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The Chzo Mythos GNU/Linux Binaries
What is the Chzo Mythos?
Although he is probably more well known for his satirically negative game review series Zero Punctuation, Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw
has had another identity for at least the past twelve years; that of a talented freeware game creator and designer. His works include the amateurish yet still enjoyable Arthur Yahtzee Trilogy, his first publicly released games from which his nickname is based. He would then go on to envision the Rob Blanc Trilogy, the wickedly funny game series which first made his name a household one, well, that is if you were a part of the amateur adventure scene at least. His next project, The Trials of Odysseus Kent, took a step into the lurid which would eventually lead to his most celebrated works and the subject of this website: The Chzo Mythos.
Originally styled after horror slasher films, the games later took on the character of an H.P Lovecraft novel. The first and most celebrated game of the series, 5 Days a Stranger, depicted the events that would later become known as the "Defoe Manor Incident", as seen through the eyes of the eccentric cat burger known only as Trilby. From this modest beginning the series spans hundreds of years and entangles many different characters, from ancient Celtic druids, to freed African slaves, to land use authority investigators, and even starship counsellors. Each game in the series has its own unique setting, and each game offers a different view to of the universe and plot of the games. It is important for them to be played in order for the plot to make any sense however.
What does this have to do with GNU/Linux?
Although all four games, five if you include Trilby: The Art of Theft which serves merely as additional back-story for the Trilby character in the form of a stealth platformer, can be run native on GNU/Linux using the sadly closed source AGS Linux Interpreter, this was often a pain to set up and caused these great gaming gems to be inaccessible to a common user. I myself have taken up the role of packaging native GNU/Linux binaries of each of the games which is easy to use and enjoyable for anybody on any distribution. Keep in mind these are the Special Editions, so they will include extra features not included in the original freeware releases.
Unfortunately some of his older titles, which are my own personal favorites, are not applicable to be packaged, since the AGS interpreter can not run Rob Blanc or Odysseus since they were constructed with an older version of Adventure Game Studio. However, I have now also packaged up binaries for both Adventures in A Galaxy of Fantabulous Wonderment and the 1213 series. Arthur Yahtzee was built using Visual Basic 3 and could potentially be ran through WINE. I know Rob Blanc runs great through Dosbox, and I can only assume that Odysseus does as well.
Also recommended is the epic horror trilogy by Frictional Games available as The Penumbra Collection.
What exactly are all the games?
5 Days A Stranger
A cat burglar breaks into a supposedly deserted country mansion, only to find himself imprisoned along with four strangers by a mysterious force. A nice nasty horror game with some murders and gore.7 Days A Skeptic
The sequel to 5 Days A Stranger. Four hundred years into the future, the scoutship Mephistopheles and its crew of six discovers something it should have left alone.
Trilby's Notes
Master thief turned paranormal investigator Trilby follows the trail of John DeFoe's soul idol to a small hotel in Wales, where he discovers the dark history of the cursed wood.6 Days A Sacrifice
Council inspector Theodore Dacabe is sent to investigate the headquarters of a fad religion and finds himself embroiled in the machinations of destiny.Trilby: The Art of Theft
The eccentric British cat burglar Trilby is at large in an American city, robbing the rich to give to himself, but will his arrogance cause him to bite off more than he can chew?Download Trilby art as SVG, Welder art as SVG.
You can find more information about these and other great games here:
http://www.fullyramblomatic.com/games.htm
Download
Package Build 2:
Download: Click Here!Released: August 26, 2010.
Tested On: Fedora 13.
Package Build 1:
Download: Click Here!Released: August 15, 2010.
Tested On: Fedora 12 and Fedora 13, Ubuntu 10.04 64-bit, Arch x86_64, openSUSE 11.2 and openSUSE 11.3.
Credits and Thanks
Hamish Paul Wilson for creating the binaries.Ben Croshaw for making the games.
Mark Lovegrove for making the music for the games.
Maxim Bardin for helping publicize my work.
Malcolm Wilson for creating/converting the website images.
Graham Wilson for creating the website.
Shawn Walker for the original AGS Linux Runtime.
Tom Vandepoele for continuing his legacy.
Alexander van Kaam for openSUSE information.
Ryan C. Gordon and icculus.org for hosting.
External links:
1. Chzo Mythos at The Linux Game Tome (Happy Penguin).2. Chzo Mythos at LGDB (linux game database).
In the news...
1. "The Chzo Mythos Is Coming to GNU/Linux", Linux Gaming News2. "An Update On The Chzo Mythos", Linux Gaming News
3. "Classic Rougelike : Dungeons of Dredmor Is Coming to GNU/Linux Soon", Linux Gaming News (Chzo mentioned in breif)
4. "The Chzo Mythos For GNU/Linux Released", Linux Gaming News
5. "The Chzo Mythos comes [to] Linux", LinuxGames
Website last Updated 8/26/2010
This excludes the plot descriptions, sketches and screenshots which contain work owned by Ben Croshaw.