ORIGINAL GAME PREVIEW / GAME OPENS ON CREATOR'S SITE
ADVENTURE / SINGLE PLAYER
Zork I, II and III
Infocom's three Zork games, the text adventures that begin west of a white house with a mailbox. You type what to do and the game answers.
iplayif.com/?story=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hi… ↗
Classic games in your browser: every port with its download size →
OUR TAKE / EDITORIAL
Why it's on the wall
Zork I is the one to open first. It's text only and it's funny: the leaflet in the mailbox ends with "No computer should be without one!"
Written by Neon Gamewall. An opinion, not a player rating.
GAME BRIEF
What's the game?
Zork started on an MIT mainframe in 1977, and Infocom cut it into three games for home computers: Zork I: The Great Underground Empire (1980), Zork II: The Wizard of Frobozz (1981) and Zork III: The Dungeon Master (1982). There are no pictures. The game tells you where you are, you type what to do (open mailbox, north, take lamp) and it answers. Zork I sends you under the white house after nineteen treasures, past a troll, a thief and the grue that eats anyone who wanders in the dark. In November 2025 Microsoft put the source of all three under the MIT license. The story files here come from those repositories and run in Parchment, the interactive fiction community's web player. Call of Duty players may have met Zork I already: Black Ops hid it in the computer on its main menu.
BEFORE YOU PLAY
What to expect
Free, with no account and no ads. Small: about 0.4 MB in all, Parchment's scripts plus an 87 KB story file. Text only, so you read, type a command and press Enter. In our check on November 3 all three loaded and took commands. Zork I is release 119, the last Infocom release. Zork II opens inside a barrow with an Elvish sword and "a strangely familiar brass lantern"; Zork III opens with a dream of falling down a dark staircase.
Controls: Keyboard. Type a command and press Enter: directions (north or n, up, down), look, inventory (i), take, drop, open, read. We only played on desktop.
QUESTIONS PEOPLE ASK
Common questions
Can you play Zork online for free?
Yes. Zork I, II and III play free in a browser tab here, with nothing to install and no account. Microsoft put the games' source under the MIT license in November 2025; these are Infocom's story files from those repositories, run in Parchment.
Is Zork in Call of Duty?
Yes. Call of Duty: Black Ops (2010) hid Zork I in the computer terminal on its main menu: type ZORK there to start it. This page plays the same game without Black Ops.
What is a grue?
The monster that eats you if you walk around Zork in the dark. The game warns you first: "It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue." Take the brass lantern from the white house and keep it lit.
Which Zork should I play first?
Zork I. The series starts there, at the white house with the mailbox, and Zork II and III carry on further into the Great Underground Empire.
SOURCE & CREDIT
Meet the maker
Infocom (Marc Blank, Dave Lebling and the MIT Zork team) ↗
Zork began as an MIT mainframe game in 1977 and was split by Infocom into three home-computer games, released 1980 to 1982. Marc Blank and Dave Lebling are credited with the MIT Zork team. Microsoft released the source of all three under the MIT license in November 2025.
The game's AI build is not independently verified. See the creator source or build notes ↗.
Made this game? Grab the Listed badge and see what we send you ↗
KEEP PLAYING
