Preserving code that shaped generations: Zork I, II, and III go Open Source

Posted by jfedor@reddit | programming | View on Reddit | 13 comments

[-]

keithstellyes@reddit

Happy to see it going full legit open source. I was disappointed in some of Microsoft's earlier "open-sourcing" efforts of historical software being more accurately described as "source available" where you can read it but are quite limited it when you can do beyond that.

[-]

9Boxy33@reddit

Which Microsoft adventure-style game from the early 1980s allowed you to “drop into” the SAM76 programming language from the prompt with a (long-forgotten) key sequence? I can’t recall if it ran on my TRS-80 or (more likely) on my Tandy 1000SX.

[-]

gomtuu123@reddit

Could it have been Original Adventure for CP/M? Looks like it was also known as Bilingual Adventure...

[-]

9Boxy33@reddit

That’s possible…I had the Omikron Mapper which allowed me to run CP/M on my TRS-80.

[-]

ResidentAppointment5@reddit

I seriously thought I was the only one who ever heard of SAM76, which I did run on my TRS-80.

[-]

9Boxy33@reddit

I didn’t even know you could get a copy of the language. SAM76, TRAC and GPM fascinated me back in the 1980s.

[-]

Immediate-Kale6461@reddit

You are likely to get eaten by a Grue

[-]

ScottContini@reddit

Nostalgia. I completely forgot about that until you reminded me of the grue.

[-]

Matt3k@reddit

That's weird, I feel like this has already been done? Maybe it wasn't MIT, but it's definitely been released to the public? And regardless, there's plenty of infocom interpreters - the code wasn't anything special. It was the storytelling.

This feels like a Microsoft sponsored story.

[-]