This queue is filling up fast, and with the annual Oktrollberfest event hardly a week away, it's definitely time to get some games published!
After the queue of unpreserved worlds to upload has all but dried up entirely, another small source was found, and so there's plenty of newly discovered worlds here. A demo for the previously unseen third Gladiator game. A Tseng game so old that it has a different author name. Heck, there's even a proof-of-concept version of KevEdit that precedes the first public alpha by several years! Oh what could have been...
And of course, ZZT lives, so there are also some new releases, including an impressive adventure created for Trans Rep Jam 25 by a newcomer to the community!
This one was going to go up a few days ago before I headed out for the weekend, but oops it turned out that the magazines at the end are not exactly as they seem. So enjoy this slightly late collection as I slightly empty the queue.
Contents
| DL | Title | Author | Company | Genre | Date | Review |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
No rating |
||||||
No rating |
||||||
No rating |
||||||
No rating |
||||||
No rating |
||||||
No rating |
||||||
No rating |
||||||
No rating |
||||||
No rating |
||||||
No rating |
||||||
No rating |
||||||
No rating |
||||||
No rating |
||||||
No rating |
||||||
No rating |
“GIRL QUEST” by Charbomber (2025)
Seek the AZURE STONES OF HR'T. Climb GIRL MOUNTAIN. Defeat GUYSMIER. A brand new adventure made for the Trans Representation Jam 25. A fun adventure with a lot of humor and some pretty unique ideas to freshen up the standard ZZT adventure model. Definitely a fun one to take a quick run through!
“nixie tube experiment” by horrible lizard (2025)
A neat little engine creating a ZZT Nixie tube, using counters to store a small grid of pixels which is then produced on the fly with boulders and invisibles to light up a number or letter. Shows off pre-formatted digits as well as access to the entire grid so you can create a custom glyph.
“Pete's Checklist” by Peter Anthony (2007)
An incredible time capsule from 2007 that basically boils down to "here are all the kinds of 'sex' I'm aware of" presented in checklist form so you can mark off if you've ever done it with ...a redhead, and there are many interpretations of what "it" is. Scandalous.
Extremely funny to see now, and basically a mishmash of a list of body types, kinks, and just physical attributes. Nothing more explicit than the word choices, a handful of which are a tad outdated now. Hence the screenshots not showing any of the actual checklist boards.
“KevEdit (Feb 1996 Build)” by Kev Vance (1996)
Program Description
A remarkably early version of the KevEdit editor for MS-DOS dated before any public release. A significant number of features have yet to be implemented.
Rare archaeological find of a version of KevEdit so early that it predates the previously oldest known version by four years!
It's extremely unfinished, as to be expected, but was at least capable enough to produce this example board. Most menus aren't implemented, no stats can be edited (or placed), and the color layout is... I don't even know. Still would've been a game changer if these had come to the scene in the 90s rather than the 2000s.
“Gladiator: The Sundering (Demo)” by Cliff Hensley (1997)
A demo of the finale of the Gladiator saga, a very impressive series with a strong emphasis on the writing along with a diverging plot based on player decisions. This demo tells of a religious cult that has begun waging war against all who oppose darkness, with a strong suggestion that the events unfolding are "The Sundering" of legend in which the very fate of the world hangs.
The demo is mostly just learning the plot and wading through a battlefield, but it shows off STK graphics for the first time and provides some hint as to what direction the final entry in the series was expected to take.
“Gladiator: An Atherian History” by Cliff Hensley (1997)
Supplementary material related to the Gladiator series. Not a ZZT world, but a set of documents that cover the history of Atheria, information about the various fantasy races that live there, and an incomplete file covering notable figures within the world.
------------
Seth Randall
------------
The son of Gregory Randall, Seth was the first to wield Gladiator, hand-picked by the Order. Some people debate that the only reason he became the first Keeper of the Sword was because he was the son of Greg Randall. Either way, he still proved to be a great Keeper, true to his oaths, and has remained an excellent role model for all the Keepers to Come. During the times of anarchy after The Graylomman Wars, he fought well, and endured many battles to ensure that Light would never lose it's foothold, and also eliminated his share of Lords who attempted to claim the Talisman of Light and reopen the Gate of Darkness.
