I'd like to introduce Status Line, a z3 game interpreter for the Pico-8.
Executables, lots of information, and source code are all available at the itch.io page.
I've always been obsessed with the classic Infocom text adventures and the interactive fiction community that thrived after their demise. Recently, I entered the first ever Puny Jam #1 which required writing a text adventure in the new PunyInform (a flavor of Inform that supports older computers via the z3 game format).
This all rekindled my interest in the genre and made me very curious to understand how the "z-machine" VM works. I enjoy using the Pico-8 as a kind of exploration medium for mentally dissecting older software and reimplementing it within Pico-8 constraints. To be honest, I like pushing the Pico-8 to do things that aren't immediately associated with the platform.
I had written Eliza and VisiCalc clones for the Pico-8 before, and it seemed like a fun project to build an interpreter for the game I wrote for the Puny Jam. More specifically, I wanted to be able to play Zork and Planetfall on the Pico-8. It's "cozy" space is (to me) a good match to that game genre.
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[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 11.1 ms ] threadI've always been obsessed with the classic Infocom text adventures and the interactive fiction community that thrived after their demise. Recently, I entered the first ever Puny Jam #1 which required writing a text adventure in the new PunyInform (a flavor of Inform that supports older computers via the z3 game format).
This all rekindled my interest in the genre and made me very curious to understand how the "z-machine" VM works. I enjoy using the Pico-8 as a kind of exploration medium for mentally dissecting older software and reimplementing it within Pico-8 constraints. To be honest, I like pushing the Pico-8 to do things that aren't immediately associated with the platform.
I had written Eliza and VisiCalc clones for the Pico-8 before, and it seemed like a fun project to build an interpreter for the game I wrote for the Puny Jam. More specifically, I wanted to be able to play Zork and Planetfall on the Pico-8. It's "cozy" space is (to me) a good match to that game genre.