(ƒ) does a happy lil' dance

 
 


news archive  


March 2002

#misanthropy moves to Espernet
[ Posted by Hercules on Sunday, March 31, 2002, at 7:18 PM ]
As Nadir announced on z2 today, the IRC channel #misanthropy has moved from Stratius back to Espernet (where it originally used to be). Here's what Nadir said:

"Due to extenuating circumstances (Chris) #misanthropy is moving back to (more stable) espernet. Most of you know the drill - You've got 24 hours before lockdown."

On Espernet, the ZZT IRC channels have been reunited with #mzx, the main MegaZeux IRC chatroom. You can cannot to Espernet via chocobo.esper.net or neskaya.esper.net (use irc.esper.net if you like to connect to a random Espernet server).

Wayward's website undergoes rehaul
[ Posted by Hercules on Friday, March 29, 2002, at 10:51 AM ]
Wayward (creator of Within v1.9, Octagon and Apud le Medius Res) has been working on a rehaul of his website, The Closed Window, for a while now and he is actually having some nice progress on it now. The site moved to a new server, which supports CGI, and some new parts have been added, such as a small message board. Feel free to use the "Advice Column" and surf around the site.

Tseng takes over RI for now
[ Posted by Hercules on Tuesday, March 26, 2002, at 10:11 AM ]
Tseng has taken over Random Inc for now. It is unknown where Knightt, RI's president and founder, headed after his quick and vague quittage entry in his LiveJournal. He hasn't been on AIM, the z2 message boards, nor did he answer his e-mail. That's why Tseng, one of Knightt's best friends, has now taken control of Random Inc (be it temporarily or not). He said he will give the company to zzblue/feldspar, RI's current vice-president, if he's interested, though. For now, the members of Random Inc seem to be NMZmaster, Ultima, Emon, Chuck and starbux. For more information, go here.

zenryoku returns to the scene
[ Posted by Hercules on Monday, March 25, 2002, at 10:51 AM ]
Zenryoku has returned to the ZZT community and writes in with the following:

"i appear to have returned. i'd like to thank wayward, lsd, ethan hunt, breakout, daemon lotos, and paul9lyn for giving me the motivation i needed to come back. details can be found here: http://zzt.the-underdogs.org/fora/viewtopic.php?topic=609&forum=2&2"

CCG gains new members
[ Posted by Hercules on Sunday, March 24, 2002, at 11:51 AM ]
Cookie Cutter Games, the new company of Nadir and Kracken, has gained a few new members over the past days. Starchaser joined up, as well as WiL (though his status is apparently still pending). Nydark (formerly known as Ethan Hunt) was interested at first, but didn't join since he had nothing playable to submit as a sample at this point.

MadTom creates ZZTer test
[ Posted by Hercules on Sunday, March 24, 2002, at 11:44 AM ]
MadTom has a created one of those online tests that you all know about, except that this one is pretty special: it's a ZZTer test! You can take it here. There are different outcomes, which are ZZTers -- Kracken, Nadir, MadTom, Fishfood, Viovis, Knightt, Boonob, Tseng, Draco and me (Herc).

Cookie Cutter Games news
[ Posted by Hercules on Wednesday, March 20, 2002, at 8:05 AM ]
The new ZZT company Cookie Cutter Games, run by Nadir (president) and Kracken (vice-president), is now getting started. Moonpie has left Knightt's Random Inc and joined up with CCG. Also, Piroteckkie (author of the Maushi Goukansha Demo) joined up. Their website, which is still under construction, is up here.

Nadir and Kracken start new company
[ Posted by Hercules on Sunday, March 17, 2002, at 5:54 PM ]
Nadir and Kracken have started a new ZZT company, called "Cookie Cutter Games". They have both decided to quit Eagle Rock Interactive, the company of Viovis. Apparently it was a hard decision for them to leave ERI, because Viovis is a good friend of theirs. When Viovis has been informed, work on a website will be started.

z2 gets new URL
[ Posted by Hercules on Sunday, March 17, 2002, at 12:45 PM ]
And shortly after my last post concering z2's problems, they have gotten a new URL. z2 will be accessible via http://zzt.the-underdogs.org from now on (notice the - between the and underdogs; that's the thing that changed in their new URL). The main Underdogs site is now http://www.the-underdogs.org, too.

z2 has technical difficulties
[ Posted by Hercules on Sunday, March 17, 2002, at 12:10 PM ]
z2, the main ZZT website, has been facing techical difficulties recently. Funk, the main z2 administrator, writes in to explain about it:

"Just recently, Underdogs began routine maintenance on their servers. This means that z2 cannot be accessed from the usual zzt2.com URL. Instead, I recommend you access the site using the URL http://209.120.136.209

The main Underdogs page can be accessed using http://209.120.136.195

The forums and downloads remain unaffected, but we will be unable to update the news/database until the repairs finish (in about five or so days). We kindly ask you not to upload any games during this period. Please do not contact Underdogs themselves over this
matter."

MegaZeux 2.6, 2.61 and 2.62 released
[ Posted by Hercules on Sunday, March 10, 2002, at 12:08 PM ]
Koji decided to continue his MegaZeux update (v2.6) and finished it a few days ago. Later on, he released another small update (v2.61) and Exophase did the latest bug-fix (v2.62). One of the new features is a new set of 10 strings, about which you can read more in the help of MZX v2.62. Please note that MZX v2.62 files are no longer forwards compatible (in other words, you will not be able to load them in previous versions of MZX, but you WILL be able to open them in future versions). Get MZX v2.62 here!

Random Inc gains and loses two
[ Posted by Hercules on Saturday, March 2, 2002, at 4:35 PM ]
Both _God_ (creator of the award-winning "NO!") and starbux (creator "Dead Moon Demo") recently both quit Random Inc and ZZT. This caused Random Inc to go from 25 members to 20 within a relatively short period of time. Shortly after, however, Master Raze (creator of many a decent ZZT game, former member of Eagle Rock Interactive) and Emon (promising new ZZTer who is working together with Knightt on his new game "Darktor") joined up, bringing RI back to 22 members.

Zem! X wins Game of the Month
[ Posted by Hercules on Saturday, March 2, 2002, at 4:28 PM ]
Newt's "Zem! X", which has been in the production since 1998, has won the Game of the Month award of March 2002 (which actually means it was released in February 2002, but that besides the point) at z2. All six members of the GOTM Committee voted on "Zem! X" and Ultima's "Ultima RPG" won the Opinion Poll, with "Zem! X" coming in second. Congratulations go out to Newt! You can read Tseng's review here. This month's Classic GOTM went out to Clint Nielson's absolute classic from 1995, "Sivion". You can read Knightt's review on it here.