Ecosyste.ms: Awesome

An open API service indexing awesome lists of open source software.

Awesome Lists | Featured Topics | Projects

https://github.com/icculus/mojozork

A simple Z-Machine implementation in a single C file. Now with online multiplayer! :)
https://github.com/icculus/mojozork

game infocom online-multiplayer-game zmachine-interpreter zork

Last synced: 2 months ago
JSON representation

A simple Z-Machine implementation in a single C file. Now with online multiplayer! :)

Awesome Lists containing this project

README 

        

# MojoZork



```

>read leaflet

```



Hello sailor!



This is an implementation of Infocom's Z-Machine. The Z-Machine is a virtual

machine that's something like a high-level CPU. To keep their games portable

and easier to write, Infocom's games all use this fake processor and ship

with a platform-specific Z-Machine "emulator" ... so a game could run wherever

someone had implemented the Z-Machine.



This project is just for fun; everyone should write this at some point as an

educational activity. If you want a serious Z-Machine implementation, there

are certainly better ones out there (I personally recommend

["Frotz"](http://frotz.sourceforge.net/) and there are many others, too).



This program currently supports most of the Version 3 Z-Machine. This is

enough to play the vast majority of Infocom's catalog. Later Infocom games

used version 4, 5, and 6 of the Z-Machine, and those will currently not run

here. Most modern Interactive Fiction is built with a tool called Inform and

usually targets version 5 at the lowest; these games currently don't work

with this project. Maybe later.



Activision, who acquired Infocom in the 1990's, gives out Zork I, II, and III

for free, so I've included Zork I's data files with this project. If you want

to see Zork I run through from start to finish, you can run a pre-written

script to complete the entire game from the command line, like this:



```

./mojozork ./zork1.dat ./zork1-script.txt

```



If you want to write your own Z-Machine, there is an "official" specification

on how to implement it, written by people that spent significant time

reverse engineering the originals from Infocom, and extending the ecosystem

with new tools. You can find that specification

[here](http://inform-fiction.org/zmachine/standards/).



As usual, Wikipedia offers a wonderful rabbit hole to fall down, too, in

their [Z-machine article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z-machine).



# MultiZork



On top of the MojoZork code, there is a telnet server called `multizorkd` that

lets several people connect _to the same game_ and play it as a multiplayer

experience. Each player has their own inventory and can move independent of

others. This probably only works on Linux/Unix systems, but the single-player

mojozork program should work on just about anything.



You can play MultiZork right now by pointing a telnet client at

multizork.icculus.org (or running `nc multizork.icculus.org 23`).



[A post on my Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/posts/54997062) explains the

motivations and technical details of multizork. If you like this, please

consider throwing in a dollar so I can keep doing wild things like this!



# libretro core



Ever want to play Z-Machine games under RetroArch? Now you can. The libretro

core handles all the tapdancing to make text-based games run in a graphical

window, and can be played with a keyboard (in RetroArch focus mode), or with

a mouse or game controller on an included virtual keyboard.



Enjoy!



--ryan.