1
╔════╤═════════════════════════════════╤═══╤═══╗
║ ── │ August 1996 │ v │ ^ ║
╟────┴─────────────────────────────────┴───┴───╢
║ ┌──┐ ┌──┐ ┌──┐ ║
║ │ \ │ │ │ │ The Year of ║
║ │ \│ │ │ │ MEGAZEUX! ║
║ │ │\ │ │ │ ║
║ │ │ \ │ ┌─┐ │ └────┐ ┌─┐ ║
║ └──┘ └──┘ └─┘ └───────┘ └─┘ ║
║ ──────────────────────────────── ║
║ ║
║ Volume 3 "Stylin' Profilin" ║
║ ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════╝
ZZT-MZX Newsletter Issue 8 (The Summer Wrap-Up Issue)
Head Of Staff: E. CyberBRO
THE STAFF: DeadPhrog, Owcp, and STRIKESOFT
┌───────────────────┐
│ PACK-IN'S include │
╔═════════════════╧═══════════════════╧═══════════════════╗
║ - NONE ║
║ ║
╚═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
╔════╤═════════════════════════════╤═══╤═══╤═══╗
║ NL │ Nl NeWz NuMbEr EiGhT │ _ │ ■ │ X ║
╟────┴─────────────────────────────┴───┴───┴───╢
║ ┌──┐ ┌──┐ ┌──┐ as always truely ║
║ │ \ │ │ │ │ fer Windows '95 ║
║ │ \│ │ │ │ (If you don't count ║
║ JOy?│ │\ │ │ │ that it's in DOS) ║
║ │ │ \ │ ┌─┐ │ └────┐ ┌─┐ ║
║ └──┘ └──┘ └─┘ └───────┘ └─┘ Zzt/Mzx ║
║ ──────────────────────────────── reports ║
║ NL NeWz & updates ║
║ By DeadPhrog of & stuff. ║
║ SHATTERED PERSPECTIVES GAMES ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════╝
Hello all! Welcome to the newest edition of Nl NeWz! The biggest
news is that MegaZeux 2.50 is nearing completion! I happen to be one of the
beta-testors for MZX 2.50, (actually, right now it's in Gamma, and were at
2.49g) and I can tell you right now that the sound system is REALLY improved.
I have a SB Pro, and lemme tell you this is soooooo much better. And of
course other little annoying things have been fixed. Now we can import
ANSI's to any position on the board, we can hit tab and then alt-dir and it
will write in the entire space between the two points, (getting rid of some
tedious work) and more, here's the list straight outta the what's new file:
* New Import function added- You can import an ANSi to any position on the
board.
* Full SAM sound effect support as in the original 2.07 version (but using
the new MOD code for up to 4 simultaneous channels)
* The OPEN Robotic command will now push the Robot out of the way if the
door would be blocked by the robot.
* REL PLAYER and REL COUNTERS now affects the THISX/THISY counters
(giving the distance FROM the player/counters TO the Robot) and the
prefixes also affect the IF [dir] BLOCKED command, allowing you to
check for blocked status next to the player or an arbitrary position.
* [ box message statements now clip their message to 64 characters (the
maximum) on display. Note that all other box-message statements are
NOT clipped!
* Color codes are allowed in ? and & box message statements
* Invalid sound card settings no longer cause a lock-up
* You can hold down the mouse button to cycle through RGB values in the
palette editor
* Changing something to an explosion no longer can cause weird colors
* Whats New section of help sorted by version
* Placing a robot over the player is prevented with a warning
* The "Alt+N- Music" lights up properly in the editor now
* When chaning from a larger board to a smaller board, you can no longer
accidentally have the cursor outside of the board size
* GUS owners don't need to enter # of SFX channels, since MegaZeux
cannot support GUS sound effects anyways.
* Fileboxes (loading MODs, worlds, etc.) can now hold as many filenames
as memory allows.
* GUS setup shown properly on configuration screen
* 2GDM.EXE rewritten- In THIS release, it can only convert MOD, NST, WOW,
OCT, 669, and S3M files! The final (2.50) release will have support
for the remaining file formats. It is being rewritten to fix many
small bugs and make it smaller and faster, as well as possibly add
more file formats.
