♦ Livestream of 6 ZZT worlds. ♦
♦ Stream Contents ♦
• (3:25) "AI" by Nixon (2007) [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/24hz0307/]
• (10:45) "Eisenhower And Radiation" by gingermuffins (2007) [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/24hz0307/]
• (46:57) "The Opera House (Demo)" by WiL (2009) [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/toh/]
• (1:11:11) "Shadows of the Night" by Jeff Conroy/Viper (1998) [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/24hoz-sum1998/]
• (1:24:36) "Portal" by Nixon (2010) [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/obcportal/]
• (1:29:47) "PLATFORM ENGINE!!!" by Commodore (2012) [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/cplateng/]
A number of entries to forgotten contests, forgotten entries to remembered contests, and some misc. worlds.
Starting with the two submissions to Quantum P.'s 24 Hours of ZZT contest held in 2007 with "Alternate History" as the topic.
"AI" by Nixon is the classic story of a computer deciding that humanity needs to be destroyed and building an army of robots to cleanse the planet. It's a traditional action game where the badass hero stocks up on weaponry and then mows down so many robots that the world is safe again. While it's not the most original game around, for a ~2 hour creation (Nixon says his time was quite limited) its plays pretty well. The armory board is a solid starting point for the action, and the climax has you dealing with staggered duplicators that launch fast moving robots at you rapidly that you need to stay on top of.
"Einsenhower and Radiation" is the only other submission, and has been available in a standalone release since its creation. This one is a real treat. In a timeline where Eisenhower got tired of international politics and warfare and decided to nuke the rest of the planet, a radioactive beast has conquered the ruins of Eurasia and threatens the American way of life. Only Eisenhower himself can slay the monster, but he needs to know he has the support of Americans to be able to do so. This makes the majority of the game a non-linear journey across the USA to win approval in various states. Get the support of a rich Texan oil baron, a lewd hippy in Washington, the Ford Motor Company in Detroit, and so on. Really much of the game involves finding people you can sell hot dogs to, making it a very believable take on average American.
You then fight a giant Trogdor-like dragon and are awarded with some excellent art for the ending accompanied by anti-war quotes and the words "fart" and "boner".
We then move on to WiL's last (for now) December 2024 upload with "The Opera House". It tried to turn ZZT into an action RPG using AutoHotKey to turn the process of entering cheats in the cheat prompt into a single keypress. Alas, it never worked consistently with DOSBox and so we had to play the game manually. It brings in its own flavor for sure, so don't expect wizards and rangers versus orcs and trolls. It's one of the more bizarre WiL games, if you can believe it.
Then "Shadows of the Night", a submission to the very first 24 Hours of ZZT competition whose zipfile got corrupt back when Interactive Fantasies was creating their 24HoZZT archive, resulting in a single entry being MIA for more than two decades!
It's strange. There are shadow monsters arriving from the moon (I think? I may have just chosen to interpret it as Final Fantasy 8) and you have to launch a missile to destroy them before the sun rises and they can travel via shadow. Really you just find things in a garbage can and then spend some money, but it's cool to see the set of games complete once more.
Then "Portal" for a more laid back "One Board Challenge". This is one of numerous efforts to turn Valve's 2007 hit into a ZZT experience, and it's not the best attempt that was made. You pilot an object and shoot bullets that hit breakable walls on top fakes which then yeet you in that direction, placing fakes as needed to pass over water. It's an attempt, and there is a puzzle element to the sample board at least. The game feels less like "Portal" and more like "Hookshot".
Finally, a platformer engine by Commodore, who has had a successful puzzle platformer with Sid's Disaster (2002). This one is more traditional with a dedicated jump button rather than a menu of actions to perform. It's so-so. You continue to move when you input a direction so you can focus on timing your jumps which have a fixed arc when not interrupted by walls. The sample board has you climb to the top of the screen and yeah, it's a ZZT platformer. Adequate enough, though for such a late Commodore release, I was hoping for more.
♦ Play these worlds directly in your browser ♦
• https://museumofzzt.com/file/play/24hz0307/ (x2)
• https://museumofzzt.com/file/play/toh/
• https://museumofzzt.com/file/play/24hoz-sum1998/
• https://museumofzzt.com/file/play/obcportal/
• https://museumofzzt.com/file/play/cplateng/
♦ Originally streamed on March 30th, 2025 ♦
