Microsoft has open-sourced the text adventure trilogy Zork
Now the source code for Zork I, Zork II, and Zork III is officially available on GitHub under the MIT license.
Zork is an iconic series of text-based games where players manually type commands for their characters. It first emerged in 1977 and is now considered one of the most influential in the history of game development.
Initially, the source code for the Zork trilogy was made publicly available back in 2019. At that time, the code, along with that of several other Infocom games, was posted on GitHub by internet archivist Jason Scott, who focuses on preserving iconic information. However, there was still a risk that Activision Blizzard—the parent company of the now-defunct Infocom and the rights holder of the games—might request the repositories be removed. These concerns have now been alleviated by Microsoft.
Microsoft reported that it contacted Scott and provided the Zork code archives with a license and additional data. Specifically, it shared accompanying documentation with comments.
It's not disclosed why the "gray" status of the Zork source code was only lifted now.