♦ Livestream of the ZZT world "3 Engines 4 Demos" by ZZTechno (2004) [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/3engines,4demos/]. ♦
♦ Play this world directly in your browser ♦
• https://museumofzzt.com/file/play/3engines,4demos/
A collection of engines and demos for unfinished games by ZZTechno.
At first, things didn't seem all that exciting. The engines were really straightforward more so than radical changes to ZZT's gameplay, and the presentation left a lot to be desired. It felt more like playing somebody's world for trying various ideas that wound up being uploaded without any modifications made once it was going to be viewed by an audience other than the author themselves.
A lot of it is little more than some cute #char tricks, though using some slimes for a fog effect was kind of neat.
But the demos wound up being a bit more noteable. Most of them were incredibly short, so as much as I would have expected to gush about a Jak and Daxter ZZT, there just isn't much of anything there.
Now, "Highland Joey's Oddysey" though, is where the worlds started to have some appeal. Suddenly we had what appeared to be a static art board with text flashing to tell a story turn into, well, turn into a man turning to face the camera. An unexpected surprise, and a little unsettling given the bizarre art. I'm still unsure if Joey is wearing a medieval helmet or has a toaster for a head. Later a garage door again seems like it would be a fixture on the board, only to impressively animate a chain being pulled and the door opening. These are the kind of effects that absolutely stand out and get specifically praised when placed in a full game. With these brief demos though, there's an unexpected cheer for a garage door, and then things just stop.
A shopkeeping simulator gets even stranger, thanks to its inclusion of customers talking about upcoming orgies and other instances of PG sexuality. An alternate route allows players to be a customer, then head to a police station taken from a different game (https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/madf/?file=MADF.ZZT&board=10) which has been slightly modified so that you can make out with a cop?
The plot kind of got lost with that one.
But we're all just gonna keep hollering about this great garage door.
♦ Originally streamed on February 18th, 2024 ♦
