The Newyear Duelstream Day of Zeux 2001/2002 has ended on 6:00 PM GMT today. The contest is being hosted by wizdom, who is replacing Terryn, with the help of Thundercloud. The topics were "Stability" and "Make a game about the forces of nature".

You can download all the entries here and the judging will begin now. The judges for this contest are wizdom, me (Hercules), Tixus, Diamond and Kayin Nasaki. Keep checking the site.

The Newyear 2002 Duelstream Day of Zeux started at 6:00 PM GMT, now hosted by wizdom. Here is what wizdom said on #mzx at the start of the contest:

"<wizdom> Welcome all, to the Newyear Dualstream DoZ, 2002. Before I present the topics and you all get started, I must bring to your attention the regrettable events of the last few days. Terryn and Omega (brother and sister) have both, in one way or another, had to drop their responsibilities to the DoZ through problems at home (problems that I would rather not go into); I would like to dedicate this DoZ to both of them.

<wizdom> In place of Terryn (this time), I've been given the job of starting and stopping the DoZ; I'm also a judge, but I'm not processing the entries and so will not be subjected to bias (I'm sure most of you were already aware of that).

<wizdom> And now, the topics for this prestigious Newyear Dualstream DoZ are:

General Topic: "Stability" and;
Specific Topic: "Make a game about forces of Nature.".

<wizdom> I bid you all good MZXing, I'm sure all of this year's judges would like to see some quality DoZ games, and do enjoy yourselves.

<wizdom> Finally, I bring to your attention the rules, http://sapphirewired.com/~wizdom/02doz.html. Read them carefully. You have 24hours starting from NOW.

<wizdom> Please note that if you are unable to get on #mzx (irc.esper.net:6667) when the DoZ finishes (6PM GMT, tomorrow), please EMAIL you entries to Thundercloud at matty45292923@aol.com."

Terryn cannot host this season's Duelstream Day of Zeux, due to personal problems involving his parents and sister. Terryn gave the hosting rights to wizdom and IF member Thundercloud. wizdom is currently working on the page, time and distro side of the contest, while Thundercloud is making a choice out of the topics Terryn had in mind, and recollects the ID numbers. Note that the contest is still scheduled for the original date/time (later today).

Visit the page here.

The end of year is rapidly nearing again, so it's time for the two annual ZZT awards: The Hoodians and the IF Annual ZZT Excellence Awards (IFAZEA).

Knightt is hosting this year's Hoodian Awards, and this is what he said:

"though they'll take place in 2002 (hopefully voting'll start by late january... if it isn't feel free to kick my ass), the 2001 Hoodians will be up and ready soon... but, of course, i need to hire some people to nominate games first. i'll be one of these people, but i need others, as well... anyone interested?

if anyone interested's proclaimed worthy but hasn't played too much this year, i'll make up a list of games that've recieved just a SMALL amount of interest from most anywhere, for the judge to play... whether i personally like them or not.

that's about all for now... expect more info to be up soon, on the Random Inc. page."

As for the IFAZEA, it is not sure what is going to happen to them. I am the host of the awards, and already voted myself. However, I haven't heard a single word from any IF member whatsoever yet. More news later.

xabbott, owner of zzt.org, explained his reasons and thoughts on the zzt.org lockdown and the creation of z2. Here's what he said on the zzt.org message boards:

"Ok I need to make some points. This "lockdown" as it's been called was going to happen sooner or later. ZZT.ORG is not dead but frozen until I figure things out. Until then you now have z2. Now then...

This all started I suppose when I had a private conversation with fishfood awhile back about starting ZZT.ORG all over again. Which I knew right away was a big mistake and I wish that conversation never took place. You all remember the huge thread that came from that. I can't change the fact that I said those things. But remember no action was ever taken and I never said anything to the public.

Now this of course and understandably started a distrust between me and the staff. With fishfood fueling the fire. Now time passes and I pretty much forgot about it. But one day I start getting emails from craNKGod about buying ZZT.ORG. Now I wasn't totally against this at first but then after thinking about it I knew I couldn't do it. I go on the IRC soon after to see what's up and I get attacked about ZZT.ORG issues. During all this it is brought to my attention that a new and better site is already being worked on. Which I was very happy about. I have said so many times that a new site needed to be created because we could not agree on the future of ZZT.ORG. As long as I was tied to the history and owned the site I would have my say, they didn't like that. I know people hate to think about it but I did put a lot of time into this and with the help of many others created the foundation that others built upon. I didn't want the site to be run by people I didn't trust and people who didn't trust me.

This has been hard for me. I am not some power hungry monster who wants to make you all unhappy. I can't tell you I know exactly what I'm doing, I don't. I am still unsure about what I plan to do. But I knew that if froze this place that the creation of z2 would speed up which is what happened and that it would add another pillar to the ZZT commune. It makes ZZT.ORG less of a focal and the only point for zzters. I don't have any malicious intent and hope this helps some to understand where I am coming from. If there is anything else I can clear up please say so."

