♦ Livestream of 4 ZZT worlds included in the "24 Hours of ZZT Winter 1998 [History]" compilation. [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/24hoz-win1998/]♦
♦ Stream Contents ♦
• (1:48) “Hotel Noah” by Viovis
• (13:50) “Eht Nori” by Red
• (25:03) “History Class!” by Flatcoat Lab
• (38:08) “The Black Library” by hm
• (1:17:12) “doooom” by Zeux
• (1:35:05) Personal Rankings
A fresh new competition about the old! And I gotta say, from these first few entries the quality isn't what it was in the previous contest. Hopefully it turns around...
"Hotel Noah" starts us off with a nice depiction of Viovis's distinct style of statless ZZT elements to create unusual looking textured backgrounds. Except here in 1998 there are no external editors, so the patterns are noticeably less varied and chaotic. Still neat to see this early stab at the aesthetic!
The game itself tells the story of Noah and his ark, capturing animals (via shooting) to bring aboard the vessel. There's not a whole lot here, though the goofy depictions of god, Noah, and a very good giraffe give the game some more personality than a few screens of shooting built-ins does.
"Eht Nori" presents us a with a portrait of a dragon the author is clearly proud of. Lynch, a young dragon is bored of life on this island, and sick of these stupid history lessons from his tutor/mage/surrogate parent Hellkite. So Hellkite sends him back in time to when things were good, in hopes of getting him to appreciate his lessons a bit more. The same dragon picture is recycled repeatedly, obscured by a cloak for Hellkite and recolored for other dragons. You do battle with a hydra in a very basic RPG engine and then learn how the evil tyrant Dark Myst took over and killed your parents. Don't worry, you're fated to be the one to save dragonkind from its oppression. Probably.
The art isn't half bad, though it definitely gets stale. The rest of the gameplay isn't all that much either. I get the feeling the author had a lot of plans for these dragons that would continue beyond the 24HoZ, but never did.
Now, for some more varied art, look no further than "History Class", an incredible tour of history as told by the game's author. And by history, I mean depictions of pop culture and scenes from movies he liked. We've got Hogan's Heroes. We've got Braveheart. We've got The Beatles. We've got Abe Lincoln selling poisoned candy to children. You can learn a lot from this one.
It really is just a bunch of drawings with no interactivity though, so while the art is amusing, it's still not much of a game to play. Lab also ends the game with a "seasure" inducing board using some awful pattern with blinking walls. Luckily, Eht Nori got us to disable blinking, and I forgot to turn it back on so it's harmless in this video.
Then "The Black Library", the contest's first place winner. It's... not bad. A bit of an aimless start with its own RPG engine with an early fight against ZZT's baddies before you stumble upon the Black Library and are forced to answer trivia before you can access most of it. The trivia gets me good, though hm is kind enough to include hints on the walls and there are no penalties for wrong answers.
Then you are trapped inside until you can find keys hidden in various history books that you go inside of. Fight a gladiator in ancient Rome! Battle dinosaurs in the Jurassic* era! Shoot Nazis in WW2! Dig up a key at Stonehenge!
Good variety, though a bit buggy. I can see why this one did well, but I fear it bodes poorly for the rest of the game if it took the #1 spot.
And finally, "doooom". A meta-game that begins after the 24 Hours of ZZT results drop and the author Zeux gets dead last. To fix this, they travel back in time to <s>make a better game</s> bribe all the judges instead. A central hub lets you explore in each direction for the items the judges desire most: A plaque dedicated to their greatness, Sandra Bullock, Fallout 2 cheats, and Samantha Chau. An inventory puzzle game (generous) where you find the items people want and trade them for what you want. Mostly just walking around and talking to people with plenty of jokes about pornography. A nice time capsule, if mediocre experience.
Fingers crossed for next time!
♦ Play these worlds directly in your browser ♦
• https://museumofzzt.com/file/play/24hoz-win1998/
♦ Originally streamed on July 27th, 2025 ♦
