Talk:ZZT

Z2
The link to Z2 currently does not work. I have also attempted to search ZZT on several search engines (all of which would normally yield Z2 as a result if ZZT is searched), and the links to Z2 have disappeared. Has Z2 been taken down? 75.167.120.137 (talk) 20:29, 7 August 2010 (UTC)

Bug
There seems to be an odd bug at the top of this page; some sort of infobox code shows up at the top, yet (a) there's a regular infobox on the page as well, and (b) no such code seems to exist in the "Edit this Page" source. Anyone know what's going on? --zenohockey 02:09, 8 October 2005 (UTC)


 * It's part of Template:Infobox VG, the template used to generate the infobox. I don't know why it's not working. --Golbez 02:53, 8 October 2005 (UTC)

What is this game?
The article says that ZZT is an ANSI-based computer game, discusses its graphics, talks about its licensing and its editor and its add-ons... but, it never actually says what the game *is*. Is it like Nethack, or perhaps Ultima, or Mastermind? Is it single-player or multiplayer, turn-based or time-based? Or is it a logic puzzle game? What's the goal, and what's the gameplay? - Brian Kendig 18:59, 9 November 2005 (UTC)


 * The four games included with ZZT are explained as adventure games. Single player, time-based. It also incorporates a lot of logic puzzles based on the basic ZZT objects (blocks, destructible walls, sliders, etc.). But, since the editor has become the most popular part, it might be better to think of as a game engine. You could make a multiplayer turn based game if you like (albeit a very limited one). Hope that helps. wht.rbt 05:16, 27 December 2005 (UTC)

Contains peacock terms
"one of the best" see WP:Peacock
 * I removed some of the other peacock terms. Referring to something as "one of the most fascinating" of its kind seems a bit unencyclopaedic. Sdavidf (talk) 23:00, 7 August 2010 (UTC)

Too many links?
It looks like there are a number of links that don't really show any significance:


 * Exploited Chaos - Site seems broken and probably hasn't been updated in a while.
 * Interactive Fantasies - Last update 2006; nothing to really add to the article.

Perhaps information on the memory limits, etc?

OSborn 05:22, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Citation Materials
To prevent ZZT being put through the AFD process, here are a couple of links I found that may help with verifying ZZT's notability.


 * gamasutra mentions ZZT.
 * wired interview has two ZZT questions.

Inmatarian 02:33, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

ANSI Lemmings?
Does anyone have a link to the lemmings clone mentioned? or even some screenshots? Cursory googling doesn't turn up much. Something like that just has to be seen. I am imagining either huge lemmings, or more likely two block high lemmings and odd shaped levels. Thinking about the interface also leaves me curious. I guess since there are not currently any cited sources/references, I shouldn't expect much. Ryan 1729 (talk) 07:26, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

I believe the side-scrolling ZZT game your referring to, is called Zem created by a guy nicknamed Newt. Zem is based on the 1991 Psygnosis game Lemmings. I've added Zem to the article and cited its source.

Teabonesix (talk) 18:15, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

It's not sideways scrolling, and you get only one Lemming, which looks like an ampersand (&). The ZZT player is in a small enclosure to the right of the board, where they can touch "buttons" (objects programmed in ZZT-OOP) to cause things to happen. In Zem 1 they move a crosshair, or add a breakable wall at the crosshair position, to help the Lemming. In Zem 2 they tell the Lemming to Walk, Make, Dig, Bash, or Nuke. Once the Lemming has successfully completed the board, a passageway is opened to the player to get to the next room (= the next Lemmings level), of which there are 15 in Zem 2. At no time is the player allowed onto the main part of the board to interfere with the action. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.26.5.210 (talk) 17:12, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

Unlockers
The description of unlocker utilities says that they crack password protected worlds; there is no password protection for worlds in ZZT, only a variety of locking mechanisms that either set a built-in edit prevention flag or mangle the world file in such a way that the editor is unable to process it (Super Lock mangles the board names, preventing navigation away from an extra blank board, while Omega Lock does some sort of other corruption that I can't recall at the moment.) 71.235.9.125 (talk) 20:08, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

I changed it to unlocks locked ZZT Worlds. Hope that works better since there isn't actually any password use in ZZT. 173.34.7.187 (talk) 20:12, 31 May 2010 (UTC)

Hardcoded games???
"At the time this was groundbreaking, as most functionality in prior games had been hard-coded." No way, Infocom games already had a VM ten years before for instance. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.227.164.167 (talk) 19:37, 28 August 2011 (UTC)

Text Adventure
Hi, folks. I recently started work on a C#/.NET/XNA application called Text Adventure whose goal is to closely emulate ZZT. However, it is not a ZZT clone and doesn't interact with ZZT itself in any way. I wasn't sure if it's inclusion was warranted here so I'm asking for consensus. https://github.com/NathanAlden/TextAdventure 216.110.75.70 (talk) 16:13, 2 February 2012 (UTC) Nathan Alden
 * Sorry, but notability has to be established by third-party sources. Unless there's substantial reporting about your application, which I doubt since it's so new, it can't really be included. --Golbez (talk) 16:27, 2 February 2012 (UTC)

Game and source code is still copyright, proprietary, correct? Still for sale, that's nice wikipedia noted that. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.111.92.243 (talk) 04:12, 20 April 2014 (UTC)

Editors
I previously challenged the inclusion of the "Other programs" (which is also a redundant section name, given that we did not talk about other software previously) section as it was merely cruft that gives undue weight to some unnotable editors and disregards other unnotable editors and also carried exactly zero sources. Obviously, before initailly removing the content, I look whether they appear anywhere in the RS or SS CSE provided by the VG WikiProject, and (oh, surprise) they do not.

I think It's great that you attempt to find some sources, but it appears that ZZT.org is merely a fansite, not a reliable source and ZZTAE is still completely unsourced. Hence, I think that it would be the best to discard everything but a bit on editing ZZT in general, giving only KevEdit as just an example and citing the book source you provided. As a result of that, the ZZTAE-related redirects should also be deleted (age is not a reason to keep). Lordtobi ( &#9993; ) 07:40, 17 April 2018 (UTC)


 * Well the RFD decided otherwise, so keep looking for sources. I found a book reference for Dream ZZT to replace the .org one. Anna Anthropy's book on ZZT might be a good spot to find other ZZT programs. Maybe ZZTae can be brought up again if nothing useful can be found. AngusWOOF  ( bark  •  sniff ) 15:42, 17 April 2018 (UTC)

ZZT source code has been reconstructed & released with blessing of Tim Sweeney under MIT license
ZZT's (1991, Epic MegaGames now Epic Games) source code has now been reconstructed to a byte-accurate reconstruction and released with the blessing of Tim Sweeney under MIT license. This might be worth including on both the ZZT page and the List of commercial games with freely available source code. It definitely seems to meet notability since it helped start Sweeney's career and Epic Games, and, well, there's a ZZT Wikipedia article.

Supporting links: Twitter announcement: https://twitter.com/worldsofzzt/status/1239325308123148288 (note the retweet by Sweeney) Github: https://github.com/asiekierka/reconstruction-of-zzt Secondary source, retronauts: https://retronauts.com/article/1480/zzts-source-code-has-been-reconstructed

I'd actually try to add it myself already, but I'm not certain about my exact impartiality I'd be happy to attempt a draft 2-3 sentences about it (am a ZZTer) KKairos (talk) 03:49, 18 March 2020 (UTC)