♦ Livestream of 4 ZZT worlds included in the "24 Hours of ZZT Spring 1999 [Fear]" compilation. [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/24hoz-win1998/] ♦
♦ Stream Contents ♦
• (3:17) “phear starring gunther t. maggot” by yllek
• (19:27) “The Death of ZZT” by Dragonlord
• (45:21) “dooom! II: Fear!” by Zeux
• (57:40) “Sailor Moon: Overcoming the fear! Landing of the new evil.” by C_A
• (1:16:05) Personal rankings
Beginning the Spring 1999 24HoZZT, which is off to a rather good start! The two contests of 1998 had been seen as enough of a success that the competition expanded, moving from a twice-yearly to seasonal format, thus letting the kids of the community neglect their homework for a weekend as they tried to come up with something truly scary.
"Phear" sees you playing as Gunther, a heroic maggot who has saved the Earth a few times now having to fight some demons. There's art of Gunther, but it's unclear if you're a tiny maggot in an Earthworm Jim esque suit or just a 6 foot tall monstrosity (apologies to any maggots reading). We get a rudimentary RPG engine in popup form, with the player touching enemies on a path to engage in combat.
The engine doesn't really consider how much health the players have, and each battle is very much a war of attrition where you need your stronger, less accurate, bash attacks to land consistently to survive. Except you don't ever get any health back, and the enemies never miss so your mission is an unwinnable win without cheating. That's okay though, as the final boss has a misnamed label and breaks anyway. Cool art. Good effort. Feels like time was short.
"The Death of ZZT" is author Dragonlord's first public release, and quite a first impression. When the ZZTMan doesn't get a promised raise from an uncaring Tim Sweeney, him and several ZZTers decide to take direct action to get him to change his ways. This means multiple RPG battles (a running theme) which are no more complex than those in Phear, just now with some little animations and attack effects to make it a bit more engaging to watch. Kind of makes a weird pivot at the end when you jump into the giant vat of blood next to Epic HQ and save Tim's life in an alternate dimension. Strange game, but well made and very amusing 25+ years later.
"dooom! II" is the sequel to a game from the previous contest with no connection to it. Instead, you play as the "Nightmare Lord", who loves inflicting nightmares on their victims. Enter your target's subconscious mind, fight off some guardians trying to keep his brain sane, and then do you worst!
Despite the dark theme, the subconscious looks more like a bright blue sky. Pick a path, shoot some dudes, solve some simple puzzles (use saw to cut rope), and send a nightmare to weaken his defenses. A quick and dirty action-adventure that of course features an RPG battle that calls itself "obligatory". A good time waster.
Lastly, "Sailor Moon", a genuine fan game that may possibly be based on an actual episode from the show? A villain is using their powers to make the guardians live their worst nightmares. It's up to Sailor Moon and Sailor Mars to come up with a plan to defeat them. Tuxedo Mask is also there.
This one is actually a lot of fun! C_A begs the judges to give the game a chance, owing to the general disdain for the weird girly show from Japan that seemed commonplace in the era. He really gets the vibe down though. The structure and story feel right at home for the series, the humor is there, and the finale is fittingly "Oh. Okay then." We don't have the original scores, so I'm very curious if the judges were fair to this one or not.
Then I rank em. No major complaints so far. Phear was a bit busted I guess. Still, if this overall quality continues, it's looking to be a really good competition!
♦ Play these worlds directly in your browser ♦
• https://museumofzzt.com/file/play/24hoz-spr1999/
♦ Originally streamed on October 12th, 2025 ♦
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