Leap day publishing!
I was all excited to clear out the queue entirely, then fell behind. Then fell more behind, but only so I could publish something on a leap day.
Since the original plan was to publish everything, this one is slightly larger than the usual dozen since it was already prepped for that. So what was at first going to be all the unpreserved worlds that had been streamed in recent weeks now has a few new (well, updated) releases as well. Be sure to give them some love.
Remember to celebrate today by playing The Big Leap, an absolutely gorgeous Chris Jong adventure from 1993. It's gonna be running on the WoZZT screenshot bot all day.
Contents
“ZZT Crashopedia 0.333” by kristomu (2024)
More ways to annihilate ZZT! Kristomu's labor of love in finding, documenting, and demonstrating every possible way to render ZZT inoperable. Covering edge cases that can actually happen in normal gameplay like duplicating a boulder onto the player; Ones made (reliably) possible with third-party editors such as cycle zero transporters or touching undefined elements; and even some ZZT body horror by doing things like purposely erasing considerable portions of board data from the file!
The fun never stops but the program sure does!
“Galactic Foodtruck Simulator 2999 v1.8.21” by LOVELOVEKITTY, WiL (2024)
Program Description
The year is 2999. You have 40 weeks to establish a thriving mobile restaurant business and begin paying back your creditors.
An update to WiL's latest ZZT and Itch sensation. Adds in alternate endings, pickier customers, updated recipes and more! If you haven't checked out GFS by now, this update is the best time to start having taken in player feedback and pushing even Weave to its limits.
“Galactic Foodtruck Simulator 2999 (Extras)” by LOVELOVEKITTY, WiL (2024)
A project dump of GFS, including numerous images used in promotional material, as well as a treasure trove of of source material. More than forty in-development builds of the game! Dozens of board files! A file named "custies.zip" that I misread as "cuties.zip"!
“World of LA - Part 1: MonsterMAN” by Brian Reigle, Jim Perry (1994)
Travel through the world of LA with god on your side as you fight the dreaded Monster Man and his evil forces. Try not to listen to Satan. He's a bit of a jerk.
“Death and Destruction” by Dustmite X (1998)
Moments before your execution on death row, you take your opportunity to escape from prison. Getting past the guards is the first step in this demo, with a few puzzles to keep you locked up.
“The Adventures of Billy Nagroc Demo” by breakout (1998)
Billy was just an average kid, until he got hit by a car while skateboarding. He awakens in a field next to a sword only to discover that he's been sent back in time by a wizard to defeat the evil Count Bosch before he can return to his own time.
A brief demo of an RPG where Billy can learn different sword techniques for unique attacks and yell at peasants.
“Ultra Blaster” (1993)
The bluest ZZT game I've ever seen.
Grab the ultrablaster and free the city from robots! Travel around town to challenge each robot to battle before the final showdown at city hall.
Or, more realistically, move from board to board via conveyors in a matter of seconds. Shoot a robot once to defeat it. Reach city hall and realize the game never gives you a key to open the door. A for effort.
“Punisher” by The PC Pirate (1993)
The Kingpin has stolen the Mega Chip from the US government and plans to sell it to Iraq. *checks the date of this game*.
Right. Well, this is a straightforward action game where you shoot rooms of creatures, most of which are otherwise empty though the layouts get a little more complex later on.
Lately the unpreserved games streams have been running across this exact style of game, a walk-em-up where you go up and shoot basic creatures until there are no more boards.
“X-League (v1.2)” by Kevin Anderson
A game that seems like it wanted to be an X-Men game. A villain has begun starting fires around town. Your job is to put out the fires, search for clues as to who did it, and then kick their ass.
Fortunately you have molecular copying powers that allow you to duplicate items. This shows up surprisingly little.
“X-League II: Search For The Diamond Sword” by Kevin Anderson (1993)
Then there's the sequel, which has nothing to do with superheroes whatsoever.
After finding a map and a strange medallion in your attic, you set forth to Carlsbad caverns to find some magic gems and uncover a legendary sword that was sealed away.
While more technically impressive than the previous game, the sequel suffers from a number of bugs with the flag limit that render it unwinnable without some extensive cheating.
“Gothem Episode 1: The Knight Awakens” by Jerry Ellis (1997)
ALERT! A second game has been discovered credited to Jerry Ellis, the creator of the beloved and bizarre Baloo: The Thunder Road. This time, he takes a crack at Batman in what ends up being just as incredible of a ride as Baloo ever was.
When the Riddler releases mutants into the streets so he can run an anti-mutant platform and win the mayoral race, it's up to Batman to uncover the plot and stop him.
It won't be easy though, especially after a Batman decoy tries to assassinate the current mayor, with Batman being caught and imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit.
Featuring a ton of great character interactions, this game is a blast from start to finish, save for the author's nasty habit of including at least one moment that ventures well into "uncomfortable" territory. (See the feedback for a detailed content warning). Fortunately, as with Baloo's equivalent scene, it's easily avoided by just not touching a few optional objects.
“The Best of ZZT 3: The best boards from your favorite ZZT games (Unofficial)” by Mateo Williford (1994)
An unofficial sequel to Best of ZZT, though despite the name, it's more of a new Tour. Travel through a few boards from the original ZZT saga, and a handful of third-party titles.
“The Worse Adventure Part 1 (v1.0β)” by WorseInc
When your brother Fred is "engulfed by a beam" and doesn't come back to dinner, your parents demand that you go and bring him back, paying $50 upfront to ensure that you do so.
A very silly game that goes beyond just finding Fred, and turns into a cross-country road trip as you chase down terrorists across major American cities. More walk-em-up action mixed with some more original locations and ideas makes this one kind of novel, until passage errors and other coding issues make it very difficult to figure out how to progress to the end.
Oh, and don't forget to pack your brother's laxative. Mom says he'll need it.
“3 Engines 4 Demos” by ZZTechno (2004)
A disorganized assortment of unfinished games and various engines. Most of which aren't too exciting, even for 2004. There's one heck of a garage door opening animation though that's really visually impressive.
As for the demos, players can get their hopes up for Jak and Daxter ZZT, The Pirate Ship, Joey's Oddysey [sic], and Sim Shoppe. The last of which has a surprising amount of innuendo and PG levels of sexual content in what is ostensibly a game about running a grocery store.
