z2

'Cause I'm lame and can't beat anything I've tried so far. Yet. But in the meanwhile, I'm looking for suggestions for easy games. They don't necessarily have to be considered GOOD, mind you. I just want to play something I can finish for once. It's all new to me, because I was about five years old when ZZT came out and I was unaware of its existence until relatively recently. Bonus points for anything easy enough to be played by a preschooler.

Jesus 2035

zamros wrote:Jesus 2035

Thematically not quite my style, but yes, that one was easy enough for me to finish, haha. (I didn't let the preschooler try it, though.) Thanks. Any other suggestions?

Since we're suggesting our own games, Cat Cat etc etc by me is easy and good.

Escape from Planet Red is a classic and pretty easy too. Same with Princess Pollyanna. You can also look at the "trippy" genre, but it's hard to call games with little in terms of objective, "easy."

Commodore wrote:Since we're suggesting our own games, Cat Cat etc etc by me is easy and good.

Escape from Planet Red is a classic and pretty easy too. Same with Princess Pollyanna. You can also look at the "trippy" genre, but it's hard to call games with little in terms of objective, "easy."

Believe it or not, I got stuck in CAT, CAT. :p I got out of the house and into the shed just fine, but my character keeps randomly disappearing when I try to move around in there, so I assumed the rat ate it and I should try again later. :p Any tips? So far I really like that game, and I'd love to get all the way through it.

I'll download those others and take a look. Thanks!

Well the engine does have the tendancy to bug out when you move too quick, and that's a section that has a lot of moving. I would up ZZT's speed a touch or two and it will respond better. Alternatively, don't chase the mouse and let him come to you.

Merbotia is pretty straightforward and fun to play. The first Fred game is light action as well. Its sequel is much more vast, but there is a walkthrough: http://zzt.org/files/fred2.txt

Is the difficulty you're encountering puzzles, creatures, or more complex object enemies? Dosbox and ZZT have issues with key repeating which makes rapid movements more difficult so most action games are harder on modern machines than on MS-DOS compatible hardware. Joystick mode gets around this, but only two buttons are supported and they're mapped to Space and Enter which makes it easier to move, but harder to shoot or light torches.

Dr. Dos wrote:Merbotia is pretty straightforward and fun to play. The first Fred game is light action as well. Its sequel is much more vast, but there is a walkthrough: http://zzt.org/files/fred2.txt

Is the difficulty you're encountering puzzles, creatures, or more complex object enemies? Dosbox and ZZT have issues with key repeating which makes rapid movements more difficult so most action games are harder on modern machines than on MS-DOS compatible hardware. Joystick mode gets around this, but only two buttons are supported and they're mapped to Space and Enter which makes it easier to move, but harder to shoot or light torches.

In most games my problem is either that I hit a dead end of some sort and can't find any possible actions to move forward, or that normal enemies overwhelm me before I get very far. :p So I guess that means I'm having trouble with both puzzles and creatures. I had to cheat to get through Merbotia, both by adding lots of extra health (too many creatures) and by zapping one gate thing near the end (there were a lot of laser things and bombs, and they kept killing me over and over, and then I saved at the wrong place and got stuck on the opposite side from the bombs and couldn't open the gate, so I zapped it rather than start the whole game over. So, puzzle problem there). I'm not stupid, I promise, just not ZZT-trained. :p

I cheat all the time, I consider it par for the course in some games. A few games are bugged where you might have to ?zap. ZZT is about seeing the content people have created, I don't feel to bad if I have to but sometimes it's fun not to try. Always good to give a game an honest shake, but don't feel too bad about giving yourself a few extra torches or whatever to get through something you are otherwise enjoying.