
MegaZeux: Game creation system released in 1994 and still being developed today - 6581
https://www.digitalmzx.com/
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Minor49er
I used to be a part of the MegaZeux community years ago. It was a group where
curious creatives would come together and learn how to program or to create
digital art. The releases for MegaZeux have been plagued with demos,
"engines", and utilities. Relatively few finished games have actually been
released, which really isn't surprising considering how complicated games can
be. But it was a great and supportive community where people cut their teeth
learning game development concepts.

It's interesting to see some go on to bigger projects in programming (Gilead
Kutnick aka Exophase) or music (Sai'ke, Emalkay), and animation (can't
remember the name of who I'm thinking of for this one in particular, but he
released some very well-made animations on Newgrounds before entering the
industry).

MegaZeux has a built in language called Robotic that was basically a limited
BASIC, but organized in entities called "robots". There were also graphical
hacks that let developers adjust the appearance of the ASCII characters or
change the color palette. There was a lot to it for the time.

The Day of Zeux, or "DoZ", was always a fun test where teams would organize
and create a game in 24 hours based on a specific topic given by judges. My
first entry humbled me pretty hard since I went into it cocky about my
capabilities, but my teammates abandoned development and we came in dead last.
I tried in a later year and my team then created a game about escaping from a
prison, which even had multiple endings. We didn't win, but we were near the
top that time.

If it wasn't for MegaZeux, I probably wouldn't be a full time developer today.

I hope college went well for RoSS. Also, long live Frozen Cow Industries

~~~
throwaway53678
Exophase is the best programmer I’ve ever met. Also, he’s the one that
accomplished the port from DOS to Windows (IIRC, having nothing but the
decompiled binaries to work from) back in the early 2000’s, and is probably
the reason there’s still a community today. I could see MZX having died out
otherwise.

~~~
Minor49er
He's a great dev. Despite that, a friend and I would troll him pretty hard on
IRC. There was a user who popped on at some point named Elig who was good
friends with him. We speculated that it was a fake alter ego of his (Elig is
Gile backwards, short for Gilead).

Also his name Exophase came about because someone asked him to name a boss,
but it was too cool a name for someone's game, so he used it for himself

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throwaway53678
Ahaha, I wondered if MegaZeux would ever make it to HN. Which one of us posted
this? Been using MZX for 20 years. It’s what got me into programming. It’s a
treasure.

There’s something about the programming model (“robots” so easily model people
conversing and doing silly things) that allows you to just casually sketch out
whatever’s in your head. That’s given rise to so many quirky, funny games for
this system in a style that might never be made in any other context, except
of course its predecessor ZZT. Dive into the archives and have fun.

The community, to my knowledge, still meets up yearly and also has impromptu
hour-long game jams.

~~~
PetahNZ
Me too, this was one if the first things I learned to program. This and MIRC
scripting.

~~~
noderat
Blast from the past for sure. MZX, TurboPascal and mIRC scripting were some of
the first things that got really into development after migrating from my
brother's hand-me-down C64 and later an Amiga 600.

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AlphaWeaver
Another system like this is BYOND [0] (which stands for "Build Your Own Net
Dream".) I think it started in 2001.

It has a number of problems, but there are a few games with fairly active
communities that are built on top of BYOND, like Space Station 13. [1]

[0]: [http://www.byond.com/](http://www.byond.com/) [1]:
[https://spacestation13.com/](https://spacestation13.com/)

~~~
taveras
BYOND holds a special place in my heart. It introduced me to software
engineering and the client-server model!

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undershirt
somewhat buried in the helpfile is context (pasted below). Seems to be based
on Tim Sweeney’s first attempt at gamedev, a text editor in Pascal that he
turned into a game called ZZT[1]. Users could create their own games with the
scripting language. MegaZeux is an offshoot.

    
    
        Overview of MegaZeux
    
        ...
    
        As you may already know, MegaZeux is a game system which
        allows you to play almost limitless worlds with
        dated-yet-charming graphics and with excellent digitized music
        and sound. Not only are there several MZX worlds out there
        already, but new worlds are being uploaded to large websites
        like DigitalMZX. However, the best feature of MegaZeux is the
        World Editor.
        
        Using the World Editor, ANYONE can create the world of their
        dreams. Make it as simple or complex (well, almost), as easy
        or difficult, as long or short as you please. We aren't just
        talking about worlds made up of petty, pre-programmed enemies
        and objects; MegaZeux has its own, easy-to-use PROGRAMMING
        LANGUAGE called Robotic that allows you to create objects,
        engines and worlds that do almost anything you desire. Not only
        can you make your own game with the editor, but every world
        MegaZeux can play can be opened in the editor. Take a look at
        how other games tick!
        
        For the newest user, it's recommended that you play Caverns,
        the first ever MegaZeux game, to get the feel of simple yet
        well-designed games in MegaZeux. You may wish to read the help
        section entitled "Controls" to learn how to play MegaZeux.
        
        If you're more adventurous, start with a more complex game like
        Demon Earth or Bernard the Bard, or a prettier game like & or
        Fritz Blitz to see what kind of graphics functions, bells and
        whistles MZX can offer.
        
        Once you have the feel for the game, feel free to dive into the
        World Editor and get messy! You should probably read the help
        section entitled "The World Editor" first.
        
        To go to one of these sections now, hit Enter after aligning
        the arrows with one of these choices. Press ESC now to exit to
        the game.
    

[1]:[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZZT](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZZT)

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acheron
I was into ZZT and so I got the first version of MZX back in 94. I played with
it a lot, though never really finished and released anything major. Some
version of the game I’m in the credits as a beta tester.

While I was doing BASIC and stuff before then, ZZT and MZX definitely pushed
me along the programming path even more strongly.

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waltbosz
I was really into ZZT for several years. I played and made several games.

I liked MegaZeux for it's technical improvements over ZZT (sound, music,
graphics), but I didn't like the programming language. It felt inconsistent
and unfinished. Also, there were few great MegaZeux games at the time.

If anyone is curious, Alexis Janson is the original author of MegaZeux
[https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Alexis_Janson](https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Alexis_Janson)
. She also made some of the best ZZT games.

~~~
Minor49er
I wonder when he made the transition. He was Gregory throughout his creation
of MegaZeux, and after he announced his departure from the project

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mathgladiator
I find this inspiring. As I am looking to start my own community driven
project, I can only hope that I can find enough people that share my vision.

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jay-anderson
To get an idea of the game you can try out the original version on
archive.org:
[https://archive.org/details/MZX102](https://archive.org/details/MZX102)

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blondin
there are many BASIC communities around as well!! now that i think about it,
we should learn from what they are doing right. BASIC and variants have
communities with super awesome survival skills.

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nullsmack
Oh wow, it's basically ZZT. I loved that game in the 90s.

