Overview
The Winter 1998 24 Hours of ZZT contest was held on December 28th, 1998. The competition was hosted by myth, the winner of the previous 24HoZTZ. Participants were given 24 hours to create a ZZT game which was in some way related to the topic of History. 15 entries were received, and presumably rated by myth and three other volunteers who took on the role of judge.
The original scores have been lost, with only the top four entries having been recorded on the Interactive Fantasies 24 hours of ZZT archive web page.
Myth choosing to host the contest after having won the previous started a tradition where the winner was given the right to act as host for the next contest, selecting its topic and organizing the event. If the winner declined, the entrant who won second place was then given the opportunity and so on.
This competition is the origin of the "junk entry", submissions made to the event where authors deliberately made the worst game possibly, often attempting to harass the judges in the process knowing that they would be expected to play them to provide scores. These entries were typically disqualified on the spot, and in later 24HoZZT events rejected from the release of compiled entries deliberately to avoid giving the authors any attention.
Judges
- myth
- Skullie
- Lemmer
- emmzee
Scores
Click a heading in the tables below to sort by that field. Filename links will open the file the in the Museum's File Viewer. Title links will jump to the entry descriptions found later in the article. Authors and companies will lead to directories of other ZZT releases credited to them.
Official Results
Only limited information about the official results survives. Individual judges' scores/commentary are unavailable for this event.
Dr. Dos's Rankings
This contest is covered in volumes 10 through 12 of the 24 Hours To Go series. Each entry was ranked relative to one another on a tier list to provide alternative rankings to the missing official scores, as well as a modern perspective on the entries.
Hercules and Hydra's Scores
While the official results are lost, ZZTers Hercules and Hydra of Interactive Fantasies maintained their own personal scores for the contest's entries. These scores may better reflect how the games were received when they were new.
| Rank | Avg | Filename | Title | Author | Company | Herc | Hydra |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 83.5% | BKCHUCK.ZZT | The Dawn of Time | gchucky | 83% | 84% | |
| 2 | 83% | 24HOZ-27.ZZT | The Black Library | hm | 85% | 81% | |
| 3 | 79.5% | AREOCON.ZZT | Areocon | Kev Vance | 80% | 79% | |
| 4 | 78.5% | PIMAJ.ZZT | A Brief History of Zeux | piman, majiCk | Pimaj Productions | 79% | 78% |
| 5 | 72.5% | 666HIST.ZZT | Carrot War! | Scribbit, GoldenHog | 72% | 73% | |
| 6 | 72% | DOZWFEJJ.ZZT | What if?!? | Jeff Conroy | 73% | 71% | |
| 7 | 71% | CZX24H.ZZT | Red Coats | coolzx | 70% | 72% | |
| 8 | 69% | 119LAB24.ZZT | History Class!! | Flatcoat Lab | 72% | 66% | |
| 9 | 68% | 24HOZ105.ZZT | doooom! | Zeux | 69% | 67% | |
| 10 | 64.5% | 101POWER.ZZT | Hotel Noah | Viovis | 62% | 67% | |
| 11 | 55% | 24HOZ107.ZZT | The History of Da Hood | Tseng | 60% | 50% | |
| 12 | 50% | 24HRZAM.ZZT | A Really BAD Game | Zamros | 51% | 49% | |
| 13 | 49% | 112HIST.ZZT | The History of Eht Nori | RedFyre | 48% | 50% | |
| 14 | 37.5% | SAILOR24.ZZT | Sailor Moon | roastbeef | 35% | 40% | |
| WTJAF.ZZT | Why the Judges Are F**s! | Unknown | DEADWOK Studios Inc. |
Entry Information
🥉 A Brief History of Zeux by piman/majiCk
A retelling of MegaZeux's development, with MZXers upset at its creator moving on from the project. Players mess with the timeline to convince Janson to keep working on the program, ending the broadcast of Sailor Moon in the process, as well as causing Linux to completely overshadow Windows as an operating system.
