ZZT On ZZT

One of the unique aspects of ZZT is its capacity to be used as a medium for publishing about ZZT itself. Various company magazines, best-practice guides, and reference encyclopedias (collections of cool things you can do) were created throughout the years. However, the drawback of publishing information in this way is that you can't get to it easily without loading the world files in ZZT and actually playing them. The Museum of ZZT File Viewer helps greatly with this visibility problem, but the content is still spread across several publications.

This page will list out the topics of such files, specifically focusing on how-to guides. For company magazines, see: ZZT Magazine Directory

Notes and Warnings

• For inquiries on this list, you can contact me. Keep in mind that this is mostly just hyperlinks to content on Museum of ZZT, which I have donated and submitted games to, but do not own or administer.

• The Title, Author and Year fields are taken from the Museum of ZZT directly, and could potentially change at any time. In-game copyright notices and such may be different.

• Files linked here may contain offensive or NSFW content. They may also contain incorrect information, or just plain bad advice.

DEMO.ZZT

Author: Tim Sweeney

Year: 1991

Description: "An interactive demonstration of the properties of various items, creatures and terrains in ZZT."

Contents

Items

• Items Main Page
  • Ammo
  • Torches
  • Dark Rooms
  • Gems
  • Scrolls
  • Bombs
  • Keys
  • Doors
  • Duplicators
  • Energizers

Creatures

• Creatures Main Page
  • Centipedes
  • Bears
  • Ruffians
  • Lions
  • Tigers
  • Objects
  • Slimes
  • Spinning Guns
  • Pushers
  • Sharks (No subscreen.)

Terrains

• Terrains Main Page
  • Water
  • Forest
  • Solids
  • Breakables
  • Fakes
  • Normals
  • Boulders
  • Invisible walls
  • Sliders
  • Blinkwalls (Blinker)

TOUR.ZZT

Author: Tim Sweeney

Year: 1991

Description: This is a sneak peek at the official ZZT worlds (Town of ZZT, Caves of ZZT, City of ZZT and Dungeons of ZZT), with playable demo boards.

Board appearances

• Town of ZZT
  • The Mixer: Tour, Source
• City of ZZT
  • Bad part of town: Tour, Source
  • The Elevator: Tour, Source
• Caves of ZZT
  • Engineer Required: Tour, Source
  • Key Puzzle: Tour, Source
• Dungeons of ZZT
  • Kennel: Tour, Source
  • Dungeons I: Tour, Source

ZZT Syndromes

Author: Barjesse

Year: 1996

Description: A classic in its own right, Barjesse guides new ZZTers through issues and mistakes that were common in the AOL era.

• Museum of ZZT: https://museumofzzt.com/file/z/syndrome.zip

• MoZZT Closer Look: https://museumofzzt.com/article/318/closer-look-zzt-syndromes

Topics

Goofy Syndromes

• Big-empty-room Syndrome and Yellow-border Syndrome
• Big-pile-of-monsters Syndrome
• I-gotta-fill-in-the-board Syndrome
• A demonstration of Creative Contours
• One-way-board Syndrome
• Outta-sync-doors Syndrome
• ie-Ca'nt-spel Syndrome
• Zero-plot Syndrome
• Poor-man-with-a-big-dog Syndrome

Fatal Syndromes

• Not-enough-ammo Syndrome
• Not-enough-health Syndrome
• Overwhelming Opposition Syndrome
• Too-many-stars Syndrome
• Tryme-trap Syndrome
• Gimme-money Syndrome
• Ping-pong-path Syndrome

ZZT Encyclopedia

Author: Chronos30

Year: 1998, 2001

Description: A compilation of tricks, glitches and engine boards.

Notes: There are multiple versions of this preserved, and also earlier versions which are listed in a history file but don't seem to be available. The old version lists Chronos30 and JDMSonic as authors, but Chronos30 is the only author listed on the museum. I'm going to put off looking into this for now, and just list out the contents of the latest release as that seems to have the most utility. Descriptions and cross-referencing will have to wait another day.

