Microsoft has released the source code for Zork I, II, and III under the MIT open-source license, making the legendary text adventure games freely available for anyone to study, learn from, and play.
"Our goal is simple: to place historically important code in the hands of students, teachers, and developers so they can study it, learn from it, and, perhaps most importantly, play it," Microsoft announced on its blog.
Zork revolutionized gaming in the late 1970s and early 1980s by building vivid worlds from nothing but text.
The release includes source code, documentation, build notes, and clear MIT licensing. It doesn't include commercial packaging or trademark rights, which remain with their owners.
You can play Zork for free on the Internet Archive.
Previously:
• Play Zork on Twitter
• Zork machine implemented in hardware
• Play Zork by phone
• Wikipedia as a Zork-style text-adventure
• Video for Frontalot's nerdcore song about Zork
• Read this excellent article about the making of Zork, the iconic 1977 text adventure
