DOS Games Discussion

Okay, how do you make different ZZT char sets? Do you need a special tool, or what?

Also, different colors. I can't remember the thing needed.

I once had a program for color but lost it. As for fonts, at zzt.theunderdogs.org go to the utilites section and download font mania. Make your font and save it as a .com file, Also make the the height is set right. (I can't recall what right now) Then make a .bat file like this:

@echo off
fontname i
zzt zztgamefile
fontname u
echo closingmessageifyouwantone

Zzt has several hundred posible colors, I would suggest you download various zzt toolkits to get them all. (some of them look REALLY awesome, I would recomend you download several good zzt games and look at the colors and graphics in them)

That's not the problem. How do I use the colors and such? Do I have to go back into the kit to get them?

I thought you meant a pallete editor for MS-Dos. But for good color kits download Z-files 1 & 2 be Zenith on z2. Or for everything from all the STK utilities use PureSTK by Me. To use the things like a color kit. In the editor find one that suits your needs press T. Then select export and name it. Next in your game import it. If you need say a brown smiley select the last box in the pattern and press enter over it. Now go to the board you want it on and press space. Viola! Or... for a quicker method I don't know the adress though. Download ZZTae or Kevedit. These contain the special features right inside them.

Go here for the external editors. I use ZZTAE, but KevEdit is just as good.

Also, if you're familiar with MegaZeux, you can make a character set in there and then convert it using Char Tools, which you can pick up here. It's an in-game utility, meaning that you would load it like a normal game in MegaZeux.

custom char sets aren't very common in ZZT anymore, and I have to recommend against it, unless it would really make an impact on the quality or playability of the game.

As for toolkits, you can grab Dr. Dos', or if you want practically everything in the world, get my Ultra Toolkit, available here (don't ask why it's in the Executables section). WARNING: Don't try to use the centipede heads or segments in the Ultra Toolkit, since they were created in ZZTAE which had (and still has) problems making them. What is technically going wrong is that thye're trying to follow the player instead of the head, which causes the game to lock up. Don't ask.

You can also download the Mystical Winds Encyclopedia v1.4 in that same Utilities section of Z2. The third file ($MWENC_C.ZZT) contains a set of toolkits that you might find useful.

Here is how to use a toolkit:

Load up the board that you want to use in editor. Press T and select Export. Type something and press Enter. Now load up a blank board in your game. Press T and select Import. Type the thing that you just exported. The board will now appear in your game.

Once you have the board in your game, move your cursor over something that you want to use. Press Enter. If it asks for things in the sidebar, just keep pressing Enter until it's gone. Now go to the board that you want to put the thing in. If the thing you grabbed hadn't appeared in the pattern box, it will now. Select it by pressing P, move your cursor to the place you want to put it, and press the spacebar.

If you don't want to bother copying the whole board over to your game, you can just grab something from one world, load up another, and place it. Transfering it over is good for saving time in the long run.

If you have ZZTAE or KevEdit, you don't need to do any of the stuff above. In ZZTAE, just press C to bring up a selection box with all 256 color combinations. In KevEdit, you can bring it up by pressing K.

FM is so easy to use, it's like a megazeux font editor.