ZZT
Encyclopedia
ZZT is an ANSI
character-based computer game, created in 1991
by Tim Sweeney
of Epic Games
(then Epic Megagames), who later designed Unreal
. It remains a popular DOS
game creation system. ZZT itself is not an acronym for anything; its title was simply chosen so it would always appear at the very bottom of newsgroup listings. However, it was later jokingly mentioned by Sweeney as being short for Zoo of Zero Tolerance, which has mistakenly become a popular belief.
ZZTs graphics were obsolete before it was even created; it used the same style of text-mode graphics that Kingdom of Kroz used 4 years earlier. However, ZZT managed to become fairly popular because of its integration of a simple but effective object-oriented
scripting language
known as ZZT-OOP
. At the time this was groundbreaking, as most functionality in prior games had been hard-coded. The language allowed extensibility
that no other game was able to provide, and allowed a large degree of community involvement that extended far beyond simply creating level terrain with the built-in editor
, but rather involved writing programs to make the game run.
Originally ZZT was shareware
, with only one of the four level-sets or "worlds" released without payment. The level released with the shareware copy is called "Town of ZZT". The shareware versions also included "Demo of ZZT", which displayed the basic features of ZZT worlds, and "Tour of ZZT", which allowed the player
to view select rooms (some playable) of the four worlds. Three different versions of shareware ZZT were released, with three corresponding registered versions. With about 30,000 registrations worldwide, ZZT was successful enough to finance the production of Jill of the Jungle
, a game seen as Epic Megagames' answer to Apogee
classics such as Duke Nukem. As the game became obsolete it became freeware
, however, with all four worlds of the registered version released for free. The worlds are: "Town of ZZT", "Caves of ZZT", "Dungeons of ZZT", and "City of ZZT"; they can best be described as adventure games.
In the newsletter
s for the registered version of ZZT, it is apparent that Sweeney initially had not expected the editor to become the most popular feature of his game. Fans' letters to him quickly established this, and Sweeney responded by encouraging registered users to make their own worlds and submit them to him. The best material from these was released in The Best of ZZT.
Basic gameplay of ZZT is very simple. The player is controlled by the four cursor keys, and the shift key and a cursor key pressed will shoot a bullet (if the player has ammo). Items that can be picked up include: ammo (each magazine holds five rounds), gems (used for currency in most games), torches (used by pressing the T key in darkened rooms, lighting a small area around the player, that moves as the player does), and energizers that give the player temporary invincibility. Enemies include lions (randomly moving monsters, that may follow the player), tigers (randomly moving monsters that fire bullets), ruffians (monsters that chase the player, then rest, then repeat), slimes, and spinning guns.
Third-party worlds for ZZT are diverse, ranging from shoot 'em up
s to complex role-playing video game
to a Lemmings
clone (Zem). An aspect of the game is the culture that has built up within and around it: catchphrases, programming tricks, and even some rather remarkable internet personalities. Many other games have been inspired by ZZT, such as MegaZeux
and ZZT' s sequel, Super ZZT
, the latter being widely criticized for lacking an easily accessible editor function.
Although it has been many years since Tim Sweeney first wrote ZZT, it still has a cult following
. ZZT is still for sale through mail order, according to Sweeney in a Gamasutra
interview.
ANSI art
ANSI art is a computer art form that was widely used at one time on BBSes. It is similar to ASCII art, but constructed from a larger set of 256 letters, numbers, and symbols — all codes found in IBM code page 437, often referred to as extended ASCII and used in MS-DOS and Unix environments...
character-based computer game, created in 1991
1991 in video gaming
-Notable releases:*Microprose creates Civilization, Sid Meier's most successful game .*Electronic Arts releases James Pond 2 and Road Rash for Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, starting a series of games that were popular in the 1990s....
by Tim Sweeney
Tim Sweeney (game developer)
Tim Sweeney, born in 1970, is a computer game programmer and the founder of Epic Games, being best known for his work on ZZT and the Unreal Engine....
of Epic Games
Epic Games
Epic Games, Inc., also known as Epic and formerly Epic MegaGames, is an American video game development company based in Cary, North Carolina. Its most recent success has been the Gears of War series of games, although it is also known for its Unreal Engine technology. It is the parent company of...
(then Epic Megagames), who later designed Unreal
Unreal
Unreal is a first-person shooter video game developed by Epic MegaGames and Digital Extremes and published by GT Interactive in May 1998...
. It remains a popular DOS
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
game creation system. ZZT itself is not an acronym for anything; its title was simply chosen so it would always appear at the very bottom of newsgroup listings. However, it was later jokingly mentioned by Sweeney as being short for Zoo of Zero Tolerance, which has mistakenly become a popular belief.
