ZZT

The Good
ZZT is the best of the old world of shareware from the early 1990s.

The creativity value? AMAZING.

You can create so many unique and different worlds with it. I'm serious. You can create literally anything. Objects that interact with each other. [You can't get through the palace without the red sword, etc.] Things like that. It's so much fun.

The Bad
The graphics: horrible. The sound: horrible.

Oh well. This is from 1990. Back then, we really didn't have much in terms of power. Besides that, it was created for simplistic creations. My biggest complaint is the fact that Tim Sweeney "lost" the source code. Dear God. I have data backed up for years of other backups and you "lost" the source code to one of the greatest BBS games in history? Over 100,000 registered ZZTers!?

The Bottom Line
There's no easy way to describe it to others. Basically, it's a GCS or Game Creation System. It uses only a few colors and the ASCII characters for objects and graphics. You can get graphically creative with 3rd party addons such as KevEdit/ZZTAE/S-TOOL-K and more.

It's so much fun to sit down and create a virtual world with objects that interact. You can create something so quickly, that it's amazing!

Some of the games you might like are:

Code Red Todd's Adventure Burger Joint Rhygar 1,2,3

The Good
Though its simple, ASCII graphics were dated even when ZZT was released, it was such a robust tool for game creation, that it's still popular to this very day. While there were certainly limitations to what you could do with it, ZZT was a perfect starting off point for any would-be game developer. There were plenty of pre-packaged enemies and tools, but with ZZT OOP (ZZT Object Oriented Programming), a creative user could make anything from a custom baddie to a fairly complex RPG battle system.

The Bad
As I've said, ZZT doesn't look very good. It doesn't sound very good either. While that doesn't take away from it's overall appeal, it will most certainly provide a barrier to entry for folks accustomed to the prettier things in life.

The Bottom Line
ZZT was one of the first truely community driven games -- I remember downloading games from AOL's media library back when AOL WAS the internet. It's a fun game in and of itself, and there's a huge library of free, community-made games that add to an already impressive package.

The Good
Over the years since its release, ZZT has developed a large cult following. Its graphics are ASCII-based in the style of Kroz, and its sound comes from the PC speaker, but there is an incredible amount of stuff you can do with the program. Hundreds and hundreds of ZZT "worlds" (games) have been released on the internet. Some are great, and some are horrid. The four worlds that originally came with ZZT absolutely pale in comparison to later worlds created by fans. ZZT is easy to learn, but tough to master, as I found out myself. Dozens of tricks that game designer Tim Sweeney probably never even imagined possible have been discovered. World designers have been able to work wonders with the limited graphics, sound, and programming language capabilities of ZZT.

The Bad
As stated, ZZT is great for beginning game designers. After a time, however, you will probably want to move onto something more complex. This can't exactly be called a "problem" though. The main problems with ZZT lie in the interface, which has numerous quirks. Most users will quickly learn to work their way around these, though.

The Bottom Line
ZZT is a must-have for anyone interested in beginning game design. At first glance, it seems simple and easy to use, which it is, but as a game design utility, ZZT is more complex than it lets on to be. Many of the ZZT world available are not only fun, but can also teach users the tricks of the trade. Tim Sweeney is truly a god.