The Winter Day of Zeux hosted by Ibrahim has started and ended (it was over at 12 noon EST, December 29). The topic was the acronym C.O.S.T.A.N. The judging has started and I suggest you keep checking the page for results. Unfortunately, I had to drop out myself due to my team members having computer trouble.

The server PFNet, where #megazeux used to be located before it split up, will go down soon. #megazeux is now located at EsperNet (irc.esper.net, port:6667). You can read the new #megazeux rules here. On the somewhat related note - Piman has shut down zeux.org due to some problems.

All judges of tseng's The Hoodian awards have finished nominating. The grand public can now vote on their favorite games and ZZTers, nominated by The Hoodian judges (Hercules, Knightt, Skullie, Lemmer, Zeux and Zenith). Go vote here. Note that you can only send in votes once and if the voting form does not work for some odd reason, email tseng with your votes. There won't be a shoutcast session to announce the winners and it is not sure if there will be a ceremony on #darkdigital.

This year Interactive Fantasies will be handing out ZZT Excellence Awards again, like last year. The nomination phase started quite some ago and almost all of the votes are in. The council consists of Hercules (council chair), Hydra, HM, Venom, tseng, and Blue Magus. For more information, you can go to the official IFAZEA 1999 page here. Note that there will be a special winners ceremony on #if somewhere in the beginning of the year 2000. Keep checking the IF page for more news.

Just a reminder: Zenith is working on issue 8 of IF's ZZT magazine, iFantasy 8. He needs some submissions, so send all of your previews, reviews, art, mini-games, etc... to Zenith.

The Christmas Week of Zeux, hosted by Magus919, has started. It started on December 25 and will end on December 31. Go here for the official page. The topic is Mind over Matter.

Wayward writes:
#megazeux, the IRC hangout of a lot of MegaZeuxers, has been subject to heavy changes and has now been split into two channels. The story is complicated and I am not in any way able to tell you the story in my own words, so please read Stargazer's story about it here.

Jeff Conroy has uploaded his new megazeux.net! It is not a MegaZeux games archive anymore, as Fejj's old MegaZeux Warehouse was, but it is a very resourceful and neat MegaZeux page that provides you with interesting information on the community's upcoming titles, some new game downloads, misc MegaZeux utitly downloads and more. Go and check it out now.

Ibrahim is hosting the Winter Day of Zeux, as you may all know by now. The contest starts on Tuesday 28 December (12 noon EST) and ends on the same time next day. The topic will be announced live on IRC. Since #megazeux had lots of trouble lately, you may wonder *where* on IRC the topic will be announced. Well, the ceremony will be in #megazeux on EsperNet (irc.esper.net, port:6667). If you haven't signed up yet, then do so today! The official Winter Day of Zeux page can be visited here.

Scott Hammack, aka xf, has released a collection of all his ZZT games released in the past five years, called "Five Years of Maximum ZZT". This includes Llama Masters 1 and 2, Pizzman and several more. Also, he will continue work on Llama Masters 3, of which you can download a live copy on Scott's page. Visit his page here.

Interactive Fantasies will be releasing a few new brand-spanking ZZT games soon. Koopo the Lemming part 1 and 2, made by Koopo (you could have guessed ^_^), will be out very soon. It's really, *really* neat. Other than that, Hydra is almost done with the sequel to his old ZZT sidescroller Freak da Cat. This game will be sent out to the beta-testers tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. Yay! Furthermore, I hereby announce that Hydra and I (Hercules) will be creating another small comedy game for ZZT. This game should be done within a day or six. In other words: sit back and enjoy.

Wayward wrote me to announce the following: "With ibuki's permission, I am hosting a "after the fact" 24hozzt called io24hozzt (or Ibuki's other 24hozzt). I have no set in stone date, but it will be next week. I am currently in need of two judges, at least, and anyone can participate (except the judges). The whole point of this thing by the way is mainly for people who missed the last 24hozzt, but they aren't the only ones who can join. And info for the contest can be found on my page."