ZZTs graphics were obsolete before it was even created; it used the same style of text-mode graphics that Kingdom of Kroz used 4 years earlier. However, ZZT managed to become fairly popular because of its integration of a simple but effective object-oriented
Object-oriented programming
Object-oriented programming is a programming paradigm using "objects" – data structures consisting of data fields and methods together with their interactions – to design applications and computer programs. Programming techniques may include features such as data abstraction,...
scripting language
Scripting language
A scripting language, script language, or extension language is a programming language that allows control of one or more applications. "Scripts" are distinct from the core code of the application, as they are usually written in a different language and are often created or at least modified by the...
known as ZZT-OOP
ZZT-oop
ZZT-oop was an early in-game scripting programming language, designed by Tim Sweeney, for his computer game ZZT. The name stands for ZZT Object Oriented Programming language. The name of the language is a play on ZZ Top, an American rock band.-Overview:...
. At the time this was groundbreaking, as most functionality in prior games had been hard-coded. The language allowed extensibility
Extensibility
In software engineering, extensibility is a system design principle where the implementation takes into consideration future growth. It is a systemic measure of the ability to extend a system and the level of effort required to implement the extension...
that no other game was able to provide, and allowed a large degree of community involvement that extended far beyond simply creating level terrain with the built-in editor
Source code editor
A source code editor is a text editor program designed specifically for editing source code of computer programs by programmers. It may be a standalone application or it may be built into an integrated development environment ....
, but rather involved writing programs to make the game run.
Originally ZZT was shareware
Shareware
The term shareware is a proprietary software that is provided to users without payment on a trial basis and is often limited by any combination of functionality, availability, or convenience. Shareware is often offered as a download from an Internet website or as a compact disc included with a...
, with only one of the four level-sets or "worlds" released without payment. The level released with the shareware copy is called "Town of ZZT". The shareware versions also included "Demo of ZZT", which displayed the basic features of ZZT worlds, and "Tour of ZZT", which allowed the player
Player (game)
A player of a game is a participant therein. The term 'player' is used with this same meaning both in game theory and in ordinary recreational games....
to view select rooms (some playable) of the four worlds. Three different versions of shareware ZZT were released, with three corresponding registered versions. With about 30,000 registrations worldwide, ZZT was successful enough to finance the production of Jill of the Jungle
Jill of the Jungle
Jill of the Jungle is a trilogy of platform computer games released in 1992 by Epic MegaGames. It was intended to rival computer games from other shareware companies such as id Software and Apogee Software, Ltd....
, a game seen as Epic Megagames' answer to Apogee
3D Realms
3D Realms is a current video game publisher and former video game developer based in Garland, Texas, United States, established in 1987...
classics such as Duke Nukem. As the game became obsolete it became freeware
Freeware
Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...
, however, with all four worlds of the registered version released for free. The worlds are: "Town of ZZT", "Caves of ZZT", "Dungeons of ZZT", and "City of ZZT"; they can best be described as adventure games.
In the newsletter
Newsletter
A newsletter is a regularly distributed publication generally about one main topic that is of interest to its subscribers. Newspapers and leaflets are types of newsletters. Additionally, newsletters delivered electronically via email have gained rapid acceptance for the same reasons email in...
s for the registered version of ZZT, it is apparent that Sweeney initially had not expected the editor to become the most popular feature of his game. Fans' letters to him quickly established this, and Sweeney responded by encouraging registered users to make their own worlds and submit them to him. The best material from these was released in The Best of ZZT.
Basic gameplay of ZZT is very simple. The player is controlled by the four cursor keys, and the shift key and a cursor key pressed will shoot a bullet (if the player has ammo). Items that can be picked up include: ammo (each magazine holds five rounds), gems (used for currency in most games), torches (used by pressing the T key in darkened rooms, lighting a small area around the player, that moves as the player does), and energizers that give the player temporary invincibility. Enemies include lions (randomly moving monsters, that may follow the player), tigers (randomly moving monsters that fire bullets), ruffians (monsters that chase the player, then rest, then repeat), slimes, and spinning guns.
