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░░░░░░░ZZT-MZX Newsletter░░░░░░░░░░░░Issue 1░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░
░░░░░░░January░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░The New Year's Issue░░░░░░░░░░░░░░
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░░░░░░░░░│ Head Of Staff: E. CyberBRO │░░░░░░░░░
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┌───────────────────┐
│ PACK-IN'S include │
╔═════════════════╧═══════════════════╧═══════════════════╗
║ - !nsane-X Christmas Special by Deadphrog ║
║ ║
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Welcome to the second edition of "The ZOP Stop". Well, it's Febuary
(or almost Febuary), and that means that Zed-Omega Production's First Anniversary
is very close. ZOP will celebrate the anniversary sometime in March (I'm not
real sure of when ZOP came about, but it was sometime in early-mid March). We
don't really have anything special planned, but there might be some game releases
coming in March.
Besides the anniversary, ZOP has something else to be happy about. Our
new web pages! Some parts are still under construction, but you can see them at
http://www.gatecom.com/~zztomega/zopindex.html. They will be moved soon, but there
will be a notice of the move at the site (just a minor move). So, instead of
writing more, go check out our web page! Seeya next month! Write to me at
zztomega@gatecom.com.
Coming Soon: Zed-Omega Productions' First Anniversary
ZZTOmega
President of Zed-Omega Productions
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
The Critic Corner
(January's Games)
By E. CyberBRO
-----------------
MZX
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
NAME: Doomsday Dream
AUTHOR: Cecil16
GRADE: C-
LOCATION: AOL
SIZE: 47K
QUOTE: "This is the Ultimate RPG for Megazeux! This is part 1 of 50! This
game uses RPG battles. There are still lots of mistakes in it but it is still
good! E-mail me if you want to help me with it or you need help playing it."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fortunately:
1. Nifty RPG Style fighting engine.
2. Pretty nice graphics.
Unfortunately:
1. There's nothing to this game. About 2 enemies.
2. While fighting "you vs. the enemy" both take off the same amount
of energy each time.
3. The story is to confusing, from a girl you play witnessing death
of her friend straight to going back in time to fight some guy...
4. Author claims this is the "First Ultimate & True RPG" for Megazeux,
well so far with exception for the RPG fighting engine NOTHING in
here is worthy of deeming the title "RPG".
5. Requires MODS that AREN'T included with the game.
6. Worst of all, the game actually requires at a certain point that it
swaps worlds. The game comes unzipped so what's wrong with this
picture................DUHHHHHH!!!!!!!
MZX
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
NAME: Arisa
AUTHOR: Scott Barnes (Sandor4410)
GRADE: C
LOCATION: AOL
SIZE: 86K
QUOTE: "This is my game called Arisa: Before the Dawn. I made it a while
back, at which time I put it on the internet. Now it's on AOL. It is a good
game, even though it is a little like Caverns. Its fun, and worth the
download. By Through It Software"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fortunately:
1. Okay, Graphics.
2. Looks pretty good.
Unfortunatly
1. Uses Caverns MODS. (Really getting OLD!!)
2. It's about how far I got into the game. The very first boss is
extremely difficult because of the fact that first you need to
navigate through a lava maze to get to him, once you do he'll shoot
fireballs at you (Which bullets can't block) which in contact with
something creates fire which spread rapidly covering your fighting
space within about a minute. Not to mention the speed at which he
shoots fireballs leave very few shots to get in.
3. This first boss I imagine will take plenty to a lot of lives to
kill. Somehow this "Yo-Yo" believes you can beat it with one
life so that's all he gives you.
4. After hitting the boss a whole buncha times he becomes cheap and
shoots fireballs in four directions constantly. (Mind you the
fire still spreads.)
5. You can tell there was much thought into the spellbook he created:
Heal- Heals you 100 hps
Bombs- Gives you 10 Bombs
Wind- Blows YOU around. (Why you'd want to do that is beyond me.)
Avalanche- Randomly puts BOULDERS on screen. (Useless!!!)
Most of these spells I believe uses one line of the program to
execute.
MZX
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
NAME: Violence Pak (Violence I & II)
AUTHOR: Jonathan Bettencourt (Xero942)
GRADE: C- (Violence II helped the grade)
LOCATION: AOL
SIZE: 29K Zipped
Quote:
They not that long, but are lots of fun and EXTREMELY challenging.
Only for hardcore MZX players!
In VIOLENCE: THE ULTIMATE SHOOTOUT, you are PLAYER, a little dude with an
atitude! Blast your way past many enemies to find a wicked secret at the
end.....
I can't really describe VIOLENCE II. See for yourself!
Download the games!
They have NO little tiny enemies, PURE BOSSES!! They are not just some
"mindless shoot-em ups", they require lots of thinking, too.
Thanks for Downloading! I would appreciate some feedback, please. Tell me if
I should make another!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fortunatly:
1. You go around shooting things.
2. Violence II is a little more interesting as far as looks.
3. Violence II has TWO endings.
Unfortunately:
1. Author notes you should read the sound.txt before playing.
2. Let me save you the trouble, what he's trying to say is that
the music he uses were from Caverns and also he didn't want to
save you the trouble by packing in the sound files he used in his
ZIP file so he tells you to search AOL for them. (DUHH!!!!!!!!!!)
3. Lots and lots of mindless shooting.
4. The choosing between the two endings you have to psychologicly
figure out a difficult decision in a certain situation:
(At the final boss choose NO for the real ending or YES for the
alternate one, the author then tells you Violence III will be
based on Ending #1, the real ending.)
