♦ Livestream Contents
(1:55) “ZZT v3.2 (Registered)” by Tim Sweeney (1992) [https://museumofzzt.com/file/view/zzt/]
The fourth and final official worlds of the original ZZT saga!
City is really unique compared to the rest in the way it grounds itself in a more realistic space than the others. Unlike Town with its castle, cave, and centipede-infested maze, City tries to depict more sensible spots you'd find in a city. This means going to a pawn shop to buy health and ammo, fighting lions in the park, breaking the ZZT bandit out of maximum security, and spending a lot of your time in city hall.
The game is filled with actual characters who may help or hinder you. A homeless person in the park can get you into city hall (but you have to be an asshole first). The mayor wants his palm greased if you're going to get out of the city. The prison is filled with prisoners. These characterizations provide a weird look into what cities are supposedly like, and with each passing year revisiting the game has more eyebrow-raising moments.
City has a number of firsts as well! It's the first ZZT world to feature a toilet, in city hall's executive washroom. It's the first ZZT world to feature an engine, with a steerable robot used to free a key, also in city hall. It's the first game to focus on collecting thematic items (ID card, train ticket, etc) rather than just purple key after purple key. City finds itself more closely alligned* with the user-created worlds that followed, where worlds were constructed rather than single-screen challenges like "The Mixer" or "Engineer Required" which can easily have been shuffled around into any of the other original worlds.
As for the playthrough, it goes reasonably well. City is definitely the easiest of the original games, and this is corroborated in chat with several of us listing it as the first of the originals we managed to complete. As the game revolves around collecting gems, health is far more plentiful. Plus, for those in the know, a glitch in the pawn shop allows players to gain infinite cash if they want to spend an hour buying health.
Happy 35th ZZT!
♦ Play this world in your browser
https://museumofzzt.com/file/play/zzt/
♦ Streamed Jan 25th, 2026
* Get it?
