The end of the year overloading of stuff begins! We hit a second page last time and we're hovering on the border now as I write this, yet for the sake of being able to describe WiL's new game myself I'm putting off actually publishing until Saturday. Will there be a second page by then? With my luck, yes.
So, in addition to WiL's game of arctic survival (I assume, having not played it yet), there are all kinds of assorted worlds from ZZT's past, as well as an interesting take on Town that tries to make things a little bit creepier.
There should be one last pack by year's end for the traditional clearing of the queue, so come back soon, for the finale of 2024! (not as exciting as it sounds)
Oh. Well now it's actual publishing day and here I am tacking more things on because more things keep getting uploaded! This queue is getting out of hand, but you know what? I'm glad I didn't spoil myself with Cold screenshots before actually playing it. A real last minute Game of the Year contender, if Game of the Year was a real award to hand out.
MULTIPLE FILES ARE BEING UPLOADED AS I TYPE THIS
The preview image for this pack is me, buried in the amount of uploads coming in.
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“Cold (Demo)” by WiL (2024)
A demo for WiL's latest release, which is more of a teaser trailer than anything. Provides a real nice overview of what's so important that you'll be doing it in extreme temperatures where -105°C/-157°F is a warmer day.
“Cold” by WiL (2024)
The full release! Adapted from admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd's Alone: The Classic Polar Adventure. You are spending 28 days in an extreme arctic environment collecting weather data at various nearby stations. You need to survive absurdly cold temperatures through careful management of your time spent outdoors, your cabin's propane supplies, and making sure the routes you take don't involve stepping through ice and soaking your legs.
And it has an original soundtrack that really brings out the mood. Highly atmospheric, extremely challenging, and a very compelling story combine to what immediately became one of my favorite games of the year.
“Town of ZZT.exe” by one (2024)
Town of ZZT, now in creepypasta form! Something bad has happened, but what? And who the heck is "HIM" anyway? Explore the familiar town, and make a note of all the blood and explosions and other unpleasant things.
“The Legend of Lichevex” by one (2024)
The legendary knight Lichevex woke up one day to an attack! The Coalition Against Time Traveling Tax Evaders (CATTE) has locked up your time machine. Now you must find the four keys to unlock the big door and get your time machine back.
“Xtopia5” by m0sh (2005)
BANNED from z2 for not meeting quality requirements (lol). This is the first rejected z2 upload to be rediscovered out of over 100. And do you know what we were missing out on? A little yellow bordered adventure where you board a spaceship to the planet Xtopia 5 that then crashes, leading you to flee from hostile aliens and steal a ship back to Earth.
Listen, it's the principle of the thing that made z2's policy bad.
“Death” by Wantchat8 (1996)
Another yellow bordered action game. Each board is its own level, a few questionable design decisions were made, and then the game ends. Hardly the least appealing of these kind of games, but very short and lacking in much to hold one's interest, which kind of works out given the length.
“Line Wars, ZZT Style: Part One” by T ChonG
An adaption of Light Cycles for ZZT. A well meaning engine that has issues that make it basically impossible to actually defeat an enemy without it just shooting the wall away. On the bright side, you can restart the game without reloading the world after losing. Shame you can only lose though.
“PipeLine (The NL Demo)” by Comthought (1996)
A very tragic demo for a puzzle game. Broken passages cause ZZT to crash, and the single demo level consists of identifying shapes and placing them in the correct spot of a twisty length of pipe.
“Random Number Generator” by Alexqoft (1997)
A demonstration of basic random number generation in ZZT by having objects randomly place things and then detecting which of those things are/aren't present on the board. Lets you roll a number from 1-4 as most ZZT random number generators do, though this setup is honestly a bit much compared to alternatives. It does what it says at least!
“Shooting Gallery” by JoeyBHere
A reverse shooting gallery! Race through a series of rooms filled with spinning guns and other hazards to avoid your inevitable demise.
“The Firing Squad Game” (1994)
Shoot a few people that exist entirely to be shot. Some of whom explode into gore. You've got Bob, Jim Joe Bob Henry Jed, an alien, and others guilty of all sorts of "crimes". 30 seconds of novelty I suppose.
“Star ZZT” by Matthew Darragh (1996)
A demonstration of a custom font, with a world not designed for that custom font? Contains some really bizarre changes including what I can only describe as "fucked up bears". Wait, the bears only looked like that on stream? They look fine now that I'm taking screenshots for this article? And every other character seems to be identical? It was only the bear that was mangled? What?
“ZOCRPGZZT” by ZOrangeCow (2000)
There's something really cool here! A modular RPG engine designed so ZZTers can simply drop in some objects, replace some placeholder text with something more flavorful, and then have a ready to go RPG battle system. The modularity allows you to toggle a number of features like random damage values, accuracy, and ally/enemy counts with no need to adjust anything afterwards. A very clever tool that still has a bit of a learning curve as some of the instructions are a bit confusing, but an excellent idea!
“Schmukz” by Matt Perrotti
One of those kind of cursed games. You're a nerd that has been robbed by a bully and need to get revenge. Explore a very weird campus and avoid a lot of instant deaths before making your confrontation in the parking lot. Also features: impromptu surgery, drinking from toilets, and genital mutilation which I'm thankful I missed when streaming the game.
“ZZT Encyclopedia Online (August 29th, 1999; reconstructed)” by Chronos30 (1999)
A reassembled edition of the 1999 ZZT Encyclopedia overhaul. Colors! Weapons! Engines! Pushing ZZT beyond its limits (well by 1999 standards)!
“ZZT Encyclopedia Online (November 27th, 1999; reconstructed)” by Chronos30 (1999)
A slightly later reassembled edition of the 1999 ZZT Encyclopedia overhaul. I'm pretty sure by now that the encyclopedia is the world which has had the most updates over the years, with so many documented releases, and so many undocumented ones!
