Last Call BBS

Most people write these from the perspective of being longtime Zachtronics fans; lots of praise about a "proper send-off" and the magic of "zach-like" puzzle games. coming from the opposite end, this is my first and only Zachtronics experience so far. i plan on going back and picking up some other games by the studio, but i thought people were acting really strangely about this game. it's about leaving behind a big part of your life in one sense of the word, but also about keeping your life with you. just because the studio that did it first or did it best is shutting down doesn't mean there'll never be another brilliant team of puzzle devs - and the puzzles here ARE brilliant, if that's what you're looking for. a great anthology of puzzle games, even if some of them are needlessly obtuse. you're not going to solve any of them right away, and you're definitely going to bang your head up against a wall for a bit before figuring out some solutions, but it's more about the journey than anything. just follow the path that presents itself to you and you start to feel like the game is way bigger than your desktop.

Гарна антологія пазлів різної складності.

It's not worth $20. This is a UFO 50 rip-off but everything is a puzzle game. The games themselves are challenging and thoughtfully designed and engaging, but there are so very few of them. It's particularly disappointing that one of the "main games" is just a Solitaire variant. Another one is just a non-game which you assemble toy mechs. These would be great additions to the package if there were at least 20 or so games, but there are 7. Discovering each new game in UFO 50 was a priceless experience. The massive variety made trying each new game genuinely exciting. Meanwhile, trying each game in Last Call BBS was largely disappointing. The main sentiment I experienced was "oh, that's it? That's all there is? For $20?" Remember, UFO 50 is $25. I'd recommend this if you love puzzle games moreso than you love UFO 50, and/or it's on sale for $10 or less. As it stands, this game is entirely insubstantial at its price point. And I also don't care for the developers shamelessly ripping off a much better game.

This is a fun collection of games that, for me, provide a lot of challenge and entertainment. You can spend hours playing solitaire, a fast paced Dr. Mario game, building and painting a mech suit model, or solving logic puzzles. My issue with the logic puzzles, like 20th century food court and Circuit Wizard, is a steep learning curve. You are supposed to figure things out on your own and I struggled far more than I wished. Definitely recommend if you want a nostalgic 90's computer vibe with chill games to relax to.

I've only played solitaire. I have 3000 wins (as of 7/13/2026). I will keep getting more wins. The rest of the game is pointless as it is not solitaire.

[h1]Adieu Zachtronics, bonjour Coincidence[/h1] Les jeux de Zachtronics occupent une place importante dans mon parcours de joueur, au même titre que la franchise Zelda ou les trois premiers Warcraft, chacun pour des raisons différentes. C'est pourquoi l'annonce en 2022 que Last Call BBS serait le dernier jeu de ce studio légendaire m'a touchée. Le qualificatif de « légendaire » n'est pas exagéré : on peut légitimement se demander si Minecraft aurait vu le jour sans l'influence de Zach Barth sur son créateur. [b]Une compilation inégale[/b] Last Call BBS est une collection de huit (sept + 1 mini-jeu ou huit, selon comment on compte) jeux de puzzles à l'intérêt variable. Certains titres donnent une impression de redite, notamment les deux solitaires, et ChipWizard Professional ressemble plutôt à la démo d'un projet inachevé (mon humble avis). Cependant, deux jeux sortent du lot. Le premier, X’BPGH: The Forbidden Path, est un casse-tête organique étrange et complexe. Le second, Dungeons & Diagrams, revisite la formule du Picross. C'est mon coup de cœur de la compilation et celui sur lequel j'ai passé le plus de temps. J'ai terminé ses 63 tableaux originaux et essayé le mode infini (que je n'ai pas fini, oh surprise). [b]Focus sur Dungeons & Diagrams[/b] Dungeons & Diagrams reprend les mécaniques du Picross avec des indices numériques en bord de grille, mais ajoute des contraintes logiques avec des monstres et des coffres. Les coffres doivent occuper une zone de 3x3 cases et doivent n'avoir qu'une seule porte d'entrée, tandis que les monstres doivent être placés dans des culs-de-sac (et chaque cul-de-sac doit contenir un monstre). Cette accumulation de règles peut sembler lourde au départ, mais le fonctionnement devient naturel après deux ou trois grilles. Sans être le meilleur titre de Zachtronics (je recommande plutôt Opus Magnum pour débuter), Last Call BBS reste une proposition intéressante. Son habillage inspiré des BBS (Bulletin Board Systems) parlera particulièrement aux quadragénaires, qui y reconnaîtront l'ancêtre des réseaux sociaux. [b]Conclusion[/b] Zachtronics n'existe plus, mais l'esprit de l'équipe perdure. Sous la bannière du studio Coincidence, Zach Barth et son équipe ont déjà publié deux nouveaux jeux fidèles à leur style. Longue vie à eux.

