Zipways are enclosed highways created and maintained by the
Zips, connecting areas of
the Mess and regions outside it.
The Zipways link up to major warp thoroughfares, such as the Ballard Memorial Freeway in Downwarp.
- Hmmm. The original notion for the Zips was Cargoweasel's, but I think my concept of the Zipways comes mostly from these crazy-ass dreams I used to have when I was a kid, before I really totally got the whole "driving" concept. The highways looked more like roller coasters, soaring up into the air at absolutely ridiculous angles. They'd stop mid-road and just hang there like giant planks, or have totally absurd features like lifts and catapults.
- The Zipways are a) more recreational than practical, b) mostly maintained/used by a thrill-seeking faction, c) perhaps intended to somewhat discourage casual journeys outside the Mess. Their main function is to provide a really huge set of test tracks for the Zips, their secondary function is artistic, and any transit utility would be largely coincidental. I imagine they'd be festooned with hazards of the sort a Zip would find exciting. Say, off the top of my head: teleporters in the middle of the road, .
- As for local metaphysics, we'll say for the sake of argument that either conventional gravity is being simulated in the extra-Messal place where the Zipways are. You can fall off the road, but you'll eventually just fall onto another stretch of it. At the very bottom is a glowing field, let's say -- hit it, and you end up safe in the Puzzlepark, and all the Zips you meet laugh at you for a few weeks. I'd assume the Zipways are still subject to the backup system, but they need not be safe with regard to the driver's current body; crashes could still be for keeps, for a while, else what's the fun?
- The big media inspiration for the Zipways should be Atari's old Road Blasters coin-op, along with the futuristic tracks from contemporary driving games -- they always seem to have a couple on Mars or the Moon. For road materials, I'm inclined to say color-coded strips of translucent plastic. Since the whole theme is, at least in my mind, a big tribute to how surreal the whole "highway" thing seems as a kid -- especially at night -- odd features of RL highways should be emphasized to absurd levels. Lots of bizarre holosignage hovering at roadside, oddly bulbous equivalents of toll booths (think Duck Dodgers), MPI events of truck convoys, Jetsons-ish cloverleafs, big racks of lights in the middle of nowhere...
- XOR just wisely pointed out that highways are "machine-space architecture." They're very stark, and that should be reflected in the Zipways. There should be very little in the way of features. I'm thinking sort of a Space Mountain effect -- the glassy roads, against a dark, even starry background, with the occasional sign or rest stop to break the monotony. Might be cute if the stars turn out to be the rest stops, up close. :)
- -- OR
"I confess I'm a little confused by the design."''
["It's a double helix!"]
"You're right, I can see that, but... where does it lead, exactly?"
"You tell me, Paul... you tell me!"