Z-Interpreter

Z-Interpreter is an open-source program for playing Infocom text adventures. It is written in Java.

Z-Interpreter implements Infocom's Z-machine, a virtual computer developed for playing text adventures. This Z-Interpreter implementation can play text adventures (compiled into "story files") for version 3 of the Z-machine. This applies to many of Infocom’s classic text adventures, such as:

Ballyhoo, Cutthroats, Deadline, Enchanter, Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, Hollywood Hijinx, Infidel, Leather Goddesses of Phobos, Lurking Horror, Moonmist, Planetfall, Plundered Hearts, Seastalker (limited support only), Sorcerer, Spellbreaker, Starcross, Stationfall, Suspect, Suspended, Wishbringer, Witness, Zork I, Zork II, Zork III,

Enjoy! — Lorenz

Table of Contents

• Getting Started
• Where Do I Get Infocom Story Files?
• Can I Play Adventure With This, Too?
• Build Instructions
• Known Limitations
• Licence

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• You have installed Java JDK (or SDK) 8 or higher on your system.
• You have a story file (from Infocom or created with any story file compiler) for version 3 of the Z-machine.

Instructions

1. Download ZInterpreter.jar to a folder.

2. Open a command prompt in that folder and enter

   java -jar ZInterpreter.jar
   

   This runs Z-Interpreter and lists command-line options:

    ____      ___     _                        _           
   |_  / ___ |_ _|_ _| |_ ___ _ _ _ __ _ _ ___| |_ ___ _ _ 
    / / |___| | || ' \  _/ -_) '_| '_ \ '_/ -_)  _/ -_) '_|
   /___|     |___|_||_\__\___|_| | .__/_| \___|\__\___|_|  
                                 |_|                       
   Version 1.3 (13-MAR-2021) (C) by Lorenz Wiest
   
   Usage: java ZInterpreter [<options>] <story-file>
   Options: -showScoreUpdates | Prints information about the score whenever the score changes.
   

   Option -showScoreUpdates prints information about the score whenever it changes while playing a story file.

3. To play a story file, for example ZORK1.DAT, enter

   java -jar ZInterpreter.jar ZORK1.DAT
   

   Z-Interpreter answers with

    ____      ___     _                        _           
   |_  / ___ |_ _|_ _| |_ ___ _ _ _ __ _ _ ___| |_ ___ _ _ 
    / / |___| | || ' \  _/ -_) '_| '_ \ '_/ -_)  _/ -_) '_|
   /___|     |___|_||_\__\___|_| | .__/_| \___|\__\___|_|  
                                 |_|                       
   Version 1.3 (13-MAR-2021) (C) by Lorenz Wiest
   
   ZORK I: The Great Underground Empire
   Copyright (c) 1981, 1982, 1983 Infocom, Inc. All rights reserved.
   ZORK is a registered trademark of Infocom, Inc.
   Revision 88 / Serial number 840726
   
   West of House
   You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front
   door.
   There is a small mailbox here.
   
   >_
   

Where Do I Get Infocom Story Files?

You can find free story files of Zork I, Zork II, and Zork III here. The story files ZORK1.DAT, ZORK2.DAT, and ZORK3.DAT are contained in the downloadable archives. Story files of other Infocom games are available elsewhere, but not in this GitHub repository. An Internet search may help.

Can I Play Adventure With This, Too?

Yes. I created a story file for Adventure from a version by Jesse McGrew et al. plus a map and a map without hints. They are part of this GitHub repository.

Build Instructions

Prerequisites

• You have installed Java SDK 8 or higher on your system.

Instructions

1. Download this project’s ZIP file from GitHub.

2. Unzip it to a temporary folder.

3. To work with the Z-Interpreter source code in your Eclipse IDE, import the ZInterpreter project from the temporary folder into your Eclipse IDE as an import source General > Existing Projects into Workspace.

4. To compile Z-Interpreter into a convenient JAR file (Windows only), open a command prompt in the temporary folder and enter

   makejar
   

   This produces the ZInterpreter.jar file, containing the compiled Z-Interpreter.

   (Note that the environment variable JAVA_HOME must point to the installation folder of your Java SDK.)

Known Limitations

Z-Interpreter implements a Z-machine of version 3 as described in The Z-Machine Standards Document Version 1.0 with the following limitations:

• No support of a status line (as this implementation uses a teletype output metaphor)
• No support of sounds
• No support of redirecting input and output
• No support of writing text at arbitrary screen locations (as this implementation uses a teletype output metaphor). Incidentally, this is the reason for the limited support of Seastalker, which uses a split screen.

License

This project is available under the MIT license.