December 31st is traditionally the day I empty the queue for a nice fresh start for the new year as far as statistics go. Last December was thirteen plus thirteen more plus a final seven on the final day. This time... twelve plus twelve plus twelve plus seventeen. The surprise end of year donation of a personal collection of ZZT worlds, plus BigTimeDudeProductions just going to town on demos and updates and updated demos and new releases with a torrent of uploads, combined with the usual end of year releases to get that last game out the door make this an absurdly dense month.
Which is always a good thing! I mean, if it wasn't December I could spread the new material out a little more, but them's the breaks. I demand that clean start.
Again a tremendous thanks to Mateo Williford for sending in so much of this old material, with apparently still more on the way! It sounds like he's got some really impressive stuff being uncovered, especially for fans of games made in Indiana! Hopefully all will become clear soon enough.
Contents
“ZZT Encyclopedia 1A” by Chronos30 (1997)
Most of the time, when an older version of a world is found, it's little more than a novelty. Often the only changes are some bugs that got fixed later on, perhaps a name or company change, mailing addresses being removed, that sort of thing. If you're lucky, there are some real gameplay differences, however small.
But for a few worlds, the older release is actually quite important, and barring the original release of Sivion ever being discovered, this is probably the next biggest thing for non-official ZZT releases.
After all this time, we've got the first edition copy of the famous ZZT Encyclopedia! It's just one file, with a fraction of the information it would eventually grow to contain.
Really though, the most fascinating thing about this, is that "Encyclopedia" is spelled correctly on the title screen! A typo introduced in a later version that carried itself forward until the final "Online" edition brought about new title screens for each file.
“ZZT Encyclopedia 2A” by Chronos30, JDMSonic (1997)
And here is version 2A of the Encyclopdedia. Before roasting it for the title screen typo, note that the text file suggests there's another release between this version and the initial release. Place your bets now on when the typo happened. Then, sit patiently as we wait who knows how long to obtain a copy of the still missing release.
“Todd's Adventure (Preview Edition)” by Madguy (1998)
Oh, that's right, sometimes you also find a demo for a game that had a proper release later. In this case, Madguy of Burger Joint fame for ZZTers, and Streets of Rogue fame for non-ZZTers now has a first ZZT release prior to his first completed ZZT release. You can spot a few differences between the boards in the demo and the full game, like some changed colors for text and wider hallways in Todd's apartment. Good stuff.
“Rontor” by jimbob (1997)
First of all: what a fun to say title.
Rontor is another earlier revision of a demo, this time dated more than a year before the previously known version. I hadn't heard of this one before, but oh what a story.
You are bounty hunter
Rob Bor, on a mission
lead by Temtont
leader of the Rebels.
You must take a huge
fortune from the
forsaken space
station, Rontor.
You have no idea
that a huge
adventure lies
ahead.
Always listen
to your
instinct,
never give in.
I have no idea why it's formatted that way. Looks like you find a portal on board and wind up on some strange planet? Maybe? Don't quote me on that.
“Peter's World 2: The Journey for Your Wife” by Tyler Johnston
So many ZZT games with players, so few with gentlemen that settled down. In this 2nd of the bizarre Peter's World games, your wife has been kidnapped and will be killed if you cannot rescue her in time! Just like the previous game, there are passage errors and boards that trap the player constantly, nothing makes sense, and by the end you'll be opening up random boards in the editor to see what you had no way of seeing.
Though we did manage to find our wife on stream when this was played before having to do all that, so technically speaking this is a winnable game.
There's a haunted house and Dracula (a lion), which imo are always good things to include in your games.
“Peter's World 3: Land of Larry” by Tyler Johnston
It's not over yet! Larry is the child of Peter and his wife, Princess Andrea. Things are kind of rough for him at school. His principle [sic] is constantly trying to have him expelled. He can't play most musical instruments, many of the boards he wanders across have 5 second time limits that make progression impossible, and Mr.s Tinyhead Peabrain the 3rd keeps giving him some difficult multiplication problems in math class.
What's a kid to do other than run away to the secret warp zone and start a new life in the Sierra desert playing adventure games, moving to Mario land and being killed instantly by a laser, or getting lost in the devil's hole?
Still bizarre. Still incredible. Love the art class paintings.
“Defender of Castle Sin (June 1997)” by Nivek (1997)
One last old version of a classic ZZT RPG. Castle Sin is peak Nivek with some great character art and a love of sword-and-sorcery themed combat. This release's differences seem fairly minor, tweaked text, some object with names in the later release don't have any here, thinner walls. It's exactly what I was talking about at the start of this article.
“ZZTorture Oktrollberfest 2023 Four Pack” by DeadPhrog (2023)
Program Description
Is it bad on purpose or good on accident? You'll never know unless you play it!
CONTENT WARNING:
Swearing and text character on text character violence, possibly some anti-capitalist stuff!
It was made for Oktrollberfest 2023. It's a troll game.
