Let Him Know Here His Balls Are Friends
Moderator: Quantum P.
-
Dr. Dos
- OH YES! USE VINE WHIP! <3
- Posts: 1772
- Joined: Tue Mar 11, 2003 12:00 am
- Location: Washington
Visit the Museum of ZZT
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Apologies for the old post you may have just read.
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-
Fungahhh
- Resource id #38
- Posts: 662
- Joined: Fri Mar 25, 2005 5:35 am
- Location: Wisconsin, Idaho
- Contact:
[04:44] <Fungahhh> 2c-i does actually last significantly longer than 2c-b
[04:44] <Fungahhh> like, 4 hours or so? 5?
[04:45] <Fungahhh> but it's all coming down, the peak is only about an hour longer
[04:45] <Fungahhh> i still feel a little tense
[04:46] <Fungahhh> the muscle tension on 2c-i is terrible, and the coming up is kind of disjointed and weird
[04:46] <Fungahhh> and the mental effects knit much worse than on 2c-b
[04:46] <Fungahhh> and the sensual aspects are much, much worse
[04:47] <Fungahhh> although it does have a bit of euphoria to it that 2c-b doesn't have
[04:47] <Fungahhh> and things have a neat sort of shimmer to them
[04:47] <Fungahhh> but it's not worth the, everything
[04:47] <Fungahhh> and you always feel disconnected in your body
[04:48] <Fungahhh> like certain parts will feel tense and then it'll relax, and another part will tense up
[04:48] <Fungahhh> oh, but it does have a bit more of an analytical edge that 2c-b doesn't have
[04:48] <Fungahhh> but i'd still rather use 2c-b if i were writing an exam...
[04:48] <Fungahhh> in fact, i should do that... right now...
[04:50] <Fungahhh> i thought 2c-i has more focus on the psychedelic aspect, but i think that's only because of the extrally analytical side of it
[04:51] <Fungahhh> but i mean, it's pretty useless
[04:51] <Fungahhh> i haven't done anything with 2c-i that i haven't done with 2c-b
[04:51] <Fungahhh> except walk around downtown, i guess, but that doesn't count!
[04:52] <Fungahhh> maybe not euphoria so much as comfort
[04:52] <Fungahhh> or... tranquility? i don't know
[04:53] <Fungahhh> let's go with Mood Boost
[04:55] <Fungahhh> you know, the only bad part about 2c-b is it doesn't last long enough
[04:55] <Fungahhh> oh, and some people get gassy
[04:56] <Fungahhh> the peak's only 3 hours or so, that's not enough hours
[04:56] <Fungahhh> what'd be good is a drug that's like 2c-b but perfect and lasts your entire life
[04:44] <Fungahhh> like, 4 hours or so? 5?
[04:45] <Fungahhh> but it's all coming down, the peak is only about an hour longer
[04:45] <Fungahhh> i still feel a little tense
[04:46] <Fungahhh> the muscle tension on 2c-i is terrible, and the coming up is kind of disjointed and weird
[04:46] <Fungahhh> and the mental effects knit much worse than on 2c-b
[04:46] <Fungahhh> and the sensual aspects are much, much worse
[04:47] <Fungahhh> although it does have a bit of euphoria to it that 2c-b doesn't have
[04:47] <Fungahhh> and things have a neat sort of shimmer to them
[04:47] <Fungahhh> but it's not worth the, everything
[04:47] <Fungahhh> and you always feel disconnected in your body
[04:48] <Fungahhh> like certain parts will feel tense and then it'll relax, and another part will tense up
[04:48] <Fungahhh> oh, but it does have a bit more of an analytical edge that 2c-b doesn't have
[04:48] <Fungahhh> but i'd still rather use 2c-b if i were writing an exam...
[04:48] <Fungahhh> in fact, i should do that... right now...
[04:50] <Fungahhh> i thought 2c-i has more focus on the psychedelic aspect, but i think that's only because of the extrally analytical side of it
[04:51] <Fungahhh> but i mean, it's pretty useless
[04:51] <Fungahhh> i haven't done anything with 2c-i that i haven't done with 2c-b
[04:51] <Fungahhh> except walk around downtown, i guess, but that doesn't count!
[04:52] <Fungahhh> maybe not euphoria so much as comfort
[04:52] <Fungahhh> or... tranquility? i don't know
[04:53] <Fungahhh> let's go with Mood Boost
[04:55] <Fungahhh> you know, the only bad part about 2c-b is it doesn't last long enough
[04:55] <Fungahhh> oh, and some people get gassy
[04:56] <Fungahhh> the peak's only 3 hours or so, that's not enough hours
[04:56] <Fungahhh> what'd be good is a drug that's like 2c-b but perfect and lasts your entire life
fungahhh
-
Zenith Nadir
- this is my hammer
- Posts: 2767
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- Location: between the black and white spiders
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Dr. Dos
- OH YES! USE VINE WHIP! <3
- Posts: 1772
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Visit the Museum of ZZT
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Zenith Nadir
- this is my hammer
- Posts: 2767
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<zamros> lets all move to dallas
<zamros> and rent out a big house
<Dode> no, let's all move to fungahhh's house
<Dode> not really, though
<Dode> maybe for a day
<Dode> or two
<nondescript> lets all move to some shitty town in the midwest
<Nadir> zztcon 2004
<nondescript> and get it renamed to ZZTown
<Nadir> no
<Nadir> ZZTity
<zamros> the midwest is the circumcision capital of the world
<craycpanda> why can't you guys come to sweden
<nondescript> Town of ZZT
<Dode> if i went to zztcon i'd spike everyone's drinks with drugs and then make them guess what it is
<craycpanda> and keep me fucking company
<Dr_Dos> because sweden sucks
<Nadir> it should be called ZZTity
<zamros> lets all go to mzxcon 2008
<lemmer> i'd move to sweden
<Dr_Dos> yes ZZTity
<Dr_Dos> or mzxcon
<Dode> yeah, let's do that
<Dode> seriously
<zamros> except, not rsvp
<Dr_Dos> we already have zaphod's address and phone number
<Dode> let's hide in some bushes in zaphod's backyard
<zamros> seriously
<Dode> and jump out and be like ABOOGA BOOGA BOOGA and scare everyone
<zamros> lets just mess up their shit
<nondescript> dode we need tiki masks
<nondescript> whats mzxcon?
<zamros> nonde godedrp's having a mzx convention in his backyard
<Dode> yeah
<Dode> and spears
<nondescript> and like
<nondescript> torches
<nondescript> we do a ritual dance around mzxcon
<nondescript> and summon.. the spirits of flame...
<craycpanda> nadir yeah
<zamros> dude what if we kill them all
<Nadir> that mzx con will be him and johnk and shatter whining about their lives, same as normal
<lemmer> zztcon should just crash mzxcon
<Nadir> yes
<Nadir> YES
<Nadir> that would RULE
<Nadir> we just bust into godedrp's house, eat his sandwiches and make fun of the mzxers all day
<nondescript> mzxcon will be like that video 'the parlour' where its an internet chatroom, but they're sitting around a parlor
<Nadir> they'd be too wussy to throw us out
<Dode> nadir yeah
<Dode> we'd all be really loud, constantly interrupting conversations
<lemmer> i imagine he'd just sit there threatening to call the cops
<lemmer> but no, he wouldn't do anything, he would just cry
<Dode> and we'd be smoking joints, blowing the smoke in everyone's faces
<Dode> just whoever's nearby
<zamros> it would be like beavis and butthead when they're in stewart's house
<Nadir> oh sure, they're big men in irc chatrooms...
<Nadir> but in real life... i doubt it
<NiMa> I dreamt about Asie's penis, is that weird? :P
<Exophase> What
<Exophase> I'm talking.
<Exophase> Paste it.
* Spears_Dracona grabs skwirl's ass as a communicational sign that she appreciates him and thinks he's a fun person to have around.
<Insidi> /me bangs his head against the wall as a communciational sign that he's frustrated with the fact none of his so called friends in meatspace give a shit about him and he is exceedingly lonely for human contact.
* Shatter vomits all over the floor out of sheer stress
* skwirl gives spears a Ûž
* JohnK[PowerBook] sighs and punches his wall
* Jenni puts a pillow in the way
* Insidious puts himself in the way.
[04:42:39] [secksie ) Jul 18 18:25:34 <Insidious> My life has gone to shit because of my attachment to this drowning ship of a community and I just want to crawl into a hole and die.
