ZZ’s Madhouse

by Grease Coakes

It’s around that time October 31st which is Halloween the time of year to dress up and see thrills and chills through and Second Life. ZZ studios as always builds their "Madhouse" every year to share fear. ZZ studios is usally a studio for making adult material. But for the month of October it’s all about the Halloween.

When I walked into the madhouse there was a tame path and a gory path. Being brave and like most characters in horror movies I made the wrong choice and picked gory path. Floor by floor I saw gory surprises and scary sound effects. You’re walking around in a diner with skeletal remains and GASP a zombie appears with a butcher knife. Also backtracking isn’t allowed as I tried to go down the stairs and I was blocked by an invisible wall. ZZ has some clever scripting to make their madhouse a truly mad place.

For each floor it takes a minute or so to navigate through as jumping over things won’t work (trust me I tried). So it’s not a clear path. I wandered around the ZZ sim and found a statue and playground equipment that seems possessed by evil spirits within SL’s pixel grid. Along with that was a SL avatar who seemed forever as a statue I the avatar’s profile and any commutations at all will fail as of course it’s a statue.

After that I checked out the tame path in the madhouse. It seemed much less scary then the gory path. There was a broken window path and the next floor was animated furniture triggering when you walked past. As the saying goes "you fell for the trap." In the tame path I fell into a trap door was sent back to the lower floor.

I was able to grab Darkefur Fraker who’s one of the top vixens of ZZ studios to hear what she had to say, telling her, "You did a great job at your madhouse. How long has ZZ studios been doing the haunt?"

Darkefur answered, "Since... 2011 I believe. Maybe 2010. I've lost track of how many I've built.  *heh* Not a physical award.  I believe we made the top 10 haunted attractions a few years and maybe got an award one time early on."

"Still being in the top ten is a great reason to celebrate scares to share," I stated.

Darkefur agreed, "Yup. As well as being mentioned in many newsletters/blogs/etc.  That's why I say I don't know if we won an award or not since there's so MANY of those types of newsletters out there."

I told her, "Being mentioned in newsletters and or blogs is still an achievement knowing how large SL is. It's hard to be noticed on such a massive virtual environment."

She nodded, "Yeah. And I know it's been mentioned in several over the years."

I then decided to amuse her with something I'd heard, "Is it also true that you enjoy being with stallions?"

Darkefur laughed, "Like you need to ask."

I egged her on, "Haha! So readers of the SL Newser know."

Darkefur giggled, "I'm a kinky fox, as you should know."

Darkefur also suggested that people can challenge the tame path as well for a chance for a new car. However she was undecided what car to get just yet. So as you read this article that should entice you to give the madhouse both tame and gory paths a test drive at the chance at a new car that you can drive around Second Life and be the life of the Halloween party or any party. Darkefur also added “Giveaway car will be mesh, of course.  And mod/copy ok.  SO people can mod it if they want.”

So you might want to show up in a stallion avatar and perhaps charm Darke into clues for the tame and gory paths. A brand new car is a very tempting and grand prize. A good excuse to brave zombies and other scary things in ZZ Studio’s Madhouse.

Sheridan (64, 145, 2500)

Grease Coakes

A Few Halloween Haunts

By Bixyl Shuftan

It's late October in Second Life, which means Halloween time. As the dark comes earlier in real life, in virtual life various locations are putting up some frightfully fun places. There's too many to go to or list, but I did get a chance to visit a few.

The Return of the Nightmare Walkthrough

Satisfy your hunger for terror with the Return of the Nightmare Walkthrough. Celebrate Halloween with a fresh house of horrors and a free hunt for prizes. Face your fears, hunt for pumpkins, and get lost in the maze of terrors in this October-only event! 

 Entering this place, it's recommended you have your non-music sounds turned up, and either set the region to Midnight, or have the "Advanced Lighting Model" activated. And remove any facelights or other lightup attachments. There is a lit pumpkin available for you to take to light your way.

If you see any other pumpkins as you go through this haunt, click them, At the end, there's a place to put them, promising a prize if you've found them all.

This place didn't disappoint me. It promised a scarefest, and it delivered with plenty of thrills and chills, the environment was creepy, and the monsters often popped out at just the right time to spook you. Those wanting a more relaxed Halloween thrill might want to look elsewhere.

Paradise Fails (115/134/2195)


 ZZ Studios Madhouse

Fans of Cindy "Zig Zag" Babii were a bit saddened this year when the adult media company ZZ Studios had to leave the sim of the same name and rebuild in Erotica Island. Although a fraction of the size it was, they're still continuing their annual haunt, this year offering their Madhouse.

