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On last reboost, the iOS app version of Lost Treasures of Infocom:

archive.org/details/lost-treas…

The game files are all the usual versions, as far as I know. (I'll check in detail, but they should match the contents of archive.org/details/InfocomCla… .)

The nice part here is the game feelies, maps, and hint files. These are *also* derived from the 1996 CD but may have been updated or reformatted.

@vga256 #InteractiveFiction #Infocom

in reply to Andrew Plotkin

This is tangential, but what disappointed me about the Lost Treasures of Infocom when I got it from the App Store several years ago was that it was inaccessible with VoiceOver, or at least had an inaccessible intro screen. I wonder if the Infocom classics are currently being sold in an accessible package for any platform.
in reply to Matt Campbell

@matt I was disappointed about that too.

I think the only legit sale points now are GOG and Steam. Both have the 1989 "Zork Anthology" package, Windows only. I assume there's a bunch of DOS emulation going on, and I don't know how Windows screen readers work with that.

in reply to Andrew Plotkin

I assume I can buy the Zork Anthology from GOG, install it, then run the Z-machine files in my choice of interpreter.
in reply to Matt Campbell

@matt Oh, definitely. It's all the same game files.

(Except that Zork Zero is v6 and not all interpreters deal with it.)

in reply to Matt Campbell

@matt Is anyone actually still marketing the Infocom games? I figured any such market might dry up once the ZIL sources were released, seeing as how we *do* have a working reimplementation of a ZIL compiler.
in reply to Jayson Smith

@jaybird110127 Activision has the "Zork Anthology" up on GOG and Steam. That's been true for quite a while now.

The existence of the ZIL sources is really not going to affect that at all. It's easy to *download* the Infocom game files. That was true long before the ZIL sources came out. Anybody who wants to play the games for free can do that.

in reply to Andrew Plotkin

@jaybird110127 Is the Zork Anthology as limited as the description on GOG suggests? That is, is it limited to just the Zork series and Planetfall? IMO that subset doesn't include most of the more interesting Infocom titles.
in reply to Andrew Plotkin

In case it's not clear, you can download the app store package (.ipa) and rename it to "app.zip" to unpack. Or view here: ia601609.us.archive.org/view_a…
in reply to Andrew Plotkin

(IF fans all know this, but maybe not everybody else following this thread:)

You can go to the above archive.org link, or archive.org/details/InfocomCla… , and pull the Infocom game files out of the package.

Most of them can then be played with an open-source interpreter like github.com/erkyrath/lectrote/r… or github.com/garglk/garglk/relea… .

(The later graphical games like Zork Zero are trickier; they require a different interpreter. Try WinFrotz.)

in reply to Andrew Plotkin

Also, ifdb.org has links to the game files in web-playable form.
in reply to Andrew Plotkin

Finally, I have a page eblong.com/infocom/ which links to every known version of these game files. Not just the ones that appeared in the "final" Activision compendiums!

Also the source code directories (which have been available on github since 2019).

This page includes plenty of in-development and beta versions, so watch out for bugs.

in reply to Andrew Plotkin

Finally finally: I know Activision's possible acquisition is back in the news.

Hey, if you're a Microsoft IP lawyer and you're about to acquire a big pile of Infocom rights that are doing nothing but selling a few copies a month on Steam/GOG...

Wouldn't it be a great gesture to transfer those rights to a legit non-profit which is devoted to preserving IF history? Then we could stop waffling about who's allowed to do what.

I merely mention the idea. :phone-gesture: Call me, pal.

in reply to Andrew Plotkin

I'd even be happy with selling the whole catalog on GOG. Hell, sell each story as a separate title and pay the original imps some kind of royalty. Then again, did the imps get royalties even in the 80s?
in reply to Matt Campbell

@matt They did not. (This comes out in the Get Lamp documentary, I forgot who says it.) They were all on salary. The games were company property from the start.