♦ Livestream of 2 ZZT worlds. ♦
♦ Stream Contents ♦
• (3:01) “Karateka +” by James Ashby, Matthew Vecchio (2000) [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/karateka/]
• (55:17) “DarkMage Software Magazine 1-14” by DarkMage [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/dmage/]
Defeating Akuma's last two guardians and then fighting the big baddie in the ultimate karate match.
The remainder of Karateka + is a far more direct adventure. With most of the world explored, there's really nothing else to do other than go forward. First, fighting through a dungeon in the ice caves and then fighting through another in the desert. Nothing really new to see at this point.
At least until the desert begins introducing its share of coding errors. A dried out skull holds some hidden gems which can be taken from it indefenitely which is nice. Less nice are the various walls intended to be cleared after defeating all the enemies where many of them (yet not all of them) fail to function properly. In some cases it's still possible to get by without resorting to the cheat prompt by defeating enemies next to the walls and getting them to bleed a fake wall over them, but it's clear that things are getting busted.
We also take a detour to the Riddle Stones, getting to see four "what am I?" riddles to gain access to a shop with better prices and the ability to buy a bonus key used to talk to other people in the ending.
Then it's off to battle Akuma who is immune to our karate skills and has to be killed with fireball magic, kind of making the whole "Karateka" thing feel a bit moot.
For all its flaws though, it's a pretty cool adventure game. The authors did an excellent job creating something this big for a first project and I would have loved to see more by them. It's a bit like a watered down "Land of Traseel", but given the unfamiliarity with ZZT here, to be compared to that world is quite the compliment.
And then afterwards we return the to the DarkMage Software Magazine Mines. Issue #12 sees the world set on fire, with members other than DarkMage being the ones who put the issue together, and they did a good job of it! There are some impressive art boards, a slew of reviews for ZZT worlds that have yet to be preserved, and previews from some neat sounding upcoming titles.
♦ Play these worlds directly in your browser ♦
• https://museumofzzt.com/file/play/karateka/
• https://museumofzzt.com/file/play/dmage/
♦ Originally streamed on October 17th, 2025 ♦
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