[04:43:13] [lemmer ) i can imagine zaphod crawling into a hole and dying
[04:43:16] [lemmer ) like some sort of retarded insect
[04:43:17] [zamros ) yeah
[04:43:22] [zamros ) a really dirty old hole somewhere
[04:43:23] [Dr_Dos ) that's a big hole
<Dr_Dos> is zaphod's game rapist site still up
<zamros> probably
<lemmer> yes
<zamros> i like how most of the reviews on gamerapist are positive
<lemmer> www.gamerapist.com
<Nadir> game rapist
<lemmer> man
<Nadir> that site is so inappropriately named
<Nadir> on so many levels
<lemmer> you'd think a guy like zaphod would know to choose a better name than Game Rapist
<Nadir> no
<Nadir> you wouldn't
<lemmer> or, well
<lemmer> yeah
<lemmer> i guess not
<Nadir> gay rapist
<lemmer> in fact i guess that's exactly the name a guy as socially inept as zaphod would choose for his shitty video game reviewing site
[...]
<lemmer> Its not a horrible game, but it disappoints.
<lemmer> another severe rape from the game rapist
<zamros> haha
<lemmer> I love this game. My only real criticisms? A lack of true ability to deviate from the main plotline, a lack of true difference between the different clan’s plotlines (other than the Malkavians and the Nosferatu), and the fact that a song which seems to be BUILT for the idea of the game was never included. I speak of The Hand That Feeds by NIN. :P
<lemmer> Further, because of the enforced restriction to walking and biking, you will literally spend a good 80% of your game time WALKING! Yeah, if I wanted to take a walk, I’d be OUTSIDE.
<lemmer> (note: zaphod does not like walking)
<lemmer> that's the only one star review on the site
<Xeirxes> asgromo... umm
<Xeirxes> this is kind of a weird question
<Xeirxes> can i call you captain?
<asgromzx> o___o
-!- Insidious [~Alucard@pool-72-79-234-116.spfdma.east.verizon.net] has joined #zeux
-!- mode/#zeux [+o Insidious] by ChanServ
<Insidious> Here, is this what you want?
* Insidious removes bans
<Insidious> There.
<Insidious> Utter lawlessness.
<Insidious> Have fun.
<Insidious> Fuckbags.
-!- Insidious [~Alucard@pool-72-79-234-116.spfdma.east.verizon.net] has left #zeux []
[19:47] <Insidious> mother fuckers.
[19:47] <Insidious> GRAAAARGH.
[19:47] <duvel> isn't your mother proud
[19:48] * Insidious sets mode: +b duvel!*ler@mzx-D799E951.jan.bellsouth.net
[19:48] * duvel was kicked by Insidious (Insidious)
[19:48] <Insidious> GET OUT.
<Guy> see, this is why you can't have insidious as an op anywhere ever
<Guy> because he's like a trip wire, with lots of wires
<Guy> wired to an explosive
<Guy> or something
<Guy> anyway the point is, he's too emotional
<Insidious> And fuck you.
<duvel> well aren't you very nice
[14:04] -Global- [Logon News - Aug 02 2007] We've got to find a home for that horse that raped JohnK, or else his dad is going to put it down. PM JohnK or NiMa for more information.
[14:04] -Global- [Logon News - Jul 31 2007] If you have any information about anyone spying or ircmanning anywhere in MZXIRC, please inform NiMa. This has got to stop. Thank you.
<zamros> i've seen a few chick tracts in person
<zamros> i found one in a hotel room, and one in an airport bathroom
<zamros> and one time i was at the <censored> pride parade in new york city and these dudes were standing there handing out the <censored>-themed one
<lemmer> i would feel deeply uncomfortable staying in a hotel room that had a jack chick tract in it
<lemmer> the <censored> pride parade
<Fungahhh> <censored>
<Nadir> i like how <censored> is apparently censored
<zamros> <censored> is censored
<Fungahhh> i like how g g ayy eah
<zamros> wow
<zamros> that's hilarious
<Nadir> that is pretty awesome
<Fungahhh> <censored> <censored> homo
<zamros> what if like, JohnK was coming out on IRC
<zamros> in a censored room
<zamros> <Insidious> What's wrong Hon
<zamros> <JohnK> well guys.... it's just..... I'm <censored>
[16:38:54] <barb> hi paul
[16:38:59] <barb> anything funny to say? :)
[16:39:07] <paul_> never :(
[16:40:14] <paul_> i reorganized all my electronics.
[16:40:30] <paul_> now everything is in front of me in easy reach.
* JohnK has quit IRC (Quit: To Jenni: A thosand miles seems pretty far, but they've got planes, and trains, and cars, I'd walk to you if I had no other way. Our friends would all make fun of us, and we'll just laugh along because we know that none of them have felt this way...)
................._______
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................|...1...|
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................|:..|...|
................|::.|:..|
..___ ___.......`--- ---'
.|...Y...|-----.---.-.--.--.-----.-----.
.|...1...|..-__|.._..|..|..|..-__|.....|
.|..._...|_____|___._|\___/|_____|__|__|
.|:..|...|
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.`--- ---'. ___ ___ ___ __ __
.....-----.'.._||...Y...|-----...|..|
....|.._..|..._||...1...|..-__|..|..|
....|_____|__|..|..._...|_____|__|__|
................|:..|...|
................|::.|:..|
................`--- ---'
by Kevin Carter
09/10/2006
kevinandrewcarter@gmail.com
.
________________________________________
.
About "A Heaven of Hell"
(whimsical version)
.
When I heard about the #endgame contest,
I thought it was a great idea. ZZTers
coming together for one last ride before
the end of it all. Here's the problem:
I've never been great at coming up with
plots for actual games -- more ZZT rock
operas and poetry collections. I was
having trouble coming up with a project.
I decided that it was impossible to make
one, so this is where it started.
.
I've always had an absurd penchant for
the dusty annals of ZZT's lurid
history, so when I stumbled onto a ZIP
file of old ZZT Club 2 games from
Prodigy, I experienced a weird sort of
nostalgia beyond my own personal
experience. The games in this file were
made by people who were making games in
ZZT when I was six or seven years old,
but the names were still familiar to me.
Carlos DaSilva (the guy who was working
on ZZT2), Chris Jong, Tim Gallagher,
Alan Pilgrim, John Shipley, and Gregory
Janson.
.
Going through these old archives, I was
playing games that I never would have
thought existed. And I got the strange
feeling like I would be the only one ever
playing them again, with MMORPGs and
first person shooters replacing outmoded
ANSi graphics. I probably am.
.
As I was looking through the ZIP file,
I basically played files at random.
There were about 40 games, so I opened
a few of them up to take a look.
.
Some of them were impeccably programmed,
with complex plots and graphics that
mirrored the VGA adventure games popular
at the time. But the rate of technology
made the games obsolete even as they
were published, let alone fifteen
years afterwards. I felt almost bad for
the authors-- all of this work went into
a game with such stringent limitations.
.
It sounds convenient enough to be
scripted, but the most interesting thing
happened when I was ready to press Q.
I opened up the next game and heard PC
speaker music that sounded like Janson's.
I've always thought his music, despite
causing people's ears to suffer because
of a PC speaker, is some of the best ZZT
music I've ever heard. The way he
composed with one instrument is pretty
unbelievable. But this wasn't Janson,
and the author -- Isaac Ginsburg -- was
someone I had never heard of before.
.
I started playing the game, and it was a
fantasy game, but pretty atypical in its
methods. The author described it as a
"self-referential gnostic fantasy," which
is like Code Red I guess but with a
little more existential angst and
postmodernity. I was intrigued.
.
I kept playing through and saw that even
though the graphics were pretty ludicrous
in some parts, there were improvements
that didn't seem to be made until years
later, when STK came along-- it looked
like someone had either hexedited ZZT or
figured out some other trick to get the
colors to show up. Plus there was an RPG
engine that genuinely reminded me of
Final Fantasy, with actual numbers as a
battle system instead of the typical HP
bar.
.
The interesting part was that Isaac
Ginsburg was actually only the writer of
the story, while all the programming
work had been done by this mysterious
background figure, Barry. All we see of
him in the game is in the opening (which
also reminds me of Mission:Enigma), a
portrait of a typical ZZT/MZX Linux
hacker obsessed with programming. The
only time you see Barry in the game is
when something goes wrong with the PC
speaker music in the game. Other than
that, he's a ghost.
.
That, along with some other elements of
the game, made me want to release this as
my #endgame project. My fascination
with uncredited ZZT authors and people
who have fucked around with the game.
So I decided to re-release the game.
I didn't really do any of the work, but
I almost feel like nothing can be added
to ZZT at this point, and the only thing
left is to become its historian.
.
(Okay, none of that except for the ZZT
history part is true. Read the actual
version for what really happened.)
.
_________________________________________
.
