Zachtronics is the final work mini game novel? LAST CALL BBS that thinks about the retro PC era [Play with Digibo! ]

Play in Digebo! Features a digital board game with charm with board game elements, card game elements, and table talk RPG (TRPG) elements. This time, we will deliver Last Call Bbs , which connects to a computer communication with a fictitious retro PC and downloads and plays seven mini-games (if you combine the ones that come from the PC from the beginning, the PCs are combined. Eight mini games).

• Access PC communication!
• Play a mini game in the waiting time!
• Let's make a plastic model!
• In search of more games!
• Mini-game novel that misses the PC communication era
• Product information

This work was distributed by Zach Tronics on July 5, 2022 on Steam. Speaking of Zach Tronics, it is also famous as a unique indieveropper that develops maniac puzzle games. We have released works with a logical circuit motif, such as Spacechem, EXAPUNKS, and SHENZHEN I/O.

In particular, Shenzhen I/O, as the name suggests, is a new engineer who works for an electronic equipment manufacturer in Shenzhen, China, and assembles an electronic circuit according to the specifications. In addition, not only assembly, but also the code must be written to move. The impact of the first play was quite a lot. Whether it's a game that chooses people too much, the evaluation on Steam is overwhelmingly popular . At first glance, it is a very high threshold work that I can't even judge whether it's a kusoge or not.

On the other hand, the near future visual novel called Eliza has been released. The story is pretty good, and the protagonist will solve human problems as a therapist using AI. The actual problem is solved by AI, and the therapist just tells the AI instructions to the other party. To put it simply, I'm just reading the characters that appear in the headset. This AI is too wise, and it is a content that makes you think in various ways, such as a terrifying development. If you are interested, please play.

As for the content of this work, the player receives a retro PC Z5 developed by a fictitious Japanese company called Sawayama Corporation from a person called THE BARKEEP . 。 This is a story that accesses the BBS (electronic bulletin board) Last Call Bbs for PC communication opened by The Barkeep.

There are eight mini games that can be played in this work. In the game released by Zachtronics so far, there are also mini games that can be played. In addition, Zach Tronics founder Zach Barth will be the final work of the development studio to concentrate on the computer field of computer fields. Let's play what kind of game it is!

Access PC communication!

When the game starts, there is no particular explanation, and it is thrown on the Z5 desktop screen. Speaking of which, in the past, there was a Pokecon called Z1 in Casio. It seems that the pseudonym of the writer, Otoichi is also coming from there.

I will click the icon for the time being, but there is no response. I tried it for a while and noticed that it would not open without double click . It is just like operating the PC screen.

Open Drive 0 and launch the software to connect to a personal computer communication. PC communication is like the predecessor of the Internet, and connects yourself and the host PC by telephone line. The Internet was also a telephone line in the early days. The noise such as Gar, Pee at the time of connection is also reproduced, and I feel nostalgic.

The connection destination can be connected to World Time and Equity First in addition to Last Call BBS. When connected to WORLD TIME as a trial, the world map and the time of various places were displayed. When the player takes action, the memories of opening BBS will appear on the tablet Handymate . This work is a novel game-like concept of reading the message sent and thinking about the PC communication age.

If you connect to Equity First , the Dow average, Nikkei average, and exchange rates will appear. Nowadays, stock transactions on the Internet have become commonplace, but before that, it was common to see what was published in newspapers before that was a telephone order. By the way, it is said that Matsui Securities' services in 1998 can now trade stocks online in Japan.

Connect to Last Call Bbs . Execute the menu, not clicking on letters, press the corresponding numbers. You can download seven types of games, so let's drop them in order from the top. First, from the first Dungeons & Diagramms .

It is download, but it takes more than 1 minute in the actual time **. There is a reality in a strange place. In the past, it took a lot of time to drop one image. I have to wait anyway.

Play a mini game in the waiting time!

While waiting, play with Sawayama Solitaire on the desktop screen. The basic rules are similar to ordinary solitia. It was fast to pass by one minute than I thought, and the download was completed shortly after I started playing.

If you want to download another game before playing, you will say, If you don't wait 15 minutes, you can't download the next game **. This is a mechanism to prevent server congestion. In the past, when access was concentrated, the server fell immediately. However, it is quite long to have 15 minutes waiting for each download.

While waiting, play the downloaded Dungeons & Diagramms . When I thought it was an RPG like Dungeons & Dragons , it was a picloth puzzle game that puts the dungeon wall for the numbers displayed vertically and horizontally.

