Worlds of ZZT

After a few years of not bothering to keep the bot going here, I’ve decided to get it up and running again. Let me give a refresher after a multi-year hiatus and post a little about what this account is all about:

My name is Dr. Dos, and I’ve now been running the Museum of ZZT archive for 7 years. I'm the curator, if you will. The Museum of ZZT is the largest archive of ZZT worlds online, hosting more than 3000 games created for ZZT since its 1991 release. Over the years I have written articles on nearly 100 ZZT worlds to take a closer look at what they're all about. I've done livestreams playing through hundreds of ZZT worlds. In 2021 my work was featured on Preserving Worlds a Means TV produced video series covering the preservation and history of user-created virtual worlds. Preserving ZZT worlds and documenting them is my full time job, funded entirely by donations on Patreon.

ZZT is an MS-DOS text mode game made by Tim Sweeney of Epic Games. Players control a white on dark blue smiley face that runs around collecting items, shooting creatures, and solving puzzles. Though dated even at the time of its release, ZZT gained a dedicated following with user created worlds still being made to this day. The longevity of ZZT comes courtesy of the program’s built in editor which allows anyone to create and share their own ZZT worlds, even when working with an unregistered copy of the game. Over the past 30+ years, ZZTers have learned the intricacies of the game’s engine, taking full advantage of its capabilities, and in many instances its quirks. (It’s the only game I’m aware of where debug cheats are sometimes repurposed as gameplay functions at least.)

Due to ZZT’s simplicity, it had a significant audience of adolescents who were given the ability to create games and express themselves in unique ways without having to learn a dedicated programming language. Children as young as nine years old have used the program to create their own games, for many, especially in the past, that's an opportunity they may not have had otherwise. ZZTers often got their first foray into programming and game design with ZZT. The program has been responsible for a love of game development with many ZZTers growing up and working on video games professionally whether for independent projects, or for larger studios. These include names like Edmund McMillen (The Binding of Isaac), Jim Crawford (Frog Fractions), clysm (seiklus), Matt Dabrowski (Streets of Rogue), and many more. (To say nothing of the folks that wound up in other non-game oriented creative roles)

Despite so many ZZTers having had continued success with game development, ZZT remains sadly obscure! Often for those who were never a part of the ZZT community, ZZT is unknown to them. While the screenshots posted are randomly selected, my hope is that those who see them will be curious and start seeing just what it is about ZZT that keeps the medium going decades later and learning what great games they've been missing on, sharing them with others, and perhaps trying to create something themselves.

This account exists as a mirror of the Twitter bot that can be found at https://twitter.com/worldsofzzt. Every three hours a random ZZT world is selected, a board is chosen, and its content is rendered to a screenshot. At least for the time being, this tumblr account will remain inactive save for these automatic posts. Originally the bot would select boards at the time of generation. These days a queue system is used to allow to manual vetting, so this account will be kept PG-13 and avoid showcasing any content best not shared openly with the world. Also just for fun, on Tuesdays only title screens are posted.

There have also been some pretty substantial changes over the past 5 or so years. While ZZT itself is a program for MS-DOS that requires emulation on modern systems, the dedicated ZZT emulator Zeta makes playing ZZT worlds as easy as double clicking the executable as one would with ZZT. Zeta even has a web build allowing ZZT worlds to be played directly on the Museum of ZZT (you'll find links when applicable on all future bot posts to play the worlds being shown). This functionality also means that many modern ZZT worlds are able exist in the greater sphere of independent game development, rather than just being seen by those already aware of ZZT. Many modern releases have been published on Itch.io as well.

Today, many active ZZTers are those returning from the 90s and 2000s, though brand new faces have also shown up and been welcomed. The modern ZZT community is older, wiser, and much nicer than before. If you find these screenshots of ZZT worlds strange, unique, silly, or appealing in some other way, consider yourself invited to join us. We're always happy to have new faces! You can find us over on Discord via https://museumofzzt.com/discord/.

Right now, the plan is to continue using the Twitter as the main source of information. For reasons you can probably guess, I am beginning to look into alternatives. If you are using both sites, the Twitter account linked above also gets additional posts by me to announce newly published worlds on the Museum of ZZT, games being livestreamed at https://twitch.tv/worldsofzzt, new articles published to the Museum of ZZT, and the occasional bit of whatever else in ZZT passes my way (dumb memes and "hey why did that glitch happen" mostly).

Worlds of ZZT Links

Museum of ZZT

Worlds of ZZT on Twitter

Worlds of ZZT Discord

Worlds of ZZT on Twitch

Worlds of ZZT on YouTube