Before Gears of War, before Unreal, before even Jazz Jackrabbit, there was ZZT.

Cheat codes

ZZT 3.2 has an easily-accessible cheat console which can be activated simply by pressing the ? key. This allows the player to use any of the following commands:

• ZAP - Clears the four spaces surrounding the player. Be warned that this removes everything in those four spaces, including objects critical to the game, which can (and usually does) render games unbeatable.


• KEYS - Gives player all keys.


• AMMO - Gives the player 5 ammo units.


• GEMS - Gives the player 5 gems, but not the corresponding 5 health units.


• TORCHES - Gives the player 3 torches.


• HEALTH - Gives the player 50 health.


• DARK - Makes the room dark.


• -DARK - Removes the darkness attribute.

Additionally, typing in + or - followed by the name of a flag will set or clear that flag.

These cheat codes became fairly well-known among the ZZT community, and some fan-created ZZT games will take measures to deter their use; however, none of the official series games do. (Though it is quite possible for the player to trap oneself, especially with the ZAP cheat.) Other games use the cheats to provide additional functions; i.e., using ?+H to trigger a help menu.

Debug mode

In-game

Using +DEBUG in the cheat console will activate debug mode; in prior versions of ZZT, this was required to use any other cheats, but in 3.2 cheats are always enabled. When debug mode is activated, the letter "m" followed by some numbers is shown on screen where the cheat console appears. This value is the number of bytes remaining in heap memory for objects on the current board and the entire compressed data for the game world being played. This also sets the flag "DEBUG".

In-editor

Typically, the official ZZT games can not be edited in the editor. However, if the ?+DEBUG cheat is applied while in the editor, then all such "locked" games can be opened. This only works in ZZT 3.2; it does not work in versions 3.0 or 2. This also works with those fan-made games that try and take advantage of the lock feature, though others use more clever methods that require additional circumvention.

Revisional differences

As mentioned above, in versions of ZZT prior to 3.2, it was required to use debug mode to use cheat codes. There are also some other additional changes among the three widely available versions of ZZT.

Configuration screen

ZZT 2.0	ZZT 3.0	ZZT 3.2

ZZT 2.0's configuration screen was quite bland, whereas ZZT 3.0 was extremely colorful. 3.2 keeps the general look of 3.0, but goes back to a black background. Also worth noting is the subtitle "The Object Oriented Game", and the fact that Potomac Computer Systems would eventually change its name to Epic MegaGames. Finally, pressing ESC at this screen allows you to quit ZZT immediately in 3.x, but in 2.0 does nothing.

Town of ZZT

ZZT 2.0	ZZT 3.0	ZZT 3.2

The default Town of ZZT game, included with all versions, had its title screen tweaked between 2.0 and 3.0. 3.2 is similar to what came before, but features the Epic MegaGames branding, and makes it more clear that there was potentially more than 1 game world to be had.

Unused Areas

Town of ZZT contains a board named "-unused", whose contents are entirely empty, without even the yellow border that traditionally accompanies a newly-started ZZT board. As the ZZT editor does not provide any convenient way to delete boards entirely, this may be a remnant of an abandoned or unstarted puzzle or area.

Similar boards also exist in Caves of ZZT and Dungeons of ZZT. The Guided Tour of ZZT (essentially an advertisement for the registered version) contains a board called "g" which does have the yellow border.

The Physics Behind ZZT

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The official ZZT worlds all have special entries in the world list which give their full name. In ZZT 2.0, creating a world called PHYSICS.ZZT will result in the full title "The Physics Behind ZZT" being displayed. This is removed in later versions.