About "A Heaven of Hell"
(actual version)
.
Lame Autobiographical Part
.
This project, as I think is the case with
most of people's creations, is a result
of my own personal neuroses and
fascinations. All of that is factored
into this game.
.
I grew up in an incredibly conservative
Christian home with parents who were
fanatical about religion. I was barred
from reading most books, watching most
movies, and having any loose association
with most things. I attended a Christian
school where the Satanic acts of being
within six inches away from members of
the opposite sex, rock and roll, and any
sort of non-conformity were strictly
forbidden. Shit, I wasn't even allowed to
watch Care Bears growing up because it
had a witch in it.
.
This pretty much continued until I was
about 12 or 13 and started delving into
the Internet, fascinated that there was
an outside world beyond my own personal
experience. Within a few years, I
began to immerse myself in the
counter-culture, constantly searching for
new pieces of art that reflected this new
part of my life. The ZZT community is
really where I learned about the real
world, if you can call it the real world,
and I owe a lot of who I am now mostly to
people who might be playing this game.
(Greets at the end.)
.
After this, I started trying to branch
out in the world, but still had
difficulties because of the influence of
Christianity. When I became interested in
the Transcendentalists, my parents started
getting worried. Actual music (as
opposed to the contemporary Christian
bullshit I was bombarded with) and drugs
were even more vitriolic attacks on their
ethical systems, even though it shouldn't
have surprised them, considering the
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
shirt I donned at like 13.
.
But because I was virtually brainwashed
into the system with baptism of the Holy
Spirit, catchysongs, and every other way
the Church can sink their teeth into you,
I've had more than a couple of true
existential crises in the past few years
because of the cognitive dissonance in my
head between what I was taught and what I
actually believe.
.
I sound ridiculously lame and obvious
saying this, but you can track these
changes in my life based on the kind of
games I was making at different points.
When I was 12, I was making edutainment
Bible games like "Only A Boy Named David"
under the label of Mindsoft Entertainment
(which is what this game is released
under too, with more than a hint of
irony). When I was 12-14, I was working
on a ZZT rock opera (world's greatest
misnomer) called "Freedom," which was xf's
idea not quite brought to fruition, which
was mostly plotless and musicless, never
good things for a rock opera. It was
released under Koiten, the Japanophile
ZZT company (which is totally irrelevant)
but had some elements of discontentment
and the same non-conformist thoughts that
I hadn't entertained a few years before.
.
In 2002, I released "Apparitions of the
City" to widespread declaim. It was a
poetry and "art" collection with an
ostentatious and overly idealized poem
that for some reason I embarassingly
like. It was more breaking away from the
constraints of Christianity, which gets
me to where I am today.
.
I did even more of this during college,
exploring comparative religions,
philosophy, and too many psychedelic
drugs. Right now, I'm 21, living in
Manhattan as an underpaid system admin
on Wall Street, and fascinated with
everything related to counter-cultural
ideas. Also I'm in love and trying to
balance the beauty of that with the
horrors of the world, visiting art
galleries, trying to eventually read
Proust, and am still obsessed with the
Internet. In other words, it's been
sort of a wild ride.
.
_________________________________________
.
Game Background
.
The idea for this game has been swimming
around in my head for the last two years,
basically going through a couple of
permutations before I finally made it.
It started out as "Fred the Misunderstood
Demon," which was based on a suburban guy
who lived a pretty decent life and found
himself in Hell. Then the idea morphed
into Aleister Crowley, Lao Tse, and a
random hipster going through Hell
battling God, since I got kind of pissed
off at Christendom. Eventually Crowley
and Lao-Tse turned into hipsters and thus
was born "A Heaven of Hell."
.
The game basically revolves around a
group of postmodernists who unwittingly
find themselves in Hell. After
suffering for a few thousand years, they
decide to break out. Isaac, the main
character, studied Kabbalah when he
was young and came up with a plan to
exit Hell (or the Qliphoth) through a
sephirah called Daat.
.
The game was originally intended to be a
lot more funny but became a more
overarching and pretentious as I went
along, probably since I started drinking
more and getting heavily into Gnosticism
and LaVeyan Satanism. Honestly, it was
intended to be a self-conscious homage
to RPGs, not actually turning into a
serious one, but it's hard not to be
serious when you're dealing with a quest
to stop Christianity.
.
_________________________________________
.
Game Dynamics
.
The game is sort of irreverent, if you
haven't figured that out by the fact that
Yahweh and the Judeo-Christian mythos is
the antagonist. As I said, the game
developed out of my own personal
neuroses, and for years I've been trying
to come to terms with my Christian
background. There are so many impossible
contradictions and absurdities in the
Bible that it's scary, and it's because
it's largely a work of fiction with the
writers trying to gain power over others
in society. I've tried to point that out
a lot in the game but haven't done a
great job of it.
.
A lot of writers have been very
influential into the way I've been
thinking about the writing for the game,
including Allen Ginsberg, Voltaire,
Albert Camus, Timothy Leary, Thomas
Paine, Ken Kesey, Jacques Derrida,
and a bunch of other people. I've tried
to take the game pretty lightly, but the
Hell and Gnostic fantasy elements make
things a little overblown.
.
The game within the game, also called "A
Heaven of Hell," also has to do with my
neuroses. I'm fascinated by the idea of
thousands upon thousands of ZZT games
being made and never played. The
backstory in the "whimsical" section, if
you haven't read it, is that this game
was discovered in a ZZT Club ZIP file
from the early 1990s. Some of the games
back then were incredible, and it seemed
to work with the story. This idea of
pushing boundaries and limits extends
far beyond yellow borders-- it also
relates to God! Okay, sorry, I got a
little carried away there.
.
Speaking of limits, this game has sort of
been Hell in and of itself to create.
I've been dealing with tons of runtime
errors, crashes, difficulty with objects,
and pretty much anything else you can
name. When you try to program something
when there are this many constraints
attached, it can get a little difficult.
.
Particularly difficult parts were:
.
- The inability to exceed 20K of memory
in a board. The RPG engine I had in mind
originally was much cooler, with objects
using the number HP system to their
advantage, lots more spells, constant
battle music, and decent graphics, but it
would have crashed ZZT altogether,
probably even with extra 4.0 memory. The
backwards compatibility thing was
basically what forced me to try and fit
everything in as best as I could. (I
seriously can't believe I'm writing all
of this shit. Kids, just say no to
overdosing on pseudoephedrine.)
.
- ZZT's Music System.
Honestly, it's terrible. Even though the
PC speaker is a fairly limitless thing
(aside from the whole monophone issue),
ZZT handles music shittily. I've been
working with /i's and everything else to
try to fix things and make pieces longer,
but to no avail. It's almost impossible
to loop a piece of music over more
than three times, and it's even worse
trying to get a song to play when a
dialogue box pops up. That's one of the
reasons why the battle music only loops
twice during battles, and generally while
music in the game is more sporadic and
shorter than I originally intended it to
be. It's all well and good to grapple
with the issues of programming in an
antiquated language, but at some points,
it really started getting ridiculous.
.
- The inability to have any code running
in the background instead of placing
objects on the boards. Enough said.
.
- The object limit. Ugh, this is the
worst. It makes graphics impossible,
genuine coding possible, and lots of
other things.
.
- ANSi graphics, PC speaker support, the
blue smiley that's #char 2 no matter
what, and everything else. I
simultaneously loathe and love this game.
.
_________________________________________
.
Music
.
The music for HoH has been a lot of fun
to compose. Most of it was dashed off
in a few minutes, and most of the effort
came actually trying to get it to work.
Other songs were sort of difficult to
write considering the fact that you can't
have extensive contramelodic or harmonic
structure. Damn, Sweeney, what were you
thinking?
.
The title theme, Daat, and the boss theme
were probably the most difficult songs to
write. The boss theme is probably my
favorite, since I tried to incorporate
the tritone into the composition. I
first heard the interval when I listened
to "Way Out" by Orbital and became
obsessed with the dissonant tone. Later
while studying choral music, I learned
that this progression was called "the
devil's tone," which influenced me even
more to write something like it. I
promise I'm not obsessing about things
like this for a ZZT game-- this is all
stuff that revolves around my actual life
that I've thrown into a game because I'm
sick of thinking about it. Anyway,
tritones, stereotypical A minor
progressions and all, it's been fun to
work with the PC speaker again. I hope
it sort of ties things together. Feel
free to steal any of it that you want for
your games. Obviously, this is open
source, public domain, blah blah blah.
I would release it under the GNU Public
License if 1) it mattered and 2) it
didn't require more work.
.
