I have so many good memories of being a part of the amazing ZZT community and the surprisingly solid games a bunch of teenagers made for fun (burger joint, november eve, the zelda trilogy), as well as making my own crappy little games for friends to play.

The engine for ZZT was so quirky with lots of limitations, so it was fascinating to see the ideas that people came up with to make elaborate games like RPGs, survival horror, etc.

People would ship games they called toolboxes, which had unique and interesting objects or unnaturally colored blocks that you could use for your own games.

There was a series called ZZTV that was an anthology of small games, stories, and teenage rants https://museumofzzt.com/article/422/closer-look-zztv-3