The game hits a bit weird now, where it comes off as the MZXers demanding Janson's time and effort for no compensation or much in the way of thanks.
A Really BAD Game by Zamros
You play as a child who has a history test that he's unprepared for. The game goes out of its way to incorporate the word "history" as often as possible, really putting a lampshade on it. For gameplay, players find a cheat sheet for the test, then afterwards are sent to Hell before awakening on an 19th century plantation where they do battle with a slaver. Eventually a time warp brings the child to 1980s Times Square with the game ending shortly after.
While ZZTers of the era aren't exactly known for their tact, the game isn't particularly offensive. Some of the ways of working the topic into conversation are pretty amusing as well!
🥈 Areocon by Kev Vance
When a time rift sends your space ship back in time, you land on the plane Areocon to make repairs. Knowing your history however, you know that Areocon destroyed itself in a civil war that went nuclear. Finding yourself on the planet with no clue how much time you have left, you must deal with the locals and gather the necessary items for launch in order to fly back to your own time before it's too late.
There are only a handful of boards with little to interact with on most of them. A cool concept for a game, though it's clear Kev was himself rather short on time.
Carrot War! by Scribbit/GoldenHog
A team entry by Scribbit and GoldenHog that cleverly takes a generic ZZT action game and fits it to the topic by framing the game as a dream had by a student in a history class of the far future. While the robo-teacher's lesson suggests the carrot war to be about price fixing, the child's dream is that of a literal battle with giant carrot creatures. You then go through a number of boards collecting ammo and shooting or avoiding carrot foes.
Despite a slow start, some of the later boards have pretty cool designs, including a massive carrot preserved in a glass tube!
doooom! by Zeux
A meta-game that stars its creator Zeux. After the 24HoZZT contest ends, Zeux is horrified to discover he received last place. Thanks to a neighbor with a time machine, he travels back in time not for a do-over, but to find suitable bribes for the judges instead. The game revolves around a central hub where each direction leads to one of the key items needed to appease each judge. Collect Fallout 2 cheats, chat with Sandra Bullock, and brace yourself for a lot of jokes about pornography.
Very much a time capsule of a game, capturing the humor of ZZTers at the time.
History Class!! by Flatcoat Lab
Posited as an overview of important people, paces, and iconography from throughout history, players quickly discover that the game has a heavy bend towards pop culture depictions. History Class is entirely a collection of artwork, depicting a wide range of subjects from Abe Lincoln to The Beatles to William Wallace as portrayed in the movie Braveheart. There are some very peculiar "facts" contained within.
As a prank on players, a final board is dubbed the "Seasure [sic] room", consisting of various flashing colored walls that are quite unpleasant to look at with blinking enabled. Otherwise a decent enough collection of art whose information should be taken with a grain of salt.
Hotel Noah by Viovis
A retelling of the story of Noah and his ark. Players first capture various animals (by shooting them) to bring them back to the ark. Then they have to convince them to board. Viovis shows off his distinctive style of using statless elements to create patterns and backgrounds not usually seen in other worlds. A number of art boards show Noah, god, the ark, and a giraffe in an eye-catching style.
While there isn't much to do, the appealing visuals and simple gameplay make it a fun, if brief experience.
Red Coats by coolzx
coolzx's entry uses the American revolution as its source of inspiration. Players take on the role of George Washington, leading his army into battles with the British, as well as dumping tea into the Boston harbor. The battles use an engine seen in coolzx's Viking ZZT game, were you move a large group of soldiers left/right firing together at the enemy forces. These battles range from difficult to unwinnable due to the enemy often having a faster firing rate that lets their bullets overtake yours.
Though it is certainly flawed, coolzx uses the non-engine boards to showcase his artistic abilities with some impressive looking renditions of men on horseback, an angry British general, and some expressive portraits of Mr. Washington that make it worth seeing.
