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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