The Visible Zorker is a project to create an explorable exhibit of every single classic Infocom text adventure.
What do I mean by “explorable exhibit”? It’s a web site with a complete playable version of the game. You can type commands and read the game’s responses, just like you did in 1980.
But it also lets you see the game running as you play. Every time you type a command, you’ll see the source code of the functions that executed it. You can also browse the game’s variables and the state of every object. Track your progress on an interactive map. So you can see exactly what the game does and how it does it.
Try one of the games listed here! Or read my original blog post for a more in-depth introduction.
The Visible Zorker is a Patreon-supported project. Participants get early access to upcoming games. Also we have a Discord, you know, the usual.
The Visible Zorker was conceived and implemented by Andrew Plotkin.
The original games were, of course, created by Infocom and the fearless Implementers who worked there. A long chain of acquisitions and mergers have left the IP in the hands of Microsoft, who have released at least some of it as open source.