That's basically it. If you have any
questions or comments about the game,
feel free to e-mail me at
kevinandrewcarter@gmail.com. Thanks for
playing! (If you ever do after reading
this.)
.
________________________________________
..._ _ _ __
../_\ | || |___ __ ___ _____ _ _ ___ / _|
./ _ \| __ / -_) _` \ V / -_) ' \/ _ \ _|
/_/ \_\_||_\___\__,_|\_/\___|_||_\___/_|
..............| || |___| | |
..............| __ / -_) | |
..............|_||_\___|_|_|
.
Credits & Thanks
_________________________________________
.
The past nine years or however long it's
been since I discovered this have been
pretty fucking incredible. Honestly, I
know I'm sarcastic a lot, but thanks for
everything. Particularly these people.
.
Game Development
_________________________________________
.
Story, Code, & Music: Kevin Carter
.
RPG Engine graphics: bongo
.
Countdown Engine: Dr. Dos
.
Toolkits: tseng, bluemagus, dexter,
& madtom.
.
ransporting Engine: madtom
.
Game editing: KevEdit, without which
this game wouldn't exist
.
Community Members
_________________________________________
.
bongo, flicker, & darkmage: A bag of
psilocybin mushrooms, writing, art, &
bohemianism. Plus all the #dd stuff.
.
dive, smiley, knightt, & masamune:
Nipponophilia & Dragon*CON 2000, not to
mention being my friend when I felt like
shit.
.
Thanks for the memories:
.
bluemagus, tseng, dex, drac0, lemmer,
myth, tucan, cly5m, blazer, atom,
crankgod, xf, yenrab, zed, chronos,
evilmario, flatcoat_lab, hydra,
dragonlord, fishfood, lord_igsel, funk,
hercules, hm, madtom, dr. dos, mooseka,
mono, nadir, jujubee, roastbeef, viovis,
wil, xabbott, & zamros.
_________________________________________
.
Writing Influences
.
All the standard Western canon people,
like Milton & Shakespeare (& Boccaccio &
Chaucer, who are actually pretty cool).
.
Beat Generation folks: Allen Ginsberg,
Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs,
Bob Dylan, Joyce Johnson, Amiri Baraka,
Gary Snyder, Michael McClure, Anne
Waldman, & the rest of the criminals.
.
Hippies: Ken Kesey, Hunter S. Thompson,
Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Abbie Hoffman,
Tom Wolfe, & others.
.
Structuralists/Post-structuralists:
Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Jean
Baudrillard, Paul de Man, Louis
Althusser, etc.
.
General awesomeness: James Joyce,
Umberto Eco, Frederick Nietzsche,
Aleister Crowley, Anton LaVey, Alan
Watts, Buddha, Lao-Tse, C.D. Payne,
J.D. Salinger, Paulo Coelho, Douglas
Adams, & the rest.
.
_________________________________________
.
Musical Influences
.
I only like godspeed! you black emperor.
That's it.
.
_________________________________________
.
Personal Thanks
.
- Alisha Levin, who was ridiculously
supportive while I was making this. She
basically took care of me like a baby
while keeping me acting like a human
being, which is not an easy thing to do
when I get sucked into a project. She
did beta testing & editing while despising
ZZT, & is generally perfect. & she put up
with the PC speaker. So much love.
.
- The New York City crew: Emily, Alex,
Noah, Drew, Dhruva, Stephin Merritt
(namedropping), Stephanie, Billy, Vince,
and others. Rock on.
.
- The Denver Group: Andrew, Adam, Spencer,
Brandons Wark & Arment, Alex, Erik, Jared,
& others. Thank you.
.
- Ems, for all your support.
.
Thank you all, and thanks for playing.
<gbelo> i'm playing nethack <:D
<JohnK> i'm Christian so I've been brought up to believe the EXACT opposite of that
<JohnK> emotionally detached sex is.. *shudders*
<JohnK> if i'm going to have sex with someone, i want to be sure i really love them
<JohnK> (i've never had sex period, which i'm grateful for, i want to lose my virginity meaningfully)
<JohnK> elig, no offense, but I HATE PEOPLE LIKE YOU
<JohnK> omg, on our trip, there was this one completely clueless bitch type girl in our district
<JohnK> she was clueless
<JohnK> i hate girls like that -_-
<JohnK> they're generally mean to people like me, because i'm rather shy in real life, and i've got a goofy sense of humor that puts most girls off
<JohnK> so they talk to me for 10 minutes, raise their eyebrow, and walk away mumbling "ookay"
<Elig> I love girls like that, all they care about is dating and boys and looking as hot as they possibly can, which I've got to say, quite appeals to me.
<Insidious> my grandfather molested my aunt when she was 13 apparently... Yeah, I have a weird family history.
<JohnK> i'm not.. exactly sure what my grandpa has done
<JohnK> it's kept pretty shady
<JohnK> all i know is they won't let him babysit if my sister's going to be around
<JohnK> i don't even know if that's just because my mom is psycho or if he's actually done anything
<JohnK> he doesn't seem like the perverted lech type
<JohnK> i know he abused my grandma..
<Spears_Dracona> like... rape abuse?
<JohnK> yes
* Insidious looks around for summer
* Insidious notices she isnt here
* Insidious violently wiggles Spears_Dracona's jack
<JohnK> -{16:43:25}- ((paulguy)) 17:31 <summer> hey paul i hope you go crawl in a hole and die cause you know what no one likes you and i'd feel sorry for the person who not in their right mind would date you. your nothing but pathetic scum and maybe you should go kill yourself
<JohnK> -{16:43:29}- ((paulguy)) it's another one of those.
<JohnK> -{16:43:40}- ((~JohnK)) :D
<NiMa> then when I was picking fights with asgromo and fucking Nadork, he started going on about me saying dumb things
<hoorj> is nadork nedemai or something
<JohnK> nadir
<hoorj> oh
<hoorj> lol
<hoorj> I keep forgetting nadir's back
<NiMa> I hate him so fucking much
<NiMa> he's one of the main reasons I hate the ZZT community
<NiMa> the others being pancake, fungahhh and zamros
<JohnK> also, Jenni, paul called MZXIRC retarded :(
<JohnK> yesterday
<Jenni> psh, he can't call anything retarded but himself
<summer> paul is a fucking retard who thinks the world revolves around him and thinks he's all depressed just because me and dylan are going out so you know what if he is so god damn fucking depressed he just needs to go and kill himself
<Insidious> I just went to my desktop so I could open my porn directory
<Insidious> and my desktop is a picture of a cat, staring out at me
<Insidious> and its like the cat is watching me jack off
<NiMa> sigh
<NiMa> god, the way I talk about Kom, I think I've got some kind of weak philia-esque something over him, same for asie. Man, I'm so screwed up.
<Ikokou> you're not screwed up for being thankful for certain people being around
<NiMa> yeah, but almost loving other members of the community (love as in not erotic or gf/bf love, but, like I said, philia)
<Ikokou> so?
<NiMa> what I mean is that I feel like I'm somehow in love with Kom, but not as in I get sexual pleasure from him or that I want to have his children or I feel as if he's my boyfriend or whatnot, I just feel happy when he's around and miss him when he's not around. That feels so weird and I feel so screwed up about it
<NiMa> JohnK: Do you find my feelings over Kom strange or unnatural? I sure do.
<NiMa> I feel a much weaker form of it for Asie too for some reason, but that might be something to do with him only being 10, in which case it is VERY screwed up.
<NiMa> *seem to feel
<JohnK> paul called MZXIRC retarded
<JohnK> he can die
<Insidious> I'm manipulating your sims into having hot sex.
<Insidious> Yeast is awesome unless you happen to be a woman! :P
<JohnK> haha insid
<JohnK> men can get yeast infections too
<JohnK> my dad got one from my mom one time, don't wanna know how *shudders*
<Insidious> JohnK, nobody understand how hard it is to do shit with one eye, lets put it that way.
<JohnK> oh... ;(
<JohnK> :(*
<Insidious> Imagine scanning a list of price tags with one eye
<Insidious> twice the time
<Insidious> Imagine scanning a pit full of meat with one eye
<JohnK> i only use one of my eyes too
<JohnK> btw
<hoorj> because then when you're all like LALALALA CAN'T HEAR YOU, the person you can't hear won't even know so you don't look like an idiot making some
weird noise
Insidi[ThinkPad] [dmorrison@pool-71-127-15-147.spfdma.east.verizon.net] has left #mzx
<Fintura> omg that tastes so awful
<Fintura> but it feels soooooo good
<Jenni> .......................
<Spears_Dracona> You're not...
<Spears_Dracona> uh...
<Spears_Dracona> well...
<Spears_Dracona> uh...
