Resurrecting Infocom's Unix Z-Machine with Cosmopolitan
I recently brought Infocom's original UNIX z-machine source code back to life on modern systems. The modified source code, instructions on usage, a build of the z-machine, and examples of embedded game executables are available. There is also a detailed write-up about the state of the original source code, the porting process, and the invaluable role Justine Tunney's Cosmpolitan project played in bringing the Zork trilogy (and more) to Windows/Mac/Linux/bsd for arm/x86 machines over the course of a lazy Sunday.
Resurrecting Infocom's Unix Z-Machine with Cosmopolitan launched on April 14, 2025 with 157 votes, #257 of 7,818 launches that month and more than 95% of that year's launches. The site was still online in September 2026, 1 year on.
In plain words
This project restores Infocom's original Unix Z-machine source code to run on modern operating systems including Windows, Mac, Linux, and BSD across ARM and x86 architectures. It provides modified source code, build instructions, compiled binaries, and example game executables, along with documentation on the porting process. The work uses the Cosmopolitan project to enable classic text adventures like the Zork trilogy to function across multiple platforms without modification.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
(updated April 28, 2025 to reflect new info from comments on the Hacker News post)
I made standalone executables of the Zork trilogy , ported from original Infocom UNIX source to Cosmopolitan, are available for Windows/Mac/Linux/bsd for arm/x86 machines. These require no further installation nor external files to play. wget https://github.com/ChristopherDrum/pez/releases/download/v1.0.0/zork1 chmod +x zork1 ./zork1 # This one executable runs on any and all targetted platforms # `zork2` and `zork3` are available, for trilogy completionists # Windows users, add `.exe` to the downloaded file to make Windows happy # Linux users with .NET Mono libraries might need to run `sh ./zork1` Want to run an arbitrary .z3 text adventure file? Download the z-machine from here Recently I…from christopherdrum.github.io
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