TLDR
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Interactive exhibit lets you explore Zork III gameplay and its 1982 Infocom ZIL source code side by side.
Key Takeaways
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Zork III source is written in ZIL (Zork Implementation Language), a Lisp-like language with routines, globals, and constants.
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Core engine covers room description, object inventory, movement, scoring, save/restore, and death sequences, all visible in raw source.
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Death handler includes two distinct narrative paths: a grue-eaten void speech and a dungeon-cell resurrection with the Dungeon Master character.
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Weight and container logic recurse through object trees; worn items get special-cased in the WEIGHT routine.
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Score cap is hardcoded at 7 (
SCORE-MAX 7), and verbose/brief/super-brief modes are simple global flags toggled by verb handlers.
Hacker News Comment Review
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