !
S E Z M M E !
S E Z M M E
SSSSSSS EEEEEEE ZZZZZZZZ M M EEEEEEE !
Sez Me
By Jeremy Kaufmann a.k.a.
DeadPhrog@aol.com
President of SHATTERED PERSPECTIVES GAMES
Here's my opinion: Zzt's current condition: CRITICAL
Here's why:
Everyone who actually programs kick-butt, non-yellow borded Zzt games has
switched to MZX for several good reasons. Reason number 1: MegaZeux is
powerful. Period. Like for instance, fires, avalanches, and water you can
actually swim in. Reason number two: character editing. Sick of that
stupid always grinning even when shot smiley face? Megazuex lets you make
your own faces, at the pixel level. Third: Face changing. Ever want the
player's character to change as he walks or turns? MZX lets you do it.
Fourth: elements. Ice. Fire. Lava. Water you can swim in and has a current
(o.k. so Super Zzt lets you do that too, but it always looks like arrows.)
Fifth: .MOD files. Music that really doesn't suck.
And the list goes on and on and on .........
Next: Proof.
Download the new Zzt games on AOL and you'll see what I mean. Yellow borded,
all-caps, telling you who you are every five minutes, putting you up against
a million lions, tigers, and bears (oh my!), plot-less, object-less piles of
crap are all that's new. Except for new versions of older (usually great)
Zzt games. People are just cranking out crap just to see it on the download
librarys. The reason you haven't seen any games from SP is beacause we are
spending a long time making our games great. We have released one playable
demo of unfinished games, but every time we try to upload them AOL crashes
half-way through the upload.
People say that they'll stay true to Zzt but that's just a waste. Bottom
line: ZZT IS OUT OF DATE!!! ZzTurbo is making new MegaZeux games and
bringing back ruffians. Now that's a waste. Who reading this can honestly
say that they liked our purple spaded friends? Not I.
People say that ROBO-P (MZX's programming language) is too difficult to
learn. Don't make me laugh. It's VERY similar to Zzt-oop. Sure there are
a few more commands, but if you can learn ZZT you can learn MZX. It's that
simple.
I welcome questions, comments, and critisism.
You can reach me by E-mail at:
DeadPhrog
NL KSDOS: Well, that says it all right there!! It's plain clear. Nowadays
people just want their names to be seen in the library! They have NO care for
making good games. "Oh why, oh why must we have crappy games"?
The Critic Corner
─────────────────
by NL KSDOS
Alrightythen!! Time to talk TRASH about GARBAGE, mainly crappy ZZT and MZX
games and to give credit where credit is due with the games that kick butt.
You know, people probably wish that more companies switch to MZX, but If they
make crappy ZZT games they have no hope for upgrading to a more advanced
programming environment. Here's a nice tip. Please upload two files. Your
MZX game only and your MZX game with MODS. In fact I think I'll critique the
game that made me bring this tip up:
GAME: Moogle World 1
TYPE: MZX
NAME/COMPANY: Unknown
GRADE: D-
Has anyone notice that any ZZT/MZX game with the word "WORLD" in it pretty
much well.....STINKS!!!! Well, the only thing good about this game was the
use of character editing. Completely original characters but the gameplay
really blows! If you want to download this crappy game there are two files,
one which is the game only with about 30k and the other is the ZIP file with
all of the MODS which totals up to about more than 600k if I can remember
correctly. I haven't downloaded the 600k file but why would someone cram
lots or tons of large MODS for a teeny weeny game??? If I was the guy on
"C-NET Central" I'd give this a SKIP IT!!!
GAME: Bugtown
TYPE: ZZT
NAME/COMPANY: Software Visions
GRADE: B
I recall this being an old classic of Greg Janson's creations. Uploaded by
Owcp, the game shows that even this game beats most of the crappy games online
and I think if I'm correct this is his first ZZT game! This should show
ZZT'ers who make crappy games a thing or to about making good quality games.
Gameplay before graphics I always say. Though since this is a game of the
distant past It's not the most graphical game in the world. He didn't invent
the ZZT-Tool Kit yet (or wasn't finished).
GAME: Yoshi's Adventure
TYPE: ZZT
NAME/COMPANY: Owcp/DustinSoft
GRADE: B+
Ahh.. more Yoshi from Chr...wait a minute! This time it's presented by Owcp.
Nice Job! Though this may seem like an upgrade from Yoshi 1. It's definatly
a sequel to Chris's games that were good in the past and now considered
classics. What I like best about this game is that it still keeps it's humor.
I look forward to seeing future games from DustinSoft. If the games still
look this good and play very well. He might consider Megazeux sometime.
GAME: Joe City
TYPE: ZZT
NAME/COMPANY: Unknown
GRADE: C-
You should download this game only for a desprate quickie. All and all the
game isn't bad. If it only had tons more graphics and less yellow bordered
screens It would probably deserve a B or so. If you don't mind searching for
keys and unlimited ammo and bosses that take one hit to kill, you can download
this. Otherwise this should have been created earlier. I recommend the
author whomever he may be to download ZZTOOL KIT and give this one a
complete makeover.
