What have you created with ZZT, or related to ZZT?

Super Tool Kit add-ons, a well-known Shade Toolkit that combines all combinations of colors and "shades" (normal, breakable, water, etc.), ZZT Encyclopedia, a heavily expanded ZZT help file, and Chrono Wars. I am probably more fond of my utilities than my games.

To tell you the truth I kinda regret going past Chrono Wars 10 because it had a kind of finality to it that made it hard to go on - I was basically forcing myself at that point. I am 99% sure that I will not be doing any more ZZTing. I encourage anyone to make their own fan sequels or fan endings to the series since I'm pretty much done with it.


Chrono Wars 10
When you think about ZZT, what games come to your mind and why?

Well I loved the oldschool stuff - by Greg Janson, ZZT Club, and even Tim Sweeney. The 24 hours of ZZT games also seemed to bring out the best in people.

Have you created any games outside of ZZT?

I think I might've made stuff for college classes. A really crappy Snood clone in Java, an okay Connect 4 game in Visual Basic, etc.

Do you have any artistic pursuits other than making games?

http://www.pinkston.org/comic is my webcomic, full of inside jokes that only this small IRC community I hang out with would get. I think a lot of them might be accepted by a larger audience though. If you're super bored, sift through to see which ones. A growing number of them are animated in Flash - comic 1000 will be an epic anime-style fight movie!

I'm also hanging around the YTMND community (http://www.ytmnd.com). My name on the site is chronos. I've submitted a few "works of art" of my own, look them up!

What are you up to, lately (in life, generally)?

Working for Rockwell Collins (a government contractor), watching DVD's, playing video games, surfing the web, working on my webcomic and animation once in awhile, trying online dating with absolutely miserable results.

Has your experience with ZZT or the ZZT scene made any sort of lasting impact on your life?

Well it definitely got me hooked on the internet and made me appreciate user-created content. Now I prefer webcomics, web news, web toons, etc. to their "mainstream" versions. It helps that giant corporations don't censor them.

What works of non-ZZT art have inspired you the most?

Probably webcomics. I like the video game based ones. Penny Arcade, VGCats, etc. And sprite comics like Bob and George, 8-bit Theater, etc. My own indecipherable webcomic is a sprite comic.

Do you have any interesting stories to relate about ZZT or the ZZT scene?

I've been out of the loop for years, sorry. Unless you want to hear about the AOL days or something. Most of which I probably don't remember. They once rejected a utility of mine because it "registered" unregistered versions of ZZT (I think just the exit message). ZZT was put in the public domain like a month later anyways, heh.

Do you plan to create any games in the future, with or without ZZT?

If I make any I'll probably go more ambitious than ZZT. I'd love to make an expanded RPG version of Chrono Wars someday with totally revamped story, perhaps in an RPG editor or even a mainstream language. ZZT was fun but I've got some visions that it can't accomodate. :)

Anything else you'd like to add?

Nope, your wide array of questions about covers it.

- August 2006