♦ Livestream of the ZZT world “24 Hours of ZZT Summer 1998 [Night]” by Mono, Various (1998) [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/24hoz-sum1998/] ♦
♦ Stream Contents ♦
• (3:00) “We Only Come Out At Night” by Breakout
• (29:23) “City of the Stupid Episode 427: Before Sunrise: Not The Movie” by bongo
• (1:16:30) “Bill Attacks” by Bluenatic1 and Ickis889
• (1:33:54) “Night Conjure” by Newt
• (2:00:27) Ranking of this week's entries
A fresh start with the first ever 24 Hours of ZZT competition's games!
"We Only Come Out At Night" stars none other than Billy Corgan as Jupiter eclipses the sun (do not think too hard about that). Now the freaks and ghouls are roaming the streets, killing anyone they can. It's up to you to somehow stop this.
This was a really nice one to set the bar for this event. It's mostly a straightforward action game with melee combat as you go around the neighborhood killing enouhg zombies to get through checkpoints to new areas. It features some basic art and eventually pivots to a platformer engine as well as one for swimming in an underground tunnel. While a tad messy, Breakout made an enjoyable little game whose engines are an unexpected surprise.
"City of the Stupid" is part of an existing series starring some nerdy young adults who have the chance to make a million dollars if they can make it to a deceased relative's funeral in time to collect on the will. Find a vehicle, break out of jail, and harass the locals on your quest for the cash.
This entry is the contest's 2nd place winner and it doesn't take long to figure out why. This game is absolutely packed for something made in a day, with a sprawling inventory-adventure that has a wide variety of places to explore, and just board after board of great depictions of the cast interacting with one another. This hardly feels like a 24HoZZT game with how much and how polished it all is. Though as a late 90s comedy, the humor isn't as sharp as it would have once been.
"Bill Attacks" is a much more basic game where the authors still seem to be exploring ZZT's possibilities. The world has gone dark, thanks to Bill Gates blocking out the sun with a gigantic billboard for Windows 98. Travel to *checks notes* the sun? where he's got a secret base. Press buttons, shoot creatures, try not to plunge into the sun's core (it's too hot) and defeat Bill to save the world.
Lastly, "Night Conjure" tells the tale of a town beseiged by creatures from the Doom Portal. Each night the monsters raid the towns of the land bringing destruction and terror. You have been chosen by Father Tinger to go out and find a way to close the portal.
Some cute portraits used in conversation screens, with traditional action as you and your future-wife make your way to the portal and discover the identity of the person behind the attacks. A few boards get day/nighttime variants, and the story tries to incorporate other people into the game instead of revolving solely around the player and his partner. It's a fun little adventure with little to find fault with, but also nothing too unique to make it stand out as more than another quest to save the world.
A great start all around! After all these recent 2 point 4 hour ZZT jams, I found myself really impressed by how much larger in scope the games were with up to a full day to construct them.
♦ Play these worlds directly in your browser ♦
• https://museumofzzt.com/file/play/24hoz-sum1998/
♦ Originally streamed on June 29th, 2025 ♦