The School Blues
────────────────
by NL KSDOS
School is here. And it has had a dramatic effect on the NL, as you can see.
I hope everything gets back to normal and have the NL Volume 2 Issue 4
released on October 1st. Things are really getting a bit quiet in here. Next
issue I should start an article that will be in the NL every month telling
about what's happening in ZZT/MZX Central. This place is just getting too
quiet and more things are happening online. I'm sorry we don't have the
reviews here but I couldn't delay the NL forever. Hopefully the review will
be extra long. Now, about the new article, I think I'll call it: ZZT/MZX
Gaming Gossip. Expect to see it, next issue.
NL KSDOS: I'm sorry this is sorta a sucky issue, but hey, no one's bringing
in any articles or games or even sending a description of an upcoming game.
Please just send anything dealing with ZZT/MZX!!!
HEY! WAIT!! Here it is!! The REVIEWS BY CHRIS KOHLER!!!!!!
The Good, The Bad, and The Yellow Bordered
Chris K's ZZT Reviews
Format:
TITLE
CATEGORY
COMPANY/SCREEN NAME
AVAILABILITY
BODY OF REVIEW
RATING
RECOMMENDATION
Ratings: Excellent/Kewl/Good/Okie/Bad/Evan Darrow
Categories:
Action
Adventure
Pointless (humorous, not challenging)
Puzzle
Miscellaneous
Oh yeah, sorry the reviews are kind of short...
No Point 2: The Pointless Plague
Pointless
Psycho Psoftware
PC GAMES
One of my favorite pointless ZZT games, No Point, now has a
sequel! It is very funny, just like no. 1. The return of
the Garden of Nolej and the Cheesecake Avenger highlight this
ZZT entry. Not to be missed!
Rating: Excellent
Reccomended: Yes
Star Wars: The Empire has gas
Action
?
PC GAMES
This game starts off with a pretty cool (for ZZT) title
screen and starts out looking like a humorous game. But the
plot eventually thickens and with okay graphical effects, the
game is carried along pretty well until... THE BUG! Yes,
someone wasn't play-testing! This one screen impedes game
play and needs a major overhaul! Sorry, but until another
release of SW, I'd have to say hold off unless you like the
series and want to see this cool title screen...
Rating: Okie
Recommended: read the review...
I'd like to take a time out now to discuss the rash of ZZT
magazines made in ZZT: Zpower, ZZTeam, DIAB, etc., etc. As a
general rule, the stuff in them is pure crap and the actual
information included in them is way too brief. The ZZT
medium is not suited for magazines, at least the way they do
it... The menus are NOT user friendly... the magazines could
benefit from a less graphical and effect approach and more on
easy access and quality info.
Superkid
Pointless
ZPower
Included w/ ZPower Mag. Issue 4
This very short game starts off with a very neat title screen
with very good animation. Unfortunately, the rest of the game
doesn't live up to the expectations I had (tense error?). It
was, of course, very short - I wanted more! The graphics
were okay, nothing mind-blowing. All in all, a fairly
mediocre game.
Rating: Okie
Recommended: Only if you want to DL the magazine...
I would just like to take another quick timeout here to
discuss a really cool catalog I saw: it came with one of
ZZTurbo's games. This is how catalogs should be! First of
all, it has previews of MZX games in a ZZT-based catalog, so
that's cool... Nice graphics, and it even goes in a circle...
If you get this catalog, take a good look at it.
Simpsons
Adventure
Igloo
PC GAMES
NOTE: This game is supposedly better than the preview
version. We'll just see.
First of all, there are a lot of boards that could be
shrunken down, because there is a lot of empty space which
really looks stupid. Nice graphics on the nuclear reactor,
but not on anything else. I touched the phone which emitted
a loud sound which caused my printer to go nuts and my
computer to reset every time I touched it until I finally
turned off the sound. My point? PLAY TEST!!!!!
I love the sun in this game - it keeps changing
size/shape/color/visibility. Boy it sucks! It really looks
bad. There are other bugs in this game and other stupid
things like empty rooms, horrible colors, and no playability.
Evan Darrow has formed a new comany called Igloo!
Rating: Evan Darrow
Recommendation: I would rather chew chalk than play this
again.
Bobo
Miscellaneous
?
PC GAMES
This game looked great in the window but horrible when I got
it home. This is probably the most inane "game" I have ever
seen. When the author tells you in the description that you
may miss something if you don't read all the scrolls he means
it, because ALL YOU DO IN THIS GAME IS WALK AROUND AND READ
SCROLLS WHILE LOOKING AT STILL PICTURES! Just for fun, print
out the file description in AOL of this game and then play it
to see what a fucking liar this kid is. What a waste of 2
man-hours. Oh yeah. Yellow borders.
NEW RATING JUST FOR THIS GAME: Eye-glazing
Recommendation: Only for the S&M crowd.
The NL - Volume 2 Issue 3 (The Issue for Windows)
Inside: Sez Me, The Critic Corner, The School Blues, The Good The Bad and the Yellow-Bordered
Published: Oct 31, 1995
Part of Series: NL
