Once again the history of ZZT has thrown us a curve ball with yet another long-lost edition previously unknown to the community.
If you'll recall, back in 2019 the ZZT community got to be surprised by Worlds of ZZT v3.56, discovering a unique release of ZZT published by SoftDisk that came distributed not with Town, but City, and not "City of ZZT", but "ZZT's City".
Although that released mentioned plans to eventually release other ZZT worlds, including "ZZT's Town", the on-disk magazine almost immediately afterwards began to push more graphical software with ZZT, as always, coming off as visually outdated. It was reasonable to believe that no future releases were actually made.
But I'm writing this intro so, you can probably guess what happened.
Thanks to the wonderful search tool DiscMaster, asie brings us yet another spot to mark on the timeline.
"Worlds of ZZT v3.57" is indeed that follow-up release with "ZZT's Town", dated 1994, making it the most modern known official release (unless you want to consider the blessing given for the Reconstruction of ZZT project). As with its predecessor though, the novelty comes more from the fact that it exists and is preserved. This is no secret "better" ZZT release, it's nearly identical to the previous with the largest change to the program being the addition of a /? launch parameter to list commands for version information, re-launching the configuration, and explaining how to launch a ZZT file directly.
On the world side of things, the changes made to "ZZT's Town" are even more minor than the changes in "ZZT's City". While the latter went as far to edit board graphics, "ZZT's Town" is identical in every way save for the title screen and the branding throughout the game. Most amusingly to me, the "This way Caves of ZZT" now reading with "There Are More Worlds of ZZT".
What is of interest, is the accompanying text file discussing why it took so long for this second release. It's very much worth a read, but to summarize: A focus on VGA graphics meant that the product didn't fit in with the rest of the bundled software SoftDisk was trying to push. Luckily... a separate version of the magazine was also available for those stuck with non-VGA devices 90s. "ZZT's Town" works great on such machines, so why not publish it after all?
That EGA edition of SoftDisk can be found on the Internet Archive. Which is incredibly fortunate! While the mainline SoftDisk magazine has had a significant number of its releases preserved, this CGA/EGA version has a mere three. That the one with a copy of ZZT on it happened to survive is nothing short of miraculous.
DiscMaster also brings us a few letters to the editor as well that I'd rather not leave solely transcribed in a Discord channel.
Please tell me what to do with ZZT's City (I'm stuck in the
elevator).
Christian Dory
Otterburn Park, Quebec
RESPONSE: A new, "re-mastered" version of ZZT's City is on
its way to you. Though we've reported this bug and our
subsequent fix in other Mailbag columns, you must have
missed it somehow. Enjoy!
Dear SoftDisk,
[I'd like] more maze games, like ZZT from ODM #60.
Christine Anunson
Whittier CA
{Daniel Tobias responds:
We didn't consider the ZZT games to be graphical enough for our present VGA product, but we did publish another one, ZZT's Town, on our CGA/EGA edition, issue #97.
--Dan}
I can't get to the last floor on the elevator in ZZT City, which I love. I realize I'm not a computer whiz, just someone who likes to enjoy their computer. It isn't fun anymore when it becomes frustrating. Janet Schmid The Dalles, OR Editor's Reply: Thanks for your continuing support of On Disk Monthly. Your problem with ZZT City is the result of a disk duplication error that makes it impossible to complete the game. Please accept our apologies for the error and an error-free replacement issue (on its way to you right now).
And that's just the first item in this pack today! In addition there's quite a few newly released titles, plus a handful of older titles recovered thanks to fatrat's donation of her old collection of files! Several of which were created by roastbeef. Let's get to it then!
Contents
“Worlds of ZZT v3.57” by Stuart Hardwick, Tim Sweeney (1994)
The star of the show today. It's another Softdisk published version of ZZT, rebranded with a new title and some updated text to match.
“ZZT Crashopedia 0.25” by kristomu (2022)
A wonderful collection of ways to crash, hang, and otherwise mangle ZZT! Demonstrations include detailed explanations of why the crash happens as well. Featuring all your favorites: scrolls trying to move, cycle zero transporters, destroying the player...
“Revokery” by Anonymous (2022)
A change of heart as to just how doomed we are.
“Pilk Lung” by Agent Orange, GorgonButt (2022)
"A short horror game where you pilot a tiny submarine through a lake of pilk on a lost planet."
Maybe we are doomed.
“BKZZT 11/21/1998 - Color” by Koopo, roastbeef, Unknown (1998)
Three BKZZT games from 1998! Likely made in an hour or less each. These types of games are some of ZZT's worst preserved as they very very rarely made it anywhere other than the IRC channel where the competition was held.
“Eyes Beginning” by Dark Utopia (2003)
Find Dr. Frog's lab and butcher him using your.. gun?"
“Spam Man” by roastbeef (1998)
No idea what this one is about. You do have an engine to keep a bus from crashing after the driver falls asleep, and a "McBarf O's", so there's something to this demo.
“Star Blast” by roastbeef (1998)
A score chasing arcade game where you must block the bullets of two enemies, keeping your base alive for as long as possible. A unique concept at least!
“Mr. Coffee” by roastbeef (1998)
A short comic done in ZZT. The images included here cover the entirety of the world.
“Moon Dusted” by roastbeef (1998)
Another comic. This time too long to fit in the images here. More importantly, it's a Sailor Moon comic.