<Spears_Dracona> Is your penis in your mouth?
<Fintura> I have shit that tastes like rotten fruit in my bottom drawer of my desk
<Spears_Dracona> Why the fuck are you tasting shit in the bottom drawer of your desk!?
<Fintura> Because it was in a purple bottle ^-^
<Spears_Dracona> Oh, well that explains everything.
<Guy> skwirl is the human embodiment of vore
<skwirl> whats vore?
<SeventhShade> oh god
<CJA> <:D
<CJA> <:D
<CJA> <:D
<CJA> <:D
<CJA> <:D
<SeventhShade> skwirl man are you about to get an education
<CJA> i should link something
<SeventhShade> oh please do
<SeventhShade> it'll be inspirational
<skwirl> :|
* skwirl waits
<CJA> hold up i saw it already on 4chan
<skwirl> ........?
<CJA> here you go http://orz.4chan.org/d/src/1185915663113.jpg
<CJA> warning: not safe for work; horrible, also... horrible.
<skwirl> ?
<CJA> well, it could be a lot worse.
* skwirl clicks
<Eurakarte> 4chan is the worst place in the world
<CJA> it's a good place, there are just a bunch of morons there
<CJA> these morons essentially make it, though
<Eurakarte> no
<Eurakarte> there is nothing good there
<skwirl> @_@
<SeventhShade> ^_^
<CJA> ooookay!
<skwirl> wha?!?
<CJA> "you're the boss"
<skwirl> HUH?!?!?!
<skwirl> that is so weird1
<skwirl> 1!!
<skwirl> O_O
<skwirl> what do i say to that!>!?!
<SeventhShade> it's a sexual fetish for eating people alive. Terrifying, isn't it?
* skwirl is confused
<skwirl> oh
<skwirl> oh my
<skwirl> WTF
<skwirl> what other fetishes are there
<Insidious> Alright
<Insidious> thats it.
<Insidious> I do not want to come home from work
<Insidious> and see that me and my friends are "cripplingly retarded"
<Insidious> That is a DIRECT violation.
<zamros> and rent out a big house
<Dode> no, let's all move to fungahhh's house
<Dode> not really, though
<Dode> maybe for a day
<Dode> or two
<nondescript> lets all move to some shitty town in the midwest
<Nadir> zztcon 2004
<nondescript> and get it renamed to ZZTown
<Nadir> no
<Nadir> ZZTity
<zamros> the midwest is the circumcision capital of the world
<craycpanda> why can't you guys come to sweden
<nondescript> Town of ZZT
<Dode> if i went to zztcon i'd spike everyone's drinks with drugs and then make them guess what it is
<craycpanda> and keep me fucking company
<Dr_Dos> because sweden sucks
<Nadir> it should be called ZZTity
<zamros> lets all go to mzxcon 2008
<lemmer> i'd move to sweden
<Dr_Dos> yes ZZTity
<Dr_Dos> or mzxcon
<Dode> yeah, let's do that
<Dode> seriously
<zamros> except, not rsvp
<Dr_Dos> we already have zaphod's address and phone number
<Dode> let's hide in some bushes in zaphod's backyard
<zamros> seriously
<Dode> and jump out and be like ABOOGA BOOGA BOOGA and scare everyone
<zamros> lets just mess up their shit
<nondescript> dode we need tiki masks
<nondescript> whats mzxcon?
<zamros> nonde godedrp's having a mzx convention in his backyard
<Dode> yeah
<Dode> and spears
<nondescript> and like
<nondescript> torches
<nondescript> we do a ritual dance around mzxcon
<nondescript> and summon.. the spirits of flame...
<craycpanda> nadir yeah
<zamros> dude what if we kill them all
<Nadir> that mzx con will be him and johnk and shatter whining about their lives, same as normal
<lemmer> zztcon should just crash mzxcon
<Nadir> yes
<Nadir> YES
<Nadir> that would RULE
<Nadir> we just bust into godedrp's house, eat his sandwiches and make fun of the mzxers all day
<nondescript> mzxcon will be like that video 'the parlour' where its an internet chatroom, but they're sitting around a parlor
<Nadir> they'd be too wussy to throw us out
<Dode> nadir yeah
<Dode> we'd all be really loud, constantly interrupting conversations
<lemmer> i imagine he'd just sit there threatening to call the cops
<lemmer> but no, he wouldn't do anything, he would just cry
<Dode> and we'd be smoking joints, blowing the smoke in everyone's faces
<Dode> just whoever's nearby
<zamros> it would be like beavis and butthead when they're in stewart's house
<Nadir> oh sure, they're big men in irc chatrooms...
<Nadir> but in real life... i doubt it
<NiMa> I dreamt about Asie's penis, is that weird? :P
<Exophase> What
<Exophase> I'm talking.
<Exophase> Paste it.
* Spears_Dracona grabs skwirl's ass as a communicational sign that she appreciates him and thinks he's a fun person to have around.
<Insidi> /me bangs his head against the wall as a communciational sign that he's frustrated with the fact none of his so called friends in meatspace give a shit about him and he is exceedingly lonely for human contact.
* Shatter vomits all over the floor out of sheer stress
* skwirl gives spears a Ûž
* JohnK[PowerBook] sighs and punches his wall
* Jenni puts a pillow in the way
* Insidious puts himself in the way.
[04:42:39] [secksie ) Jul 18 18:25:34 <Insidious> My life has gone to shit because of my attachment to this drowning ship of a community and I just want to crawl into a hole and die.
[04:43:13] [lemmer ) i can imagine zaphod crawling into a hole and dying
[04:43:16] [lemmer ) like some sort of retarded insect
[04:43:17] [zamros ) yeah
[04:43:22] [zamros ) a really dirty old hole somewhere
[04:43:23] [Dr_Dos ) that's a big hole
<Dr_Dos> is zaphod's game rapist site still up
<zamros> probably
<lemmer> yes
<zamros> i like how most of the reviews on gamerapist are positive
<lemmer> www.gamerapist.com
<Nadir> game rapist
<lemmer> man
<Nadir> that site is so inappropriately named
<Nadir> on so many levels
<lemmer> you'd think a guy like zaphod would know to choose a better name than Game Rapist
<Nadir> no
<Nadir> you wouldn't
<lemmer> or, well
<lemmer> yeah
<lemmer> i guess not
<Nadir> gay rapist
<lemmer> in fact i guess that's exactly the name a guy as socially inept as zaphod would choose for his shitty video game reviewing site
[...]
<lemmer> Its not a horrible game, but it disappoints.
<lemmer> another severe rape from the game rapist
<zamros> haha
<lemmer> I love this game. My only real criticisms? A lack of true ability to deviate from the main plotline, a lack of true difference between the different clan’s plotlines (other than the Malkavians and the Nosferatu), and the fact that a song which seems to be BUILT for the idea of the game was never included. I speak of The Hand That Feeds by NIN. :P
<lemmer> Further, because of the enforced restriction to walking and biking, you will literally spend a good 80% of your game time WALKING! Yeah, if I wanted to take a walk, I’d be OUTSIDE.
<lemmer> (note: zaphod does not like walking)
<lemmer> that's the only one star review on the site
<Xeirxes> asgromo... umm
<Xeirxes> this is kind of a weird question
<Xeirxes> can i call you captain?
<asgromzx> o___o
-!- Insidious [~Alucard@pool-72-79-234-116.spfdma.east.verizon.net] has joined #zeux
-!- mode/#zeux [+o Insidious] by ChanServ
<Insidious> Here, is this what you want?
* Insidious removes bans
<Insidious> There.
<Insidious> Utter lawlessness.
<Insidious> Have fun.
<Insidious> Fuckbags.
-!- Insidious [~Alucard@pool-72-79-234-116.spfdma.east.verizon.net] has left #zeux []
[19:47] <Insidious> mother fuckers.
[19:47] <Insidious> GRAAAARGH.
[19:47] <duvel> isn't your mother proud
[19:48] * Insidious sets mode: +b duvel!*ler@mzx-D799E951.jan.bellsouth.net
[19:48] * duvel was kicked by Insidious (Insidious)
[19:48] <Insidious> GET OUT.
<Guy> see, this is why you can't have insidious as an op anywhere ever
<Guy> because he's like a trip wire, with lots of wires
<Guy> wired to an explosive
<Guy> or something
<Guy> anyway the point is, he's too emotional
<Insidious> And fuck you.
<duvel> well aren't you very nice
[14:04] -Global- [Logon News - Aug 02 2007] We've got to find a home for that horse that raped JohnK, or else his dad is going to put it down. PM JohnK or NiMa for more information.
