ZGloom Collection (Windows)

ZGloom Collection is a Windows PC port of the Amiga FPS Gloom that supports widescreen, post-processing, and saving game progress.

README

ZGloom-x86 – Modern Amiga Gloom port for Windows (x86)

Modern Windows (x86) port of the ZGloom engine that reimplements the classic Amiga FPS Gloom and its successors for contemporary PCs.

Play Gloom, Gloom Deluxe, Gloom 3 and Zombie Massacre on Windows with a fixed renderer, widescreen support, post-processing overlays and save/load position – while staying faithful to the original Amiga gameplay.

Latest release Platform Engine AI Support via PayPal

ZGloom-x86 is the Windows edition of the ZGloom source-port family. It focuses on a clean software-style renderer, extended in-game options and subtle post-processing while preserving the original feel of the Amiga release.

For other platforms, see the companion projects ZGloom-Android, ZGloom-Vita-Vita2D (PS Vita / PSTV) and ZGloom-macOS.

🕹 What is Gloom?

Gloom was a 1995 Doom-like first-person shooter from Black Magic Software for the Commodore Amiga. It featured very messy and meaty graphics and required a powerful Amiga at the time (an A1200 with 030 CPU was still on the low end). The engine later powered several related games and successors, including:

  • Gloom Deluxe / Ultimate Gloom – enhanced graphics and effects
  • Gloom 3
  • Zombie Massacre
  • Various full-game conversions of other 90’s Amiga titles

ZGloom is a modern reimplementation of this engine.

✨ Key Features

  • Modern source port of the Amiga Gloom engine
    Runs the original Gloom data files on modern Windows PCs (x86) using the modern ZGloom C++ engine.

  • Supports multiple official games
    Play Gloom, Gloom Deluxe / Ultimate Gloom, Gloom 3 and Zombie Massacre (plus selected mods where available).

  • Built-in multi-game launcher
    If more than one game or mod is present, a simple launcher lets you pick what to play at startup.

  • 4:3 and 16:9 display modes with FOV control
    Switch between the classic 4:3 Amiga look and a widescreen 16:9 mode and adjust the field of view to match your display and taste.

  • Improved renderer, lighting and effects
    Uses the fixed ZGloom renderer with cleaner perspective, fewer glitches and subtle lighting tweaks, including dust particles, dynamic muzzle flashes and colored floor reflections under projectiles and weapon upgrade orbs.

  • Atmospheric post-processing overlays (optional)
    Enable vignette, film grain and scanlines for a more gritty, CRT-style presentation without changing gameplay.

  • Save/Load position and extended options
    Save your in-level position (including health, weapon and ammo state) and tweak many more options than in the original Amiga release.

🖼️ Gameplay-Video and Screenshots

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/ec227046-16db-4989-b374-e137fc0af27c

Gloom-Screenshots

📦 Download

Get the latest Windows (x86) build here:

👉 Latest ZGloom release

Each release contains the ZGloom.exe and required libraries.
Game-data is included.

🚀 Getting Started

Gloom was made freely available by its developers.
Download the game and extract it somewhere on your drive. Then simply double-click ZGloom.exe to start the game and the launcher appears.

🎮 Default Controls

Keyboard controls in ZGloom:

  • WASD – Move and turn
  • Left Alt – Strafe
  • Left Ctrl – Fire
  • Left Shift - Run
  • F1 – Skip level
  • F12 – Toggle fullscreen
  • ESC – Pause and open the in-game menu

The extended menu offers more options than the original game and port.
You can change values with the left/right arrow keys (for example for fullscreen, vignette, film grain, scanlines, and other display options).

🛠 Building from source (Windows)

This repository is currently set up to be built with Microsoft Visual Studio 2026 on Windows.
Linux, macOS, CMake- or make-based builds are not tested at this time.

The project is structured around the MSVC toolchain and Visual Studio project/solution files, so the recommended workflow is:

  1. Install Visual Studio 2026 with the “Desktop development with C++” workload.
  2. Clone this repository to your PC (working SDL2 and SDL2_Mixer are included in this repo).
  3. Open the provided Visual Studio solution (or create a new one and add the sources from this repo).
  4. Select a configuration (for example Release / x86) and build the solution.
  5. Copy your original Gloom game data next to the compiled executable as described above in the Getting Started section.

If you want to experiment with other platforms or compilers (e.g. gcc/clang on Linux), you will currently need to:

  • create your own build system files (CMake, Meson, custom Makefiles, etc.),
  • and handle any platform-specific fixes yourself.

Clean, optional contributions that add a portable build setup without breaking the existing Visual Studio workflow are very welcome.

🛠️ About This Fork

This repository is a fork of Swizpig/ZGloom.
The goal of this fork is to:

  • Fix the renderer using improvements from the PSVITA SDL version
  • Enhance menu navigation and keyboard usability
  • Add post-processing overlays (vignette, film grain, scanlines)
  • Provide a polished Windows (x86) build with its own executable icon

If you enjoy retro Amiga FPS games and want a modern Windows port of Gloom, this fork aims to be a convenient, visually enhanced option.

📜 License & Third-Party Code

The licensing situation around the original Gloom sources is a bit unusual:

The Gloom source release says only the .s and .bb2 files are open source, but the Gloom executable bakes in some maths lookup tables (generated by the .bb2 files), bullet and sparks graphics, and the title screen for Classic Gloom.

This fork follows the original release and does not add the Classic Gloom executable assets (title screen etc.).
Instead, it uses alternative imagery such as the Black Magic image.

Libraries Used

❤️ Support

If you enjoy this project and would like to support my work, you can make a small contribution via PayPal.

Your support helps me spend more time maintaining existing projects, fixing bugs, improving compatibility, and working on new features.

Support via PayPal

Thank you for your support!

🙌 Credits

  • Original Gloom game and assets by its original Amiga developers
  • Original PC reimplementation by Swizpig
  • This fork and Windows renderer & overlay work by Andiweli
  • background ambience credit goes to Prophet

Keywords / Topics:
amiga • gloom • vita • psvita • windows • x86 • android • macos • homebrew • zgloom • gloomdeluxe • zombiemassacre • sdl • libxmp • vita2d • ps tv shooter

If you enjoy it, feel free to ⭐ star the repo so other PS Vita & Amiga fans can find it more easily.