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So, Infocom source code is now uploaded to Github. Most people don't speak or want to speak the language it's written in, ZIL (Zork Implementation Language). You can browse through it and kind of suss out what's being done when and the choices made over the course of time.
In cases where the source code had multiple revisions, and I don't know the story of what revisions came when and came why, I did a reasonable job of layering them out (this came before that, that came after that) and doing multiple "check-ins" of the code so you can see diffs.
Often, there are cases that some games were built up from a previous game, allowing modification of the macros and structures and then making them work in the new game. For example, an NPC partygoer in one game was a thief in a previous one. Dungeons become stores, etc.
There are infinite things to learn here and I hope people learn from it. I think if a reasonably informed person comes through and gives it a real documentary treatment we will really understand just how brilliant those Infocom implementors were. And how space-age Z-Machine is.
The compiler, as far as absolutely anybody can tell, is lost. It is not possible to turn this source code into a functioning game anymore, and certainly not by using any tools that exist in any chain, anywhere. This is therefore less "code" and more "text artifact".
If this is taken away or lost, then really, are you to trust that any company, ANY of them, will take care of their history, and not just slam down any attempt to look at the historical work done and understand, educate, and promote research? Can you really trust that?
What got me thinking about this was losing Stu Galley last year, creator of so many great games and who thought Infocom was the dream job of a lifetime. We got along so well during GET LAMP; I loved that guy. He was a gem.
Whatever happens next, it makes me happy to know people got to see his craft, and the craft and thinking of so many other of these artists in interactive fiction, and understand on a new level what they were doing and how they went about it. I dedicate this to them.
Happy reading.
