How to fit a large program into a small machine (1980)

There's a lot of detail on the Digital Antiquarian site, scattered about, but this piece is a good standalone introduction, complete with some sample code:

https://www.filfre.net/2012/01/zil-and-the-z-machine/

Re: How to fit a large program into a small machine (1980)

#5

Post by dang » Fri, Oct 13, 2023, 6:50 AM UTC

peter_d_sherman wrote: post #2

Related: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z-machine https://foss.heptapod.net/zilf/zilf/-/wikis/home

Also related:

How to Fit a Large Program into a Small Machine (1999) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17839651 - Aug 2018 (35 comments)

How to Fit a Large Program Into a Small Machine - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1032408 - Jan 2010 (3 comments)

Re: How to fit a large program into a small machine (1980)

#6

Post by danjc » Fri, Oct 13, 2023, 7:19 AM UTC

I've always been fascinated by Zork despite coming of age decades after its release. Reminded of it a few years back through The Digital Antiquarian, I wrote a C# implementation of the Z-Machine (https://github.com/raegwolf/zmachine). Seeing how so much could be achieved with so little memory was eye opening.

Re: How to fit a large program into a small machine (1980)

#7

Post by ralferoo » Fri, Oct 13, 2023, 7:22 AM UTC

js8 wrote: post #3

There was also A-code from British company Level 9: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Level_9_Computing#A-code

My dad bought an Amstrad CPC 464 for work in late 1985, and I was allowed to use it occasionally. I bought the Amstrad Action issue 4 Christmas special (now famous for having the first ever cover mounted computer cassette) containing two pretty simple games - Yie Ar Kung Fu and Number 1. They were pretty fun, but despite all the adverts for other games, the very first game I bought based on all the adverts and reviews was... Colossal Adventure. It's mentioned in the article you linked, but astounding that so much game could be packed into 48KB and loaded all at once into memory from cassette, compared to Infocom's paged from disk games.

Re: How to fit a large program into a small machine (1980)

#8

Post by Andrew018 » Fri, Oct 13, 2023, 7:47 AM UTC

[dead]

Re: How to fit a large program into a small machine (1980)

#9

Post by ochrist » Fri, Oct 13, 2023, 8:18 AM UTC

Back in the eighties people tried to squash big games into microcomputers. I don't recall any similar technology to Z-code but I do remember that games like Citadel and Elite on the BBC micro used certain techniques to compress the games into the 32K available on the model B: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citadel_(video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elite_(video_game) https://www.bbcelite.com/deep_dives/program_flow_of_the_main...

Re: How to fit a large program into a small machine (1980)

#10

Post by anthk » Fri, Oct 13, 2023, 8:44 AM UTC

If you want to create a Z-Machine game, get Inform6 and Inform6 lib among the Inform Beginner's Guide to learn how to create a basic adventure:

git clone https://jxself.org/git/inform

git clone https://jxself.org/git/informlib

cd inform ; cc -o inform src/*.c

sudo cp inform /usr/local/bin ; cd ..

Spiritwrak:

git clone --recursive https://jxself.org/git/spiritwrak

cd spiritwrak; sh build.sh ; cd ..

Snowed In (incomplete):

git clone --recursive https://jxself.org/git/snowed-in

cd snowed-in; sh build.sh; cd ..

Homeland: (complete, small)

git clone --recursive https://jxself.org/git/homeland

cd homeland; sh build.sh ; cd ..

In order to play the z5/z8 games, you'll need Frotz/Fizmo or any compatible interpreter.

The games at jxself's repo are GPL licensed, so, please, comply with the license if you create derivated games.