* 2GDM.EXE- F00 effect in MODs deleted during conversion
* 2GDM.EXE- Bad effects S8x, S0x, and Xxx deleted during S3M conversion
* 2GDM.EXE now works properly from other directories
* INTERNAL MOD loading support. You can now load MODs, NSTs, WOWs, and OCTs
from within the game without having to convert them to GDM first. The
only exception is 15-instrument MODs- they must first be converted. Note
that all other formats, such as S3M, 669, etc. must still be converted.
NST/WOW/OCT support was only added because they are extremely similar to
MODs, and MODs were required for backward compatibility.
* Insert doesn't display those "Lo bomb selected" messages, etc. if the
player is Attack Locked or settings say he cannot bomb.
* Minor bugs in ANSi import corrected. (problem fixed- caused errors
on import of ANSis with more or the same number of lines as the
current board size maximum)
* "Ammo <10" and "Ammo >9" entries in Global Chars changed to "Small
Ammo" and "Large Ammo" to prevent confusion.
* ALL NEW music code! Features include faster, NO BUGs, 32 channels,
more formats supported (sorry, no MID or XM) etc. See the section
entitiled 'MegaZeux's Sound System' for details. (in Help)
* Bug where selecting "(no board)" to add a board caused an error if
that wasn't the first "(no board)" on the list.
* Bug where if a robot line entered consisted of only semicolons, spaces,
and commas, it would screw up that robot's program, fixed.
* Command line options (-port,-dma,-irq) added for setting sound card
parameters. Only needed if auto-detection fails.
* Minor help corrections.
* Save/load during testing in editor disabled.
* Pressing \ no longer causes problems during gameplay.
* Bug where "Restart board" for death option in global options didn't
function properly on first board, nor did restart-if-zapped. (fixed)
* Filling in the overlay no longer locks up if you fill over something of
the same color and picture.
* Overlay no longer messed up when resizing board.
* Lock up on Import World removed.
* Setting the counter "INVINCO" to 0 works properly.
* Hopefully fixed rare lockups after robot box messages.
* Added confirmation for board deletion in editor.
* All included worlds are NO LONGER password protected. (The old password
was "megahertz".)
* Minor bugs in passage search algorithms corrected.
* Obscure bug involving REL prefixes if used in "infinite-loop" type
constructs (fixed)
* In editor- Alt+Dir to move 10 spaces now works as expected with draw
mode on. (IE it will draw in ALL 10 spaces)
* Bug where passages on screens wider than 256 spaces didn't work
properly. (fixed)
* Bug where fire-to-player's-right would lock up and kill him FIXED.
* Counters can be used in ALL strings in &COUNTER& notation. For example,
SEND "ROBOT" "LABEL&COUNTER&" will replace &COUNTER& with a number.
This works for ALL strings- counternames, labels, robots, etc. See
Robotic help for details.
Whew! That's a long list! Anyway, MZX 2.50 will be out pretty soon, and
MZX's creator, Greg Janson has informed me that the 2.49b release will be
pretty much the same as the final 2.50 release, just with any bugs we beta
testers find.
In other news, more and more MZXers are making their own web pages.
They go from some really good ones to some farily mediocre ones. Some pages
that might interest you are:
1) The MegaZeux page!
http://www.alinc.com./~myth/mzx1.html
This is a pretty good all around MZX page, it has a couple games for
DLing (some crappy ones there, though), a FAQ and more stuff. I'd
recommend checking it out.
2) The MZX Stockpile
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/4397/
This MZX page has a large collection of MZX games, currently 67 total.
Unfortunatly some of the worst MZX games EVER are here. Who could
forget Blue Bukaroo? It does however have quite a few
good ones, too. Some really good ones, like Weirdness, and the
MZX Encyclopedia are here. I definately recommend checking it out.
