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Reviving a Dead Audio Format: The Return of ZZM
Long-time readers will know that my first video game love was the text-mode video game slash creation studio ZZT. One feature of this game is the ability to ...
But imagine my surprise in 2025 to find that, while the Museum of ZZT does have a ZZM Audio section, it recommends that nobody use the format anymore; because nobody’s made a player that doesn’t require MS-DOS. That makes it a little hard to record; pretty much all the authentic real hardware (tm) I have that can run ZZT pumps the PC speaker directly into a beeper, including the Book 8088. Baroque instruments used around 415Hz, and the base frequency rose throughout the 20th century, so variation isn’t un heard of– but it will definitely make ZZT sound just a little out of tune relative to most music.
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