ZZT On ZZT

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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


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


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.

Topics

Goofy Syndromes


Fatal Syndromes



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


Category 2: Player Clone v1.17


Category 3: Weapons v1.15


Category 4: Counters v1.17


Category 5: Flags and Conditions v1.18


Category 6: Anti-Cheats v1.2


Category 7: Board Edge v1.09


Category 8: Randomness v1.13


Category 9: Game Engines v1.15


Category 10: Objects v1.15


Category 11: Miscellaneous v1.13


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.


Part A

Game Engines


Anti-Cheats


Counter Functions


Part B


Overcoming Limits


Other


Extra


Part C

Toolkits



Additional Documents

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




ZZL Object Libraries


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.


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.


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!"


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."


ZZT Programming Tricks and Techniques

Author: zzo38

Year: 2018

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