♦ Blind playthrough of the ZZT world “Dragon Rage” by Shadow (2001) [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/dragonra/] ♦
It's been a bit since I've done a one-off recording like this. Had some last minute travel plans kick in in order to attend a wedding on the other side of the country as well as spend a few days visiting my family who lived only a few hours from the venue. But that meant a good week of pretty much not being on a computer at all! (It's nice. Try it sometime.)
So I picked something to run through and see if it sparked any memories with "Dragon Rage", a less than complete adventure about a dragon named Neville setting off to defeat "The Evil Dragon Master", a blue dragon turned evil apparently due to his cousins always being rude to him.
Okay, so the real reason I picked it was because the author was a childhood friend of mine and I couldn't remember ever actually playing it somehow. I can at least tell you it's Shadow's first ZZT game and it's kind of a curious one.
For one thing, this kid (aged 11 or 12) can make some fantastic boards for his age when he puts in the effort. It starts with a pre-game board showing some of the characters and our company logo with some nice lettering. (Only now do I realize he spelled his own name wrong in the big letters.) Then you begin the game in a small town with a distinct look. The buildings appear three-dimensional and even have little shadows cast in the grass. An impressive tree stands over them. It's a promising start!
A few other boards keep up with it. There's a really awesome scene of erupting volcano against a fiery sky intended to be seen when you lose a fight, showing off the fate of the world if Neville fails. A decent rocket ship, a second town, and some more impressively drawn trees really show Shadow's potential with the medium of ZZT artwork. A hidden board even depicts the Taco Bell chihuahua! Clearly someone was having fun with ASCII painting.
Everything else though, comes off as amateurish, which again, first ever game and pre-teen author is to be expected. That means you'll get some big empty rooms, try-me traps, a huge number of boards that aren't actually linked up in any way, and my personal favorite, an RPG battle that's been painted over to just be a regular run-and-gun fight instead.
But the messiness isn't all bad, there are constant surprises while cheating your way from board to board to see all kinds of ideas for locations, music, and special objects. It feels like there's quite a lot here, and were it to all be connected, it might actually be pretty cool. Frankly I'm still surprised what story is here isn't (to my knowledge at least) just lifted from the Spyro series...
Thank you for patience this month! Closer Looks will resume shortly!
♦ Play this world directly in your browser ♦
• https://museumofzzt.com/file/play/dragonra/
