Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by asiekierka 1944 days ago
To be exact, what you're editing is an array of ten 20-byte Pascal strings (so length-prefixed) which contain the world's flags. A ZZT Object can set or clear flags which are carried across boards; this mechanism was repurposed to add the "SECRET" flag, which blocks editing with the built-in ZZT Editor.

Unless... you use the "?" key to open the cheat console, and type in "+DEBUG" as a command (in ZZT 3.1+, IIRC) - then it will let you open the worlds and edit them as-is.
1 comments
fullstop 1944 days ago
Yes, I dug in a bit further and found where it was checked in the editor. (at least in the reconstruction!)

https://github.com/asiekierka/reconstruction-of-zzt/blob/mas...

It looks like the SECRET flag was intended to prevent editing of both save files and built-in worlds.

link
asiekierka 1944 days ago
The save file check is separate to the SECRET flag, but they are both meant to not be editable. (Of course, community-made external editors like KevEdit lift this restriction.)
link
fullstop 1944 days ago
I understand. With that being said, changing "SECRET" to "NECRET" and then saving results in a .SAV file with "SECRET" in place again.
link