Microsoft unleashes Zork I-III source code

Microsoft developer boss Scott Hanselman saved the company’s Ignite shindig this week by unveiling the source code for Zork I-III, all 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,” said the announcement from Hanselman and Stacey Haffner, Director of Microsoft’s Open Source Programs Office (OSPO).

Zork is a milestone in gaming history. Inspired by Colossal Cave Adventure, Zork is a text adventure that allows players to interact with the game using natural language (relative to what went before). Not so much “go north” but more “climb up the tree.”

Initially developed for the PDP-10 computer, the game was split into three parts by Infocom to fit on the personal computers of the time. The company’s founders included the game’s original…