“Blood Rush” by Trigger (1997)
A pre-Tseng Tseng release. Years after your friends were slain by a monster on a mountain, you're finally strong enough to avenge them. Owen Wilson climbs the mountain fighting off all sorts of monsters in a wide variety of RPG battle engines, while meeting up with allies like "Anita Blue". Just be careful about not falling into a trigger trap!
“Kamikaze Ninja” by JDanWin (1998)
A cinema telling the tale of a cool ninja warrior who travels to Alaska to fight some bad guys. Then he gets caught. Then he escapes. Then he meets a rival ninja that wants to kill him so he can be the strongest ninja around. Then they fall off a cliff.
That probably doesn't sell it very well. It's a cute little series of animations with good use of sound effects and character changes to make ZZT animations about as fast and fluid as they reasonably can be. The entire runtime is like 5-ish minutes if you care to take a look!
“Nick's ZZT Town” by Nick Schimek (1997)
A three board town filled with a bunch of places to step into and explore for a bit. Search around for keys and the doors they're meant for, buy a personal computer, or just try and get rid of all the lions in the school. Very ammo tight, but otherwise a charming little town to poke around in for a bit.
“The Town of the City (Demo)” by skullie (1997)
A significantly messier town! This one is really just the main character's house, with some really trippy color choices. Dig around a bit and there are some unused boards and a cut-scene cameoing Nivek. A strange one!
“Final Fantasy II 1/4: Return of Golbez (alt)” by DarkMog25 (1997)
A slightly later revision of a Final Fantasy IV fan game. Find the crystals and defeat Golbez. Now no longer super locked, with some general cleanup comparing the boards. A little more variety, some nicer passage layouts. A much improved title screen. Almost certainly the superior release.
“ZZT Mag” by Jago360 (1997)
A ZZT magazine with some very chaotic energy. Includes a list of common mistakes made in ZZT games, many of which you'll find prominently throughout the magazine. Most boards are empty save for an auto-firing object to explain whatever concept or show a single sentence review and rating of a ZZT game. "Beutiful Game." is my new favorite review of Code Red
“ZZT Mag Issue #2” by Jago360 (1997)
The next issue calms down a little bit, making better use of its board space at the very least. Has some previews for a Hobbit game and a Mario game. Has a list of the top five games for ZZT, three of which are the three files that make up Code Red. A demo of My World III gives players something to do by exploring a Code Red inspired house, and a mini game about running along paths while trying to avoid fire from spinning guns.
“ZZT Mag Issue #3” by AHMorrow (1997)
Here's where things get weird. Issue #3 is credited to a different author. And after much hemming and hawing, it's now looking like this is an entirely different "ZZT Mag", and in fact, seems to pre-date the above magazines!
It's got a much more minimalist presentation, cramming everything into a tiny building in the sky accessed via elevator. It's also the very sparse issue as the author has no projects to report on. Just a few single sentence reviews: "It's a very good sequel. QED."
“ZZT Mag Issue #4” by AHMorrow (1997)
The magazine finds a way to fill itself with more content thanks to a large demo of City Adventure, a game previously streamed in full. There's also a second reviewer "Cool42"! They provide some more substantial and much appreciated details on these games making this magazine far more useful to get some information from.
Also featured: A "shootout" board that turns the menu into breakable walls. Have fun?
Of particular interest here is a list of scores for other ZZT magazines including "A ZZT Mag" which gets a 0/6 and a note that simply reads "unauthorized".
Meanwhile, "ZZT Mag Issue #2" features a review of "ZZT Mag Issue #4"! It looks like Jago saw Morrow's magazine, and decided to emulate its peculiarities (rating things out of six stars). Then Morrow saw Jago's magazine and was displeased. Jago meanwhile, seems oblivious to this and continued to positively review Morrow's issue #4! So.... that probably means we're still missing the first two issues of Morrow's ZZT Mag, and Jago has tampered with the fossil record! Great.
