Groups | Search | Server Info | Keyboard shortcuts | Login | Register [http] [https] [nntp] [nntps]

Groups > comp.misc > #17831

Historical Source: ZIL files for all of Infocom's games.

Show all headers | View raw

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.

As for compiling:

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

Back to comp.misc | Previous | Next — Next in thread | Find similar | Unroll thread

Thread

Historical Source: ZIL files for all of Infocom's games. Eli the Bearded <*@eli.users.panix.com> - 2019-04-17 00:14 +0000
  Re: Historical Source: ZIL files for all of Infocom's games. Pabst Blue Ribbon <pabst@blue.ribbon> - 2019-04-17 07:36 +0000
    Re: Historical Source: ZIL files for all of Infocom's games. Eli the Bearded <*@eli.users.panix.com> - 2019-04-17 18:44 +0000
      Re: Historical Source: ZIL files for all of Infocom's games. Pabst Blue Ribbon <pabst@blue.ribbon> - 2019-04-18 10:12 +0000
        Re: Historical Source: ZIL files for all of Infocom's games. Doug McIntyre <merlyn@dork.geeks.org> - 2019-04-18 07:34 -0500
          Re: Historical Source: ZIL files for all of Infocom's games. Huge <Huge@nowhere.much.invalid> - 2019-04-18 13:26 +0000
            Re: Historical Source: ZIL files for all of Infocom's games. ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) - 2019-04-18 17:14 -0500
          Re: Historical Source: ZIL files for all of Infocom's games. Eli the Bearded <*@eli.users.panix.com> - 2019-04-18 23:12 +0000
        Re: Historical Source: ZIL files for all of Infocom's games. adam@fsf.net (Adam Thornton) - 2019-04-19 18:48 +0000

csiph-web