Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!rochester!cornell!batcomputer!kagle From: kagle@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Jonathan C. Kagle) Newsgroups: rec.games.misc,comp.sources.wanted Subject: Re: ZIL (Zork Implementation(?) Language) interpreter Message-ID: <1423@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu> Date: Tue, 16-Jun-87 21:15:57 EDT Article-I.D.: batcompu.1423 Posted: Tue Jun 16 21:15:57 1987 Date-Received: Sun, 21-Jun-87 08:52:03 EDT References: <77@nessus.UUCP> Reply-To: kagle@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu (Jonathan C. Kagle) Distribution: na Organization: Cornell Theory Center, Cornell University, Ithaca NY Lines: 17 Keywords: ZIL Zork Infocom Unix Summary: RIP Creative Computing Xref: mnetor rec.games.misc:578 comp.sources.wanted:1399 In article <77@nessus.UUCP> paul@nessus.UUCP writes: >... -- Has anyone out there tried >to make a ZIL interpreter in C? After some carefull digging (I bought >Zork I years and years ago for CP/M) I found out that the .DAT files follow >a common format -- think of it as I-code (or Z-code?) -- something like the >UCSD P-code of ages past. > About six years ago, around the time when the first Apple ][ Zork I came out, Creative Computing ran an article about Zork in their adventure games issue. It was a fairly long article describing the design and implementation of their Z-code interpreter at MIT. I think it was written by Mark Blank. I believe that the creation and testing software runs on an old DEC running RSX or UNIX. If you think that they are going to release "important proprietary information," you don't know the software industry. On a similar front, though, SubLogic is releasing a scenery generator for FS2 (using their special coding scheme, of course!). -Jonathan Kagle