Directed by Derek Murphy and Mitchell Zemil • Documentary • 2021 • 28 minutes
In 1991, 21-year-old game developer Tim Sweeney launched a simplistic, already-outdated MS-DOS game that would become, entirely by accident, the most popular hobbyist game development tool of the 90’s.
ZZT's free, robust, and easy to use level editor allowed players with no money or programming experience to create their own complete, easily sharable games. A large and enthusiastic community blossomed, and today there is a vibrant kaleidoscope of ZZT games out there, and new ones are still being released.
We spoke with Dr. Dos, the proprietor of the Museum of ZZT website, where he documents, preserves, and makes available a vast collection of user-created ZZT games from the community’s storied history to ensure that they can be enjoyed and studied for years to come.
Up Next in Season 1
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Preserving Worlds S1 Ep3: Myst Online
Directed by Derek Murphy and Mitchell Zemil • Documentary • 2021 • 28 minutes
In the mid-2000’s, Cyan Worlds, creators of the massively popular adventure game Myst, released an ambitious online sequel that never caught on the way they'd hoped. Myst Online: Uru Live sought to translate the single...
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Preserving Worlds S1 Ep4: Doom
Directed by Derek Murphy and Mitchell Zemil • Documentary • 2021 • 25 minutes
The first person shooter Doom launched in 1993 and quickly secured its place in popular culture. The game’s creators were unusually mod-friendly, and they set the game up so it was easy and legal for fans to create the...
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Preserving Worlds S1 Ep5: NeoHabitat
Directed by Derek Murphy and Mitchell Zemil • Documentary • 2021 • 28 minutes
Habitat, the first ever graphical massively multiplayer online game, emerged on the Commodore 64 home micro computer in 1986. Because the game was the first of its kind, its developers tried a number of odd experiments...
