ZZT
ZZT is an action-adventure video game released by Tim Sweeney under Potomac Computer Systems (later Epic MegaGames) on January 15th, 1991[1]. It received multiple official updates, the final one being ZZT 3.2, as well as a sequel - Super ZZT.
ZZT was originally distributed in a shareware model, with the first game world in the official series, Town of ZZT, being available without charge, and additional game worlds (Caves of ZZT, Dungeons of ZZT, City of ZZT) purchasable via mail order. On October 10th, 1997[2], the full version of ZZT was made available at no cost, albeit without the source code due to it being lost in a system failure[3]. On March 15th, 2020, the release of the Reconstruction of ZZT effectively made the ZZT game engine, as well as its documentation and reverse-engineered binary-equivalent source code, available under the terms of the MIT license.
Version history
The full number of ZZT versions made available to the public is not known, as registered copies of ZZT would often include silently added changes not made available in the shareware versions.
| Version | Compilation date | Release date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| ZZT 2.0 (Shareware) | December 26th, 1990 | January 15th, 1991[1] | |
| ZZT 2.0 (Registered) | Unknown | January 15th, 1991[1] | Registered copies only. |
| ZZT 3.0 | Unknown | Unknown | |
| ZZT 3.1 (September 1991) | September 14th, 1991 | Unknown | Registered copies only. |
| Worlds of ZZT 3.56 | October 1st, 1991 | Unknown | Licensed by SoftDisk for On Disk Monthly #60. |
| ZZT 3.1 | November 2nd, 1991 | Unknown | First release under Epic MegaGames. |
| ZZT 3.2 (March 1992) | March 9th, 1992 | Unknown | Registered copies only; included with ZZT's Revenge. |
| ZZT 3.2 | May 21st, 1992 | Unknown | Final official build. |