♦ Livestream of 2 ZZT worlds and their DOS inspirations! ♦
♦ Stream Contents ♦
• (2:22) “Doom” by Robojim (1995) [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/doom/]
• (26:18) “Quake” by Robert Martinez (1999) [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/quake/]
• (46:04) “Doom” by id Software (1993)
• (1:39:44) “Quake” by id Software (1996) [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/quake/]
Flipping the script and starting with some attempts at bringing some of the biggest FPS games of the 90s into ZZT form. None of them dare try to do any kind of first person perspective, which is absolutely the correct call, but it comes at a cost of neither game feeling all that similar to the original games.
ZZT Doom is a hectic action game where hopefully the enemies will shoot each other for you. Health is in very limited supply which makes the game quite difficult to get through. Author Robojim's single level game does its best to evoke the weird techbase aesthetic with flashing bits of walls and unusual color choices. The action ain't much, and you can certainly find better ZZT action games, but for 1995 this is about as good as you could hope.
What it does have going for it are the little bits of demonic imagery, with some cool ASCII demon faces scattered around which are the best thing about the game, save for perhaps its rather impressive replication of Doom's logo for the title screen. It's got selectable difficulties that alter enemy speed, and even has a "Nightmare" option where object enemies will turn invisible on death and respawn later, (though this causes some very annoying obstructions in narrow passages).
The Quake game I had very little hope for, but it was actually pretty solid. A few years of figuring out what works with ZZT action titles means the game smartly breaks up large boards into numerous tiny rooms and hallways which allow for cramped encounters with enemies, and limits friendly-fire. This one also does a lot of flashing tech and as the enemy count is lower, can spare a few objects to create more interesting details.
It's not very Quake at all. If anything, more like Quake II given the high-tech focus, CDs to collect, and data logs to read, but even that's a stretch. The action is a lot more balanced, too easy if anything. The biggest issue here is that it's too darn short, consisting of just two rooms, and not actually connecting the second with the ending screen causing the game to just stop. I think if this one wasn't trying to be compared to Quake, and just stood on its own merit, it would make a pretty good action game, at least a demo-sized one.
Then we went to the originals because, well, comparing King's Quest ZZT to Sierra's is all well and good, but there's not a lot to say in favor of the ZZT games here, with id's games being miles beyond anything ZZT can approximate. Doom I know well enough, and have a fun time running through the first episode easily enough. Quake, as it turns out, I suck at. I guess that's what playing it once every 2 years or does to you compared to enjoying user-made Doom maps several times per year.
For something a little different, I played Quake with the alternate soundtrack made by Sonic Mayhem, that got them signed on to do the music for Quake 2.
♦ Play these worlds directly in your browser ♦
• https://museumofzzt.com/file/play/doom/
• https://museumofzzt.com/file/play/quake/
♦ Originally streamed on December 19th, 2025 ♦
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