Third-party worlds for ZZT are diverse, ranging from shoot 'em up
Shoot 'em up
Shoot 'em up is a subgenre of shooter video games. In a shoot 'em up, the player controls a lone character, often in a spacecraft or aircraft, shooting large numbers of enemies while dodging their attacks. The genre in turn encompasses various types or subgenres and critics differ on exactly what...
s to complex role-playing video game
Role-playing video game
Role-playing video games are a video game genre with origins in pen-and-paper role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, using much of the same terminology, settings and game mechanics. The player in RPGs controls one character, or several adventuring party members, fulfilling one or many quests...
to a Lemmings
Lemmings (video game)
Lemmings is a puzzle computer game developed by DMA Design and published by Psygnosis in . Originally developed for PC and Commodore Amiga, Lemmings was one of the most popular computer games of its time, and several gaming magazines gave it some of their highest review scores at the time...
clone (Zem). An aspect of the game is the culture that has built up within and around it: catchphrases, programming tricks, and even some rather remarkable internet personalities. Many other games have been inspired by ZZT, such as MegaZeux
MegaZeux
MegaZeux, or MZX, is a game creation system inspired by Tim Sweeney/Epic Megagames' classic shareware game ZZT. MegaZeux was created in late 1994 by Gregory Janson, who formed his own company, Software Visions...
and ZZT
Super ZZT
Super ZZT is the successor to ZZT, created by Allen Pilgrim and Tim Sweeney of Epic Games . Like its predecessor, Super ZZT was essentially a game creation system with a few games packaged with it, which included Lost Forest, Monster Zoo, and Proving Grounds...
, the latter being widely criticized for lacking an easily accessible editor function.
Although it has been many years since Tim Sweeney first wrote ZZT, it still has a cult following
Cult following
A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a specific area of pop culture. A film, book, band, or video game, among other things, will be said to have a cult following when it has a small but very passionate fan base...
. ZZT is still for sale through mail order, according to Sweeney in a Gamasutra
Gamasutra
Gamasutra is a website founded in 1997 for video game developers. It is owned and operated by UBM TechWeb , a division of United Business Media, and acts as the online sister publication to the print magazine Game Developer...
interview.
Other programs
There are many utilities, resources, and advanced editors available for ZZT.- An open-source ZZT engine for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, Linux, and the SEGA Dreamcast.
- A versatile world editor that features a complete palette, a larger backbuffer, a default color mode, and a much better character selector. It is no longer developed (as of July 2, 2005) and is still in an alphaAlphaAlpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. Alpha or ALPHA may also refer to:-Science:*Alpha , the highest ranking individuals in a community of social animals...
form, but is still usable. The latest release is v0.5.1. - Is another, older external editor for ZZT. It has a color chooser, easier to read language editor, support for object libraries and fonts, improved buffer, object, and map sizes, a test function, and a music player. Worlds created using ZZTAE are watermarkWatermarkA watermark is a recognizable image or pattern in paper that appears as various shades of lightness/darkness when viewed by transmitted light , caused by thickness or density variations in the paper...
ed. Worlds found with that became a bannable offense in some ZZT contests. A tool was later released that could eliminate the traces. The newest release is v1.0.1 (October 1, 2001). - An Open-source C#C-sharpC-sharp may refer to:* C♯ * C-sharp major, musical scale* C-sharp minor, musical scale* C#...
game which aims at reconstructing ZZT as close as possible, while utilizing modern graphics technologies (hence the name DirectZZT, albeit it's actually XNAMicrosoft XNAMicrosoft XNA is a set of tools with a managed runtime environment provided by Microsoft that facilitates video game development and management. XNA attempts to free game developers from writing "repetitive boilerplate code" and to bring different aspects of game production into a single system...
being used). It is in a very early phase of development, that's why there are not many features. Planned are (among others): 100% compatibility to ZZT-oopZZT-oopZZT-oop was an early in-game scripting programming language, designed by Tim Sweeney, for his computer game ZZT. The name stands for ZZT Object Oriented Programming language. The name of the language is a play on ZZ Top, an American rock band.-Overview:...
, 100% both export and import compatibility of "original" ZZT worlds and save games, Multiplayer modes for up to 4 players, a new world/board and save format (ZML) and a new, extensible scripting language (Powerscript), which fixes many shortcomings of ZZT-oop and introduces new functionality. This project is very open and anyone with ZZT-experience might want to help.- SuperWAD
- An unfinished world maker. Only half of its intended features were ever implemented.
- Unlockers
- There are multiple utilities that unlock locked ZZT worlds, so they can be edited.
- Engines
- Many ZZT programmers create a working system for a function, for example mouse input, different weapons, advanced menus, etc., and upload them for other programmers to use.
- Toolkits
- There are a large number of toolkits for ZZT. They are typically composed of palette and ASCII character boards for quick resource grabbing.
- Frontends
- A few programs that improve how opening and storing ZZT files of the user do exist. Not all of them are complete.
- Cheat programs
- Also called trainers. They set different stats and settings before starting a world, usually with the intention of cheating.
- Patchers
- Simple programs that change parts of ZZTs UIUser interfaceThe user interface, in the industrial design field of human–machine interaction, is the space where interaction between humans and machines occurs. The goal of interaction between a human and a machine at the user interface is effective operation and control of the machine, and feedback from the...
.- Music makers
- There are many programs and worlds for ZZT that make creating music for its #play command easy.