Category 1: Colors v1.13

• (Title Screen)

• Fades
• Glowing
• #put any color
• #color 1
• #color 2
• Other colors
• Color flashes
• Color sensor
• Keep Background
• Carpet
• Text colors (updated)
• Activated Fades
• Scroll Random
• Color Password

Category 2: Player Clone v1.17

• (Title Screen)

• Object Transporter
• Give items
• Step Logger
• Coordinates
• Anywhere Transport 3
• directtype
• Key Transport
• #put LitBomb (old)
• Illusion, Illusion Room, Board w/passage
• Faster torch/energize
• #put LitBomb
• Anywhere Transport 2, Anywhere Transport 2b
• Anywhere Transport, New Board
• Direction Logger
• Bullet Logger
• Space Bar
• NextBoard Transport, Next Board
• Shooting Scrolls
• Player hold engine

Category 3: Weapons v1.15

• (Title Screen)

• Sword Engine
• Bomb Engine
• Machine Gun
• Grenades
• Better Bombs
• Anti-Shoot
• Nukes
• Indestructible Bombs
• Boomerang B
• Boomerang Engine
• Weapon Selector
• 6-Shooter
• SEEK Bug
• Enemy Ammo
• Infinite Ammo
• Wave Gun
• Super driller
• Remote Mines

Category 4: Counters v1.17

• (Title Screen)

• Shopping
• Time A
• Counter Testing
• Time B, Time B 2
• Counter Setting
• Counter Flags
• Counter Maximum
• Status Engine
• Random Powerups
• Display Fixer
• #set health to
• T Pressed
• Inventory B
• Torch menu
• Game SuperSpeed
• Multi Value Gems
• Counter-to-counter test
• Physical counters

Category 5: Flags and Conditions v1.18

• (Title Screen)

• Flag Counters
• Counter Flags
• Composer's Engine, Composer's Room
• Pressure Plates
• Forest-to-Floor
• Color Sensor
• Memory Saving Tips
• AND
• #if at south edge
• If at edge
• Inventory Engine
• Custom Cheats
• Help File
• Password, Password ][
• Search
• Portable Store
• Quadrant Sensor
• Cross world item engine

Category 6: Anti-Cheats v1.2

• (Title Screen)

• Anti-flag cheat
• Anti-Zap 1
• Anti-Zap 2
• Anti-KEYS
• Anti-Dark
• Anti-gems
• Anti-health
• Anti-editor
• Anti-unlock
• Anti +-Flagname 2

Category 7: Board Edge v1.09

• (Title Screen)

• Warning, Warning 2
• Object 1, Object 2
• Border Illusion, Yellow Border
• Edge-Board Object
• Anywhere Transport 2, Anywhere Transport 2b
• Illusion, Board w/passage, Passage lead-in (illusion)
• Can't go that way!
• Trapped!, Trapped! 2
• ("Path Revealer") Before, After

Category 8: Randomness v1.13

• (Title Screen)

• Random Place, Random Place 2
• Bomb random
• Random Fighter
• Card
• Odds
• Shapeshifter
• Random slot machine
• Spider Web Engine
• Random Duplication
• General Randomness
• Timing slot machine
• dexter's gamething
• SEEK randomness
• Randomizer

Category 9: Game Engines v1.15

• (Title Screen)

• Racing Engine
• Arcade MaZe!
• mIMIC engine
• Side scroller
• Missiles
• Breakout Engine
• RPG Battle
• Running Battle, Gollum Chow, Up, Up and Away!, End of World
• Space Shooter
• LoC's UltraJumper
• Drawing Engine ][
• RPG Battle Engine
• ZShooter 2
• Drawing Engine
• Under Water
• dexter's colorlayr
• Racing Engine (A different one)
• rockpaperscissors
• Zombie Crap
• Jerina
• Sliding Puzzle

Category 10: Objects v1.15

• (Title Screen)

• Power Armor
• #bind
• Animation/Marquee
• Creditz
• 1 Object Fire
• Stars, Doors, etc.
• Clock
• Objects
• misc
• Double touch
• Alligned doors
• Terminating Loop
• Player Death
• Object Race
• Better combination locks
• Put tricks
• Diagonal Movement
• Cars
• Super Speed
• untitled (Seems to have duplicate info also appearing in Category 11 Miscellaneous / Messages)

Category 11: Miscellaneous v1.13

• (Title Screen)

• Messages
• Special Characters
• File Reading
• No Sound
• Moving Sharks
• Sound Effects
• Disappearing Path
• Clear message
• Runtime me!
• Paused Transport
• black wall method 1
• black wall method 2
• Slime Tricks

Mystical Winds Encyclopedia

• Author: Nanobot

• Year: 2002

• Description: "The Mystical Winds Encyclopedia is a collection of various engines and some information about how they work."

Notes: There are versions 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4 preserved on the museum site. Currently building a list of board links of the latest version, as with the Chronos30 encyclopedia. More detailed breakdowns will have to wait another day. This package also contains a number of reference docs, which are listed out at the end of this section.

