♦ Livestream of 4 ZZT worlds. ♦
♦ Stream Contents ♦
• (2:19) "Jabe's Nightmare" by WiL (1998) [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/jabes/]
• (36:13) "The Diplomat (Demo)" by WiL (1998) [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/diplomat/]
• (46:35) "Blood and Steel" by Lynx, WiL (1999) [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/bandstel/]
• (1:13:06) "Crystal Cave" by John Fred Pope [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/crystalc/]
Going through more of WiL's uploads of incomplete projects, along with another title off the unpreserved queue.
After weeks of being scheduled, it's finally time for "Jabe's Nightmare", a puzzle game that really gets right into it. Starting with a very really well put together room with buttons to toggle walls of specific colors between fakes and solids. I was really impressed at how it all tied together incorporating more advanced features like making bank shots with ricochets to shoot the buttons as well as bombs for one time use switching.
There's also a double-solution puzzle of an object surrounded by a neat rectangle of sliders and an object that automatically moves in 8 possible directions that you need to steer to either make the two meet, or clear obstructions to the north and south of the imprisoned object.
These are accompanied by programmer notes directed at a friend who would be working on the game as well, suggesting the importance of various items giving some insight into the creative process.
Then, "The Diplomat" opens with the story of an alien species arriving on Earth 500,000 years ago to abduct and enslave the Branksy, leaving the humans alone for another half a million years. The now space-faring humans make contact with other beings and have sent you as a diplomat to meet with the Branksy for the grand reuniting of the two species.
The story certainly sounds cool, alas the gameplay afterwards is just waking up in a bed on a strange ship, and walking to a second board to collect a key before progress on the game stalls out.
"Blood and Steel" starts off similarly, though without the backstory. You awaken in a bed on a ship and are to begin your duties on the ship. The extra-large captain who takes up two objects is upset with you, demotes you, and sends you to purgatory. Then the game gets weird.
It gets very red, and pivots into being one of those Cool Smart ZZTer vs the Newbie strawman adversary games (see #MegaZeux Adventure). Powers are exchanged and suddenly the newbie is the cool smart guy who knows his ZZT-OOP while the player begins TLAKING MORRE LEIK THSI.
It's weird! And has a bit of a bummer of an ending.
Lastly, the legally mandated break from games with WiL's fingerprints on them, "Crystal Cave". This is one of those games where a new author is biting off a bit more than they can yet chew, but you can see the idea. Your goal is strike it rich in the mines by finding as many crystals as you can, and then escape safely. This game takes players across a chaotic and colorful assortment of boards with a number of abstract designs of vehicles and mining equipment that give it a real distinct apperance. Actual gameplay is mostly shooting ruffians or objects while collecting keys. Board titles hint at more of a story, but in practice it's impossible to understand most of what's happening.
The crowd and I were both very excited when we discovered a place known as Castle GRULE and had to depose of King Grule and take all his gems. It's an excellent name.
Again, a good set. I'm continually astonished at how capable WiL is at designing puzzles at such a young age. They certainly put anything I can come up with to shame even now.
♦ Play these worlds directly in your browser ♦
• https://museumofzzt.com/file/play/jabes/
• https://museumofzzt.com/file/play/diplomat/
• https://museumofzzt.com/file/play/bandstel/
• https://museumofzzt.com/file/play/crystalc/
♦ Originally streamed on January 19th, 2025 ♦