3) The Famous Scott Hammock's Web Page
http://www.goldinc.com/~shammack/mzx/
Here's a really good MZX page with lots kewl features. It starts out
with a kewl ANSI map, that shows it's ZZT/MZXieness. The is one MZX
site you don't want to miss.
Below are some more ZZT/MZX pages that I haven't had a chance to check out:
http://www.indirect.com/www/mgs/zzt.htm
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/2527/index.html
http://www.teleport.com/~jwooster/xr3/xr3zandm/xr3zandm.htm
http://www.indirect.com/www/mgs/mz.htm
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/9537/info.html
http://faraday.clas.virginia.edu/~npt4g/zzt/zzt.html
You should also goto http://www.lycos.com and http://www.yahoo.com and other
web search engine you can find and look for ZZT, and MegaZeux.
Because of lack on interest, the MZXSpace Awards Ceremony has been cancelled.
Here are the winners of the awards, however:
Best Action MZX game: Visual Death
Best RPG MZX game: Zeux II: Caverns of Zeux
Best Holiday MZX game: The Santa Saga
Best Shooter MZX game: What shooters?
Best Funny No point MZX game: CowQuest/Joe and the Wandering Targets
Best Overall MZX game: Sivion/Zeux II: Caverns of Zeux
Best Action ZZT game: Sivion Gold/Legends
Best RPG ZZT game: Sivion Gold/Mission Enigma
Best Best Holiday ZZT game: Snowballs
Best Shooter ZZT game: Yoshi's Road Apple
Best Funny No point ZZT game: Island of the Jerks seris/No Point seris/
Kohler's Yoshi Seris
Best Overall ZZT game: Sivion Gold
Best Overall SZZT game: The Long Voyage seris
As you can see, there are some ties, but hey, it was a vote.
There were going to be more categories, but they were dropped because of lack
of interest. The awards could've been much better, but people were either
too lazy to vote, or just didn't care.
Since I haven't had time to ask for updates, the only company update this
issue is for my company, SP Games.
SHATTERED PERSPECTIVES GAMES update:
More work is underway on several projects, including !nsane-X, Cronus: Book
One: DreamZ, ICE!, ZZT Shorts, and others. ICE!, unfortunately has suffered
a set back, and it'll be a while before this one's done. Work is going good
for !nsane-X, and many new levels and enemies are done.
That's it for this issue, see you next month!
----====DeadPhrog====----
----------------------
*Time Tech Foundation*
Update
======================
by E. CyberBRO
I have been pretty much at work making my "Never seemed to be released" MZX
game Link's Chaotic Adventure. I'll have you know that I have not completely
stopped working on it. I've been lately working the kinks out of this game.
Some of you people have been asking, "Why don't you use a sword-engine?"
Why not? Because the game has already been planned out. There's too much
in the game now to change it. It's still a shooter but using advanced
technology. This game currently takes up 486K of space. There are
possibilities of utilizing the palette and char files as well. Basicly you
might say that there are some nifty features in this game:
* 11 Monster size levels, most of them up to 10 boards each. (Not many though)
* 4 Hidden Spell books with two to four spells each.
* Huge areas to explore.
* The *Attack Level* feature can do the following things if raised:
1. Increase the damage done on bosses.
2. Destroy several obstacles you couldn't destroy before.
3. Kill certain enemies with less shots.
* The *Armor Level* feature will increase your defense when raised.
* Pieces of Spell scripts hidden throughout the game.
* Certain levels in the long run contain hidden bosses which are harder than
usual (The Reward: A Special Item).
* Bosses range from a boss that just shoot bullets to a boss that can turn
the carpet to lava.
* Some other cool stuff.....
It will still takes some time to complete since during school I haven't been
able to work on it that much but I've made some improvement over the summer
time period from the preview I sent you:
* Link now looks all four directions.
* When Link speaks it will be in Lt. Green
* Some graphical improvements.
* The game now has water animation (That "I" created though looks similar to
Greg Janson's)
* Storyline slightly different instead of the usual "Rescue Zelda" theme.
(Though you still have to ultimately rescue Zelda)
* Screens with no Viewport size now have them.
