Custom PC – October 2019

Z

achtronicsfounderZachBarthtookto

Kickstartertocrowdfundthisbookof

designdocuments,andthecampaign

closedatmorethantentimesitsmodest

$5,000(around£4,000)goal.

That’snotentirelysurprising,giventhe

popularityofZachtronics’games,including

Exapunks(reviewedinIssue183),ShenzhenI/O

(seeIssue161)andTIS-100(seeIssue156).

Whatis surprising,though,is thatthebookhas

nowbeenlaunchedonSteam,alongwith

Barth’sentirebackcatalogueofearlygames,

includingnever-before-seenprototypes,

completelyfreeofcharge.

Asa printedbook,there’sa lottoenjoyin

Zach-Like.Whilereproducedinpaperback,

despitebackers’criesfora hardbackformat,and

purelyinblackandwhite,thecoffeetable-style

bookoffersa glimpseathowthesausagegets

made.It startswithscansofBarth’smiddle-

schoolsketchesfornever-producedgames,

anda fakeassemblylanguagethatwouldlater

inspirehisworkinExapunks.

There’snotmuchnarrative.Zach-Like

doesn’ttella story;it showsyouwhatmakes

Zachtronicsgamesthewaytheyare,througha

glimpseintothemindofBarthhimself.There

areblocksoftextthatattempttocontextualise

whatyou’reseeing,butthestarsofthebookare

thedesigndocumentsthemselves.These

documentsarejoinedbyadditionalcontent,

includingpaper-basedpuzzlesandscansof

physicalextrasincludedwithselectedtitles’

limited-editionprintruns.

It’salmosttheexactoppositeofthe

approachtakenbyJordanMechner,who

classicRuckingenur, as well as Infinifrag,

Manufactoid, Gregor Mendel’s Pro Botanist

2006 andmore.

Therearenever-before-released

prototypestoo, including three early builds of

IroncladTactics and two of Opus Magnum.

There’salso a hacking game inspired by the

fightbetween Dade ‘Zero Cool/Crash Override’

MurphyandKate ‘Acid Burn’ Libby in 1995

ravewear-fest movie Hackers. Sadly, all these

titlesareWindows-only, along with the main

softwarelauncher, and at the time of writing

don’tworkin Valve’s Proton compatibility tool,

althoughthey can be manually launched in

LinuxviaWine.

Withanasking price of ‘free, gratis, and for

nothing’,there’s no reason not to pick up the

digitalversion of Zach-Like. None of the games

inthebundle shows the polish of Barth’s more

recentcreations, but the book is well worth a

readforpeople interested in game design in

general,orBarth’s approach specifically. The

prototypesare an added bonus, and the other

gamesarea welcome distraction if nothing

else.Zach-Like is available to download from

store.steampowered.com

CUSTOMISATION / HOBBY TECH

REVIEW

Zach-Like

releasedcollectionsofhisdiariesjournalingthe

timehewascreatingKaretekaandPrinceof

Persia.Mechner’sbooksarenear-exclusively

writtenwithonlytheoccasionalpartialscanof

a designdocumentasaninterstitialbetween

chapters.Barth’sapproachis farmorevisual,

onlyusingthewrittenwordtoprovidecontext

totheoriginaldocumentation.

Thedigitalversion,though,is wherethe

magicreallyhappens.TherearetwoPDF

copiesofZach-Likeitself– oneinstandard

one-upformatandanotherintwo-upformat,

dependingonyourpreferredreadingformat.

TherearealsoPDFcopiesofcardgameRed

Tape,turn-basedtabletopstrategytitle

Inifintron,a full-colourartbookforIronclad

Tactics,andvideosofinteractiveinstallations

Tex-MechsandAtroprosinaction.These

installationsarealsoproperlycoveredinthe

designdocumentsfoundinZach-Like.

It’snotjustaboutreadingand watching

either.ThedigitalversionofZach-Likeincludes

allBarth’searlygames,includingtheinfamous

Infiniminer– thegamethatwould‘inspire’

Markus‘Notch’Perssontocreateblock-’em-

upMinecraft.Youalsogetreverse-engineering

Gareth Halfacree is the news reporter at http://www.bit-tech.net, and a keen computer hobbyist who likes to tinker with technology. @ghalfacree

No prizes for guessing the inspiration for this little

unreleased title, Hack the Planet

Following a barnstorming crowdfunder, Zach Barth’s collection of

game design documents is available for free download