The waiting time is over, and next is downloading 20th Century Food Court . The download was completed in one minute earlier, but this time it takes about 4 minutes **. The time varies depending on the capacity of the game. The downloaded game is saved in drive 0.

The download of 20th Century Food Court has ended, so start playing. It is a game that connects a machine and a belt conveyor to automate cooking. The feeling of play is similar to the full automatic dish Automachef that wrote the play repo before.

Let's make a plastic model!

The download of STEED FORCE which I was most interested in is completed. You can assemble three types of plastic models. As a fictitious back story, Brazil-raised colleagues who like Japanese robot anime STEED FORCE want to make plastic models with children, but imports from Japan will be a considerable amount. I wonder if this was ordered. It is a game where you can get things on a PC. In the past, there were differences in prices, and Japanese products were expensive.

To assemble a plastic model, you must first separate the parts with a nipper. A similar game is the Plamo production sim Model Builder, but this is assembled in 2D.

We will assemble parts while looking at the instructions. The reason why Japanese is written in the manual is not because of Japanese support, but because it scanned Japanese instructions as it is. If you don't know Japanese, you will say I don't know what I'm writing, but in the past there were many foreigners who played in Japanese, such as NES games. Mr. Fujin of China, who developed the detective ADV Kai Kobayashi **, also played Tokimeki Memorial without knowing Japanese at all.

Plastic model is completed! The rest is only painting, but this is surprisingly difficult. You have to put masking tape to places you do not want to apply. Since the details do not go well, let's apply it red as it is and use it as champion dedicated . Completed plastic models can be output in GIF images.

In search of more games!

Downloaded the fourth game Stock Tag Solitia . This is a solitaire that replaced Trump with a stock tag. You can play from the smartphone in the game with the ADV ELIZA introduced earlier. Again, Japanese people can read Chinese numerals, but overseas people need to decipher the meaning by themselves.

The fifth game is x'bpgh: The forbidden Path . It is an eerie puzzle game that uses cell division to create the same thing as the completed diagram on the right side of the screen to create an immortal body. The lined up at the top left of the screen is the cell movements one by 1. At the bottom of the screen, we will instruct the direction and change of cells. It's no hint, so I don't think you know what to do at first. It's a good idea to play by trial and error.

The sixth game is Hack*Match . It is a mini game that you can play in Zachtronics's puzzle game EXAPUNKS. Rom that can be played on NES (NES) is also sold.

However, what is included in this work is arcade version instead of console version. It's a pirated version that pulls Rom from the Japanese arcade base and moves with an emulator. Therefore, the explanation of the game is all Japanese. This is because there is no Japanese support as before, but the Japanese Rom is moved as it is.

Hack*Match game screen. The so-called Ochimo Puzzle can be erased by aligning four tiles of the same color. As you can see from the NES version, the graphics are improved because this work is the original arcade version. Nowadays, the console machine can play games like arcade, but at that time the difference in graphics was large.

The last game is Chipwizard Professional . It is a simple version without code input of SHENZHEN I/O. It is a game that considers the input signal wiring so that it is the same as the waveform of the output signal at the bottom of the screen. If you have played SHENZHEN I/O, you will be able to solve it without any problems, but otherwise you may not understand the meaning. In a sense, it is the most zachtronics-like mini game.

Mini-game novel that misses the PC communication era

We have introduced all eight types of mini-games, but did you have any games to worry about? My favorite is STEED FORCE where you can make plastic models. It is also a good point for the author that it can be painted freely, and there is no concept of clearing game clear.

As I thought about playing this work, the mini-game itself is not the main, but the text that appears in Handy Mate (lower right of the screen) at the start of play or clearing is probably the main of this work. It seems to talk to acquaintances at the time (although it was fictitious), as to how they started the bulletin board, who were interested in the uploaded games, why the game was popular. Will explain to me.

For this reason, I think that this work is not just a mini-game collection, but a game that thinks about the PC communication era while playing a mini game . Therefore, the genre of this work is mini game novel (and named without permission). It is likely to be pierced for those who like microcomputer Basic magazine.

In addition, this work does not have Japanese support, but as mentioned above, the mini game has Japanese without translation. Because they are , those who are not good at English should do their best and play in English as if they were nostalgic.

At present, it is an early access version, but depending on the request of the player, there is a possibility that a mini game may be added. It is a pity that the last work of Zachtronics, but let's look forward to the future development of this work.

Product information