• Museum of ZZT: https://museumofzzt.com/file/m/Mwencv14.zip

Part A

• (Title Screen)

Game Engines

• MW 3D Engine
• MW Side-View Engine
• MW Bullet Sword
• MW Mouse Engine
• MW RPG Battle

Anti-Cheats

• MW Anti-HEALTH
• MW Anti-ZAP
• MW Anti-KEYS
• MW Anti-DARK
• MW Anti-TORCHES

Counter Functions

• MW Math Functions
• MW Set To Zero
• MW Set Counter
• MW Value Exchange
• MW Set Max Value
• MW Set Min Value
• MW Binary Conversion
• MW Password

Part B

• (Title Screen)

Overcoming Limits

• MW File Access
• MW Diagonal Movement
• MW More In-Game Colors
• MW New Elements
• MW Auto-Pause 1/2, MW Auto-Pause 2/2
• MW Give Any Item
• MW Remote Placement

Other

• MW Puzzle Techniques
• MW Text Attributes
• MW Player Coordinates
• MW Fading Bombs
• MW Painter By Player
• MW Submitted - Pachinco Machine
• MW Submitted - Dig Engine
• MW Submitted - Bullet Dodge AI
• MW Submitted - Randomizations

Extra

• MW Gem Eater
• MW Starfield Simulation
• MW 3D Plain
• * Joining Mystical Winds *

Part C

Toolkits

• (Title Screen)

• Mystical Winds TK - Items
• Mystical Winds TK - Creatures 1
• Mystical Winds TK - Creatures 2
• Mystical Winds TK - Terrain
• Mystical Winds TK - Text(AllClrs)
• Mystical Winds TK - Object Speeds
• Mystical Winds TK - LitBomb Fuses
• Mystical Winds TK - Duplicators
• Mystical Winds TK - Hidden Things
• Mystical Winds TK - Art Set
• Mystical Winds TK - Art Set Adv.
• Mystical Winds TK - Ultimate Art
• Mystical Winds TK - Obj. Lib 1.4A
• Mystical Winds TK - Obj. Lib 1.4B
• Mystical Winds TK - Smooth Shades
• Mystical Winds TK - RainbowLayout
• Mystical Winds TK - Txt/Clr Grid
• Mystical Winds TK - CharSummary 1
• Mystical Winds TK - CharSummary 2
• Mystical Winds TK - ZZT Sounds
• Mystical Winds TK - All IG Colors

Additional Documents

Note: The museum file viewer doesn't parse .doc files correctly, but they are mostly readable.

• mwencv14.txt: Main readme file.

• CharMap.txt: Info on the text mode character map
• exam.txt: ZZT technical information
• mod2zzt.txt: Information on converting MOD tracker music to ZZT #play commands.
• MW Command Reference
• MW Direction Reference
• MW Element Reference
• MW File Format
• MW Label Reference
• MW Location Reference
• MW Operator Reference
• MW Quick Reference
• MW Status Reference
• MW Template Reference
• MW Terminology
• MW Tips & Tricks (Note: This link doesn't go directly to the document because of the ampersand in the URL.)
• oop4ever.txt: "This describes a recognizable line of ZZT-OOP. It is in standard DOS parameter format."
• zexeinfo.txt: ZZT.EXE Modification
• zztop.txt: Explains the inner workings of some ZZT behaviors.

ZZL Object Libraries

• MWITEMS.ZZL
• MWCREATU.ZZL
• MWMISC.ZZL
• MWTERRAI.ZZL

The UNOFFICIAL ZZT Programming Guide

Author: Corey "Des" Garriott, Mark McIntire and Others

Year: 1996

Description: "Want to begin ZZT programing? This game may silence some discordant items in your games!"

Notes: Seems to start on the wrong board.

• Museum of ZZT: https://museumofzzt.com/file/u/coprogram.zip

Emon's Guild To ZZT

Author: Emon

Year: 2001

Description: "From basic stuff to cool tricks with ZZT-OPP." First topic is rooms with yellow borders.

• Museum of ZZT: https://museumofzzt.com/file/e/Emonsguild.zip?file=EMONGUID.ZZT

Cliche: a Guide for the Advanced ZZTer

Author: JoE

Year: 2000

Description: "It's kinda like a sequel to Syndrome. It tells you what NOT to do. Have fun and try to LEARN(barf) something!"

• Museum of ZZT: https://museumofzzt.com/file/c/clichegui.zip?file=CLICHE.ZZT

ZZT Crime

Author: Wong Chung Bang, Scorch3000

Year: 2000 (Version 2), 2001 (Versions 5 and 6), 2007 (Version 8)

Description: "A ZZT world for newbies. Points out what not to do in ZZT files."

• Museum of ZZT:
  • Version 2
  • Version 5
  • Version 6
  • Version 8

ZZT Programming Tricks and Techniques

Author: zzo38

Year: 2018

Description: A newly-minted ZZT-on-ZZT world!

• Museum of ZZT: https://museumofzzt.com/file/z/zztptt.zip