The source code for 45 Infocom text adventures is now available in its native ZIL (Zork Implementation Language) from GitHub.

I've uploaded the entirety of source code of all Infocom text adventures/interactive fiction to Github. https://t.co/p0K8MRKoTN If you don't understand ZIL, and you probably don't, read this instruction manual. https://t.co/H8nl1fxWcv

— Jason Scott (@textfiles) April 16, 2019

According to the code repository’s readme file, “This collection is meant for education, discussion, and historical work, allowing researchers and students to study how code was made for these interactive fiction games and how the system dealt with input and processing. It is not considered to be under an open license.” But notes Gamasutra, “… Activision, which purchased Infocom in 1986, still owns the company IP, meaning it could eventually clamp down and halt Scott’s preservation efforts.”

To commemorate the release of this code, GitHub will host the live event “Game On I: The Great Quest for Imagination“, on the afternoon of Friday, April 26, 2019, 3–6:30 PM PDT (UTC-7) at its headquarters at 88 Colin P Kelly Jr St, San Francisco, California, USA. Steve Meretzky, the sole or lead designer on such Infocom games as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, A Mind Forever Voyaging, Planetfall, and Leather Goddesses of Phobos, will be the guest of honor. The event will be moderated by Kevin Savetz of the Eaten by a Grue podcast. Topics will include Infocom, working with ZIL, putting the source code on GitHub, and the evolution of software and version control. Following the discussion will be a happy hour, during which game stations will be set up all where people can have fun with Infocom titles and multiplayer games. The event is open to the public; free registration is required. It will also be livestreamed online.

For more on the history of Infocom, watch Jason Scott’s Infocom documentary, included as part of Get Lamp.
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The source code for three text adventures from Phoenix Software has been released by the original programmer, Paul Berker. Adventure in Time (1981), Birth of the Phoenix (1981), and Queen of Phobos (1982) were published for both Apple II and Atari, with source code for both platforms now available from the AtariAge forum.

These releases were coordinated by Kevin Savetz, co-host of the ANTIC podcast. His interview with Berker was released on Nov 19, 2016, as episode #254 of ANTIC.

Bill Budge has posted to github the source code to his seminal hit Pinball Construction Set, according to this Y-Combinator item.  Some sharp eyes in the comments thread noticed that although the code is for the Atari 800 version of the program, it was developed on an Apple II, a common practice in those days and made easy by the fact that both platforms use a 6502 processor.  According to one of Bill’s recent tweets: “The Atari 800 had a raster mode that was very similar to the Apple II Hi-res graphics. The code had minimal differences.”

Bill has also tweeted that he intends to go through and comment the code, which you can find here.

(HT: Sean Fahey, image source: The Digital Antiquarian)

Want a peek at the recently-rescued Prince of Persia source code?  Head on over to Github, where Jordan Mechner has posted it.  Download a copy and peruse at your leisure!  The posting includes the original source, the disk routines, and Br0derbund’s disk protection routines.

According to this tweet from Jordan Mechner, the Prince of Persia source code has been successfully recovered!

Jordan Mechner announced on his blog today that after years of searching, the original Apple II source code for Prince of Persia has finally been located.  You can read the details of the discovery here.