Message timer

Message timer
ZZT-OOP name	N/A
Internal ID	2 (0x02)
Character	#char 32 (0x20)
Stats
Default cycle	1
P2	ticks remaining
Other traits
Effect on movement	solid
Destructible?	no
Uses ZZT-OOP color names?	N/A

The message timer is the colloquial name for the internal element that handles displaying text at the bottom of the screen.

Messages can be emitted by objects or by various internal events. When a message is emitted, the game creates a message timer just outside the visible portion of the screen at coordinate (0,0). The number of ticks a message is displayed for is scaled according to the game speed at the time of the message's creation. Most in-game messages (including ones generated by objects) are displayed for 200/TickTimeDuration ticks.

The message timer displays the contents of the board's message parameter on the bottom row of the screen, cycling through ZZT's 7 built-in colors during the process. The message can be up 58 characters in length, and the message timer appends spaces to both sides of it -- however, sufficiently long messages can visually overwrite a portion of the status bar that the game does not clean up (when the message is finished only the border of the screen is visually refreshed).