Sorry about the wait, guys. After months of hard work from a lot of the senior community (and some newbies too) comes the new ZZT Archive. You can access it via

http://zzt.theunderdogs.org

OR

http://zzt2.com

If you have any trouble logging in, mail me at fishleetfood@aol.com and I will try to find out what's wrong. The site should run great in all major browsers.

Breakout has joined Random Inc, taking up their last open spot. Breakout has been around for a couple of years and used to be in the famous company "Damage Inc" (together with tucan, Tseng, Bongo, Nivek, Darkmage et al). He also released the GOTM-winning "Fabrication Demo" back in the beginning of 1999. It currently seems that he is working on a new ZZT game that may or might see the light soon.

Fishfood has announced the staff of the replacement site for zzt.org, z2. This site will be up soon, probably hosted on The Underdogs. Here's what Fishfood said:

"Just so you know, the staff are as follows...

Creators and Maintainers

Fishfood (Writer, updating anything that isn't uploading)
Crankgod (Head uploader)
Zanno (Script guy who should be coding some cool stuff when he gets better..)

WE ARE ALL EQUAL. CRANKGOD DOES NOT OWN THE SITE AND NEITHER DO I. We have sworn never to get like xab. If one of us quits, the others continue. The most we can lose is a domain name.

Other staff:

wizdom (Design maintenance)
Cait Sith (Uploader)
Donut (Uploader)

We thought we'd grab some more uploaders so we should be a lot more regular than we ever where to begin with. If we get a few more uploaders, we MIGHT re-introduce screenshots and get people to actually PLAY the games so the censorship rules won't be needed. However, this is not a promise.

Anyway, enough hyping, I will repeat this when we open, but please remember that we aren't going to hire anyone who 'asks'. We hired Cait and Donut because they helped us out. Cait can organise people and Donut has no life, so they are perfect additions. When we do have openings, you will know."

zzblue has picked the Winter 2001/2002 24 hours of ZZT judges: zzblue himself, Tseng, Knightt, skullie, Eurakarte, Zamros and Dexter. Dogbert used to be a judge, but due to complaints, zzblue replaced him with Dexter. There have been a couple of more complaints, so zzblue might still adjust the judges line up.

There is still no date for the 24hoz either, but it will take place somewhere in the beginning of 2002. You can sign up by e-mailing zzblue. Visit the official page here.

Esdemo has released a Weirdland Christmas piece of fiction. You can download it here. Happy holidays from ESD Games, says Esdemo!

Tixus, the MZXer formerly known as Mz_weird, recently came back to the scene (both #mzx on Espernet, and the DigitalMZX forums). Tixus is fairly well-known MZXer, though he hasn't released much in terms of games. Here's what he said:

"Just decided to let everyone know that I'm officially back, now. It seems as if my life outside of my house has taken a great step up, these past two months. But anyhow, it feels nice to be back. Has anything interesting happened here, while I was gone?"

Wayward has finally releases his newest ZZT game; "Apud le Medius Res". It's a rather confusing and trippy game, based on Zenith's "ChickenWire" and "Scribbit's Minigame". Due to zzt.org's lockdown, you can only download it on Wayward's personal page.

ZZT.org, the most popular ZZT site in the world EVER was locked down by its owner, Xabbott, today. All Admins but himself have been removed from the boards. I'm unsure as to whether or not he will still be uploading games, but he said he would NOT be moderating the boards.

A new ZZT site, has been created by Crankgod and Fishfood (With help from Dragonlord and Zanno). We will try to get it up certainly by new years, whether xab starts uploading or not. It already has twice to three times the content of the ZA as well as new boards and EVERY game zzt.org already has.

We can't post on zzt.org anymore thanks to xab, so we are hoping to get word out by news pages like this, and the boards if he doesn't delete our posts. The new site will be hosted by popular gaming site, the underdogs. This means you don't have to worry about banners or any slowdowns, we have all the space and equipment we need to keep the site going for a long time.

There's nothing else I can really report to you right now, I would give more reasons on why Xabbott is doing this, but to be honest, I don't really know, nor do I care. The location of the site will be announced here FIRST, so watch this space.

Random Inc, Knightt's ZZT company, has had some open spots for a while. Recently, Tseng already rejoined, and now Knightt has attracted two newer ZZTers: Ultima (who released some promising demos) and PhilEugo (friend of NMZmaster, who is in RI as well). Another, and final RI member, will probably be announced soon.

Tseng rejoined Random Inc a couple of days back. He used to be in RI before, and released the GOTM-winning "Misadventures of Mega Job: The Epic Tag Team" under its banner. He left, because he no longer planned on doing another ZZT game, but he changed his mind. Tseng has started work on a sequel to Mega Job now, which sounds cool.

Knightt has started work another ZZT game, after finishing Warriors of Seven Part 1... Stupid RPG: Fourth Frenzy. Fans of Stupid RPG, the series that gave Knightt a name in the ZZT scene, will probably be very pleased with this news. You can get info on the game here.

I have decided that the best way to handle Game of the Month is to pass the decision onto a committee. This will be effective next month. We have instated a 2/3 majority vote for most everything, to include voting on which member is to write the review and who is to receive the reward.

