nowfound

AI · January 27, 2026

IW

I wrapped the Zorks with an LLM

I grew up on the Infocom games and when microsoft actually open-sourced Zork 1/2/3 I really wanted to figure out how to use LLMs to let you type whatever you want, I always found the amount language that the games "understood" to be so limiting - even if it was pretty state of the art at the time. So I figured out how to wrap it with Tambo.. (and run the game engine in the browser) basically whatever you type gets "translated" into zork-speak and passed to the game - and then the LLM takes the game's output and optionally adds flavor. (the little ">_" button at the top exposes the…

In plain words

This project wraps the classic Infocom Zork games with an LLM to accept natural language commands instead of the limited parser the original games understood. Players can type anything, and the LLM translates it into commands the game engine recognizes, then enhances the output with additional flavor text. The tool runs in the browser and supports multi-turn instructions, allowing players to give complex directives like exploring entire locations across multiple game turns.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

In the maker’s words, at launch

I grew up on the Infocom games and when microsoft actually open-sourced Zork 1/2/3 I really wanted to figure out how to use LLMs to let you type whatever you want, I always found the amount language that the games "understood" to be so limiting - even if it was pretty state of the art at the time. So I figured out how to wrap it with Tambo.. (and run the game engine in the browser) basically whatever you type gets "translated" into zork-speak and passed to the game - and then the LLM takes the game's output and optionally adds flavor. (the little ">_" button at the top exposes the actual game input) What was a big surprise to me is multi-turn instructions - you can ask it to "Explore all the rooms in the house until you can't find any more" and it will plug away at the game for 10+ "turns" at a time... like Claude Code for Zork or something

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