The nomination phase of both tseng's Da Hoodian awards and the Interactive Fantasies Annual ZZT Excellence Awards (IFAZEA) have started. There are many awards to be won this year, so get ready. For info about Da Hoodian awards, go here. The page for the IFAZEA will be up soon.

I have finally published the results of the Winter 24 hours of ZZT, hosted by me (Hercules). GipFace won the contest with his nifty entry "Must not Kill!" and he gets to host the Spring 2000 24 hours of ZZT. Jacob Hammond, who hadn't used ZZT for two years, made a smashing comeback and came in second. The Dutch team of Robert Pragt and Rik van Zuilekom placed third with their neato entry, which had awesome graphics. All results can be read here.

JZig has released MegaZeux v2.51 Spider 3 (v2.51s3). This is mainly a bugfix for v2.51s2, but it has some new features as well. You can get all information right here and the binary files can be downloaded here. If you have any comments, email JZig. Also be sure to take a look at readme.1st before you start using it.

Jeff Conroy will be reviving his old MegaZeux page, megazeux.net. This time it won't be a large MZX archive, but it will be a very resourceful page for every MegaZeuxer. Fejj is currently working on it and it will be up relatively soon at http://megazeux.net. This is good news to the MegaZeux scene, since Micah Lee is thinking about dismantling the GRegory JAnson Worhsip Page.

Skullie, Lemmer and kev-san have found out a way to play ZZT online! It goes via the program NetMeeting. If you want to find out more about this, then read the detailed report about playing/editing ZZT online here.

The Winter 24 hours of ZZT contest will start very soon, on Friday 17 December (6:30 PM EST). If you haven't signed up yet, then email me with your name and preferred ID number. The topic will be announced live on #if (Austnet IRC) just before the contest starts. The topic will also be put on the Winter 24 hours of ZZT page and all participants will be sent a reminder email at the start of the contest.

Chuck has given his ZZT page, The Vortex, a new look and a new name. It is now called The Grand Illusion. The new URL of the page is http://trap.cx/gchucky.

I (Hercules) have registered a new ZZT/MegaZeux email service, ZZTMZXmail. This allows you to get your own (username)@zztmzxmail.zzn.com email address. You can sign up/login/get info here. If you have any questions, email me either at my standard email address or my ZZTMZXmail webmaster address.

Mono is organizing the Millennium 48 hours of ZZT contest. It starts on December 29 (time not known yet) and ends somewhere shortly after midnight on January 1. There is no page yet, but Mono is working on it. Until then, sign up by emailing Mono. Note that the Winter 24 hours of ZZT, hosted by me, takes place about a week before this one.

Ibrahim has moved the page for the Winter Day of Zeux. He had trouble logging on the old one. The old URL will be still be up for a short period, but you should use the new one. The moved page is located here.

Dark FLR has given his ZZT game search engine, Darhf's ZZT Search Engine (DZSE) a new look. Now you can also vote on your favorite game listed in the DZSE's database. Visit the DZSE here.

Almighty Cow, the famous MZXer who joined IF not so long ago, released chapter 1 of Endless Journey: Ethen's Test. The game features the best graphics I've ever seen in MegaZeux! Moreover, the plot is cool and the music/sound effects are a great addition to the mood. Finally, this game includes engines that haven't been showed before in MegaZeux. It requires MegaZeux v2.51s2 (available at zeux.org) and you can download it here.

Wayward is starting a ZZT review page. He will try to write at least one ZZT review per week. Most of the reviewed games will be unknown/underrated games and therefore the page is called "Wayward's Underrated ZZT Review Outlet". If you want your game to be reviewed, email Wayward. In the future this page will be up here.

Ibrahim is hosting the Winter Day of Zeux (24 hours of MegaZeux)! I advise you to go to the official Winter Day of Zeux page to read all the rules and sign up (you can sign up by filling in a simple form). The judges are Stargazer, Rayena and PyroP. Ibrahim handles the entries, but won't be judging himself. Note that teams of up to three people are allowed as well. Go to the official page now!