Pabst Blue Ribbon
2019-04-17 07:36:31 UTC
ZIL is the Zork Implementation Language that Infocom created to write
their games. It compiles down to Z-code for a virtual machine (that
pre-dates Java by decades). Then interpreters were written for various
platforms which all run the same Z-code. People are still writing Z-code
interpreters and writing new text adventures that are compiled into
Z-code, but mostly they are using Inform, a new and different language.
Infocom's original source has apparently been circulating quietly for a
while, but now it has been released to the world by the guy behind
textfiles.org.
https://github.com/historicalsource
https://twitter.com/textfiles/status/1118005126457888768
So, Infocom source code is now uploaded to Github. Most people don't
speak or want to speak the language it's written in, ZIL (Zork
Implementation Language). You can browse through it and kind of suss
out what's being done when and the choices made over the course of
time.
In cases where the source code had multiple revisions, and I don't
know the story of what revisions came when and came why, I did a
reasonable job of layering them out (this came before that, that came
after that) and doing multiple "check-ins" of the code so you can see
diffs.
Often, there are cases that some games were built up from a previous
game, allowing modification of the macros and structures and then
making them work in the new game. For example, an NPC partygoer in
one game was a thief in a previous one. Dungeons become stores, etc.
There are infinite things to learn here and I hope people learn from
it. I think if a reasonably informed person comes through and gives
it a real documentary treatment we will really understand just how
brilliant those Infocom implementors were. And how space-age
Z-Machine is.
The compiler, as far as absolutely anybody can tell, is lost. It is
not possible to turn this source code into a functioning game
anymore, and certainly not by using any tools that exist in any
chain, anywhere. This is therefore less "code" and more "text
artifact".
[A note on this point: the original compiler is lost, but a clone has
been created. More below.]
If this is taken away or lost, then really, are you to trust that any
company, ANY of them, will take care of their history, and not just
slam down any attempt to look at the historical work done and
understand, educate, and promote research? Can you really trust that?
What got me thinking about this was losing Stu Galley last year,
creator of so many great games and who thought Infocom was the dream
job of a lifetime. We got along so well during GET LAMP; I loved that
guy. He was a gem.
Whatever happens next, it makes me happy to know people got to see
his craft, and the craft and thinking of so many other of these
artists in interactive fiction, and understand on a new level what
they were doing and how they went about it. I dedicate this to them.
Happy reading.
https://twitter.com/HappyMacXL/status/1118189168029503490
[...] In the ZIL group we have actually managed to compile using
ZILF...
https://bitbucket.org/jmcgrew/zilf/wiki/Home
Play the compiled program with an interpreter like "frotz".
Elijah
------
the "feelies" that came with the games remain rare collector's items
This probably should be reposted to rec.arts.int-fiction andtheir games. It compiles down to Z-code for a virtual machine (that
pre-dates Java by decades). Then interpreters were written for various
platforms which all run the same Z-code. People are still writing Z-code
interpreters and writing new text adventures that are compiled into
Z-code, but mostly they are using Inform, a new and different language.
Infocom's original source has apparently been circulating quietly for a
while, but now it has been released to the world by the guy behind
textfiles.org.
https://github.com/historicalsource
https://twitter.com/textfiles/status/1118005126457888768
So, Infocom source code is now uploaded to Github. Most people don't
speak or want to speak the language it's written in, ZIL (Zork
Implementation Language). You can browse through it and kind of suss
out what's being done when and the choices made over the course of
time.
In cases where the source code had multiple revisions, and I don't
know the story of what revisions came when and came why, I did a
reasonable job of layering them out (this came before that, that came
after that) and doing multiple "check-ins" of the code so you can see
diffs.
Often, there are cases that some games were built up from a previous
game, allowing modification of the macros and structures and then
making them work in the new game. For example, an NPC partygoer in
one game was a thief in a previous one. Dungeons become stores, etc.
There are infinite things to learn here and I hope people learn from
it. I think if a reasonably informed person comes through and gives
it a real documentary treatment we will really understand just how
brilliant those Infocom implementors were. And how space-age
Z-Machine is.
The compiler, as far as absolutely anybody can tell, is lost. It is
not possible to turn this source code into a functioning game
anymore, and certainly not by using any tools that exist in any
chain, anywhere. This is therefore less "code" and more "text
artifact".
[A note on this point: the original compiler is lost, but a clone has
been created. More below.]
If this is taken away or lost, then really, are you to trust that any
company, ANY of them, will take care of their history, and not just
slam down any attempt to look at the historical work done and
understand, educate, and promote research? Can you really trust that?
What got me thinking about this was losing Stu Galley last year,
creator of so many great games and who thought Infocom was the dream
job of a lifetime. We got along so well during GET LAMP; I loved that
guy. He was a gem.
Whatever happens next, it makes me happy to know people got to see
his craft, and the craft and thinking of so many other of these
artists in interactive fiction, and understand on a new level what
they were doing and how they went about it. I dedicate this to them.
Happy reading.
https://twitter.com/HappyMacXL/status/1118189168029503490
[...] In the ZIL group we have actually managed to compile using
ZILF...
https://bitbucket.org/jmcgrew/zilf/wiki/Home
Play the compiled program with an interpreter like "frotz".
Elijah
------
the "feelies" that came with the games remain rare collector's items
rec.games.int-fiction.