Inspired by Lemmings, this ZZT engine game–the beginning of a four-entry series–puts the player in control of a cursor that builds block in order to safely guide the eternally marching Zem to the exit portal.
ZZT games require ZZT to run.
Zem! and its first sequel were profiled by Dr. Dos in his “Closer Look” series in August 2016.
My only finished project in the OHRRPGCE engine, Darkwing Duck RPG is a short game that takes sees Disney’s Darkwing Duck character facing off against some of his biggest nemeses on his home turf of St. Canard.
I taught myself the engine while making this game. Hence its brevity, and its exploratory feeling.
Once upon a time, I was planning a much larger sequel with dozens of locations, more weapons and party members, and a much more intricate storyline.
This zip file includes a compatible version of OHRRPGCE, a program for DOS.
A Halloween adventure game. You arrive at a Halloween party only to find that the mansion where the party was supposed to be is completely empty. What force has spirited away your friends? An ancient evil lurks within.
Contains my first RPG battle system.
This game was originally planned as a QBASIC text adventure. The maps I created for that game were adapted for ZZT.
ZZT games require ZZT to play. Download it from Z2.
A collection of ZZT boards released to my then-website, Newt’s Pond. It features a crane game that was never implemented in any released games (though was featured in Nessness, a cancelled project). There are also a smattering of sample boards from previously released and soon-to-be-released games. It also has an advertisement for the ZZT newsletter I was trying to get off the ground and teases a few projects that never materialized, including a spy adventure spoof called “James Yawn.”
Made right on the heels of Parallel Universe and The Punctuation People, Night Conjure was created for the very first 24 Hours of ZZT competition in the summer of 1998 under the theme “night.” It was highly influenced by games in the Zelda series, and the protagonist, naturally, has to save the world from evil forces that arrive at nightfall. The game returns you to the same locations multiple times as the day progresses into night.
It was the first game to take place in the fantasy realm of Nellad, which was also the setting of 1999’s Megazeux game The Grand Mage.
Looking back, this has some of my most interesting board design and most attractive aesthetics in my ZZT work.
ZZT games require ZZT to run. Download from Z2.
Subtitled “Dual Plane,” this was meant to be the first in a long serial adventure inspired by the ZZT series Chrono Wars and two episodes of Sliders I saw at my cousins’ house.
This was my first attempt at a serious ZZT adventure game. It has some embarrassing themes of young earth creationism.
ZZT games require ZZT. Download from Z2.
In this platformer, Paul Paragraph is on a quest to rescue the punctuation people (that is, people who are various punctuation marks) from the Evil Copy Editor.
Upon encountering a few “jumping” engines in ZZT demo files, I immediately became obsessed with creating a Super Mario Bros.-like game in ZZT. Most of the enemies are patterned after classic Mario enemies, and the player can collect coins.
This was the first ZZT game I released that received much positive feedback from the ZZT community. Most of my subsequent games would also be engine games.
ZZT games require ZZT to run. Download it from zzt.org.