Interpreters Long before Java, VB, and even Perl, the Infocom story interpreter was leading the platform independence pack. Infocom games ran on a wider range of computers than probably any other pieces of software ever. The games themselves were "compiled" for a virtual computer archtitecture called the Z-Machine Infocom games could be played on any computer which implemented the Z-Machine (sound familiar Java users?).
Listed below are a number of interpreters which can play Infocom story files. Many of these interpreters can be found at ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/infocom/interpreters/ or ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/doc/misc/if-archive/infocom/interpreters/. Both Frotz and ZIP cover the largest number of Z-Machine versions. I personally use XZip under Linux.
| Platform | European Download | US Download |
| Acorn Archimedes | Frotz, ITF, ZIP | Frotz, ITF, ZIP |
| Amiga | Frotz, ITF, Jzip, ZIP, ZorkMachine | Frotz, ITF, Jzip, ZIP, ZorkMachine |
| Apple IIGS | ZIP | ZIP |
| Apple Newton | YAZI (DOS), YAZI (Mac) | YAZI (DOS), YAZI (Mac) |
| Atari | ZIP, ITF, Jzip, Jzip source, ZorkMachine | ZIP, ITF, Jzip, Jzip source, ZorkMachine |
| BeBox | Jzip | Jzip |
| DOS | Frotz, ITF, Jzip, ZIP | Frotz, ITF, Jzip, ZIP |
| HP-UX | Frotz | Frotz |
| Java 1.0 | Zax | Zax, ZPlet |
| Linux (source) | ZIP (patch) | ZIP (patch) |
| Macintosh (source) | ZIP | ZIP |
| Macintosh 68K | ITF, ZIP Infinity | ITF, ZIP Infinity |
| Macintosh PPC | ZIP Infinity | ZIP Infinity |
| OS/2 | Frotz, ITF, ZIP | Frotz, ITF, ZIP |
| PalmPilot | ZIP | |
| Psion Series 3 | ITF | ITF |
| Psion Series 5 | Frotz | Frotz |
| SGI | ZIP | ZIP |
| Unix (source) | Frotz, ITF, Jzip, ZIP | Frotz, ITF, Jzip, ZIP |
| VMS (source) | Jzip, ZIP | Jzip, ZIP |
| Windows 3.1 | ITF, WInfocom, WZip | ITF, WInfocom, WZip |
| Windows 95/NT | WinFrotz | WinFrotz |
| Windows CE | Frotz | Frotz |
| X Windows (source) | XZip | XZip |
