A Z-machine interpreter allowing the classic Infocom works of interactive fiction to be played on the Colour Maximite 2.
Written in MMBasic 5.05 by Thomas Hugo Williams in 2019-2020
- Z-machine technical advice was provided by Fredrik Ramsberg, co-author of Ozmoo.
You can do what you like with this code subject to the LICENSE,
but if you use it then perhaps you would like to buy me a coffee?
- Download the latest release: https://github.com/thwill1000/zmim/releases/download/r3/zmim-r3.zip
- or clone/download the latest work in progress: https://github.com/thwill1000/zmim
- Extract all the files to
\ZMIM\- to run from a different directory you need to edit the
ss$(0)="\zmim"string in themain()subroutine ofzmim.bas.
- to run from a different directory you need to edit the
RUN "\zmim\zmim.bas"
The games/adventures for Z-machines are called "story files" and come in several versions z1, z2, z3, .. z8
Z-MIM currently only supports .z3 format as used by the classic 1980's Infocom games.
Z-MIM is distributed with four free story files that Infocom created:
- tutorial.z3 - Introduction to interactive fiction and a little bit of Zork I
- minizork.z3 - A nice big chunk of Zork I that was given away with the British Commodore users’ magazine “Zzap! 64″ no. 67. in 1990.
- sampler1.z3 - Samples of Planetfall, Infidel, and The Witness.
- sampler2.z3 - Samples of Zork I, Leather Goddesses of Phobos, and Trinity
Other story files can be found legitimately on the internet:
- hhgg.z3 - The Hitchikers Guide To The Galaxy
- http://www.douglasadams.com/creations/hhgg.z3
- link is to a file on the official Douglas Adams website.
- curses-r10.z3 - Curses, An Interactive Diversion by Graham Nelson.
- https://ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/zcode/old/curses-r10.z3
- this is highly regarded.
- advent.z3 - Adventure aka Colossal Cave, the original 350 points version ported to ZIL by Jesse McGrew, based on earlier work by Graham Nelson and Dave Baggett, with some elements of the original Fortran version restored.
- catseye.z3 - Cat's Eye, Miniventure #2 by Dave Bernazzani, release 3. "When your uncle Xevion asks you for a favor, you simply can't refuse. But what mysteries lie in his strange house?"
- dejavu.z3 - Deja Vu, An Interactive Demonstration by Graham Nelson.
- gussdeath.z3 - Guss's Death, an Exercise in Interactive Fiction, by Kyle Frownfelter.
- moonglow.z3 - Moonglow, Miniventure #1 by Dave Bernazzani, release 3. "What do you do when a mysterious orb crash-lands in your field? It's not your typical day at the farm!"
The z3 compatible Infocom classic stories are:
- ballyhoo.z3 - Ballyhoo
- cutthroat.z3 - Cuthroats
- enchanter.z3 - Enchanter
- hollywood.z3 - Hollywood Hijinx
- lgop.z3 - Leather Goddesses of Phobos
- lurking.z3 - The Lurking Horror
- planetfall.z3 - Planetfall
- plundered.z3 - Plundered Hearts
- seastalker.z3 - Seastalker
- sorcerer.z3 - Sorcerer
- spellbrkr.z3 - Spellbreaker
- wishbringer.z3 - Wishbringer
- infidel.z3 - Infidel
- zork1.z3 - Zork: The Great Underground Empire - Part I
- zork2.z3 - Zork II: The Wizard of Frobozz
- zork3.z3 - Zork III: The Dungeon Master
These files can be extracted from the several anthologies that have been published over the years, e.g. "The Lost Treasures of Infocom"
Z-MIM currently has the following limitations:
- Only works with .z3 format stories.
- No status bar:
- type
*statusto see current location, score and moves made.
- type
- Non standard support for scripts:
- user is prompted to write a script when the story starts.
- type
*replayto play-back a script.
- No split screen, as used (optionally?) by Seastalker.
- No sound support, as used (optionally?) by The Lurking Horror.
1. What is the Colour Maximite 2 ?
The Colour Maximite 2 is a small self contained "Boot to BASIC" computer inspired by the home computers of the early 80's such as the Tandy TRS-80, Commodore 64 and Apple II.
While the concept of the Colour Maximite 2 is borrowed from the computers of the 80's the technology used is very much up to date. Its CPU is an ARM Cortex-M7 32-bit RISC processor running at 480MHz and it generates a VGA output at resolutions up to 800x600 pixels with up 65,536 colours.
The power of the ARM processor means it is capable of running BASIC at speeds comparable to running native machine-code on an 8-bit home computer with the additional advantage of vastly more memory and superior graphics and audio capabilities.
More information can be found on the official Colour Maximite 2 website at http://geoffg.net/maximite.html
2. Will you be supporting the original Colour Maximite / Mono Maximite / Pi-cromite / MMBasic for DOS ?
The current release includes a Colour Maximite 1 version (which may also work on the Mono Maximite, but it untested) this can be executed with RUN "\zmim\zmim_cm1.bas"
However it is 25 times slower (~30 instructions per second) than the Colour Maximite 2 version (~800 instructions per second) and as a result pretty much unplayable.
Pi-cromite and MMBasic for DOS versions are "in progress", watch this space.
3. Will you be supporting .z4, .z5, etc. story formats ?
Perhaps. It depends on whether anyone finds this useful, or how bored I get.
4. What possessed you to write this in BASIC ?
This is currently the only option on the Colour Maximite 2 unless you want to rewrite/replace the firmware to include an ARM Z-machine implementation.
5. How do I play these games ?
Try playing "tutorial.z3" or read https://www.z-machine-matter.com/playing.html
6. How do I find out more about Interactive Fiction ?
Visit https://intfiction.org/
7. How do I find out more about the Z-machine ?
The Z-machine standard documents can be found at https://www.inform-fiction.org/zmachine/standards/
8. How do I contact the author ?
The author can be contacted via:
- https://github.com as user "thwill1000"
- https://www.thebackshed.com/forum/index.php as user "thwill"