ZZT

The Good
ZZT was the brainchild of Tim Sweeney, the person behind Potomac Computer Systems (which later became known as Epic MegaGames). I remembered the first Epic game that I played was Jill of the Jungle, which was the result of ZZT's profits. Even though I loved that game so much that I played more Epic games, it was not until I read a Epic catalog that I became familiar with ZZT.

The shareware model allowed people to try out one part of the game for free, but the same people had to pay money for the other parts; and Sweeney was more than familiar with it. The shareware edition of ZZT consists of two parts - "Demo of ZZT" and "Tour of ZZT", and introduces players to the game's locations and enemies. The registered version had an additional four parts, as well as a level editor that allowed players to create their own worlds.

No matter which part you are playing, the object is to find a set of purple keys needed to unlock the exit. To do this, the player needs to guide their character across locations. To help them, the player can supply themselves with health, ammo, gems, torches, and other colored keys. The player has to defeat creatures that are usually found in zoos and solve a few tricky puzzles. (Or, to make it easy, "zap" your way through them.) These puzzles ranging from getting a purple key without getting shot at to moving a few blocks to make a passage.

The game uses ASCII graphics, which is very basic for a game released in 1991. However, all the characters are recognizable by the ASCII codes, and there are fantastic graphics that are made in ASCII, such as the demon seen at the end of "Dungeons of ZZT". I like how a single wall can move by itself if the player is near it, like those elevators in "City of ZZT".

Sound-wise, the game uses standard PC Speaker sound. However, Tim managed to create a few tunes that sound pretty neat. Such music occurs when you reach the exit. A funny thing about this exit is the one exit is not quite the finish of a part; you have to solve at least one more puzzle.

An aspect that makes ZZT shine is the built-in editor. Anyone who has a knowledge of GCS can create anything in the editor, including shoot-em-ups and RPGS. The editor was very popular that Sweeney urged users to create their own levels, with the best ones being included in the Best of ZZT compilation. The best user-created levels can be found on the Internet.

The Bad
The only problem with ZZT is that its graphics were obsolete before it was released. Apogee Software, its rival, made a similar game our years ago, and by the time ZZT was released, the graphics of its games were either in EGA or VGA.

The Bottom Line
In conclusion, Epic's very first game proved popular among gamers due to its level editor, and any computer, no matter how fast or slow, is able to run the game. And if you have played other ASCII-based games like Apogee's own Kroz series, then I'm sure you'll like playing ZZT. A sequel known as Super ZZT was released, but it didn't prove popular with gamers. The major element, the built-in editor, was hidden from view, and the only way they could access it is via the /e parameter.

The Good
ZZT is a GCS. A Game Creation System. It's not so much a game in itself. If it wasn't for the editor, ZZT would have died a long time ago, another tombstone in the graveyard of late eighties / early nineties ASCII games. The editor is its saving grace. Let's get one thing straight - judging ZZT by it's original package of Epic puzzle games is like judging the entire FPS genre on 'Daikatana'. There are so many other, better games out there written by other people. In fact, there are almost 2,000 available on the internet, and countless more that have been lost into the midsts of time.

Note, however, the use of the word 'Written' and not programmed. ZZT does have a programming language - called ZZT OOP - but if BASIC is the bike, ZZTOOP is the stablizer. You don't need amazing logic or a diploma in computer science to become proficient at OOP, just an hour of free time and a bit of common sense. Most of the commands involve setting a few flags, and testing to see what the player is doing.

The main challenge with ZZT is not the language itself, but the limitations, and finding new ways to work around them. ZZT is not a programming masterpiece. In some places it is very limited, to the point of making it impossible to create certain games. This may seem like a horrible thing, but its this constant reinvention that's kept ZZT alive. For example, the actual ZZT program gives you 7 colors. Seven colors is not enough to make good look graphics. Luckily, some clever git called Greg Janson made a utility using just ZZT that created ten times more colours 3 years after its original release. Progress? I think so.

With these workarounds and a bit of know how, ZZT can turn into whatever you want it to be. I would say, at a guess, about half of ZZT games can be described as RPGs. The others range from action shooters and dungeon crawls, to platformers and puzzlers. Excluding FPS, I believe most people would be able to create any genre of game given enough time. That's how versatile it can be.

As already mentioned, ZZT uses the ASCII graphical standard to make games. ASCII was never going to look 'great', but it does have a certain style to it. If you can draw in real life, you should be able to create some damn good looking art in ZZT. If, like me, you couldn't draw you save your life, theres still hope! There are no 'tiles' to create like in so many other GSCs around today, so you can simply place random blocks around, do a bit of shading and you'll be good to go.

So, why ARE there thousands more ZZT games than MZX or Verge? The only thing I can come up with is 'Simplicity'. It takes a LONG time (Sometimes up to a year) to create a good game in the newer GCS's. A quality ZZT game can be produced in a few months, sometimes even sooner. ZZTs learning curve is also virtually non-existant compared to the weeks of trial and error and tutorials that you need to become good at MZX.

The Bad
ZZT is not without flaws. As a stand alone game, ZZT probably isn't even worth bothering with. It was made 11 years ago, and even back then it looked pretty dire. It's never going to be able to compete with the effects of megazeux or the graphics of verge or other far superior systems. But remember, the N64 was 'superior' to the NES. A console is only as good as it games. The same stands for ZZT. There are at least 100 good ZZT games, compared to the 10/20 MZX classics.

ZZT's editor has bugs. Sometimes the bugs can be very annoying, deleting lines of code at random, and making jobs that should take 10 minutes last an hour. Again, the fix for this is to DOWNLOAD. New editors that do the same as the original editor but with more advanced tools are available for you to make ZZT games with.

Also, whatever happens, you will hit a limit in ZZT. As mentioned above, limits have been ZZTs saving grace, but that doesn't stop them being annoying. If you're making a big game, you have to keep notes on your flags, because you can only set 10 flags at once. This means if you were creating an adventure game, you could not have more than 10 objects in your inventory at the same time. Also, there's a limit to the size of games. Annoying? Hell yes. Major problems? Not at all.

The Bottom Line
ZZT is not for those who want pretty flashing graphics or a programming language that takes weeks to learn. ZZT is for creators. It's an outlet. You can pick it up and create a game in weeks. It has the balance of simplicity and versatility that simply is NOT mirrored in any of the later GCS. Don't believe me? There are 200 ZZTers that could prove you wrong. With 20 games being released a month and a huge archive of games already uploaded, you really have nothing to lose but to try it out.

The main ZZT site at the time of writing is http://zzt.the-underdogs.org (http://zzt2.com)

Check it out if you wanna become a part of one of weirdest communities ever.

The Good
The editor. It allows you to create games of your own easily. Many great games have been made (the last reviewer, Matt, for example, released some games WHICH KICKED ASS). ZZT still has a big community. I've met quite a few funny people in the ZZT scene. =D ZZT allows you to put your ideas into games without having to learn a difficult programming language. ZZT OOP is very easy to learn. It doesn't take up much time, nor does de rest of the world editor.

The Bad
The graphics are simple. So is the music (internal sound beeps).

The Bottom Line
A great game, altough simplistic, it's capable of some pretty cool things. The community is still very alive, WWW.ZZT.ORG is the place to check if you're intrested.