[14:04] -Global- [Logon News - Jul 31 2007] If you have any information about anyone spying or ircmanning anywhere in MZXIRC, please inform NiMa. This has got to stop. Thank you.
<zamros> i've seen a few chick tracts in person
<zamros> i found one in a hotel room, and one in an airport bathroom
<zamros> and one time i was at the <censored> pride parade in new york city and these dudes were standing there handing out the <censored>-themed one
<lemmer> i would feel deeply uncomfortable staying in a hotel room that had a jack chick tract in it
<lemmer> the <censored> pride parade
<Fungahhh> <censored>
<Nadir> i like how <censored> is apparently censored
<zamros> <censored> is censored
<Fungahhh> i like how g g ayy eah
<zamros> wow
<zamros> that's hilarious
<Nadir> that is pretty awesome
<Fungahhh> <censored> <censored> homo
<zamros> what if like, JohnK was coming out on IRC
<zamros> in a censored room
<zamros> <Insidious> What's wrong Hon
<zamros> <JohnK> well guys.... it's just..... I'm <censored>
[16:38:54] <barb> hi paul
[16:38:59] <barb> anything funny to say? :)
[16:39:07] <paul_> never :(
[16:40:14] <paul_> i reorganized all my electronics.
[16:40:30] <paul_> now everything is in front of me in easy reach.
* JohnK has quit IRC (Quit: To Jenni: A thosand miles seems pretty far, but they've got planes, and trains, and cars, I'd walk to you if I had no other way. Our friends would all make fun of us, and we'll just laugh along because we know that none of them have felt this way...)
................._______
................|..._...|
................|...1...|
................|..._...|
................|:..|...|
................|::.|:..|
..___ ___.......`--- ---'
.|...Y...|-----.---.-.--.--.-----.-----.
.|...1...|..-__|.._..|..|..|..-__|.....|
.|..._...|_____|___._|\___/|_____|__|__|
.|:..|...|
.|::.|:..|
.`--- ---'. ___ ___ ___ __ __
.....-----.'.._||...Y...|-----...|..|
....|.._..|..._||...1...|..-__|..|..|
....|_____|__|..|..._...|_____|__|__|
................|:..|...|
................|::.|:..|
................`--- ---'
by Kevin Carter
09/10/2006
kevinandrewcarter@gmail.com
.
________________________________________
.
About "A Heaven of Hell"
(whimsical version)
.
When I heard about the #endgame contest,
I thought it was a great idea. ZZTers
coming together for one last ride before
the end of it all. Here's the problem:
I've never been great at coming up with
plots for actual games -- more ZZT rock
operas and poetry collections. I was
having trouble coming up with a project.
I decided that it was impossible to make
one, so this is where it started.
.
I've always had an absurd penchant for
the dusty annals of ZZT's lurid
history, so when I stumbled onto a ZIP
file of old ZZT Club 2 games from
Prodigy, I experienced a weird sort of
nostalgia beyond my own personal
experience. The games in this file were
made by people who were making games in
ZZT when I was six or seven years old,
but the names were still familiar to me.
Carlos DaSilva (the guy who was working
on ZZT2), Chris Jong, Tim Gallagher,
Alan Pilgrim, John Shipley, and Gregory
Janson.
.
Going through these old archives, I was
playing games that I never would have
thought existed. And I got the strange
feeling like I would be the only one ever
playing them again, with MMORPGs and
first person shooters replacing outmoded
ANSi graphics. I probably am.
.
As I was looking through the ZIP file,
I basically played files at random.
There were about 40 games, so I opened
a few of them up to take a look.
.
Some of them were impeccably programmed,
with complex plots and graphics that
mirrored the VGA adventure games popular
at the time. But the rate of technology
made the games obsolete even as they
were published, let alone fifteen
years afterwards. I felt almost bad for
the authors-- all of this work went into
a game with such stringent limitations.
.
It sounds convenient enough to be
scripted, but the most interesting thing
happened when I was ready to press Q.
I opened up the next game and heard PC
speaker music that sounded like Janson's.
I've always thought his music, despite
causing people's ears to suffer because
of a PC speaker, is some of the best ZZT
music I've ever heard. The way he
composed with one instrument is pretty
unbelievable. But this wasn't Janson,
and the author -- Isaac Ginsburg -- was
someone I had never heard of before.
.
I started playing the game, and it was a
fantasy game, but pretty atypical in its
methods. The author described it as a
"self-referential gnostic fantasy," which
is like Code Red I guess but with a
little more existential angst and
postmodernity. I was intrigued.
.
I kept playing through and saw that even
though the graphics were pretty ludicrous
in some parts, there were improvements
that didn't seem to be made until years
later, when STK came along-- it looked
like someone had either hexedited ZZT or
figured out some other trick to get the
colors to show up. Plus there was an RPG
engine that genuinely reminded me of
Final Fantasy, with actual numbers as a
battle system instead of the typical HP
bar.
.
The interesting part was that Isaac
Ginsburg was actually only the writer of
the story, while all the programming
work had been done by this mysterious
background figure, Barry. All we see of
him in the game is in the opening (which
also reminds me of Mission:Enigma), a
portrait of a typical ZZT/MZX Linux
hacker obsessed with programming. The
only time you see Barry in the game is
when something goes wrong with the PC
speaker music in the game. Other than
that, he's a ghost.
.
That, along with some other elements of
the game, made me want to release this as
my #endgame project. My fascination
with uncredited ZZT authors and people
who have fucked around with the game.
So I decided to re-release the game.
I didn't really do any of the work, but
I almost feel like nothing can be added
to ZZT at this point, and the only thing
left is to become its historian.
.
(Okay, none of that except for the ZZT
history part is true. Read the actual
version for what really happened.)
.
_________________________________________
.
About "A Heaven of Hell"
(actual version)
.
Lame Autobiographical Part
.
This project, as I think is the case with
most of people's creations, is a result
of my own personal neuroses and
fascinations. All of that is factored
into this game.
.
I grew up in an incredibly conservative
Christian home with parents who were
fanatical about religion. I was barred
from reading most books, watching most
movies, and having any loose association
with most things. I attended a Christian
school where the Satanic acts of being
within six inches away from members of
the opposite sex, rock and roll, and any
sort of non-conformity were strictly
forbidden. Shit, I wasn't even allowed to
watch Care Bears growing up because it
had a witch in it.
.
This pretty much continued until I was
about 12 or 13 and started delving into
the Internet, fascinated that there was
an outside world beyond my own personal
experience. Within a few years, I
began to immerse myself in the
counter-culture, constantly searching for
new pieces of art that reflected this new
part of my life. The ZZT community is
really where I learned about the real
world, if you can call it the real world,
and I owe a lot of who I am now mostly to
people who might be playing this game.
(Greets at the end.)
.
After this, I started trying to branch
out in the world, but still had
difficulties because of the influence of
Christianity. When I became interested in
the Transcendentalists, my parents started
getting worried. Actual music (as
opposed to the contemporary Christian
bullshit I was bombarded with) and drugs
were even more vitriolic attacks on their
ethical systems, even though it shouldn't
have surprised them, considering the
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
shirt I donned at like 13.
.
But because I was virtually brainwashed
into the system with baptism of the Holy
Spirit, catchysongs, and every other way
the Church can sink their teeth into you,
I've had more than a couple of true
existential crises in the past few years
because of the cognitive dissonance in my
head between what I was taught and what I
actually believe.
.
I sound ridiculously lame and obvious
saying this, but you can track these
changes in my life based on the kind of
games I was making at different points.
When I was 12, I was making edutainment
Bible games like "Only A Boy Named David"
under the label of Mindsoft Entertainment
(which is what this game is released
under too, with more than a hint of
irony). When I was 12-14, I was working
on a ZZT rock opera (world's greatest
misnomer) called "Freedom," which was xf's
idea not quite brought to fruition, which
was mostly plotless and musicless, never
good things for a rock opera. It was
released under Koiten, the Japanophile
ZZT company (which is totally irrelevant)
but had some elements of discontentment
and the same non-conformist thoughts that
I hadn't entertained a few years before.
.
In 2002, I released "Apparitions of the
City" to widespread declaim. It was a
poetry and "art" collection with an
ostentatious and overly idealized poem
that for some reason I embarassingly
like. It was more breaking away from the
constraints of Christianity, which gets
me to where I am today.
.
I did even more of this during college,
exploring comparative religions,
philosophy, and too many psychedelic
drugs. Right now, I'm 21, living in
Manhattan as an underpaid system admin
on Wall Street, and fascinated with
everything related to counter-cultural
ideas. Also I'm in love and trying to
balance the beauty of that with the
horrors of the world, visiting art
galleries, trying to eventually read
Proust, and am still obsessed with the
Internet. In other words, it's been
sort of a wild ride.
