Variations on the Boring Ol' Zombie Apocalypse

[ThaBenMan]

Most zombie-centered media takes place in the modern era, where zombies are dealt with through the use of modern firearms and ingenuity. But, in the vein of speculative and alternate history, I've been thinking about how the Zombie Apocalypse would play out in other eras (much like the creators of Pride & Prejudice & Zombies).

I think it'd be really interesting to have a zombie apocalypse in medieval times. I think the survivors might even fare better than in the modern day - the population would be lower, and although that might mean fewer survivors, there'd be fewer zombies as well. There wouldn't be the huge cities we have today that survivors might be trapped in, and more countryside to evade the undead hordes. I think a suit of plate armor would be an excellent defense from infectious bites. Castles are already designed to keep your foes out, and most of the common people would already be conditioned to "siege life".
There wouldn't be any guns, so unfortunately, combat would pretty much be entirely of the hand-to-hand variety - but axes and swords can effectively behead and dismember the shambling horrors.

Cavemen, on the other hand, I think would be thoroughly screwed

So what time periods do you guys think could be spiced up with reanimated corpses?

 

[MattKirby]

civil war would be interesting. The industrial revolution era.

 

[Undeed]

World War one or two, take your pick. It would have adden an insane amount of tactical consideration to all sides, I think, and it would have ended much differently. Or, feudal japan. Samurais would likely destroy zomies no problem.

 

[Minimike3636]

civil war would be interesting. The industrial revolution era.

Closest thing to that would be Nazi Zombies on Call of Duty: World at War.
The only other old-timey Zombie thing I've seen is Stubbz. It's a game for the original Xbox and takes place during the time of Black and White film, when everyone thought that foreigners were Communists. Well, I don't know if that even counts because YOU get to be the zombie.

But the whole modern setting is what interests most gamers. Plenty of zombies = plenty of action (and usually gore). That appeals to plenty of people, for some reason. I, for one, enjoyed Left 4 Dead.

How about we revive the Renaissance Era so we can destroy all of the undead artists and musicians of the era that we were forced to be exposed to during the early stages of Social Studies in grade school

 

[ae86gamer]

The 1950's. Poodle skirts covered in blood...awesome.

 

[Ruzzian Roulette]

The 1950's. Poodle skirts covered in blood...awesome.

Ha, that is strangely arousing.

A zombie apocalypse during Old West times would be pretty damn sweet.

 

[Matronadena]

two toes sloth zombies....


any human they do manage to catch and bit...obviously really needed to be taken out of the gene pool anyway.

and human sloth bitten zombies gain the added ability to climb trees really well, and grow mold on their ass...

just really slow...

 

[ThaBenMan]

Ooh, ooh - I just had another idea (inspired by Y: The Last Man):

What if only one gender - male or female - was vulnerable to zombification? Brave bands of women fighting off hordes of male zombies, or vice versa?

Or if the virus was age-selective - well, thinking that through, if say, 15-year-olds and above become zombies, the kiddie survivors would be pretty screwed. But the opposite would be neat - ravenous hordes of the adolescent undead! It would be pretty gutsy of the developers to show little kids being dismembered and maimed.

EDIT: Oh, and in these cases, I suppose the virus would have to be air-born or something - otherwise there'd still be survivors of all kinds like in the normal zombie scenario (i.e. not bitten yet)

 

[MattKirby]

civil war would be interesting. The industrial revolution era.

Closest thing to that would be Nazi Zombies on Call of Duty: World at War.
The only other old-timey Zombie thing I've seen is Stubbz. It's a game for the original Xbox and takes place during the time of Black and White film, when everyone thought that foreigners were Communists. Well, I don't know if that even counts because YOU get to be the zombie.

But the whole modern setting is what interests most gamers. Plenty of zombies = plenty of action (and usually gore). That appeals to plenty of people, for some reason. I, for one, enjoyed Left 4 Dead.

How about we revive the Renaissance Era so we can destroy all of the undead artists and musicians of the era that we were forced to be exposed to during the early stages of Social Studies in grade school

that's not what I was meaning. I wasn't saying that I was talking like muskets and zombies. and I understand that the modern setting is best, it'd be interesting to see.

 

[Minimike3636]

Ooh, ooh - I just had another idea (inspired by Y: The Last Man):

What if only one gender - male or female - was vulnerable to zombification? Brave bands of women fighting off hordes of male zombies, or vice versa?