* You are rewarded extra for receiving the pendants.
* Different lava Animation.
* Sword color is appropriate. Attack Level: 1 = Brownish color,
Attack Level: 2 = White color.
Improvements outside from the preview:
* Spell Book now uses a more efficient engine. With the use of the Global
Robot the game size decreased just over a whooping 200K.
(That's about it because I'm in the process of working on the other stuff)
Certain things I'm NOT doing or including in this game:
* Character Animation: Who wants to draw attention to the character more than
the game itself, look at Honor Quest and Engine. (Though there is a
possibility, a very small one though.
* Sword Swinging Engine: Hale naw!!! "Ain't dunnit once in my entire
production and I ain't about to try it now." Really, it's too late to add
that feature, maybe on my next game or so.
* Making a REAL Side-scrolling board: You guys haven't seen it yet, I have
a regular board/primative side-scrolling board in one (Primative meaning
using water to fall) it's only a very small portion of the game and won't
harm it much if I don't improve it much.
I'll keep you updated on the progress as it develops.
NL undergoing changes.
by E. CyberBRO
--------------
First off, how many of you like the name "NL" anyway? I think it's kinda
plain when I think about it. Also, there are plenty of people in the mailing
list, but how many of you guys are actually alive, and how many are
vegitating? I've been thinking, those of you who are alive do you want to
stay on this list? I was thinking about changing the name of the newsletter
to "ZZT/MZX World Monthly" though that's if all goes well, here's the plan:
1. Remove those on the mailing list who are obviouly vegitating. Don't worry
I pretty much know that the people not using AOL on this list are alive and
kicking.
2. Hopefully my Link's Chaotic Adventure game will be done and I'll create
a ZZT mega advertisement to encourage people still interested in ZZT to:
* Subscribe to ZZT/MZX World Monthly
* Involve more people to Megazeux
* Recognize my MZX game
3. Try to hire some people if they're still interested in ZZT game to do
ZZT game reviews.
So basicly in otherwords, it's a long shot. But hopefully things will turn
out pretty good.
The Critic Corner
=================
by E. CyberBRO
MZX
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
NAME: Honor Quest
AUTHOR: Destiny Software
GRADE: B
SIZE: 353K
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Plus side:
1. A pretty nifty RPG.
2. Basicly an interactive story where you save a town from evil.
3. One of the few great MZX games out there on the Internet.
4. Even though your character is the smiley face the expression
changes throughout the game (Like from happy to sad or mad.)
5. Lookin' forward to Honor Quest II.
6. Worth the Download.
The Minus side:
1. Gotta surf the net to find this game. I suggest looking in the
NL Newz from DeadPhrog for possible sites. (Well gee...that's
where I got it from)
2. Relativly shorter than expected.
3. I'm not even sure you can die in this game. (Or is that good news)
4. No Interactive Action what-so-ever. (The author tells you why
though)
MZX
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
NAME: Engine
AUTHOR: Luke Drelick of Duky Inc.
GRADE: B-
SIZE: 222K
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Plus side:
1. This game will remind you of the Final Fantasy Series.
2. You can get more members to join your adventure.
3. Pretty nifty graphics.
4. Nice puzzles.
5. Cool Special Effects.
The Minus side:
1. When I played it I just got finished on the lava rapids, when
I reached the end nothing happened and I had to quit.
2. In addition the lava rapids is a little fustrating.
3. Once again you'll have to surf the internet.
4. You might have to register for the whole game. You play it and
find out.
That's it for the NL. Until then, stay tuned for next months NL.
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
(Special Note: "As for me putting together the NL monthly from you articles
N' such I have accidently lost the April edition of the NL. If someone
out there has a copy I would greatly apreciate it.)
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
(Yes, you saw this message last issue. No, I still don't have the April
issue.)
E. CyberBRO
The NL - Volume 3 Issue 8 (The Summer Wrap-Up Issue)
Inside: NL NeWz, MZXSpace Award Winners, Time Tech Foundation Update, NL Changes, The Critic Corner
Published: Aug 31, 1996
Part of Series: NL
