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DreamZZT 3.0.8

DreamZZT 3.0.8 is released!

Downloads

New Features

  • Sound support for Dreamcast
  • Support STK-colored torches, ammo, energizers
  • Uses system clock for improved game timing
  • Game speed and volume can be adjusted from title screen
  • Integration with the Trac ticket system for in-game bug reports
  • Optimized rendering to improve performance
  • Mission:Enigma is now completable
  • Auto-update support for Windows

Bug Fixes

  • Centipede segments harm player (#23)
  • Centipedes could become disconnected if shot by an enemy (#27)
  • Board transitions may not work properly after saving (#39)
  • Change object search order to match ZZT (#13)
  • Support stat-less objects (#29)
  • Handle backspace key in debug console
  • ZZT-OOP objects could still receive messages when locked (#48)

DreamZZT 3.0.8 beta1

Whew! I wanted to get this out this weekend, and I made it with 15 minutes to spare!

Introducing DreamZZT 3.0.8 beta1.

Highlights:

  • Built-in bug reporting
  • Improved game timing and faster rendering
  • Many bugs fixed, Mission:Enigma is now completable

For the full release notes, check out http://dev.c99.org/DreamZZT/milestone/3.0.8

Downloads:
Windows
Mac OS X (10.4)
Linux (Ubuntu Feisty Fawn)

A Dreamcast build will be available soon.

Feel free to test Town and Mission:Enigma, but the focus of this beta test should be 3rd party games. Also, since this is a beta release, it connects to the beta DreamZZT Online server. You’re welcome to create accounts on it from inside the game, but there aren’t any tasks on there yet.

Speaking of DreamZZT Online, the source is finally ready to be released. It’s in the DreamZZT svn repo, and can be viewed from http://dev.c99.org/DreamZZT/browser/DreamZZTOnline/trunk/

You must defeat me in a game of GEMini

After a few hours of hardcore bug fixing, Mission:Enigma is now 100% playable and completable. I hope to start releasing public betas of 3.0.8 in the next few days.

Anyone have suggestions for the next ZZT game to focus on?

DreamZZT update

I made a bit of progress on DreamZZT. You can now adjust the game speed and the sound volume from the title screen:

I’ve also integrated the Trac ticket system into the game. When loading a game, it will check to see if any tickets are open that affect that game, and show you a warning with a list:

You can view the details of a specific bug by selecting it:

Also, you can submit new bug reports from inside the game:


Creating bugs from the game will automatically record the version, platform, game, and board, as well as attaching a save of your game.

DreamZZT 3.0.6.1 for Dreamcast

DreamZZT 3.0.6.1 is now available for Dreamcast. This update includes all the changes in 3.0.6.1 for the other platforms, as well as enabling sound support on the Dreamcast.

You can grab the update from the DreamZZT download page.

Starting audio stream…

I’ve got DreamZZT’s sound code working on the Dreamcast. There are still a few little bugs to work out, but a sound-enabled Dreamcast build should be available in the next few days.

DreamZZT 3.0.6.1

DreamZZT 3.0.6.1 is released. This release addresses several issues in 3.0.6, including:

  • Pressing the enter key in certain situations could cause the game to crash
  • Users with capital letters or punctuation in their passwords were unable to login to DreamZZT Online
  • Enemies were triggering ZZT-OOP touch events

For more information visit the DreamZZT website.

Ravishingly obscure

A while back I found out DreamZZT had been mentioned in a book: Gaming Hacks.

Well, O’Reilly started offering a free trial of their online book service, so I’ve finally been able to read that section. Both DreamZZT and FrotzDC (which the author mistakenly calls DCFrotz) are mentioned in the Dreamcast emulators section.

Here’s the blurb about FrotzDC: (Pretty sure quoting is covered by fair use, don’t sue me O’Reilly!)

You can find out more about making your own text adventure ( [Hack #85] ), but if you have a keyboard or keyboard adapter for your Dreamcast, you can play text adventures here. There are plenty of freeware Z-Machine interactive fiction pieces available. DCFrotz even supports sound effects if you want to use or program a game that plays spooky WAV files.

And the blurb about DreamZZT:

Finishing with another ravishing obscurity, DreamZZT is a Dreamcast conversion of Tim Sweeney’s famous ZZT PC game-creation tool. (Back in the early ’90s, he wasn’t yet famous for Epic’s Unreal series.) ZZT graphics are entirely made up of ASCII characters. There’s a multitude of public-domain games available, both turn-based and real-time. Many are RPG-like. The Chocobo.org site has a decent ZZT game selection (http://www.chocobo.org/~butz/zzt.htm) if you’d like to try some third-party titles, all of which seem to run reasonably well.

The other Dreamcast projects mentioned in that chapter are DreamSNES, Dream-O-Rama, MDCNG, Frodo, and Stella. Considering how much homebrew software is available for the Dreamcast, it’s exciting to have not one but two mentions in the book!

Anyone want to buy me a copy?

DreamZZT 3.0.6 release date

I’ve decided to push the release date for DreamZZT 3.0.6 to 1/27 to allow enough time to finish the Dreamcast version. I hadn’t intended on supporting the Dreamcast again until 3.2.0, but I’ve made significant progress over the last few days to warrant holding up the release for two weeks to finish it.