more people

[Ellypses]

I alway wanted to put every dungeon genra in one plastic executable to do just that. But I need a full list of them, plus play testers to make sure everyone of those works. Now, I don't know personally that plastic can get fat like that and live, but it's a good way to finds some bugs in plastic and working out the kinks...

or did. Oh well, whatever. Here's my list so far...

Daymare
A Dwarvish-mead Dream
Asmordeus/Sinless
December
Dungeon Master Gallery
Dungeon of Despair
Fish Trap
Refrigerator Raider
Mercenary
Possessed
Respite
Void of Destruction
Tut's Tomb
Tut's Tomb Legend
On the Wire

[Quantum P.]

Why does Nanobot still make these things if he's not even around

I thought he made that a long time ago and just never took it down.

[Zenith Nadir]

I alway wanted to put every dungeon genra in one plastic executable to do just that. But I need a full list of them, plus play testers to make sure everyone of those works. Now, I don't know personally that plastic can get fat like that and live, but it's a good way to finds some bugs in plastic and working out the kinks...

or did. Oh well, whatever. Here's my list so far...

Daymare
A Dwarvish-mead Dream
Asmordeus/Sinless
December
Dungeon Master Gallery
Dungeon of Despair
Fish Trap
Refrigerator Raider
Mercenary
Possessed
Respite
Void of Destruction
Tut's Tomb
Tut's Tomb Legend
On the Wire

psyche (by me <:D)
scramble dash dungeons

also i think you mean "deep december", not "december"

[Scribbit]

I'm not sure how big a Plastic world can get that way, or even how you'd put multiple games in one file. I'm assuming you'd make an interactive intro board that responds to certain keypresses to select a game from a list, but I'm not sure that's necessary. Why not just pick a few ZZT classics and remake them for Plastic executables? That way we could make a "sample package" of some of the best ZZT games, like some commercial games release sample levels to let people get a feel for the type of game. It could just be ZZT and a batch file, but putting it in an executable would make it that much easier. What ZZT games are suitable for most ages and give a feel for the many styles of ZZT? We could get an adventure game, a rat maze, an arcade game, a classic monster-and-puzzle game, one or two "atmosphere" games like kudzu or whatever, just enough to give a representative subset of ZZT.

I think this subset ought to include Burger Joint, ESP, and Little Square Things, as well as some examples from other genres. Are there any great "representative" games that should go on this list?

[Dr. Dos]

I alway wanted to put every dungeon genra in one plastic executable to do just that. But I need a full list of them, plus play testers to make sure everyone of those works. Now, I don't know personally that plastic can get fat like that and live, but it's a good way to finds some bugs in plastic and working out the kinks...

or did. Oh well, whatever. Here's my list so far...

Daymare
A Dwarvish-mead Dream
Asmordeus/Sinless
December
Dungeon Master Gallery
Dungeon of Despair
Fish Trap
Refrigerator Raider
Mercenary
Possessed
Respite
Void of Destruction
Tut's Tomb
Tut's Tomb Legend
On the Wire

Darkseekr

[Scribbit]

What I mean is, I want to find a representative ZZT game from every popular genre on the site, so as to make a preview pack that shows the many styles of gameplay. My list so far:

Evil Sorcerer's Party (story, inventory)
Kudzu (atmosphere)
Dgn Ultimate (rogue like)

--=# Some Questions: #=--
--What would be a good representative of "Arcade?" I thought maybe Run-on, but I'm sure there's others.

--Would Dungeon Master's Gallery be a better representative of roguelikes and dungeon crawls, or is Dgn Ultimate better because of its randomness?

--Should Burger Joint be in here?

--What's a good example of a "classic ZZT" game, with the shooting monsters and the collecting keys and all?

--Anyone have a favorite game that maybe ought to be in here?

[Commodore]

one of my all time favourites Warlock Domain as RPG. though Rhygar might trump it as far as community respect goes.

[Zandor 12]

--Should Burger Joint be in here?

Definitely.

--What's a good example of a "classic ZZT" game, with the shooting monsters and the collecting keys and all?

It's hard to go wrong with the classics - Town of ZZT gets my vote, although it's been awhile since I've played the original series so one of the other three might be easier/more entertaining overall. One of the Best of ZZTs maybe? The jungle island one is the first ZZT game I ever played and I loved it enough to eventually find zzt.org even though I was playing it off of a CD and couldn't save so that one might be worth a look.

As for favorites, I like You Vs. Stupidity 2 as an adventure game with a variety of engines (including a well-made 3d-dungeon area) and interesting puzzles as well as a silly sense of humor. YOU ARE BRAINLESS AND YOU LIKE BUNS is also a rather silly and unique title; I can't think offhand of any other text-adventureish games in ZZT. Besides those, Burglar's alway struck me as a classy game, as is Gem Hunter SE although those are both adventures and I'm not sure how many games you're looking to include in this. The Motivational Speaker is a fine trippy game, and even if you don't end up putting it in the collection I recommend trying it out - especially if you haven't played any games by Viovis yet. And Aura is the best example of an 'arcade' title that I can think of - it's certainly one of the faster-paced ZZT games that I can recall playing. Mr. Shapiro Cares not for Snakes is another arcadey game that's pretty fun, although shorter and probably not as polished as Aura.

