Infocom Interpreter

[melchett]

I remember reading an article back in the late eighties that Infocom had developed a rom (I think) that contained a Z-code interpreter that would allow infocom's early games, notably Zork, to play on the BBC micro. I'm sure this was an article in either Micro User or Acorn User and will have a look sometime this year as I'm sure I've still got it somewhere in the loft. I think the quote from Infocom on why they weren't going to commercially release it was along the lines of "most BBC owners have a patch over one eye and a parrot on their shoulder". Did anyone ever see this or remember the same article? Be a shame to think that if they developed/prototyped one it was lost...

[Samwise]

A new project has started which will potentially allow you to play a number of Infocom games, including Zork.

Worth keeping an eye on ... beta-testers will be required at some point!

http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/wiki/ind ... nterpreter

Sam.

[alchresearch]

Ah, good old Scott Adams. I remember altering the code in Adventureland so instead of being bitten by chiggers, you got CHEGGERS instead.

[Cybershark]

Lol, I remember just being confused about exactly what the hell 'chiggers' were

[iamaran]

Yes, but Scott Adams has nothing to do with Infocom! The Scott Adams system was called SAGA if I recall correctly and were released on the Beeb anyway, so not much need for an interpreter!

[Samwise]

Well, Scott Adams' games weren't commercially linked with Infocom or the Z-code format, but tools are available - like Scott2Zip - which will convert games in Scott Adams data files (from TRS-80 or TI-99/4) format into Inform and, hence, enable them to be compiled into Z-code. This is why there are many of Scott Adams and Brian Howarth's games available in Z-code format from the IF Archive.

A production release of this latest Z-Machine interpreter would allow you to play all these Z-code versions as well as many more games, as Z-code is one of the most well-established formats for interactive fiction ...

Sam.

[EdwardianDuck]

I remember reading an article back in the late eighties that Infocom had developed a rom (I think) that contained a Z-code interpreter that would allow infocom's early games, notably Zork, to play on the BBC micro. I'm sure this was an article in either Micro User or Acorn User and will have a look sometime this year as I'm sure I've still got it somewhere in the loft. I think the quote from Infocom on why they weren't going to commercially release it was along the lines of "most BBC owners have a patch over one eye and a parrot on their shoulder". Did anyone ever see this or remember the same article? Be a shame to think that if they developed/prototyped one it was lost...

Inform source code for their Acorn interpreter (circa 1985) has surfaced, see posts starting here onwards. It isn't source code for a ROM, but converting it to a ROM would not have been that hard for Infocom to do. I got as far as a rough ROM WIP before I abandoned the project.

Jeremy