Or if the virus was age-selective - well, thinking that through, if say, 15-year-olds and above become zombies, the kiddie survivors would be pretty screwed. But the opposite would be neat - ravenous hordes of the adolescent undead! It would be pretty gutsy of the developers to show little kids being dismembered and maimed.

So we're talking about in a video game, right? I hope so, with that last sentence included... It would be interesting to see, but what would happen to the females that are bit by male zombies if the females are immune? Would they just... uhhh... die? Maybe men could get estrogen injections to counter the effect (?) I don't know. Now I'm just rambling.

 

[TheFacelessOne]

I would've liked to see Zombies while europe discovered the Americas.

"Get da shit outta our land, yo u bloody new comers! Nom nom nom nom..."

 

[Nova Tendril]

I don't think you can have a zombie apocalypse in the medieval ages. In most medieval games zombies are quite common but nobody freaks out over them to often.

Zombie dinosaurs in modern times. That is all.

 

[TheFacelessOne]

Zombie dinosaurs in modern times. That is all.

Hehehe...

I can imagine the face on the scientist whose responsible. Well, as far as you can imagine a face in a T-Rex stomach.

 

[HSIAMetalKing]

FROM THE GRAVE.

BUT ALSO, FROM SPACE.

Works Cited:
MS Paint Adventures

 

[ThaBenMan]

I don't think you can have a zombie apocalypse in the medieval ages. In most medieval games zombies are quite common but nobody freaks out over them to often.

Zombie dinosaurs in modern times. That is all.

Well, I mean historical medieval times, not fantasy. I think it'd freak some people out.

And agreed, zombie dinosaurs would be awesome.

 

[Nova Tendril]

I don't think you can have a zombie apocalypse in the medieval ages. In most medieval games zombies are quite common but nobody freaks out over them to often.

Zombie dinosaurs in modern times. That is all.

Well, I mean historical medieval times, not fantasy. I think it'd freak some people out.

And agreed, zombie dinosaurs would be awesome.

Yeah I know. Just making a joke,

They would have some good places to fortify themselves. The stone walls of a castle could easily protect you from the claws of vicious zombies.

 

[Pumpkin_Eater]

I can't recall ever seeing zombies in a scifi or cyberpunk setting. There's a lot of potential there I think.

 

[ThaBenMan]

Ooh, ooh - I just had another idea (inspired by Y: The Last Man):

What if only one gender - male or female - was vulnerable to zombification? Brave bands of women fighting off hordes of male zombies, or vice versa?

Or if the virus was age-selective - well, thinking that through, if say, 15-year-olds and above become zombies, the kiddie survivors would be pretty screwed. But the opposite would be neat - ravenous hordes of the adolescent undead! It would be pretty gutsy of the developers to show little kids being dismembered and maimed.

So we're talking about in a video game, right? I hope so, with that last sentence included... It would be interesting to see, but what would happen to the females that are bit by male zombies if the females are immune? Would they just... uhhh... die? Maybe men could get estrogen injections to counter the effect (?) I don't know. Now I'm just rambling.

Yeah, the zombies would just kill people unaffected by the virus. And I edited the original post you quoted - the virus would be air-born.

 

[thiosk]

The trouble with zombie apocalypses (apocalypsi?) in periods other than the modern world really comes down to the numbers of zombies. In preindustrial times, I would imagine a zombie outbreak as something that sort of remained local-- there wasn't enough speed of travel to infect many large population centers simultaneously. And people who get infected and try to move, well, they turn into zombies long before they actually get anywhere. Without the travel component of the modern era, zombieification burns itself out rather quickly.

That and we know from world war Z that a claymore is one mighty fantastic anti-zombie weapon.

also, in 1900, there were 1\6 as many people on the earth as there are now. 1\6 as many zombies.

 

[ThaBenMan]

The trouble with zombie apocalypses (apocalypsi?) in periods other than the modern world really comes down to the numbers of zombies. In preindustrial times, I would imagine a zombie outbreak as something that sort of remained local-- there wasn't enough speed of travel to infect many large population centers simultaneously. And people who get infected and try to move, well, they turn into zombies long before they actually get anywhere. Without the travel component of the modern era, zombieification burns itself out rather quickly.

That and we know from world war Z that a claymore is one mighty fantastic anti-zombie weapon.

also, in 1900, there were 1\6 as many people on the earth as there are now. 1\6 as many zombies.

You bring up some good points. The problems with transmission of the zombie virus could be circumvented by making it supernatural rather than scientific - it just springs up suddenly in most of the major population centers simultaneously.

And as for the lower population - well, like I said, that would be a plus in the survivors' favor.