A policy we're toying with is a very controversial one: If one committee member feels that a GOTM contender is trying to influence his vote, he can bring it to the rest of the committee, and they can vote on whether or not to let the game be eligible for GOTM.

I hope that this will reduce conflict over GOTM.

zzt.org has been subject to staff changes recently. First of all, technical maintainer Dragonlord said goodbye:

"As you loaded up the ZZT general boards, a topic clearly popped out at you. One by an administrator that's neglected the zzt.archive recently and has avoided it at all costs. A rather long post, with, I'm going to assume, quite a bit of views and a collection of replies, you venture into the thread only to find that it really is time for your best hentai-collecting buddy Dragonlord to move on.

It's been a great 3 or 4 years that I've worked here at zzt.org. I've enjoyed my work as an administrator for the most part, although I was doing it more for experience and simply because I felt responsible for the community. I never really expected any pay out of it, considering we're talking about ZZT, here, and anyone willing to pay for an ASCII game that features 8 colours has gotta be pretty desperate.

I do suppose I owe my thanks to many of the other administrators who have helped me throughout my adminship on the ZA. I certainly must begin with Fishfood. He's helped me the most throughout my "career" on the archive, getting things going when I really felt like leaving and just being a generally helpful person. You can ask him yourself how many times I've considered quitting. I haven't forgotten xabbott, who employed me here at the ZA in the first place. I first volunteered for the archive back in late '98, if I'm not mistaken, and eventually became the main administrator. There's craNKGod, who jumped in and helped both Fish and I when we were on the break of quitting. I wish the best of luck to him with the future of the archive. There were also others who I have not mentioned, yet I'm sure they know exactly who they are and I give my thanks to them.

As for what I'm going to do now: Anything away from this community. Don't get me wrong, but I really don't want to have anything to do with this. I felt that leaving the archive formally would be a lot better than just disappearing as I always do. Who knows, you might catch me on IRC in a few months or even a new community...

To the current admins: I encourage that you remove my access as soon as possible, just so things are official (and so I don't have to worry about it anymore.) I've also left with you my scripts, which I've given you all rights to modify as you please. Remove them if you wish, I don't mind. (You'll eventually have to remove the review system.)

To any wannabe ZA admins: It's really not as fun as it seems...

To everyone: It's been great. Thanks for everyone who has put up with me from back then until now."

Also, Zanno joined the staff, to replace Dragonlord. Here's what he said:

"The good news is that Dragonlord found a replacement before he left, that being me. Well, I am Zanno. I will be furnishing a new review script for zzt.org, as Dragonlord admitted before he left that they were far from complete. I will be implementing all these features he didn't, and working out all the kinks he never could. It will be as if he never left!!"

The Game of the Month (and Classic Game of the Month) of November at zzt.org are finally up, after lots of talking and squabbling. Zanno's "Nothing Constructive" was chosen as GOTM by Kracken, and Tseng wrote the CGOTM; Lebensraum (by Zenith).

As far as the GOTM future of zzt.org is concerned, craNKGod is planning to have a team of reviewers. I will post more news on this when I find out about it. I'm curious, since I'm (or used to be) one of zzt.org's GOTM reviewers, too.

zzblue has uploaded the website for the Winter 2001 24 hours of ZZT contest! A date hasn't been set yet, as far as I can see on the page, but I'm sure it will be set soon. You can read all the info and rules at the official site and you can sign up by sending e-mail to zzblue.

Most ZZTers have probably heard of the "Game of the Month", a monthly award on zzt.org for the best released game/demo. There have been several GOTM-related arguements in the past, and it seems like there is another GOTM arguement this month. Because of this, Fishfood and craNKGod thought the GOTM should go. However, most people want the GOTM to stay, and Kracken wrote this month's GOTM (which will be uploaded to zzt.org soon). It's not exactly sure what will happen to the GOTM in the future, but I myself plan to be available as a GOTM reviewer, still.

Jojoisjo returned from a period of absence. Here's what he said:

"I'm back, sorry about my demise I've been without a computer part of the time, without a lung part of the time heh, and all around a busy guy. I really want to finish my game and release soon, it shouldn't take long. Thanks guys!"

Knightt has released a new game, after a period of idleness in which he was kind of away from the ZZT scene, or at least in the background. However, he'd been working on this new game, part one in a serious RPG series, for a while. He seems to have found fun in making games again, which is always good. You can download "Warriors of Seven Part 1" here. Also, work on part 2 in the series has started.

Leamas, also known as Sejr Andersen (or FireHawk a few years ago), has joined Interactive Fantasies, taking up the empty spot that WiL left behind. IF gives a warm welcome to the two-time GOTM winner (for L.O.M.E. and The Thief 3) and good friend of me, Hercules.

Leamas used to be in Random Inc, under which he released the excellent game "The Thief 3". Leamas had the opportunity to join IF before, but then he and Hercules decided that it'd be better if Zanno joined up, since he was company-less, and Leamas was in Random Inc. Leamas did decide to move to IF this time, though. He's working on two games, one of which is a joint-project with me, Hercules (A Community X-Mas).

This also means that IF doesn't have any open spots anymore, and Random Inc now has 3 open spots. In case you're interested in applying, mail Knightt.