.
_________________________________________
.
Game Background
.
The idea for this game has been swimming
around in my head for the last two years,
basically going through a couple of
permutations before I finally made it.
It started out as "Fred the Misunderstood
Demon," which was based on a suburban guy
who lived a pretty decent life and found
himself in Hell. Then the idea morphed
into Aleister Crowley, Lao Tse, and a
random hipster going through Hell
battling God, since I got kind of pissed
off at Christendom. Eventually Crowley
and Lao-Tse turned into hipsters and thus
was born "A Heaven of Hell."
.
The game basically revolves around a
group of postmodernists who unwittingly
find themselves in Hell. After
suffering for a few thousand years, they
decide to break out. Isaac, the main
character, studied Kabbalah when he
was young and came up with a plan to
exit Hell (or the Qliphoth) through a
sephirah called Daat.
.
The game was originally intended to be a
lot more funny but became a more
overarching and pretentious as I went
along, probably since I started drinking
more and getting heavily into Gnosticism
and LaVeyan Satanism. Honestly, it was
intended to be a self-conscious homage
to RPGs, not actually turning into a
serious one, but it's hard not to be
serious when you're dealing with a quest
to stop Christianity.
.
_________________________________________
.
Game Dynamics
.
The game is sort of irreverent, if you
haven't figured that out by the fact that
Yahweh and the Judeo-Christian mythos is
the antagonist. As I said, the game
developed out of my own personal
neuroses, and for years I've been trying
to come to terms with my Christian
background. There are so many impossible
contradictions and absurdities in the
Bible that it's scary, and it's because
it's largely a work of fiction with the
writers trying to gain power over others
in society. I've tried to point that out
a lot in the game but haven't done a
great job of it.
.
A lot of writers have been very
influential into the way I've been
thinking about the writing for the game,
including Allen Ginsberg, Voltaire,
Albert Camus, Timothy Leary, Thomas
Paine, Ken Kesey, Jacques Derrida,
and a bunch of other people. I've tried
to take the game pretty lightly, but the
Hell and Gnostic fantasy elements make
things a little overblown.
.
The game within the game, also called "A
Heaven of Hell," also has to do with my
neuroses. I'm fascinated by the idea of
thousands upon thousands of ZZT games
being made and never played. The
backstory in the "whimsical" section, if
you haven't read it, is that this game
was discovered in a ZZT Club ZIP file
from the early 1990s. Some of the games
back then were incredible, and it seemed
to work with the story. This idea of
pushing boundaries and limits extends
far beyond yellow borders-- it also
relates to God! Okay, sorry, I got a
little carried away there.
.
Speaking of limits, this game has sort of
been Hell in and of itself to create.
I've been dealing with tons of runtime
errors, crashes, difficulty with objects,
and pretty much anything else you can
name. When you try to program something
when there are this many constraints
attached, it can get a little difficult.
.
Particularly difficult parts were:
.
- The inability to exceed 20K of memory
in a board. The RPG engine I had in mind
originally was much cooler, with objects
using the number HP system to their
advantage, lots more spells, constant
battle music, and decent graphics, but it
would have crashed ZZT altogether,
probably even with extra 4.0 memory. The
backwards compatibility thing was
basically what forced me to try and fit
everything in as best as I could. (I
seriously can't believe I'm writing all
of this shit. Kids, just say no to
overdosing on pseudoephedrine.)
.
- ZZT's Music System.
Honestly, it's terrible. Even though the
PC speaker is a fairly limitless thing
(aside from the whole monophone issue),
ZZT handles music shittily. I've been
working with /i's and everything else to
try to fix things and make pieces longer,
but to no avail. It's almost impossible
to loop a piece of music over more
than three times, and it's even worse
trying to get a song to play when a
dialogue box pops up. That's one of the
reasons why the battle music only loops
twice during battles, and generally while
music in the game is more sporadic and
shorter than I originally intended it to
be. It's all well and good to grapple
with the issues of programming in an
antiquated language, but at some points,
it really started getting ridiculous.
.
- The inability to have any code running
in the background instead of placing
objects on the boards. Enough said.
.
- The object limit. Ugh, this is the
worst. It makes graphics impossible,
genuine coding possible, and lots of
other things.
.
- ANSi graphics, PC speaker support, the
blue smiley that's #char 2 no matter
what, and everything else. I
simultaneously loathe and love this game.
.
_________________________________________
.
Music
.
The music for HoH has been a lot of fun
to compose. Most of it was dashed off
in a few minutes, and most of the effort
came actually trying to get it to work.
Other songs were sort of difficult to
write considering the fact that you can't
have extensive contramelodic or harmonic
structure. Damn, Sweeney, what were you
thinking?
.
The title theme, Daat, and the boss theme
were probably the most difficult songs to
write. The boss theme is probably my
favorite, since I tried to incorporate
the tritone into the composition. I
first heard the interval when I listened
to "Way Out" by Orbital and became
obsessed with the dissonant tone. Later
while studying choral music, I learned
that this progression was called "the
devil's tone," which influenced me even
more to write something like it. I
promise I'm not obsessing about things
like this for a ZZT game-- this is all
stuff that revolves around my actual life
that I've thrown into a game because I'm
sick of thinking about it. Anyway,
tritones, stereotypical A minor
progressions and all, it's been fun to
work with the PC speaker again. I hope
it sort of ties things together. Feel
free to steal any of it that you want for
your games. Obviously, this is open
source, public domain, blah blah blah.
I would release it under the GNU Public
License if 1) it mattered and 2) it
didn't require more work.
.
That's basically it. If you have any
questions or comments about the game,
feel free to e-mail me at
kevinandrewcarter@gmail.com. Thanks for
playing! (If you ever do after reading
this.)
.
________________________________________
..._ _ _ __
../_\ | || |___ __ ___ _____ _ _ ___ / _|
./ _ \| __ / -_) _` \ V / -_) ' \/ _ \ _|
/_/ \_\_||_\___\__,_|\_/\___|_||_\___/_|
..............| || |___| | |
..............| __ / -_) | |
..............|_||_\___|_|_|
.
Credits & Thanks
_________________________________________
.
The past nine years or however long it's
been since I discovered this have been
pretty fucking incredible. Honestly, I
know I'm sarcastic a lot, but thanks for
everything. Particularly these people.
.
Game Development
_________________________________________
.
Story, Code, & Music: Kevin Carter
.
RPG Engine graphics: bongo
.
Countdown Engine: Dr. Dos
.
Toolkits: tseng, bluemagus, dexter,
& madtom.
.
ransporting Engine: madtom
.
Game editing: KevEdit, without which
this game wouldn't exist
.
Community Members
_________________________________________
.
bongo, flicker, & darkmage: A bag of
psilocybin mushrooms, writing, art, &
bohemianism. Plus all the #dd stuff.
.
dive, smiley, knightt, & masamune:
Nipponophilia & Dragon*CON 2000, not to
mention being my friend when I felt like
shit.
.
Thanks for the memories:
.
bluemagus, tseng, dex, drac0, lemmer,
myth, tucan, cly5m, blazer, atom,
crankgod, xf, yenrab, zed, chronos,
evilmario, flatcoat_lab, hydra,
dragonlord, fishfood, lord_igsel, funk,
hercules, hm, madtom, dr. dos, mooseka,
mono, nadir, jujubee, roastbeef, viovis,
wil, xabbott, & zamros.
_________________________________________
.
Writing Influences
.
All the standard Western canon people,
like Milton & Shakespeare (& Boccaccio &
Chaucer, who are actually pretty cool).
.
Beat Generation folks: Allen Ginsberg,
Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs,
Bob Dylan, Joyce Johnson, Amiri Baraka,
Gary Snyder, Michael McClure, Anne
Waldman, & the rest of the criminals.
.
Hippies: Ken Kesey, Hunter S. Thompson,
Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Abbie Hoffman,
Tom Wolfe, & others.
.
Structuralists/Post-structuralists:
Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Jean
Baudrillard, Paul de Man, Louis
Althusser, etc.
.
General awesomeness: James Joyce,
Umberto Eco, Frederick Nietzsche,
Aleister Crowley, Anton LaVey, Alan
Watts, Buddha, Lao-Tse, C.D. Payne,
J.D. Salinger, Paulo Coelho, Douglas
Adams, & the rest.
.
_________________________________________
.
Musical Influences
.
I only like godspeed! you black emperor.
That's it.
.
_________________________________________
.
Personal Thanks
.
