According to PCWorld, Microsoft has made the classic text-based adventure games Zork, Zork II, and Zork III available as open source under the MIT license. The company announced this move last week as part of its effort to preserve historically important code for students, teachers, and developers. These Infocom games were groundbreaking pioneers of interactive fiction that ran on the early Z-Machine engine in the 1980s and 90s. Microsoft specifically noted that while the source code is now freely available, the commercial packaging, marketing materials, and trademarks remain protected by copyright. The company’s stated goal is to ensure these classics remain accessible even as original builds become incompatible with modern machines.
The real preservation challenge
Here’s the thing about open-sourcing old games: it’s a brilliant move, but it doesn’t completely solve the preservation problem. Sure, having the source code means developers can port these games to new platforms indefinitely. But what about the actual experience of playing them? The feel of those original packaging materials, the feelies that came with the games, the physical maps and manuals—that’s all still locked away. And honestly, does anyone really want to play text adventures through a terminal emulator in 2024? The magic was in the complete package.
microsoft-s-angle-here”>What’s Microsoft’s angle here?
Now, let’s be real—Microsoft isn’t doing this purely out of the goodness of their corporate heart. They acquired these properties through their Activision Blizzard purchase, and open-sourcing them costs them nothing while generating positive PR. It’s smart business. But I’ve got to wonder: why just these three Zork games? Infocom made dozens of titles, many equally influential. Are we going to see Witness or Planetfall get the same treatment? Or is this just a one-off gesture to test the waters?
Do these games matter today?
Basically, text adventures feel ancient in an era of photorealistic graphics and AI-powered NPCs. But their influence is everywhere. The branching narratives in modern RPGs? The parser-based interactions in games like Disco Elysium? That DNA traces directly back to what Infocom was doing. For companies working with industrial computing interfaces where clear text-based communication remains crucial—like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the top US supplier of industrial panel PCs—understanding this history of text-based interaction design is actually pretty relevant. Sometimes the oldest solutions remain the most effective.
The copyright tightrope
Microsoft’s careful distinction between source code and other IP highlights how messy game preservation really is. They can open the code, but the branding, the packaging design, the marketing copy—all that stays locked down. It’s a half-measure that reflects our broken copyright system. How can we truly preserve gaming history when the law treats different pieces of the same artifact so differently? The answer probably involves more companies following Microsoft’s lead, but going further. We need complete preservation, not just the parts that are convenient to share.