Edit: Oh, and Edible Vomit would make a pefect choice for a second atmosphere/trippy game.

[gingermuffins]

Why not just pick a few ZZT classics and remake them for Plastic executables? That way we could make a "sample package" of some of the best ZZT games, like some commercial games release sample levels to let people get a feel for the type of game. It could just be ZZT and a batch file, but putting it in an executable would make it that much easier. What ZZT games are suitable for most ages and give a feel for the many styles of ZZT? We could get an adventure game, a rat maze, an arcade game, a classic monster-and-puzzle game, one or two "atmosphere" games like kudzu or whatever, just enough to give a representative subset of ZZT.

I'd recommend against packaging games into a plastic executable. Just put vanilla zzt and some games into a zip (with instructions of course) and you won't have to worry about compatibility and you won't have to make a hundred minor fixes. running TOWN.ZZT through plastic, i see that it doesn't seem to handle slow cycles in the same stilted way as zzt, so anything running slower than cycle 1 (lions, tigers) looks much more mechanical. and centipedes aren't implemented.

include ZZFont.com and a batch file for people who don't have the right textmode font. (enter fullscreen during the input/colour prompt). Say that if there are problems running in vista that zzt is compatible with DOSBox

What I mean is, I want to find a representative ZZT game from every popular genre on the site, so as to make a preview pack that shows the many styles of gameplay.

can't think of any major games that haven't already been listed, except for rogue three. it's been a while since i played it though

zzt works better for timed contest games, it seems. off the top of my head:

their way, the soulful way
nightplanet / emptyspaces
sands of time
jenny
ara's not bad
criminals
drip
surrogate mom
welcome to seasons

novelty:

scorched earth ZZT - aetsch
umber2 (lightcycles from tron)
panning engine
planets
like zandor said, you are brainless and you like buns
zztris

i suppose you could bundle this friendly forum spamming with an invitation to the next weekend of zzt. jotz will give out $2 cash prises to the winners

[Dr. Dos]

--What would be a good representative of "Arcade?" I thought maybe Run-on, but I'm sure there's others.

If Aura's not an arcade game I don't know what is.

[Scribbit]

What's Vanilla ZZT?

Also, I should probably only put in one or two "trippy" games, because some of those rely on inside jokes and I'm looking to invite people, not alienate them.

Any strategy games out there? Like turn-based vs an AI or just planning-intensive?

Burger Joint and Aura are definitely going in the ZZT fun pack. I'm not sure whether ESP or Burglar would be better. Burglar has a clearer genre and might even answer my strategy question, but I'm not sure it will appeal to as wide a range because the plot centers around playing the "bad guy" for most of the game. Also, innuendo.

[Zenith Nadir]

if you're looking for trippy games for neophytes, you can't go wrong with edible vomit, or any viovis game, and kudzu is cool too but i'm not sure if it counts as "trippy" ("dream sequence" would be more appropriate)

and chickenwire of course, i heard that's a good game <;D by me

[Quantum P.]

What's Vanilla ZZT?

He means just plain ZZT. As in ZZT 3.2, the DOS game creation system released by Epic Megagames.

I agree with gingermuffins in that Plastic is probably not the best way to go. If you're worried about people not being able to run it, you could bundle DOSBox with the games and say, "If you can't run DOS programs on your system, this package has everything." I haven't tried it, but I bet you could have DOSBox start up ZZT automatically -- all you'd have to do is tell users, "double-click this icon" and they should be able to discover their way from there.

[Saxxon]

kudzu is cool too but i'm not sure if it counts as "trippy"

We need more games like that. Screw intros. Stick us on a ROOFTOP

[Scribbit]

I haven't tried it, but I bet you could have DOSBox start up ZZT automatically -- all you'd have to do is tell users, "double-click this icon" and they should be able to discover their way from there.

I suppose, I know there's a file in dosbox that can run stuff on startup, but I should make it a batch or something so you can run dosbox in other directories and have it work, in case people using ZZT pack already have DOSBox installed. Also, I like DOSBox portable because it keeps all its files in one directory.

EDIT: I was on the DOSBox forums and discovered that DOSBox can take a custom config file as a command line argument. I could therefore just have a batch file that runs DOSBox with a custom config that loads ZZT and a game (I've tried ZZT in DOSBox before and it uses the proper font for ZZT by default). Strangely enough, this is only necessary with DOSBox portable-- Standard DOSBox v0.72 can do this, or simply take a program as an argument, as in [>dosbox ZZT.exe]