Absolutely cheating by adding some extra games for an oversized update in order to have an empty queue for maybe a day tops. Ignoring the fact that some stuff got streamed on Sunday that has yet to be uploaded and needs to be for links in the VOD anyway!
This is it though, after three whole months, WiL's collection of incomplete games started decades ago are finally all published. Including some real neat efforts with strategy games and action RPGs! Plus some of the last games on asie's unpreserved queue used for Sunday streams, with an authentic yellow bordered REGISTER THIS SHAREWARE game about killing a wizard, a tribute to Indiana Jones, and some prescient 24 Hours of ZZT games from 2007.
And of course some fresher material, so to speak. The "new" stuff this time around consists of a cleaned up entry to the last 2.4 Hours jam, a single board game created for a defunct ZZT Taskmaster series, and WiL revisiting an abandoned idea and turning it into a complete experience in Weave with TAHWAIN.
It's good stuff! So don't miss out on it!
Oh, and rallying call. The next publication pack will be volume 100! Given the current month, I feel that if Vol. 69 could get an April 20th, release date, this one ought to as well!
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“Fruit Game” by Snorb (2022)
A single board created for a sadly unfinished "ZZT Taskmaster" series. The task was to first choose one letter, one fruit, and one number. Those in some way would determine restrictions for creating a single board game afterwards. Hope you made good choices!
“LOW POWER” by Zephyr (2025)
Program Description
An updated version of LOW POWER (entry for the Winter 2025 2.4HOZZT)
Zephyr's entry to the recent 2.4HoZZT jam, now cleaned up for a Museum release.
On a planet now almost complete devoid of energy sources, take control of a robot tasked with awakening any humans that survive and getting them to safety before the lack of energy kills them as well as shutting down you! A game about exploring and finding a route that works with your limited amount of time.
“TAHWAIN, or, The Dead God” by WiL (2025)
I did not get far enough in screenshot gathering to really figure the specifics of what this is about, but it certainly looks pretty. Grab your bag and start a lengthy journey though with a number of impeccably animated vehicles. Planes, trains, and I see in the Itch GIFs an automobile.
Oh man oh man I just spoiled myself by flipping through the boards in the file viewer. Oops it's really cool and I ruined it for myself!
Sorry WiL this is a garbage description.
“Quantum P's 24 Hours of ZZT [Alternate History]” by gingermuffins, Nixon, Quantum P. (2007)
All two entries for a forgotten 24 Hours of ZZT contest, the first of which wasn't readily available previously.
"AI" tells the usual cautionary tale of humans being decreed inefficient, and hunted down by killer robots. Raid the local armory and start shooting everything that moves to save humanity!
"Eisenhower and Radiation" takes a more comedic approach (I say before explaining...) where Eisenhower nuked the rest of the world, and now must deal with a giant radioactive monster that has conquered the remnant of Eurasia. Travel an incredibly accurate depiction of America to win the citizen's favor so you cross the ocean and fight the beast. Most of your efforts amount to giving Americans hot dogs, a strategy future politicians should make note of imo.
“NamExtreme” by Atrocity, Various, WiL (2001)
A community project ran over IRC where participants took a letter (or number) and made a board in some way relating to it. This unfinished project includes a block dragging game, a ZZTer prison escape, some fast-paced challenge rooms, and some weird faux-newbie "FishIg" style boards. It also includes some off-color descriptions of ZZTers, so uh be forewarned.
Otherwise though, this is a really neat project with some cool experiments!
“Place (Original)” by Hans Woodman, SaMM (2001)
An early work by its authors that as a number of strange boards with seemingly no connections between them other than the literal board edges and passages. Explore the land of keys, talk to the Gary Greeear choir, and race some slime in the Land of Dots!
“The Opera House (Demo)” by WiL (2009)
A game canceled for biting off more than it could chew. The Opera House is a bizarre arrangement of people and creatures serving as a test-bed for a very elaborate engine to transform ZZT into an action-RPG. Players choose their starting class and a given unique abilities in combat with the expected cooldowns. Originally designed to use AutoHotKey to allow for arbitrary keyboard keys to translate into ZZT cheat prompt inputs, the system unfortunately led to dropped inputs preventing the real-time action as intended.
