Tools
- To compile ZIL code into playable Z-machine story files:
- Download ZILF 0.9
- Or, build the newest ZILF from source code with the .NET Core 2.2 SDK
- To edit and debug ZIL code:
- Visual Studio Code
- The zil-language extension for VS Code
- To run compiled Z-machine story files:
- To get help:
- To report a bug in ZILF:
Documentation
- Learning ZIL, or Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Writing Interactive Fiction... by Steve Meretzky
- ZIL by Marc Blank
- The MDL Programming Language by Stu Galley and Greg Pfister
- The Z-Machine Standards Document
- ZIP: Z-language Interpreter Program by Joel Berez, Marc Blank, and David Lebling
Test Suite
- ZILF library tests
- Demonstrates the use of features from ZILF's parser and world library.
- ZILF integration tests
- Demonstrates the use of features in MDL and ZIL, as implemented by ZILF.
Examples
- Empty game template by Adam Sommerfield
- Adventure (Colossal Cave) ported by Jesse McGrew
- Heidi ported by Alex Proudfoot
- The Bean Stalker by Jack Welch
- Tenliner Cave Adventure ported by jcompton
Classic Game Source Code
- Unmodified source code for Infocom's games as uploaded by Jason Scott
- ZIL source code for Infocom's games, cleaned up and patched so it compiles under ZILF (release 1)
- The Obsessively Complete Infocom Catalog, including source code curated by Andrew Plotkin
Classic Game Known Bugs
- The Infocom Bugs List by Graeme Cree
- More bugs in Infocom games by Nathan Simpson
Articles
- Long Lost ‘Zork’ Source Code Uploaded to GitHub, But Few People Understand It (April 18, 2019)
- The History of Zork
- A story about the source code for the original mainframe Zork
ZIL Blogs
- Internal Secrets of Infocom Games by Michael Ko
- Vaporware IF: posts about ZILF by Jesse McGrew
- Learning ZIL by Alex Proudfoot
- ZIL Crazy After All These Years by Jonathan Blask
Videos/Podcasts
- Where to Start - Quick Code Guide
- How to write and run an ultra-simple (1 room, 1 object) game in ZIL
- Game On! - Infocom text games and ZIL (1:21:50)
- Kevin Savetz interviews Steve Meretzky at GitHub HQ.
- Infocom - Zork Implementation Language (4:44; April 23, 2019)
- A nice quick overview video, featuring an interview with Dave Lebling on Zork, MDL, and ZIL.
- History of the Language (8:10)
- A clip from Get Lamp. (Original interview is here.)
- Jason Scott Talks His Way out of It: The Infocom Source Code Episode (19:27; April 28, 2019)
- Jason Scott talks about releasing the Infocom Source Code on GitHub.
- The Specialness of Infocom, The Craft, The Z-Machine, Z-Machine Glories, Full Sentences and Every Platform, GET LAMP, The Infocom .ZIP File, A Release, Stu Galley, GitHub, The Clones and Branches, Steve and Kevin have a chat.
Things That Aren't ZIL
- Other historical game source code uploaded/curated by Jason Scott
- Inform 7