Zeta - a different approach to modern-day ZZT

[Zephyr]

default.zln was created when you installed kevedit? What OS was this on?

I went to Kevin's github and found this file, which I copypasted into a new file that I saved as "default.zln." I then tried changing the last line following your instructions. No luck though. :( Using Windows.

Thanks for the help.

[asie]

Beta 14 has now been released, with major improvements to the web front-end!

default.zln was created when you installed kevedit? What OS was this on?

I am on Linux. A fresh, empty file "default.zln" with just the line I mentioned.

Some testing shows that the file must be in the directory of the .ZZT file, but the path should be absolute (or relative to KevEdit's installation location). Perhaps something to fix in KevEdit itself...

[nooBsaIBoT]

Is there a way to actually do this in future versions?:

- .PAL format support: See MegaZeux PAL format
- .PLD format support: basically all 64 colors from EGA format converted to VGA for editing (only default 16 colors editable)

The PLD format was from an old editor, see ZZT custom palette (UPAL), both that and FM should've been superseded by the TSR that was made by Quantum P.

There's already some in-code work to support some of this:

- The palette is a bit more hardcoded, but it wouldn't be difficult to add .PAL support likewise.
- I'm not familiar with the PLD format, sorry.

What I would probably do is either:

- upon loading a .ZZT file, check for a .CHR and .PAL file with the same filename - if present, load them,
- or just add web/SDL frontend arguments...

I had to backtrack cause it's been a while... Those frontend arguments would be nice though. Any progress?

Here, have a VIC-20 color conversion in UPAL:


Pico-8 inspired palette:


You need a thin coat of liquid hwite to get the canvas slick and wet!


maybe support for amber, green and white monochrome mode?

[asie]

I had to backtrack cause it's been a while... Those frontend arguments would be nice though. Any progress?

yes! I just added them on one of my train journeys - CHR/PAL/PLD asset loading support will be a part of Beta 15, as will changing the charset/palette using array data in the web front-end.

maybe support for amber, green and white monochrome mode?

Maybe. Couldn't you just make a palette for it at this point, though?

EDIT: And just like that - beta 15 is out, bringing many web-side improvements and custom charset/palette loading.

[Smilymzx]

Look ma, No DOSBOX!!! :D

[emmzee]

I noticed on the Zeta website that there are plans for an Android port. Would this be for a ZZT app on the Play store? That'd be pretty awesome.

[Commodore]

The way this is worked into Museum of ZZT is really impressive! Well done all!

[Nerezza]

I'm having issues getting Super ZZT working properly in Zeta. It seems to only load one world at a time in the world list. Dosbox lists each world instead, so I know it's something going on with Zeta. Any ideas what's going on here or what I can do to fix it?

[Dr. Dos]

For now you should be able to launch a specific world from the commandline with "zeta blahblah.szt"

[Nerezza]

Ah, that's easy enough to set up with shortcuts, that'll work fine, thanks a lot!

[asie]

I'm having issues getting Super ZZT working properly in Zeta. It seems to only load one world at a time in the world list. Dosbox lists each world instead, so I know it's something going on with Zeta. Any ideas what's going on here or what I can do to fix it?

Caught and fixed in beta17, thanks for the report!

[nooBsaIBoT]

maybe support for amber, green and white monochrome mode?

Maybe. Couldn't you just make a palette for it at this point, though?

Amber: 3F3400 / 352100


Green: 002700 / 003F00


White: 2A2A2A / 3F3F3F

[Nerezza]

There still seems to be something odd with the music code compared to vanilla ZZT on a dos computer. It's better now, but there's still an issue with repeated notes. In the original game, repeated notes would have each note be a new 'hit', like hitting the same note on a piano over and over, but it currently works like you're holding down the key, if that makes sense.

This ZZT game's title screen is made up of this kinda music so it's easy to test and see what I mean: https://museumofzzt.com/file/k/Kaboom.zip

The music should be a lot of repeated notes, but instead it's a lot of long notes on the newest release of Zeta. I hope this makes sense.

[asie]

(...) this makes sense.

It really does, and I see what you mean now that I have a concrete example! However, to get it exactly right, I'll need to procure a DOS machine on which it sounds correctly in the first place... so please stay tuned.

[asie]

There still seems to be something odd with the music code compared to vanilla ZZT on a dos computer. It's better now, but there's still an issue with repeated notes.

Could you give me feedback on this build? http://zeta.asie.pl/zeta86-beta21t2-win32.zip (Note that the .WAV writing code doesn't yet properly reflect all the changes.)