♦ Livestream of the ZZT world "Joel's World 1-6" by Joel M. Smith [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/joelwrd126/] ♦
Playing a considerably lengthy series of already preserved games, in order to get to two additional sequels that have been unpreserved.
(2:35) Joel's World 1 - Joel's first world certainly has its share of yellow borders, but it also shows some promise. It also has some confusion between invincible and invisible. The game consists of busy looking boards filled with small fights and item grabbing without being total chaos. Players search for Joel and keys to access new areas as they cross the enchanted river, hurry through the lair of the worms, and ascend the evil pyramid of Joel.
Later boards get a bit lazy feeling, falling back on small piles of monsters with a key to grab in order to open up a passage to the next small pile of monster room, throwing off the pacing of the game. And like any first ZZT world, there are some odd decisions. Joel loves making players run past shark-infested waters as well as having players grab a hundred health restoring objects that just give a single point of health.
Its use of basic programming is there and functional, laying the groundwork for some easy improvement in the sequels. Surely if this is Joel 1, then Joel 6 might really be something.
(30:15) Joel's World 2 - Sure enough, the sequel looks better and takes advantage of ZZT-OOP in more interesting ways. There's a town with a massive shopping center, some puzzles, and even a TV that can be watched similar to Code Red. The game includes two different endings, one in which players rescue humans from goblins that are forcing them to work in the mines for gems and another where you uncover an assassination plot against the king and work to prevent it.
Despite the game now having more of a story and offering a lot more than lion shooting, the implementation left a bit to be desired. I found myself getting stuck frequently, needing to use the editor to find items and keys in order to complete the game. The goblin mine ending was reasonable, but the king route might not be possible without cheats depending on how you use your keys.
A game with issues that still shows development.
(56:14) Joel's World 3 - Oops this one is just bad. A sudden pivot to Star Trek would be fine, if its little shooter engine worked properly. The game breaks early, forcing players to cheat and guess which blocked off passage is the one they should be going in next, and never feeling like you're going somewhere with a purpose in mind.
Boards get very linear and maze-like. As in, boards have one or two paths, and all connect to form a maze. It gets very difficult to navigate, and very annoying to cross three boards and hit a locked door with no idea if you're meant to have the key yet.
The gameplay is still mostly lion shooting, which when it's not in a narrow hallway where there's no danger is decent, though hardly exciting. This one is a really surprising dip in quality that had me scouring the later worlds to see if this was what I was going to be in for for the rest of them. Hopefully not, but looks can be deceiving...
♦ Play this world directly in your browser ♦
• https://museumofzzt.com/file/play/joelwrd126/
♦ Originally streamed on July 21st, 2024 ♦