- Alisha Levin, who was ridiculously
supportive while I was making this. She
basically took care of me like a baby
while keeping me acting like a human
being, which is not an easy thing to do
when I get sucked into a project. She
did beta testing & editing while despising
ZZT, & is generally perfect. & she put up
with the PC speaker. So much love.
.
- The New York City crew: Emily, Alex,
Noah, Drew, Dhruva, Stephin Merritt
(namedropping), Stephanie, Billy, Vince,
and others. Rock on.
.
- The Denver Group: Andrew, Adam, Spencer,
Brandons Wark & Arment, Alex, Erik, Jared,
& others. Thank you.
.
- Ems, for all your support.
.
Thank you all, and thanks for playing.
<gbelo> i'm playing nethack <:D
<JohnK> i'm Christian so I've been brought up to believe the EXACT opposite of that
<JohnK> emotionally detached sex is.. *shudders*
<JohnK> if i'm going to have sex with someone, i want to be sure i really love them
<JohnK> (i've never had sex period, which i'm grateful for, i want to lose my virginity meaningfully)
<JohnK> elig, no offense, but I HATE PEOPLE LIKE YOU
<JohnK> omg, on our trip, there was this one completely clueless bitch type girl in our district
<JohnK> she was clueless
<JohnK> i hate girls like that -_-
<JohnK> they're generally mean to people like me, because i'm rather shy in real life, and i've got a goofy sense of humor that puts most girls off
<JohnK> so they talk to me for 10 minutes, raise their eyebrow, and walk away mumbling "ookay"
<Elig> I love girls like that, all they care about is dating and boys and looking as hot as they possibly can, which I've got to say, quite appeals to me.
<Insidious> my grandfather molested my aunt when she was 13 apparently... Yeah, I have a weird family history.
<JohnK> i'm not.. exactly sure what my grandpa has done
<JohnK> it's kept pretty shady
<JohnK> all i know is they won't let him babysit if my sister's going to be around
<JohnK> i don't even know if that's just because my mom is psycho or if he's actually done anything
<JohnK> he doesn't seem like the perverted lech type
<JohnK> i know he abused my grandma..
<Spears_Dracona> like... rape abuse?
<JohnK> yes
* Insidious looks around for summer
* Insidious notices she isnt here
* Insidious violently wiggles Spears_Dracona's jack
<JohnK> -{16:43:25}- ((paulguy)) 17:31 <summer> hey paul i hope you go crawl in a hole and die cause you know what no one likes you and i'd feel sorry for the person who not in their right mind would date you. your nothing but pathetic scum and maybe you should go kill yourself
<JohnK> -{16:43:29}- ((paulguy)) it's another one of those.
<JohnK> -{16:43:40}- ((~JohnK)) :D
<NiMa> then when I was picking fights with asgromo and fucking Nadork, he started going on about me saying dumb things
<hoorj> is nadork nedemai or something
<JohnK> nadir
<hoorj> oh
<hoorj> lol
<hoorj> I keep forgetting nadir's back
<NiMa> I hate him so fucking much
<NiMa> he's one of the main reasons I hate the ZZT community
<NiMa> the others being pancake, fungahhh and zamros
<JohnK> also, Jenni, paul called MZXIRC retarded :(
<JohnK> yesterday
<Jenni> psh, he can't call anything retarded but himself
<summer> paul is a fucking retard who thinks the world revolves around him and thinks he's all depressed just because me and dylan are going out so you know what if he is so god damn fucking depressed he just needs to go and kill himself
<Insidious> I just went to my desktop so I could open my porn directory
<Insidious> and my desktop is a picture of a cat, staring out at me
<Insidious> and its like the cat is watching me jack off
<NiMa> sigh
<NiMa> god, the way I talk about Kom, I think I've got some kind of weak philia-esque something over him, same for asie. Man, I'm so screwed up.
<Ikokou> you're not screwed up for being thankful for certain people being around
<NiMa> yeah, but almost loving other members of the community (love as in not erotic or gf/bf love, but, like I said, philia)
<Ikokou> so?
<NiMa> what I mean is that I feel like I'm somehow in love with Kom, but not as in I get sexual pleasure from him or that I want to have his children or I feel as if he's my boyfriend or whatnot, I just feel happy when he's around and miss him when he's not around. That feels so weird and I feel so screwed up about it
<NiMa> JohnK: Do you find my feelings over Kom strange or unnatural? I sure do.
<NiMa> I feel a much weaker form of it for Asie too for some reason, but that might be something to do with him only being 10, in which case it is VERY screwed up.
<NiMa> *seem to feel
<JohnK> paul called MZXIRC retarded
<JohnK> he can die
<Insidious> I'm manipulating your sims into having hot sex.
<Insidious> Yeast is awesome unless you happen to be a woman! :P
<JohnK> haha insid
<JohnK> men can get yeast infections too
<JohnK> my dad got one from my mom one time, don't wanna know how *shudders*
<Insidious> JohnK, nobody understand how hard it is to do shit with one eye, lets put it that way.
<JohnK> oh... ;(
<JohnK> :(*
<Insidious> Imagine scanning a list of price tags with one eye
<Insidious> twice the time
<Insidious> Imagine scanning a pit full of meat with one eye
<JohnK> i only use one of my eyes too
<JohnK> btw
<hoorj> because then when you're all like LALALALA CAN'T HEAR YOU, the person you can't hear won't even know so you don't look like an idiot making some
weird noise
Insidi[ThinkPad] [dmorrison@pool-71-127-15-147.spfdma.east.verizon.net] has left #mzx
<Fintura> omg that tastes so awful
<Fintura> but it feels soooooo good
<Jenni> .......................
<Spears_Dracona> You're not...
<Spears_Dracona> uh...
<Spears_Dracona> well...
<Spears_Dracona> uh...
<Spears_Dracona> Is your penis in your mouth?
<Fintura> I have shit that tastes like rotten fruit in my bottom drawer of my desk
<Spears_Dracona> Why the fuck are you tasting shit in the bottom drawer of your desk!?
<Fintura> Because it was in a purple bottle ^-^
<Spears_Dracona> Oh, well that explains everything.
<Guy> skwirl is the human embodiment of vore
<skwirl> whats vore?
<SeventhShade> oh god
<CJA> <:D
<CJA> <:D
<CJA> <:D
<CJA> <:D
<CJA> <:D
<SeventhShade> skwirl man are you about to get an education
<CJA> i should link something
<SeventhShade> oh please do
<SeventhShade> it'll be inspirational
<skwirl> :|
* skwirl waits
<CJA> hold up i saw it already on 4chan
<skwirl> ........?
<CJA> here you go http://orz.4chan.org/d/src/1185915663113.jpg
<CJA> warning: not safe for work; horrible, also... horrible.
<skwirl> ?
<CJA> well, it could be a lot worse.
* skwirl clicks
<Eurakarte> 4chan is the worst place in the world
<CJA> it's a good place, there are just a bunch of morons there
<CJA> these morons essentially make it, though
<Eurakarte> no
<Eurakarte> there is nothing good there
<skwirl> @_@
<SeventhShade> ^_^
<CJA> ooookay!
<skwirl> wha?!?
<CJA> "you're the boss"
<skwirl> HUH?!?!?!
<skwirl> that is so weird1
<skwirl> 1!!
<skwirl> O_O
<skwirl> what do i say to that!>!?!
<SeventhShade> it's a sexual fetish for eating people alive. Terrifying, isn't it?
* skwirl is confused
<skwirl> oh
<skwirl> oh my
<skwirl> WTF
<skwirl> what other fetishes are there
<Insidious> Alright
<Insidious> thats it.
<Insidious> I do not want to come home from work
<Insidious> and see that me and my friends are "cripplingly retarded"
<Insidious> That is a DIRECT violation.
he looked upon the world and saw it was still depraved 
Overall: Rotton egg for breakfast
Overall: Rotton egg for breakfast
-
NihilistMatt
- i wish i had a voodoo doll
- Posts: 21
- Joined: Wed Jan 17, 2007 10:59 pm
- Location: Knaresborough, Rainy Place Between America And Europe
-
Fungahhh
- Resource id #38
- Posts: 662
- Joined: Fri Mar 25, 2005 5:35 am
- Location: Wisconsin, Idaho
- Contact:
How isn't that funny...? Oh wait, you cannot say, you are banned! Ha ha.NihilistMatt wrote:[00:21:58] <Surlent> Christianity is different. Instead of you trying to get to God, it's Him trying to get to you
OK, that was better than I expected. I don't usually put funny stuff in my clipboard. (Not that that's funny or anything, I just didn't expect something that... quote-y)
Here is my clipboard: i need to try and mooch some weed
fungahhh
