The venerable Infocom text-adventure game Zork spawned the Infocom Z-Machine V3, a virtual machine that could run "programs" (games) from the commercial to the hobbyist, including "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Planetfall and Curses."
If you're thinking of running these games and you have your own chip fabrication facility, then the 2014 Opencores file has you covered with a hardware implementation of the Z-Machine V3, supporting all functions of the VM except save/restore (which are tricky to pull off in a chip).
I'm pretty sure you can also cook this into an FPGA if you don't wanna go the full ASIC.
A Verilog implementation of the Infocom Z-Machine V3. The spec the Z3 follows is http://inform-fiction.org/zmachine/standards/z1point0/index.html. Specifically version 3, the so called "Standard" games. These were released between 1982 and 1987 and covers most Infocom games. Z3 passes the "CZECH - Comprehensive Z-machine Emulation CHecker" by Amir Karger. And is known to run at least Zork I, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Planetfall and Curses (by Graham Nelson).
To provide the input/output a terminal is implemented in a BIOS (in Z-machine code) which exists in the ROM above 120Kb. The IO related opcodes (like @print) vector into the BIOS which provides the terminal. A small number of extra op codes were added so the BIOS could interface with an LCD touchscreen and access the top 64Kb of RAM (which shadows the ROM).
Terminal Phase is a side-scrolling shoot-em-up in the Gradius and R-Type tradition, but in text mode. In the terminal! It’s free software created by Christopher Lemmer Webber [Patreon]. The game is completely playable and is a fun game (well, at least a number of playtesters told me they thought it was fun). It includes two […]
A popular, official Tetris app is going to get bricked. Users of Tetris Blitz fired up the game yesterday to be given a smarmy “it’s time to say goodbye” message from the publisher. Hello Fans, We have had an amazing journey with you so far but sadly, it is time to say goodbye. As of […]
Smarter people than me have pointed out that "work-life balance" says the quiet part out loud, implicitly confirming that you stop living when you're at work. Miles Matrix's Dungeons and Deadlines makes all this much realer with acerbic wit and rockin' chiptunes. My spouse left me after five turns. (via Four Short Links)
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Traditional headphones are overrated, especially now that this HumBird Bone-Conducting Speaker allows you to enjoy a rich and completely unique listening experience depending on where you place it. A must-have item for true audiophiles looking to switch up their usual listening routine, this compact speaker uses cutting-edge bone conduction technology in order to deliver a […]
