♦ Livestream of the following 2 ZZT worlds ♦
• (0:00) "Creatures of the Neon Moon" by INVID (1995) [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/neonm1/]
• (15:13) "Hero's Quest" by P294 (1994) [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/herosquest/]
(Originally streamed July 31st, 2022)
Just two games this time in order to spend an hour on a longer one.
"Creatures of the Neon Moon", is a game that's really more of a showcase of various fights against multi-object bosses. As a tech demo, it's not too bad. The designs are creative and while inevitably every opponent eventually breaks down into object-soup, I feel like they could have been effectively used in ZZT action games throughout the 90s. The ending board suddenly reveals that this isn't really meant to be a demo but a full game, one which has no story to its name and relies just on its cool title.
"Hero's Quest" meanwhile is that bizarre anything-goes style of fantasy adventure, by which I mean you fight with a bow and arrow on behalf of a king, but then also the town has a mall with a Carl's Jr. On the plus side, this means you're constantly surprised as it's impossible to get a fix on what this game's trying to accomplish, but most of the oddity really just boils down to jokes that don't land and surreal dialog.
Towards the end the author of the game joins you as you head to fight the evil warlock that killed so many, including the author's father. Then, death of the author, as in the author character dies. It makes for a surprise twist I suppose! Overall, a game that's not particularly exciting today, but weird enough that I could totally see a younger audience in the 90s playing it and having it stick with them.
♦ Join us for future livestreams at https://twitch.tv/worldsofz