MZX
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
NAME: Mechzone Turbo
AUTHOR: Jeff Stein
GRADE: B-
LOCATION: AOL
SIZE: 789K (Packaged) (Core: 599K)
Quote: "MechZone: Turbo is a nice RPG, suitable for all ages. You become Zit,
a young warrior on a quest for adventure. It features nice Mods, Sams, and a
beautifully rendered Char set. Enjoy."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fortunately:
1. Some VERY good graphics.
2. Pretty nifty RPG fighting style engine.
3. The most amazing "enemies drawn up of characters in a message box"
I've ever seen. (The only one anyway. Don't know what I'm talking
about? See for yourself.
4. EXCELLENT Multi-char picture of the hero(?) in the title screen.
Unfortunately:
1. Excellent title screen only to be slightly less appealing with the
explosion from the corner of the screen covering the empty areas
of the title screen.
2. I'm not sure but I think after a while on the title screen you go
straight to the "Game Over" scene due to the fact that your
character (Usually hidden and out of the way in a title screen) is
standing in fire.
3. "Game Over" scene has a beautiful logo again ruined by the fire
explosion as a special effect.
4. RPG fighting style engine seems more like a text fighting style.
It just tells you when you attack, when the enemy attacks and
so on....
5. Few minor bugs....(Like having 5 coins to pay for the in which cost
5 coins but the guy thinks that still isn't enough to pay for it.)
6. The story sequence in the beginning is shown with a mega-tiny
window and text that goes too quickly to read.
7. The fact that in his documentation the original ver. (Mechzone)
was rejected by AOL because of some stuff apparently AOL didn't
like. (Made an appology to females afterwards.) So he says this
is a toned down version of the original. Why he gave it the name
'Turbo' is a mystery?
8. He either knows or is friends with the guy who made the Mecha Man
series. (I gave the only Mecha Man that was on AOL an average or
lower grade if you can remember.)
MZX
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
NAME: Talon's Tale
AUTHOR: Jeremy LaMar (SnigWich)
GRADE: A-
LOCATION: AOL
SIZE: 509K (Packaged) (1,599K HUGE Core!!!!)
QUOTE: "Journey to the magical world of Ocean in the lastest game from Jeremy
LaMar. Talon the kobold must save his forest from destruction at the hands of
an evil Xanadin. Uncover the roots of an evil plot. Fair warning, this is not
an easy game. Do you think you have what it takes to be a hero? Send questions
or comments to SnigWich. Check out my FTP site at members.aol.com:/snigwich"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fortunately:
1. IMPRESSIVE!!!
2. Loads of cool graphics!!
3. Unbelieveably cool animation and special effects.
4. Title screen is awesome.
5. Not only is the animation cool, but just about everything is
animated. You, the enemies, the shopkeeper, and more.
6. A feature that lets you jump "North, South, East, AND West". First
I've ever seen. (Remember, this isn't a side-scroll game)
7. A "Must-Have" Download today!
Unfortunately:
1. Found myself a bit lost about exactly where to go after training
mode.
2. Jump in deep water and you'll have to suicide yourself. (At least
you can. Other games neglect to include these kinds of features
when you get stuck.) :-)
MZX
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
NAME: Castle Adventure
AUTHOR: AlexMan2
GRADE: D
LOCATION: AOL
SIZE: 48K (Packaged) (133K Core.)
QUOTE: "A great Megazeux game demo! I haven't finished it yet but it's worth
the download... There's a lot of things to do in this game, even in the demo!
It comes with a filelist,CHR file,and the game. Most of the MOD files are ones
you can find here, so download 'em!"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fortunately:
1. Author used the 'char edit' feature.
Unfortunately:
1. This demo doesn't look too promising.
2. BORRRING!!!!!
3. Just walk around talking to people, shooting enemies, etc.
4. As mentioned in the author's quote you have to *GASP!!* download
the MOD files since I guess the author hasn't heard of INCLUDING
the MODS in the zip file to save EVERYBODY the trouble of actually
downloading them seperately. DUH!!!!!
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
NEW RANKING SYSTEM:
--=-=-=-=-=-==-=--
Well, self-explanatory. Easy, and straight to the point. One notable
mention. For those who get the same grade the one who breaks the tie is
the one game I think is better on the same grade.
For example: Violence Pak and Doomsday Dream are tied. Violence Pak is
higher ranked because of little itty-bitty things based on the 'Fortunate'
and the 'Unfortunate' listings. The author of Doomsday Dream's obvious
blunder is swapping to a world not included with this file, thus earns a
lower rating.
════════╤═════════════════════════════════╤═════════╤═════════════╤══════════
Ranking │Name of Game /Author │Grade: │Time Reign │Last Month
════════╤═════════════════════════════════╤═════════╤═════════════╤══════════
1st │Talon's Tale /by Jeremy LaMar │A- │NEW │---
2nd │Mechzone Turbo /by Jeff Stein │B- │NEW │---
3rd │Arisa /by Scott Barnes │C │NEW │---
4th │Violence Pak /by Xero942 │C- │NEW │---
5th │Doomsday Dream /by Cecil16 │C- │NEW │---
6th │Castle Adventure /by AlexMan2 │D │NEW │---
7th │----- │--- │--- │---
8th │----- │--- │--- │---
9th │----- │--- │--- │---
10th │----- │--- │--- │---
════════╧═════════════════════════════════╧═════════╧═════════════╧══════════
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
That's it for the NL this month. Until next month :-)
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