Sailor Moon by roastbeef
A Sailor Moon fan game that has no real connection to the topic. The game opens with a drawing of Luna and an apology that ZZT deleted her text. Chibiusa, whom the player controls, wakes up at her home then heads to a toy store where she throws a brick through the window to get at a toy.
There are a few art boards that give the comic an almost comic strip appearance, but very little actually happens. Unused boards suggest more game was planned than what players actually get to see.
🥇 The Black Library by hm
The competition's winner, The Black Library is an action/puzzle game in which the ZZT player protagonist finds themselves locked inside the cursed library. The only way to escape is to open a number of books within that represent different historical eras and collect a key in each one. Players fight a gladiator in ancient Rome, run from dinosaurs in the Jurassic period, shoot Axis soldiers in a German bunker during World War 2, go digging at Stonehenge, and slay a dragon in the medieval era.
The variety of settings and scenarios seems to have played well with with the judges. It's a pretty solid little game for the time constraints. Just be prepared for trivia and some bugs along the way!
🥉 The Dawn of Time by gchucky
A telling of ZZT's history with very little in the way of historical accuracy. In this timeline, Tim Sweeney works for Bill Gates at Microsoft. Upon seeing ZZT, Bill kills Tim to take the program as his own. ZZTers find it on the Prodigy online service, which soon burns down and the refuges head to AOL instead. Message boards and companies form, feud, and dissolve, leading to an IRC-centric community that perseveres to this day (in 1998).
Given how little survives of early community history, the game probably has some truth to its tales. Alas, it's a dubious source at best thanks to the obvious inaccuracies making it hard to trust the details of anything that isn't common knowledge.
The History of Da Hood by Tseng
A very brief entry by Tseng, showing historical events of note set in his Da Hood universe. Only three boards are present: Aric and an unnamed person floating on a small boat in the middle of the ocean, the mafia of Earth flying to Da Hood via a stolen space ship, and a Master Walnut rant about Tseng's laziness and lack of effort in creating an entry. The first two boards include narration of what you're looking at as told by characters Espionage and Master Walnut.
Very self-deprecating, though that's par for the course for a Tseng game.
The History of Eht Nori by RedFyre
Lynch, a young dragon is bored of life on an island as well as of his tutor's dull teachings. He wants to learn magic and go on adventures instead. In response, his tutor decides to teach him the importance of his people's history, sending him back in time to learn how his world came to be conquered by the evil tyrant Dark Myst, an adversary he's one day meant to depose.
There are a number of art boards, including a portrait of Lynch shown on the title screen. This picture is repeatedly adapted, with its subject being recolored or dressed in a different outfit to depict the rest of the game's draconic cast.
The game shows some potential for a larger story here, with this game serving as a chapter one to introduce a few character names and information about its magical world.
What if?!? by Jeff Conroy
In What if players are an agent for a time-traveling organization that experiments with creating alternate histories to see what other futures might have been. The game's lone mission has players boarding Columbus's ship in 1492, rigging explosives, and preventing the voyage from ever reaching the Americas. Players scour the ship for a disguise, bash Chris's face in with a rock, and dive off the ship once the bombs have been planted.
They are then treated to a paragraph describing the new future, which jumps directly to World War 2 and has the allies lose the fight with the United States existing to participate in the war. ...whatever you say kid.
A bit novel for being a time travel game where your goal is to be disruptive for a change. Very slight in terms of gameplay.
Why the Judges Are F**s! by Unknown
The competition's very first junk entry! Junk entries were deliberately poorly made games meant to harass the judging team, a captive audience that was required to play and rank everything they received. In later competitions, these were usually disqualified rather than scored.
This pioneering game stars Bill Gates, a young lad who knows nothing about sex, until he meets some ZZTers. There's not much to it, and it's pretty tame despite the core idea. You get a number of yellow bordered rooms with some crude drawings and text labels. The game ends with Bill getting rich off of MS-DOS while the ZZTers find a new person as the object of their affections.
Yes, the actual name and title screen do feature the f-slur. Yes, this is a weird one.
