The last copy of ZZT, an ANSI character-based video game created by Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney, has been sold, according to game designer Zack Hiwiller.

Sweeney developed the game in 1991 under Potomac Computer Systems, renamed Epic MegaGames in 1992. Hiwiller, feeling nostalgic about how he learned to program using ZZT, decided to hunt down a copy of the game.

"For nostalgia's sake, I started digging around for my ZZT floppies (I didn't realize at the time that my current PC literally doesn't have a floppy drive, but that is irrelevant to the story)," he wrote. "I realized that I had floppies of my games and some games I got off of the AOL message boards of the day, but I never actually bought a copy of ZZT. Wouldn't it be nice to have a disk of ZZT to frame and put in my office among my other gaming tchotchkes?"

The department chair for the Game Design degree program at Full Sail University discovered the shareware catalog order form that came with old Epic games and placed an order. From "Epic Classics," the programmer later received a copy of the game on floppy disc, the cheque he posted, along with a note stating "This is the last one" signed by Paul Sweeney, Tim's Dad.

Hiwiller recalled reading an article where Sweeney mentions that his dad fulfills orders of old Epic games from his childhood home and founding place of Epic.

"I guess that was true until a few days ago when I was sent the last floppy of ZZT Epic will ever send out," Hilwiller wrote. "It's exciting for me, but a bit of a bummer for anyone else who used ZZT to learn about games 'back in the day' and would want some physical token of those times."