Taking the teleport over and entering, one faces a journey through a number of dark corridors. The first part goes through the manor, then the scenery changes to a maze of abandoned mine passages, a dark spaceship with nothing aboard but a few corpses (or is there?), even a passage that resembled going down a creature's digestive gut. Should you make it to the end, if you're with a date you might want to look behind you before you teleport back down.

I found the ride *slightly* less edgy than "Return of the Nightmare," but that shouldn't steer you away from seeing it. In my opinion, it's good for taking a date who's already been through some haunts, whom won't be so scared as to run out screaming but will be clinging to you a little tighter.

There were a number of carnival games at the entrance of the Nightmare. The prizes were not for kid avatars. Remember, the sim is rated Adult, and it's not called "Erotica Island" for nothing.

The teleport to the ZZ Studios Madhouse is at Erotica Island (66, 154, 23)


Nance Clowes' 8th Annual Haunted Sim

Welcome to Nance Clowes' 8th annual free haunted sim. There's lots more to see this year than any before. Fight your way through through zombies, explore asylums, survive haunted mansions, or just relax with item hunts and thrill rides. 

FREE four MAJOR builds - 6 story Insane Asylum  1950s Thrill Ride  ZOMBIE HUNTING  tribute Disney THE HAUNTED MANSION GCS

 Nance Clowes' haunted sim was different in that there were four haunted places to see. When you get to the arrival area, the announcer greets you, "Hello! There is a lot to find here! The GREEN area is the Haunted Mansion Tribute Ride.  RED is the Zombie Domed City, WHITE is for the Asylum, and BLACK is for Bannons Vanisher." I decided to check out the Haunted Mansion Tribute.

As a tribute to a Disney ride, this one shouldn't freak you out too much. There were some interesting sights such as the stretchable room. For much of the time, you're on a car that slowly goes down a course. Go into mouselook if you don't want a big circle in the middle of your field of vision. Don't expect too many things to leap out and scream. The ghosts here would rather give you a happy wave or a song. This is a good ride if you're with a friend with a low scare tolerance.

With three others lift, I decided to give the Bannons haunt, of which the sign at it 's front called it the "Most Dangerous Ride since 1954." This one was scarrier, though slightly laggy. I was also unable to make my way thought the course, so perhaps it was just a buggy night. I have yet to explore the Asylum and Zombie haunts there.

The landing area to Nance Clowes' Haunted Sim is at LandOurs (210, 46, 601)

These are just a few of the many haunts across Second Life. Gemma Cleanslate earlier reviewed Darkwood, and the Halloween fun at Area Pines Park. The Destination Guide has it's own section of haunted areas, so you'll have no shortage of places to go for some spook-tacular fun.

Happy Halloween

Bixyl Shuftan

ZZ Studio’s Haunted Madhouse

By Grease Coakes

Halloween is the time for ghosts and goblins and trick and treaters. Most everyone finds a costume to celebrate the spooky time of year. But for ZZ Studios, the furry adult themed movie studio, they plan well ahead of time to create an excellent haunted house to scare the skin off your bones. Cindy "Zig Zag" Babii, the main skunk of ZZ invited me down to check out her haunted house at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/ZZ%20Studios/113/119/26. Her Haunted house is featured in the SL group Top Haunts. For the past few years Cindy Babii and her amazing staff have put together a great haunted house.

Last year it was a fun zombie hunt as the zombies could actually kill your avatar. There was an also a great madhouse to get lost in with very good sound and visuals. A lot of the hard work and credit goes to Darkefur Fraker a long time fox of SL and a super builder and scripter. Cindy also gives credit to herself, Rhin, Jeremy, Hojo and Kehf. Their hard work also made the haunted house spooky.

This year you got to download a HUD to change your windlight settings along with a flashlight. Some areas turn off your flashlight depending on where you are. The inside of the madhouse looks a lot like a horror movie environment.

Keep your eyes open as there are special effects that you might see in a movie or just random goings on like a TV suddenly turning on or a piece of furniture on you. Cindy had this to say as I was exploring the sick madhouse, "I’ll give you a min to change your pants. (giggle)"

Some of the effects certainly were scary. Last’s year madhouse was more like a maze to figure out how to get to the top with a glass maze to confuse you. This time around Cindy and Darkefur put more energy to make it scary.

