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A Brief Overview of Unofficial ZZT Releases
Despite the lack of source code, enterprising ZZTers still did their best to adjust ZZT to suit their needs. Below are a few of the more interesting examples.
Mystical Winds ZZT [v1.0/v1.1]
Two different hex edits of ZZT v3.2 were released by Nanobot in 2002. These versions make a few small cosmetic changes, bug fixes, and minor adjustments to ZZT-OOP. The mod feels like a proof of concept, seeing what could be changed and how it might be useful to ZZTers to have these modifications.
In MWZZT line walls to use single width box drawing characters rather than double. Some modifications very much feel like they were done because they could be.
MWZZT fixes the ALLIGNED typo, as well as renaming #BIND to #COPY (a misnomer), and #IDLE to #WAIT. This introduces a compatibility issue with v3.2 worlds whose commands will fail (and vice-versa).
Interacting with black keys and doors no longer produces a corrupt message, though they do still give/take 256 gems.
The MWZZT v1.1 update makes some changes to the default colors of ZZT's built-ins, with the goal of allowing additional special colors to be generated during gameplay with ZZT-OOP. This is a feature that could definitely have been useful, but by this point in time ZZTers had learned to live with the lack of full color accessibility, and were uninterested in making the switch.
MWZZT includes a modified copy of Town of ZZT that incorporates these changes, recoloring enemies and items to the new defaults, as well as adding some simple shading to the game.
As the ZZT-OOP changes would prevent worlds for MWZZT from playing properly in ZZT v3.2, the program uses .MZT as its file extension for worlds. No worlds other than the included edit of Town are known to have been released for this version.
CleanZZT and CleenZZT (2002/2021) [Clean/Cleen]
CleanZZT was created in 2002 to deal with inconsistencies in ZZT elements as they were intended to be used, and the realities of how many ZZTers used them. CleanZZT "cleans up" various sound effects and messages that were frequently unwanted in games of the area.
CleanZZT replaces the sound of touching water with silence, and also removes the messages displayed when a player touches water, fake walls, or forest tiles. This lets players walk over blood or bump into water being used for shading a wall rather than an obstacle to shoot over without reminding players of their intended purposes.
As all the changes in CleanZZT are cosmetic, it became a matter of personal preference whether or not to use it, with a few ZZTers endorsing it* as a more enjoyable way to play.
In CleanZZT, removed sounds are replaced with a rest, and removed messages replaced with a blank string. However, if audio is already playing, or a message is being displayed the sound effect of silence will overwrite the audio being played, and the current message will be replaced with a blank one. Because of this, after the Reconstruction was released, The Green Herring created a modern implementation to fix the issue known as CleenZZT.
In CleenZZT (2021), the program removes the function calls to play audio or display a message for these elements are removed entirely, preventing audio/messages from being accidentally dropped if players interact with these elements at an inopportune time.
Unlike most other hex edits CleanZZT did have some popularity with ZZTers who preferred to not have to deal with unwanted noises and messages. Some worlds, such as Daedalus' Obelisk actively request players use these programs when playing due to the use of invisible water to restrict players' vertical movement while still allowing them to shoot.
Banana Quest by WiL (2000) [Link]
A rather thorough hex edit of ZZT v3.2 by WiL, that renames a significant number of strings used in ZZT. This includes renaming most ZZT-OOP commands such as changing #CYCLE to #SPEED. This version of ZZT was made for Banana Quest and goes unused by any other world.
While a few messages and text in the sidebar are changed, players of Banana Quest won't notice any real difference from other ZZT worlds, with one exception: The cheats for ZZT are all renamed, which makes cheating in Banana Quest much more of a pain than in other ZZT worlds. A full reference is available now at least.
"ZZT v4.X" by WiL (2001) [v4.0/v4.1]
ZZT v4.0 and ZZT v4.1 are two unofficial hacks of ZZT by WiL that were unfortunately given a very official sounding name. These edits aimed to make a number of updates to the program, pulling in features from other edits as well as extending limits where possible. Welcome changes of these version include fixing ZZT's #PUT bug, which allows the command to now work when used in the bottom-most row of a board; water sounds are removed as in CleanZZT; and the board size limit was increased from 20,000 bytes to 65,535 bytes.
Other changes like blanking out default names when saving files or exporting boards and removing yellow borders from newly created boards make this branch one that might have had some real adoption in the ZZT community. 4.0 also includes a "NoMsg" version that removes several other messages and sound effects.
Alas, v4.0's regular version has a misplaced edit which causes pushers to eventually crash the program.
ZZT v4.1 was also victim to an oversight, though this time the error was not in the code. ZZT v4.1 promises the same changes of 4.0, sticking to the noMsg variant, and aims to further remove various messages and sound effects. However, almost none of the changes listed in the documentation are actually present in the program itself. The version that was uploaded was an older in-progress build rather than the finished copy which has since been lost to time.
While v4.0's noMsg version is fully usable, it never received widespread adoption, and it too is more of a novelty rather than actively used version, even during the era in which it would have been most useful. Today, those interested in working with ZZT boards with more memory available to them should either use ClassicZoo or Weave, and these versions should be left to the past.
zzt32kc by Spectere (2019) [Link]
The last hex edit of ZZT, prior to the reconstruction made it easier to modify by recompiling source code.
zzt32kc is an edit of ZZT v3.2 by Spectere that bypasses the initial configuration screen, automatically selecting keyboard controls and color graphics. Everything else is identical to the original version. It was created to make it faster to test worlds as well as allow games using Zeta to run in a browser to begin immediately on the title screen, making for a nicer looking preview for the game than a configuration screen.
Further Reading
For those interested in complete changelogs and extensive details on modifications made in both official and unofficial versions of ZZT including the worlds included with them, the following resources are recommended:
- Mr. Alert's Reconstruction of ZZT Versions - A series of changelogs and source code changes thoroughly documenting (almost) every known ZZT release.
- Wiki of Weavers - List of engines - Detailing listing of numerous ZZT compatible programs, enhancers, hacks, forks, and ZZT-inspired clones with/without ZZT world compatibility
- The Cutting Room Floor - ZZT - Wiki page focusing on comparing different ZZT versions' interfaces as well as changes made to and the unused boards of ZZT's official worlds
