♦ Livestream of 5 ZZT worlds. ♦
♦ Stream Contents ♦
• (1:57) “The Prophecy” by DrCrab123 [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/prophecy123/]
• (52:48) “Role-Playing Game Battle Engine” by Lord Kadro (1997) [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/rpgbattl/]
• (1:05:17) “My ZZT Test World” by Jonathan Dennis [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/zztestjd/]
• (1:12:26) “Ultra Tool Board” by Jammor357 (1997) [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/ultratb/]
• (1:19:59) “Wargame Magazine #1” by Kyle134 (1997) [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/wargame1/]
Starting with "The Prophecy", where a traveler to Raleigh (North Carolina?) seeking revenge on the horrible Glandersnoch beast. A prophecy states a traveler will come through the flames and defeat the cause of the destruction. That sounds like you.
Of course, the first think you might do is stop at the bar only to discover it exists as a sting operation as drinking is banned in town and you will be imprisoned and the game will end.
If you're a good little teetotaler, you might shop at some of the non-burning stores insead, or take a nap at an inn where simply being in a room restores health at different rates. Once ready to set back out into the world, you're treated to a small open world with passages to various unique locations with names like "Dunequake Mountains" and well, "Gushmore Falls". Most places seem to be dead-ends as a mix of coding errors and passage connection issues make it hard to progress. Even when working properly the dungeons like to have one passage be correct and the other lead to a game over
It's looks decent enough, and has the structure of a solid adventure to save the world, but the execution makes it difficult to appreciate what it does well, constantly getting in the way and ruining the experience. A well-meaning adventure whose author lost their grip on the game.
"RPG Battle" is just that. A engine intended for you to use in your own ZZT RPGs. It features a large area of the screen for static enemy art (in this case a "Thugian" with a chain that I can't help but see as a juggler), objects rather than breakables to display enemy health, an equipment list, and some buttons for "Jake" to attack or defend. The RNG uses a mix of color changing breakables as well as a pacing object that other objects detect if they're the one being blocked by it.
For 1997, it seems reasonable enough, but in many ways it feels very incomplete for a system others should just be able to drop in to their game. The engine has room for 4 party members, with only one actually implemented. The engine uses player health as your character's health, which isn't going to be an option with other characters. Lots of work to actually use it.
At least the Thugian looks cool.
"My ZZT Test World" is a textbook ZZT test world of scattered objects to try and figure out how to do things with objects. Its author is figuring out hyperlinks, giving/taking counters, using flags, zaps and restores, basically figuring out how to code. A few extra boards are used to test out some boss fights, as you gotta be able to whip up a boss for your games.
"Ultra Tool Board" is nothing more than a tool kit. A very empty one missing some really common use-case tiles like dark foreground objects! It's got the usual color fades from bright to dark to black, plenty of built-ins in fifteen colors, and about a dozen common blends. Also board edges, which were definitely a bit more uncommon.
Lastly, "Wargame Magazine #1" gives us something a little more substaintial to end the stream on. It's another first issue where the author cheerful encourages you to send in previews, ads, reviews, mini-games, anything you like, while also heavily promoting his company of one and encouraging people to join. We kind of took a sad interpretation of a lonely kid, but really it's the usual "baby want power" where running a company of one means that the moment you become a company of two, you have power in the hierarchy.
The reviews are only of the worlds included with the shareware version of ZZT, but the kid does a decent job of covering them despite the lack of any real need to.
The movie is a double-and-simultaneous-feature of a Star Trek and Rocky movie, played for humor with the two interacting with one another.
And the preview is for a game the author is making about a gambler that has a hit taken out of him who then kills his would-be assassin and is forced to go on the run. It actually sounds pretty cool!
So please join Wargame Software. Please.
♦ Play these worlds directly in your browser ♦
• https://museumofzzt.com/file/play/prophecy123/
• https://museumofzzt.com/file/play/rpgbattl/
• https://museumofzzt.com/file/play/zztestjd/
• https://museumofzzt.com/file/play/ultratb/
• https://museumofzzt.com/file/play/wargame1/
♦ Originally streamed on September 14th, 2025 ♦
