Overview
The guide for Community Made Zuma Mod, a Zuma Deluxe mod with NEW CUSTOM PATHS, game difficulties, and more to come!
Introduction
Community Made Zuma Mod features high quality custom paths and graphics for the first time ever. Four difficulty levels are provided for both newcomers, experts and anyone in between alike.
This guide is intended to be your quick start guide for installation and difficulty switching. This mod will expand in the future and the guide will be updated by then.
You need a copy of Zuma Deluxe in order for this mod to properly work! Zuma Deluxe and other PopCap games go real cheap during Steam seasonal sales (Lunar New Year Sale, Summer Sale, Halloween Sale, Autumn Sale, and the Winter Sale), so if you’re broke, go buy during sales!
Forum thread: [link]
(This link will look “invalid”. This is due to asset thieves.)
Modworkshop mirror: [link]
Nexus Mods mirror: [link]
GameBanana mirror: [link]
Sphere Matchers: [link]
Sphere Matchers Steam Group: [link]
Sphere Matchers Discord Server: [link]
CMZM Discord: [link]
CMZM Steam Group: [link]
Installation
To repeat: You need a copy of Zuma Deluxe in order for the mod to work! Buy the game here:
[link]
WARNING: Unfortunately, this is directed to Windows users. If you have a Mac, Zuma Deluxe will NOT work on Steam due to the game’s age.
Zuma mods usually are total conversion mods, and CMZM is no exception. Regardless, any Zuma mod should have a different folder dedicated to them due to their nature.
1. Find Zuma Deluxe’s game folder.
You can do this by going to your Library, right-clicking on Zuma Deluxe, clicking on Properties, clicking on the Local Files tab, then clicking on the Browse Local Files button.
2. Select all in the folder and copy them.
A quick way to do this is do Ctrl+A (select all) and Ctrl+C (copy).
3. Create a new folder somewhere else.
Name it “CMZM” or “Community Made Zuma Mod” for easier mod management.
4. Paste everything in the new folder.
Go to your CMZM folder and paste all the files from your Steam copy. DO NOT OPEN THE GAME YET.
5. Copy and paste steam.dll to the CMZM folder.
Note: If you already have a copy of Zuma Deluxe that is not from Steam, skip this step.
You can find the DLL in your Steam installation folder. Any Steam game, including Zuma will not work without this DLL.
Note: If you do own the game on Steam and perform this step, you need to have Steam open in order for the mod to work.
6. Delete the fonts, images, levels, and sounds folders.
This is especially crucial for the images folder. Zuma Deluxe supports PNG images, but JPG images take priority. The priority from top to bottom is JPG, GIF then PNG. As an addendum, do NOT delete the properties folder, as having a missing or invalid partner.xml and/or partner.xml.sig will result in your game turning into a 60-minute trial. Deleting the levels folder is recommended to prevent extra space being consumed.
You are free to delete the cached and drm folders; they are not important for the game to function.
Deleting the music folder is optional; the mod comes with a music folder that overrides the vanilla music (and includes an extra mo3 – both are free to use with credit!)
7. Apply the modification.
Drag and drop the archive’s contents into your CMZM folder. You can also do this by copy-pasting.
Note: If Windows asks you about file merging, make sure to confirm to all. The properties folder only has a modified resources.xml, and does not change your partner.xml / partner.xml.sig files.
If your game pops up a “Failed to load image: cursor_dragging” error, that means that your game does not support main.pak. Please buy Zuma Deluxe on Steam and follow the instructions on the Steam Guide.
First Time Preparations / Difficulty Switching
Don’t get too excited yet! You can take two methods here: file renaming or launcher. The mod offers 4 difficulties for you to enjoy, and you are free to swap to them any time (though is a bit unfair):
- Easy – for those who want to breeze through the game with little to no stress.
- Normal – Intended for average players. (Default)
- Hard – Things get faster over time on later stages. Temple 3 will be your doom.
- Lunatic – Dare to take the challenge?
The launcher has been replaced with a batch file due to some legal grey areas. You can undo the game’s pre-1.1a difficulty preference by clicking on the “Hex Revert to levels.xml” button, or copy-pasting your original Zuma.exe to the mod folder.
From 1.1a onwards, the mod now uses a batch file. This is written in Windows 7, and thus, may not work on older systems, such as XP (who uses that nowadays anyway?)
Running the mod
Congratulations! The game should now greet you with this majestic loading screen:
It is recommended to have a fresh new save file before proceeding! This is to prevent unfair scores and wonky save files. The mod also uses new internal names so everything will be locked in Gauntlet from the start.
Enjoy!
Footnotes
This mod could have not been possible without the help of Sphere Matchers, a community dedicated to Zuma and similar games.
[link]
Community Made Zuma Mod is a non-profit modification of Zuma Deluxe © 2019 Popcap Games, Inc and Electronic Arts, Inc.
Sphere Matchers (nor any of it’s members) are not affiliated by EA, PopCap, MumboJumbo or any game company,
Community Made Zuma Mod is a game modification created by fans with no profit in mind. Any Sphere Matchers-related game modifications (and hacks) must neither be sold for profit or obtained through any means of piracy whatsoever.