I imagine this isn't for everyone, but wow is it for me. Very, very fun collection of puzzle & puzzle-adjacent games wrapped up in a very aesthetically-pleasing frame narrative bow. I'm not super familiar with Zach's work but clearly I need to change that. I figured it would make the most sense to post my thoughts on each game individually, especially since other reviews don't seem to be breaking things down by game: 20th Century Food Court - Easily my favorite game in the bunch. You use modular electronics to control a factory while balancing budget & space constraints (both on the factory floor and on your equipment rack!). I would love to play a larger scale version of this. My only complaint is that the final couple of levels require such a high level of optimization that you pretty much need to consult a guide to figure out some of the sneaky tricks if you aren't a literal IRL engineer; if you don't get very clever with your use of modules in the endgame you'll run out of space before even getting half of the puzzle sorted out. Steed Force Hobby Studio - A chill gunpla building simulator. This seems super fun! Unfortunately this game in particular crashed frequently for me (I know I can email Zach or whatever to troubleshoot but honestly I have an IRL gunpla backlog that needs my attention more than virtual ones so I decided to just let it ride instead of risking putting 20+ extra hours into the game). So I did the bare minimum assembly to get the achievement and left it at that after struggling to keep it running long enough to make progress on a "real" build w/ paint and all that. It's probably for the best that I had tech issues, because I can see myself spending an incredible amount of time on this one getting every pixel painted just right. X'BPGH: The Forbidden Path - You have to craft sequences of commands to make flesh grow & evolve into specific patterns in a bizarre body horror setting. Super neat aesthetic and overall concept. The way it executes your "script" with all steps happening simultaneously is neat, although very hard to wrap your brain around. Once you figure out the logic of it it's a lot of fun! I definitely needed to consult a guide for a couple of the puzzles though. Kept finding myself in places where my script was failing for reasons I couldn't decipher... like most of these games it doesn't exactly explain itself, but that's part of the fun. Sawayama Solitaire - The default game installed on the PC. It's a fun take on solitaire! Deceptively simple, but requires a good amount of thinking ahead to win consistently. Dungeons & Diagrams - Cool lil sudoku-like game where you need to build dungeon walls around monsters and treasure chests while following a slew of specific placement rules. As one of the first games you're likely to play, it also does you the service of having a manual to explain said rules! Like Food Court, this is a game you could probably just sell on its own as-is and people would happily buy it (me, I'm people). It has an endless mode with randomly generated puzzles if you really want to go nuts with it too! ChipWizard Professional - As far as I can tell this is just actual IC design. I have a decent enough understanding of electronics but I am straight up too dumb for this one. Couldn't even get past the first puzzle. This game also crashed pretty often for me (more likely an issue with my system than Last Call, been having some trouble lately) so I used a guide to get the achievement and moved on. Even after walking through all of the stages with a guide I still couldn't tell you what anything does or why things do or don't work. I'm sure someone out there loves this strange little game though, and I'm happy for them, and am at least slightly jealous of their six-figure electrical engineer salary. HACK*MATCH - It's Puyo with a twist, and a cool cyberpunk anime coat of paint! You can swap the positions of the block in front of you with the block behind it, in addition to the obvious grab-and-place mechanics. It's sort of a strange fit considering the other games, but it's a nice change of pace. I'm a pretty terribly Puyo player but once you figure out how the scoring/damage works it's not too awful to clear, despite the final boss's attack being an absolute nightmare. This is another game I'd happily buy the "full" version of! Kabufuda Solitaire - More, different solitaire! I enjoyed this one too. You really have to think 10 steps ahead for it! Very easy to get stuck if you aren't being careful, especially on the higher difficulties. Overall I had a great time with Last Call BBS. Highly recommended! The only game I didn't really get into was ChipWizard, but I'm sure it's the ideal game for someone so I can't be too mad at it. Everything else absolutely ripped. Definitely going to have to peep some more Zachtronics games in the future.

The best of Zachtronics all packed into one small box, plenty of puzzles to sink your teeth into

I get wanting to make an immersive environment and they did do a pretty good job at that, but all the time wasters get old really fast. Also is there really a need to make everything so obtuse?

[h1]The linked video includes reviews of 10 indie games. The segment on [i]Last Call BBS[/i] recommends the game, and discusses its unusual relationship to the concepts of ‘game’ and ‘art.’[/h1] [. . .] Zachtronics is so unique and so interesting, and they are one of the best examples of what you lose if you don't play indie games. [. . .] [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eRtv28O-Pc][Click here to see the entire review on YouTube][/url]