Finally, with this publication pack, the long tail of incomplete WiL games fades away into background noise. The queue is restored to a single page with room to spare. Nature is healing. Etc. Etc.
As you've undoubtedly come to expect, this pack is mostly incomplete WiL releases, plus some little unpreserved asides to add a little bit of variety, and then a brand new WiL release. While the games here are mostly unfinished, I feel like a lot of the most interesting material seen yet of WiL's archive can be found here. There are a number of complete engines which were meant to serve as the basis for arcade games, adventure games, and puzzle games. Plus the usual strange stories and neat background art. All the ingredients are there, but the recipes remain unmade.
For non-WiL material there's an oddity by the beloved Viovis as well as a rare 21st century Super ZZT project that had to be pivoted back to ZZT due to board limits.
And now to get us back to a single page of uploads...
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“#PLAY v6” by WiL (2025)
Program Description
Updated with more than 3x the content of #PLAY v5, the ability to build and navigate your own list of favorites, and more.
The first update to WiL's ZZT music compilation since 2001! Featuring more than 300 songs from Adversiturtle to ZoZ, this latest update to #PLAY offers 3x the number of tracks taken from every source imaginable. And, using Weave as the basis for playback, means there's a quick to navigate UI powered by arrow keys rather than moving a player from board to board. Not to mention, the ability to cleanly stop playing a song, so no toggling sound on and off if you pick the wrong track! Includes a random song select, and the ability to add songs to a favorites list to find them again quickly.
“Metal Gear Solid ZZT (Incomplete)” by q2k2k (2010)
A Super ZZT stealth game inspired by Metal Gear Solid's VR missions. A number of menus suggest stealth and combat focused training missions, with modes to practice or aim for a best time. This project ran into Super ZZT's tiny board size limits, and wound up being released as a ZZT game instead
“Who Da Man” by Viovis (2012)
A fittingly strange release by Viovis from 2012. A series of boards asks and answers the question on everyone's minds, "Who Da Man?"
“Planet of the Stars (Demo)” by WiL (2000)
Learn of the Pie People, and their human queen. When she decides to declare war, the pies are all in favor of supporting their queen. Little do they know, that the intro is the only part of the game that was ever worked on.
“SkyQube” by Lynx, WiL (2000)
Another intro-only game, with some nice colorful artwork in what's present. Metal monsters from the stars have arrived on the rainbow plane, and it would be your job to save it.
“Distraction (Demo)” by WiL (2000)
Intro-only! Well, this one has the first gameplay board, yet uncoded. You are a devil trying to amass power from mortals' fear. Watch out for Jabe! That guy's a real nightmare.
“Komputerwelt” by WiL (2000)
More than just an intro, kind of. This one tells the story of two abandoned attempts to save humanity by escaping to the stars or fixing the Earth. When a random baker receives a strange disk with a note begging them for help, he contacts the feds and gets swept up in a cyber-adventure.
“Myst Clone Engine (Demo)” by WiL (2000)
A mouse controlled first person adventure tech demo. Park your cursor over hot spots and click to travel from room to room. Just like Myst! Predates 4, a game which uses a similar engine by a number of months.
“Heisenburg Made A Boo-Boo” by WiL (2000)
Something strange is happening on the moon. The Titans are returning. The end.
“Land of Hat” by WiL (2000)
A Banana Quest adjacent game. In theory. Explore a few boards of a floating island.
“Another Day At Work” by Tony Clifton, WiL (2001)
As a young office worker, you wish to befriend the only other young office worker just a few cubicles away. After fumbling through conversation about Harry Potter, you are caught slacking off and sent to do phone surveys. The game ends.
“The Search For Nine: 4 IV Kingdoms” by Anonymous, Lynx, WiL (2002)
A sprawling fantasy world ripe for exploration! Dozens of boards (though not always properly connected) take players across rivers, through swamps, into the clouds, and beneath the sea. Filled with towns and castles, it's a good place to get lost in. Alas, the game is only its setting, with no story to speak of, nor much of anything to actually interact with. It's also unfortunately missing its custom font.
“Link's Heritage (Demo)” by WiL (2004)
A much more detailed Zelda engine demo than one might expect for ZZT! Your health is indeed represented by hearts. You can charge forward to smack trees or launch stronger attacks. Enemies can drop a number of unique items which the player can manipulate using a "conversion" system to kind of pre-purchase drops. There are a number of enemies represented in the combat board. Bombable walls... a very ZZT way of having multiple keys by having every key/door flash to prevent duplicates. There's a lot of cool stuff in this demo!
As is often the case with engines this fully featured, memory limits are a death sentence. Most boards get precariously close, and world size limits would be a real danger for a full game, especially for a series associated with open-ended exploration.
“YAS: Yet Another Sokuban” by WiL (2004)
Finally, block pushing in ZZT. A small series of puzzles, with more to it than boulders going on top of fakes. Unique puzzles give some boxes ice physics, make some pull rather than push, make some impossible to push as a group, etc. etc. There are also a few bonus stages if you finish levels in the minimum number of turns.
“The Dot” by WiL (2007)
A world based on a Japanese flash game, of unknown name, presumed lost. Collect all the gems of a single color to destroy all the sliders of a matching color. Plan a route because you are on a time limit!
This is a pretty fun fast-paced arcade game that also lends itself well to puzzles where which gems are collected first can matter significantly in how you navigate a stage. This world includes a puzzle mode, a single story stage, and a free play mode that uses slimes to make random levels. It's pretty cool, and I bet the original game was as well. If it sounds familiar, we'd like to find out what it was!