I told Cindy that she should get an award from top haunts for the quality of her madhouse. She had this to say, "We're usually top haunted house for SL though traffic wise." I told, "By the look of it I think you should get an award Darkefur and the ZZ staff did a great job." Cindy, "Thanks hun."

Like last Halloween ZZ studios model trading cards will be given out through random givers. I was one of the trading cards the previous year with Justin Foxchase. Sadly however I missed out for 2013 and I missed my chance to be on one of the cards. There’s also an impressive sharknado and some tentacle beast at the beach in ZZ studios. It doesn’t look safe to swim in these waters.

Cindy also welcomes humans to ZZ Studios to check out her haunted house and her very own sharknado.

Seeing the pictures is one thing. If you need a good scare stop by ZZ Studios’s Haunted house and get a good scare. A change of pants or underwear not included if something scares you. Cindy says it will be up for a few days past Halloween so there’s plenty of time to stop on by and get chills and thrills.

ZZ Studios (113/119/26)

Grease Coakes

ZZ Studios Opens Sim-Wide Venue: “The Hideout”

On Friday, September 30th, The adult media company ZZ Studios officially opened their new place: “The Hideout.” The region consists of an entire sim of a coastal urban environment. The grid map shows the name Static Nightclub.

“The Hideout” is really the nicknames of the nightclub there, the sim also being called “ZZ Studios Zin City.” But it has a number of locations. Next to the landmark I was given at Static Nightclub (113, 119, 25). to the north was a zombie maze. To the west of that was a "Strip Mall" with some goods for sale, none at the time I visited were adults-only items. Next to that was the movie theater. Further west of that at the edge was the nude beach, with a fishing pier to the southwest. to the east was a city park full of trees, with a number of cuddle spots here and there.

Around the north, south, and west edges are urban buildings, with both cuddle spots and secret hideaways where couples can do more than just cuddle. On the south was one noticeably tall building, the new Club Stripes, where one could dance to music, or watch the poledancers. The tallest of the buildings is the ZZ Studios office building at Static Nightclub (224, 92, 25). It was there ZZ Studios owner Cindy Babii invited me over to talk.

Cindy commented she couldn’t help but notice the new office building was larger than the entire grounds of her company’s first location in Second Life. She told me that she had been offered the sim about a month before. Since then, she had been busy setting up the place, “working on a 17 hour day,” with help from her team, “Kehf, Rhin, Kris and Kaebora, couldn’t of done it without them.”

There were a few pranks going on, “You missed the battle I had with a tank from my rooftop.” Cindy told me about a German WW2 tank that was rezzed, and began moving about creating mischief, “tank drove up to my front door.” She then whipped out a huge anti-tank gun shown in the interview from months earlier, “he drove to the beach trying to get a shot on me after I bounced his tank all over the place.” The huge gun was never used after that, “just me snipping people with my nerf gun.”

Although Cindy was willing to play around with the tank driver, one thing she takes seriously is the issue of photography. No photographs of avatars within Studio grounds are permitted without the permission of the subject (or by Cindy). The penalty is being banned from sim grounds.

Cindy also brought up the zombie maze. I had given it a try earlier, with a couple others. Free shotguns are provided upon entry, though a variety of weapons can be used. We made our way in, battling numerous zombies and an overgrown spider. Finally we made our way to a manor. Going inside, there was an arcane symbol drawn on the floor, and after some moments there was a flash of light over it, and several demons emarged and attack. Fortunetly, 2 shotguns plus an automatic were enough. Then the spirit announced it had been freed, and offered the players a gift. I got one good only for girls. Cindy told me there were over twenty prizes available, some “custom made by the studios builders,” including “a huggable Thundertank.”

And what of the old ZZ Studios place at Falcon Valley? Cindy told me it was not going to be renewed, “I’m going to miss Falcon Valley.” And recently, the quarter sim it once took up was wiped clean of all objects.

Cindy had plans for the sim’s future, near and in the coming months, “We are working together to make the best furry place in SL. ... We wanted to get some things set, and now that were here we can change things.” She planned to build a bathhouse, “I remember the one a lot of furries hung out at,” thinking it might have been at Furnation, “I think this one closed down.” The zombie maze wasn’t just a one time thing, but there would continue to be holiday-themed and other special events throughout the year. For instance in November, she planned a turkey shoot.

The main entry port to ZZ Studios “The Hideaway” is Static Nightclub (121, 139, 25)

“You ready to be blown away?”

Bixyl Shuftan

*Addition* The ZZ Studios zombie maze is now listed on the Destination Guide, under the name "Z Mayhem."