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Zork I, Zork II and Zork III are now officially open source (www.gamingonlinux.com)
submitted 10 months ago by to c/retrogaming@lemmy.world
24 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

cross-posted from: https://no.lastname.nz/post/1917886

Microsoft announced today that they're preserving a bit of history here - with Zork I, Zork II, and Zork III now officially and clearly open source. The source has been around for a while but now it's all proper.

From the announcement they said:

Today, we’re preserving a cornerstone of gaming history that is near and dear to our hearts. Together, Microsoft’s Open Source Programs Office (OSPO), Team Xbox, and Activision are making Zork I, Zork II, and Zork III available under the MIT License. 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.

all 24 comments

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[–] 27 points 10 months ago

So they're now openzork!

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    [–] 15 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    I've been wanting to get these running via virtual assistant (Alexa, Google, Siri, etc.). Imagine playing these on a long car ride, via voice!

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    • [–] 11 points 10 months ago

    Wow, even released under the "commercial friendly" MIT license.

    I look forward to playing an Ai derivative "coming soon".

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    [–] 10 points 10 months ago

    >be eaten by grue

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    [–] 6 points 10 months ago (9 children)

    So, where can we get them?

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  • [–] 10 points 10 months ago (7 children)

    By following the links in the article

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (6 children)

    Sorry, didn't realize only an excerpt was posted here. That's on me.

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  • [–] 0 points 10 months ago (5 children)

    Maybe it's lazy, but I always ask for people to post things in the comments that are in the article, so I don't have to read the article.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago* (2 children)

    I understand if the article is long or convoluted and you just need a short summary but even refusing to click the link and do a quick check is lazy AF and should not be encouraged. Or at least use AI for that.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Holy fuck, I'm not using AI for that shit.

    A lot of times people are happy to share stuff in the comments. I do it myself for articles I'm actually interested in reading. It's part of the human connection that makes the internet a interesting place to be, not an AI hellscape.

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    • [–] 5 points 10 months ago

    Nice! Would love to see Zork Zero opened as well.

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    [–] 2 points 10 months ago

    Reminds me of a game my buddy and I made called BIP.

    BIP was a crazy computer that went nuts.

    Our code was about as sophisticated as this. As in, not. lol

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    [–] 1 point 10 months ago (5 children)

    Are there any tablets good for old text adventures games?

    There was the Ink Console coming out, but that seemingly died off.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 10 months ago (4 children)

    How do you mean? in terms of a keyboard? Or e-ink?

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (3 children)

    Both, so I will assume I am being unrealistic. :(

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Well if you have a lot of money everything's great :D But srs, there's a bunch of them that run out-of-the-box android that would do it. Boox is what I'm thinking of specifically, maybe a used one even - and they have a USB C port you can just plug your favorite clicky keyboard into and baddabing - perfect e-ink Zorkage.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Finally got a chance to look into the Boox and wanted to say thanks for the suggestion!

    Currently broke of course, but this looks like it would do everything the Ink Console would of and then some. There's a version of Zork (all) on the Play store as well!

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 10 months ago

    Right on - I thought I saw something about someone jailbreaking a kindle again which might be another avenue if you've got the time and interest. There's also the raspberry-pi-with-an-e-ink-HAT option but it doesn't get bigger than 7 inches afaik. Otherwise, yeah those used prices should come down eventually.

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