It's still playable with some manual typing, and definitely one of WiL's stranger worlds (an accomplishment). Now he's looking over at Weave and wondering...
“Mak Series” by PapaBear, WiL (2000)
Program Description
MuzMak: A utility for stringing together #play commands
TikMak: A utility for animating text at the bottom of the screen in various ways
MouseMak: A demonstration of useful mouse control in ZZT
ProgMak: Intended to be a collection of (mostly graphical) ZZT coding tricks.
More fancy tools for making things, both in ZZT and external programs. Create scrolling marquees with customizable effects in TikMak. Check out ProgMak for shrinking and/or mirroring little images. Do some composing with MuzMak. Try to paint something with MouseMak!
“Walter ZZT Remake: World 1” by WiL (2003)
A player-powered platformer with a few hilly boards to climb over. An invisible row of objects above where the player walks caps their height, and allows for jumping temporarily by pushing them aside.
“Banana Quest 2 (Unfinished)” by M.O.E., SaMM, WiL (2001)
The inevitable and unfinished attempt at creating a Banana Quest sequel. I purposely didn't go too deep into this one, as I'd like to play the original for it's 25th anniversary later this year, and it seems worth saving its surprises for then.
But from what I did see, cool art, a title screen that draws itself, and a series of locations to explore ranging from "Mustache Isle" to "CLAMS". But don't get too excited, as an incomplete game means there won't be all that much to explore in depth.
“Station Nine” by WiL (2004)
A still impressive strategy game, and the first time I've ever seen a ZZT engine use a hex-based grid rather than rectangular. Explore a dark map, avoiding aliens, finding oxygen, and searching for an exit. If you run out of air, well, maybe the next crewmate can make it. Especially if they siphon the remainder from the previous crewmembers that can no longer go on! Brutal!
“WiL - The Deleted Folder” by Unknown, WiL
WiL's collection of worlds he knew he wouldn't return to, but couldn't bring himself to properly delete. Instead, we get a time capsule of ideas with dozens of files of just a board or two each. There might not be much to play, but there are some cool title screens, engines, and what-ifs to discover within!
“Messed It Up Again! (Demo)” by Bob Pragt (1999)
A demo about "chaotic living". Explore your messy apartment, solve a few puzzles, and see if you can make it outside for once. Uses a nice looking custom font that was added mid-development which results in your toilet looking like a person.
“Riggidy Dave in Meet The Casts” by StupidMe (2009)
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A first time adventure with some real appeal when you're able to make progress. You've been grounded, confined to your room, but a secret passage behind the air conditioner brings you to a neighboring restaurant and then out into the city. Check out the local eatery, game corner, and city bank, fighting giant rats, stopping gangsters, and amassing cash.
“Weird Demo” by The Stag (2001)
A strange game that talks about the weird ways ZZT can break. Fair enough.
Except we're not talking setting too many flags or corrupting boards. We're talking about zapping into the sidebar and roaming out of bounds, breaking ZZT by virtue of clobbering unknown areas of memory. On stream we actually got some surprising effects out of this rather than locking up almost immediately. (Albeit using SolidHUD rather than ZZT v3.2.)
“Wizrobe” by Joe McDonald
An author's first foray into ZZT with the usual yellow borders and scribbling of walls and monsters. "YOU MUST FIND AND KILL WIZROBE IF YOU EVER WANT TO GO HOME". Each board politely and firmly reminds you to register this shareware. If you don't, you'll be unable to fight Wizrobe in this version!
“The Museum” by ZZTechno (2003)
A colorful museum focused on World War 2 and Indiana Jones. See Indy's Jeep, a portrait of Hitler with his famous blue hair and moustache, and well, that's about it. A very strange take on a museum that has a lot of fun with the process of getting through security and buying a ticket, and a gift shop full of items whose names you can't see when you buy them. End your museum visit by getting a hot dog in the parking lot!
