Four Seasons

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6 / 8

Livestream - Four Seasons and Mr. Happy

Some seasonal hits with pretty forests and teen poetry and then the madness that is Mr. Happy's search for wife and child

Authored By: Dr. Dos
Published: Jan 11, 2025
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♦ Livestream of 4 ZZT worlds. ♦

♦ Stream Contents ♦
• (3:00) "Four Seasons" by Jason Harding (1997) [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/4seasons/]
• (19:01) "The Four Seasons Revival" by Ringworm (2000) [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/4seasons2/]
• (1:06:49) "Mr. Happy 2" by Jason Harding (1997) [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/mrhappy2/]
• (1:33:44) "Mr. Happy 3" by Jason Harding (1997) [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/mrhappy3/]

Getting around to a title which has long been considered a classic, "The Four Seasons Revival" along with the original game it's a remake of and two other games by the same author.

The original Four Seasons game is... quaint! It's a "tribute to the seasons", consisting of a short colorful walk around a lake with each board taking place in a different season. There isn't a whole lot to it, green grass turns brown in autumn and white in winter. The player gets to shoot at a number of creatures, including a lot of huge centipedes with no real story to tell. You're just kind of supposed to take in the scenery. Autumn admittedly does look nice with some red ands yellows replacing the overly green spring and summer.

Perhaps because of its lofty description of a "tribute", or maybe because it's such a tranquil game a few years later Ringworm took the concept and ran with it, turning into a lengthier experience with lots of teen poetry and the fighting intended to be a conflict of positive and negative emotions. This game left a ripple in the ZZT community, becoming a beloved classic whose influence can still be felt today in games like Snorb's "Into The Forest I go" and Agent Orange's "The Search for Pepe, Special Edition" which also takes a simple game made by a fledgling author and expands on it heavily.

I confess, while I did enjoy the game, its significance was lost on me. I think it would have resonated harder at a younger age where a game with an emphasis on taking in the world around you would have been a much fresher idea, expanding the idea of what a ZZT game could be. Now I'm just focused on its very difficult combat and desperate need to provide more health which seem to go against the idea of admiring the changing seasons.

But it's still lovely for including poetry at the start of each season taken from a website specifically for poems written by teenagers. Some of them are quite nice! I was especially fond of the final poem when all the puzzle pieces have been collected.

And since we had time left over, we took a look at Mr. Happy 2 and 3 (the first is lost media), two other worlds by author Jason Harding. These are both some very beginner-made worlds. In the first (well, second really) game, Mrs. Happy is missing and Mr. Happy needs to find her. You get to explore some arena-ish boards before reaching a town with a number of places to explore including Marvin K. Mooney's psychiatric ward. The code is a mess with objects blurting their dialog all at once rather than on touch, and it's kind of a weird game. It's also the only game I've seen that soft-locks on the title screen!

The third game though, is a little more refined with some better coding, and cleaner design, coupled with an incredible wild energy as Mr. Happy now looks for his missing child. This one has a lot more humor, both intentional and not, leading to game full of surprises. There's green cheese to eat, guns to steal, teachers to harass an adult for not being in class, and a comedic fake-out of a final battle with the kidnapper Dr. Dimento! It was fun! Very unhinged in a good way.

♦ Play these worlds directly in your browser ♦
https://museumofzzt.com/file/play/4seasons/
https://museumofzzt.com/file/play/4seasons2/
https://museumofzzt.com/file/play/mrhappy2/
https://museumofzzt.com/file/play/mrhappy3/

♦ Originally streamed on January 10th, 2025 ♦


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