Writing, Art, Music, Coding: Jeremy W. Kaufmann
Win Screen Art: Laura Randolph
Pig Sprite: Emily Kaufmann
Tools: Zeta, Zima, OpenZoo by Asie, Zedit2 by Lancer-X, Weave by WiL, ZZT by Tim Sweeney.
If you are having problems with the installer running, you can try downloading the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable from Microsoft's website.
I think I have all the necessary .DLLs included in the zip file, however.
How's the joke go? OCT31 = DEC31? Well, no not quite.
One final Oktrollberfest game to be published due to the challenges of one of its tricks. This is the original release (hey, that's fitting for this pack) which consists of a very picky installer that few were able to get actually working. But there's good reason why a ZZT game has an installer program! This installer would actually randomly extract one several games, spreading confusion as everybody's ratings would be talking about a complete different game.
Alas, the installer wound up being a little too picky. Not too long after, DeadPhrog revealed the bit and opted to just release a compilation with all the games readily available in standard zip format. But I think it is important to preserve the original intent, as it was quite a fun idea. Especially since I got to be in on it and was going to just stream a different one of his games with each Oktrollberfest stream, not commenting on why there were more.
If you download from Itch, you'll get the easier to play release. At some point, said release will likely wind up on the Museum as well.
“Kissy Kissy Bang Bang” by Anonymous (2023)
An anonymous eulogy for Henry Kissinger. #RIPBOZO.
It's three boards long and over in about 60 seconds which I'm using as an excuse to not put ASCII Henry Kissinger on my website.
Content Warning Recreational drug use that has nothing to do with the contents of this file: The night he died my partner and I had already decided was going to be a break night from smoking, but then this fucker ruined even that.
“Galactic Foodtruck Simulator 2999” by LOVELOVEKITTY, WiL (2023)
Program Description
The year is 2999. You have 40 weeks to establish a thriving mobile restaurant business and begin paying back your creditors.
Gee, why does WiL get GIFs for his screenshots?
Well, that's because they're taken from the game's Itch page.
They're honestly gonna do a better job selling the game than I can, having not actually played it just yet. (Check back after Friday.) I did watch the Grand Opening stream for a bit though, where WiL talked about its creation and authorblues played it.
Live out your dream of running your own galactic food truck, bringing tasty dishes to patrons across the galaxy. Find winning ingredient combinations that are a hit with your audience on each planet, scout out deals in the newspaper (more sci-fi games need classified ads), and make important decisions that will lead to successfully paying off your 40 week loan or else having your mind erased by the Repos.
And don't miss out on the official unofficial soundtrack!
“Channel G: Gadfly ANSItronic Video Entertainment System - Zine 2” by RT-55J (2023)
The screenshots here are just art boards, but there's far more to this ZZT magazine than that! Art, ZZT-OOP tricks, previews for upcoming games, overviews for finished games, social media links, the works!
The screen shake effect is incredible though and I hope I forget about it before I run into it in a full ZZT game so I can be shocked once more.
“Tales of Adventure: The Treasure of Captain Cutlass” by Dr. Dos (2023)
I made a game! A old-fashioned non-linear purple key collecting adventure in which players explore an island in search of pirate queen Captain Cutlass's treasure. Fight off pirates, rescue turtles, and point out the hypocrisy in me of all people making you navigate a four-board hedge maze!
Created for the DOS Game End of Year Jam 2023.
“Legacy of the Sploot Kingdom Part One Full Version” by BigtimeDudeProductions (2023)
More Sploot! "Explore a mysterious world as you enter a portal on your college library that take you to a wonderful magical kingdom". A full release of the recently uploaded demo adding in about a dozen new boards.
“Doug the Sheep: A Joke "Game"” by BigtimeDudeProductions (2023)
A short joke game telling the tale of Doug the Sheep and how he realized his dream of getting to star in his own animated series Sean (Shaun?) the Sheep. A true story, or so says the text file.
“Chowder 2 improved demo” by BigtimeDudeProductions (2023)
More than a year out from the previous demo, a slightly longer demo for the sequel to the surprise 2009 ZZT hit Chowder, based on the cartoon series.
I'm just now noticing a review for the original describes it as "[It's] like if viovis made a game when he was 8" which is an incredibly powerful sentence.
“Cartman in Blunderland: A New South Park Joke Game” by BigtimeDudeProductions (2023)
The first South Park ZZT game in more than twenty years. Cartman is having a hallucinogenic experience after eating green mistplopper jellybeans and needs to put an end to the trip and save South Park. Features a number of unique endings! Rated M for mature!
“Bloomy Prequel V2” by BigtimeDudeProductions (2023)
And one last game update. Prequel to Bloomy: The Feloriah Chronicles, featuring new jingles and chimes as we learn what Bloomy was up to before the Emily Dickinson poetry incident. Plus an announcement from the author about original works, fanfiction, and plans for future non-ZZT games should life permit. (Ain't that just the way.)
