ZZTx - The Next Evolution of ZZT

[DV90]

ZZTx

Hello all. I know this site is a bit dead but I thought I'd drop a message here just in case.

I've begun work on a new version of ZZT written in Java (cross-platform: Windows, Mac, Linux, etc).
My goal is to entirely recreate ZZT for modern computers and add a lot of new features.

Here's a couple things I've got in mind:
1) Multiplayer over the Internet, up to 16-32 people in the same world simultaneously.
2) Keep old ZZT games compatible
3) Better world editor
4) ZZT-OOP enhancements
5) Save the original ZZT nostalgia

Please help me come up with a lot more features you'd like to see, and I'll keep you updated on the progress.

[Commodore]

Work on the editor side first. A cross platform editor would be killer. Though multiplayer zzt has long been a dream...

[Saxxon]

It's great to see another ZZT clone/editor project :)

If you need any help with the internals of ZZT, you can ask me directly or look at the Lyon source code.

[DV90]

Thanks a lot for the support, I'll be sure to keep this thread updated :)

[DV90]

Here's a screenshot of my progress so far.



World loading is almost complete, there's a couple bugs in the board data though.
It's currently in monochrome (unintentionally) so I'm trying to get color working which should be done soon.

As for the resolution/window size, what are everyone's thoughts?
The image that I'm using to derive the character set from is scaled for 640x400, then multiplied by 2 for 1280x800 (current window size).
This is a bit large so I tried a factor of 150% but that disfigured the characters. I suppose it's not too big of an issue right now but what resolutions would you like the game to support? And would you like it to allow fullscreen?

Also, any other suggestions and thoughts are greatly appreciated.

[DV90]

Speaking of colors, I just fixed them.



PS, if anyone would like to put this in the Editors/Clones section, that would be greatly appreciated.

[Saxxon]

I like this. :]

Are you still hitting a problem in the board loader?

[DV90]

I like this. :]

Are you still hitting a problem in the board loader?

Thanks :)

Yeah, it seems to be cutting off the last few rows for some reason.
I believe it may also be the same issue that is giving me difficulties when loading the Status Element data (I'm currently just skipping over it for now).

Anyway, I've taken a break from world loading and I'm piecing together some minor things like a splash/loading screen, main menu, etc.

[Saxxon]

Kev's format has a lot of great information, the MWinds documentation is even better, and I used them both to construct this Wiki entry:

http://www.shikadi.net/moddingwiki/ZZT_Format

Hopefully you find the information useful.

[MST3KFAN]

I fully encourage continuation of this project. I can't begin to imagine the potential this idea has...