♦ Livestream of the ZZT world "Svynar's Quest" by Lincoln Sayger, Tony Sayger (1999) [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/tmcq1v11/]. ♦
A curious world that feels out of time. Dated 1999, but feels closer to a ZZT world made in 1992, but also has the visuals of a ZZT world made in 1996. Svynar's quest is an adventure to save a conquered kingdom from an evil wizard at the request of the princess. To accomplish this, you'll need to find three magic coins and a skeleton key, all of which are scattered throughout the kingdom's caves, volcanoes, forests, and so forth.
There's a lot to like about this one. A number of ideas both original and ahead of their time show up. The game erases its stars! The bank vault uses STK sliders so that you can't cheat and see the combination! A number of well animated enemies populate the land alongside the standard ZZT bestiary. In particular, the deadly "Venus Man-Trap" sticks out in my mind. Many of the boards are rather colorful with their STK forest patterns, and some such as the final cave do some great lighting effects to create the illusion of torchlight in an otherwise pitch black environment.
And then some aspects feel rather dated. The explorable kingdom is rather large, making it easy to forget exactly where certain locations are. There's a transporter maze that drags on too long to be enjoyed. One point provides players the option of fighting through some enemies or answering some trivia, though answering the trivia incorrectly has no punishment (with the exception of a single question).
It also wants you to accept Jesus into your heart, with a bit of Biblical trivia as well as some messages scattered around the credits and editor-only boards, but this aspect of the game isn't particularly pushy and is easily ignored, mostly standing out because it plays like something out of ZZT's Revenge, which notably includes "Fantasy", another ZZT world that asks players to consider Christianity.
While not without its issues, this was a pretty fun world to check out. It has a sequel as well to look forward to next Sunday, and if the quality is improved from this one, it could very well be a surprise hit.
♦ Stream Contents ♦
• (1:12:40) End of Ad Break 1
♦ Play this world directly in your browser ♦
• https://museumofzzt.com/file/play/tmcq1v11/
♦ Originally streamed on July 23rd, 2023 ♦
