I played Zampanio!!!???
Okay so, guess its time for my own testimony. (really wasn't expecting it to be hidden in that powerpoint???)
Trying to type it all out while its still fresh.
It was inside of that powerpoint I scraped off that other discord server before it went from dead (read only mode) to super dead (that weird glithchy "constantly loading) state.
It asked me for a favorite number, so I put in 13 ofc. It spawned me as something called a "Waste of Lies"? It seemed to mostly be text based, but it was glitchy as hell. Background kept changing. I could swear the colors kept changing in the bg as well, but when we tried to screenshot it ppl kept getting random images. (is it like, flashing things subliminally? is it intercepting print screen???) It said it wasn't a game, so of course I wasted that shit and made it into a game.
The game was really weird, though.
The game seemed to mostly be about wandering an endless wasteland/maze and interacting with people it claimed were my "friends" (like Jaxon Researcher...did it...like, my computer has my name set as jaded researcher as first and last name, did it just scrape it from there and auto populate people from that???) . My "friends" kept dying horrifically and the game kept saying it was both my fault and rewarding me for it (there were latin number themed items I kept collecting?). once all my friends were dead things got weirder (two new npcs spawned, one that was a "NotAMinotaur" who kept shouting about philosophy and one that was a ShamblingHorrorWithYourFace. I never got to see what it did cause I tried to look at it next to a locked door and it just sort of died).
then i don't know why, but an off-brand discord server started loading and what i assume was some kinda chat bot started yelling at me. the text got all weird and then it reloaded and all the stuff was like, super boring and not customized anymore? just things like "skill 1" and "positive stat".
i wandered around in there for a while but it had alrady been an hour and i needed to grab dinner so.... had to boot it off for now.
next time i play hopefully I'll understand more whats going on
Get ZampanioSim!!!
ZampanioSim!!!
| Status | Released |
| Author | jadedResearcher |
| Genre | Simulation, Educational |
| Tags | arg, artificial-intelligence, Atmospheric, Coming Of Age, Endless, Horror, mind-bending, Monsters, zampanio |
Comments
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Huh. There's still interest for Zampanio? And a "sim" of it? And you found a copy of the game inside a PowerPoint???
I remember a full-fledged RPG instead of something text-based so I don't think ZampanioSim will do it for me in the nostalgia department, especially considering the fact that I didn't know how to read when I played. (but i still somehow managed to beat it? most of what i remember has to do with the ending because it was weird as hell even to 6 year old me) Looking at it from an objective lens, it seems promising? I'm still trying to figure out how to navigate the menu, but what I'm seeing so far looks like it'll be enjoyable when I get it figured out.
Man, this is making me want to find Zampanio even more. Little kid me was a fucking animal and I ended up stepping on my disk, or maybe breaking it in some other way. :( Is there a community hub for this? I've been trying to find any trace of it online and I was starting to think I was remembering the name wrong until I found this.
Zampanio is really fun! In a strange, sort of way, but still an incredible journey through and through. The sim is a surprisingly faithful recreation of the original, capturing the atmosphere perfectly. There are some gameplay differences of course, system limitations played a role I imagine, plus the original zampanio got really experimental at some parts - but I actually prefer the sim's combat system to the original! Makes the boss fights more dynamic imo. Too bad zampanio is such a niche, hard to find game, but I'm really glad new fans get to experience it through the sim!