How To Play ZZT
Before we get into the specifications of editing, let's learn
how to play ZZT. When you get to the title screen after you
run ZZT.EXE, you press W to select the game you want to play
(the available games are any files in the ZZT directory that
end in .ZZT). You then press P to play the game. The game
loads up and you start. You are represented by a white happy
face with a blue background. Actually, there is a very
detailed help file in ZZT as to how to play the game, and
really, once you know how to make a game, playing it will
come natural.
How to begin editing
Once you enter the ZZT program, you can hit E to start
editing. When you hit E, the screen will change to an empty
black screen with a yellow border. There will be a red box
asking you to input a board name. Type in anything you want
and press {ENTER}. Now that you are in the editor you will
see that you are ready to go. You move the cursor by pressing
up, down, left, and right.
Editor Function Keys
These are the keyboard, joystick, and mouse buttons that will
serve a purpose in the ZZT Editor.
[L] Load a world
[S] Save a world
[Q,ESC] Quit editing
[B] Switch boards- You can switch between your boards and
add a new board by going to the bottom of the board list. The
top board of the list is always the title screen.
[F1] Bring up the item list (see Chapter 2)
[F2] Bring up the creature list (see Chapter 4)
[F3] Bring up the terrain list (see Chapter 3)
[F4] Enter text- Text will enter in white on (the color you
have selected in the color box). When you have the color
white selected, you get plain white on black text.
[Space], Joystick or Mouse Button 1- Place selected pattern
on the board.
[Tab] Turn on/off Drawing Mode- Whenever you move the cursor
in this mode, it will draw the selected pattern wherever it
moves.
[P] Select the Pattern. The pattern box is at the bottom of
the screen and looks like this: ۲� � . The objects in the
box are, in order left to right, Solid Wall, Normal Wall,
Breakable Wall, Empty, Line Wall, Variable.
[Enter] Does 2 things at once. If you hit Enter while the
cursor is over a modifiable object or enemy, you can change
its characteristics and/or programming. It also puts the
object/enemy/terrain (or whatever the cursor was on when you
hit Enter) into the last part of the Pattern box, so you can
select that thing as a Pattern. If you hit Enter over text,
it displays it as a dark green square in the Pattern box.
[C] Changes the color in the Color box. The Color box is
right next to the Pattern box and determines the color of the
things that you place on the board.
[Z] This clears everything off the board and sets all board
information to default. It also puts the standard yellow
border back on the screen.
[X] This fills in an area with the selected pattern. It fills
in the space that the cursor is on and any space adjacent to
that space, providing they all share the same pattern.
[N] Create a new world.
[T] Import or Export a board. If you Export it will save the
board as a .BRD file. If you Import you will be asked to load
a .BRD file. It will replace the board that you are on.
[?] This is the "cheat" key. Press this and a black box will
appear in the top corner of the screen. If you are running
ZZT version 3.0 you will have to type in +debug and hit Enter
before anything will work. After you type that, hit ? again
and type one of the commands listed below. (If you are
running version 3.2 or higher, all you have to do is type in
one of the commands, without typing +debug.
gems - Gives you 5 extra gems when you play the game
ammo - Gives you 5 extra ammo when you play the game
torches - Gives you 3 extra torches when you play the game
health - Gives you 50 extra health when you play the game
-debug - Turn off the debug mode
These cheats also work while playing the game, with a few
commands specifically for game playing:
time - Get 29 extra time on timed screens
zap - Clear 4 squares surrounding the player
-dark - Turn off darkness (must be running version 3.2)
+dark - Turn on darkness (must be running version 3.2)
[!] When you hit this, a black box will appear in the corner
of the screen. Enter a .HLP file name, and edit it with the
ZZT text editor. This is a little buggy and sometimes the
file will not save when you press Esc, rather the file will
save as a 0 byte file. However, if the file already exists,
it will usually work.
[`] or [~] Redraw the screen. This will re-write the board
name at the top of the screen, and show the current variable
pattern in the pattern box.
[I] Board Information. When you press I, you will see a menu
of choices that you can click on:
Title: Changes the board title.
Can fire: Changes the max number of shots you can fire.
Board is dark: Switches darkness on or off. If the board
is dark, then everything in the board is covered in
blackness when the game begins, except for you and
passages. If you have a torch, it illuminates a small
area around the player during a game.
Board {up arrow}: Tells you what board the player will
go to if the player travels up. The player will appear
on the bottom of the board selected.
Board {down arrow}: Selects board down.
Board {left arrow}: Selects board left.
Board {right arrow}: Selects board right.
Re-enter when zapped: This selects whether a player will
re-enter the board when he is hit by an enemy, shot, or
if time runs out. He re-enters from the place he
entered, be it the side of the board or a passage.
Time limit, 0=None: Selects time limit of the board in
game seconds. 0 means there is no time limit.
Quit!: Leave menu.
Known Bugs and Limitations
In ZZT, there are a few things you have to watch out for.
1.You can only have 101 "things" on screen that have to be
updated constantly (like, bombs, passages, enemies).
2.There can only be 100 different boards in 1 world.
3.The board size limit is 20K.
4.The maximum number of flags that can be set (see Chapter 6)
is 9.
