Home of the Underdogs
About News FAQs Contact HOTU GoogleGroup Music Manuals
Category Applications Action Adventure Education Interactive Fiction Puzzle Role Playing Games Simulation Special Sport Strategy War




Support the EFF
Welcome How you can help
Browse Games
Welcome Random Pick
Welcome By Company
  Welcome By Theme  
Welcome By Alphabet
Welcome By Year
Welcome Title Search
Welcome Company Search
Welcome Designer Search
Recommended
Welcome Freeware Titles
Welcome Collections
Welcome Discord
Welcome Twitter
Welcome Facebook
Welcome File Format Guide
Welcome Help: Non PC Games
Welcome Help: Win Games
Welcome Help: DOS Games
Welcome Recommended Links
Site History Site History
Legacy Legacy
Link to Us Link to Us
Credits Thanks & Credits
Abandonware Ring

Abandoned Places

dungeoncrawlers.org

Creative Commons License


Game #2230
Hall of Belated Fame Inductee  ZZT    View all Top Dogs in this genreCollection: ASCII Classics
Adventure   Multi-genre adventure

Rating: 8.64 (220 votes)

ZZT box cover

ZZT screenshot
Probably the most famous ASCII-only game ever made and also the most ambitious, ZZT is the first release from Epic Megagames, a humble shareware developer that is now one of the best game developers in the business. The most amazing thing about this classic action adventure is not only that it's incredibly addictive (even with just ASCII characters running around), but that it features an amazingly robust built-in programming language called ZZT-OOP that allows you to build just about ANY kind of game.

As to what the game itself is about, here’s what the Official ZZT Home Pagel says: “ZZT is an action/adventure game based on object-oriented programming. To complete Town of ZZT, you must master 43 game boards filled with creatures and ingenious puzzles. The game is very challenging and requires a good amount of brain power as well as fast reflexes.” I wouldn’t call the puzzles “ingenious”—most of them just involve running around the map finding the right keys to doors, while collecting various gems to buy weapons, torches to light your way, and ammo for your weapons. But as said earlier, the amazing ZZT-OOP language more than makes up for the lackluster game, and is the primary reason the ZZT community is still alive and well. Epic never released source codes to the game, so there are limitations as to what the utilities can do. That doesn’t discourage die-hard fans to coding new programs altogether that improve upon ZZT in various ways: Megazeux, ZIG, and ZZT++, to name but a few, are excellent successors to ZZT’s legacy. This is surely one classic that truly spawned a genre of make-your-own-ASCII-games, and a living proof of how great gameplay can be achieved even without graphics. It has recently been released as freeware, so there's no excuse not to try out this ASCII masterpiece and explore literally thousands of ZZT games around the Internet. Two thumbs up, way up!

Reviewed by: Underdogs
Designer: Tim Sweeney
Developer: Epic Megagames
Publisher: Freeware
Year: 1991
Software Copyright: Epic Megagames
Theme: Design Tool
Multiplayer:  
None that we know of
System Requirements: DOS
Where to get it:
Related Links: Z2 - a ZZT fansite, Interactive Fantasies, mWorld
Links:    
If you like this game, try: MegaZeux, Complete Kroz Series, The, Thor Trilogy, The

© 1998 - 2024 Home of the Underdogs
Portions are copyrighted by their respective owners. All rights reserved. Please read our privacy policy.