Microsoft has made a significant move in the world of gaming by opening up three classic text-based adventure games, Zork I, II, and III, to the public domain under the MIT License. The decision comes after years of speculation about the future of these iconic games.
Text-based adventure games, which dominated the gaming scene in the 1980s and early 1990s, have seen a resurgence in popularity in recent years. However, they are no longer at the forefront of the gaming industry as they once were. Nevertheless, preserving the legacy of these classic games is still an important endeavor.
Microsoft's Open Source Programs Office worked closely with Jason Scott, a well-known digital archivist and Internet Archive founder, to make this decision. By contributing their code directly to historical source repositories, Microsoft aims to contribute to the preservation of gaming history rather than creating new repositories.
The move comes as a result of Microsoft's acquisition of Activision in 2022, which gave them control over the Zork IP. Interestingly, there was an attempt by Microsoft to acquire publishing rights for Zork as far back as the 1980s, but it ultimately fell through.
It is worth noting that this is not the first time the original Zork source code has been made available to the public. Jason Scott uploaded it to GitHub in 2019, but the license situation was unresolved at the time. With Microsoft's decision, that issue is now a thing of the past, ensuring that the code will remain freely accessible for years to come.
The release of these classic games under open-source terms paves the way for their continued development and modification by the gaming community. As the gaming landscape continues to evolve, preserving the heritage of older games like Zork remains an essential part of the industry's history and culture.
Text-based adventure games, which dominated the gaming scene in the 1980s and early 1990s, have seen a resurgence in popularity in recent years. However, they are no longer at the forefront of the gaming industry as they once were. Nevertheless, preserving the legacy of these classic games is still an important endeavor.
Microsoft's Open Source Programs Office worked closely with Jason Scott, a well-known digital archivist and Internet Archive founder, to make this decision. By contributing their code directly to historical source repositories, Microsoft aims to contribute to the preservation of gaming history rather than creating new repositories.
The move comes as a result of Microsoft's acquisition of Activision in 2022, which gave them control over the Zork IP. Interestingly, there was an attempt by Microsoft to acquire publishing rights for Zork as far back as the 1980s, but it ultimately fell through.
It is worth noting that this is not the first time the original Zork source code has been made available to the public. Jason Scott uploaded it to GitHub in 2019, but the license situation was unresolved at the time. With Microsoft's decision, that issue is now a thing of the past, ensuring that the code will remain freely accessible for years to come.
The release of these classic games under open-source terms paves the way for their continued development and modification by the gaming community. As the gaming landscape continues to evolve, preserving the heritage of older games like Zork remains an essential part of the industry's history and culture.
Microsoft is finally giving classic gamers what they've been waiting for – free access to the original source code of Zork I, II, and III 
It's crazy that it took them this long to make the decision public, but at least now we can breathe a sigh of relief 
The gaming community is going to love this! With open-source terms, anyone can modify and improve these games, keeping their spirit alive for years to come 
I'm excited to see what kind of new adventures people will create with these classic games. It's amazing how preserving the legacy of old games can still have a huge impact on the industry today 
. i mean, who doesn't love playing zork again? 
it's like a trip down memory lane for all the retro gamers out there. and now they're gonna be able to modify the code too which is super exciting! 
i can already imagine some talented devs creating new content and mods for these old games... that would be amazing 
. He's like a hero of the gaming world, fighting to keep our digital heritage alive 
. And now, we can all chip in by contributing to the preservation of these classic games and creating new experiences for future gamers 
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just when i thought zork was a lost cause, microsoft swoops in and makes it available for all to play around with! i mean, its about time too, those old texts-based adventure games are still pretty addictive, reminds me of the good ol days of dial-up internet 
I'm so stoked about this move by Microsoft! It's awesome that they're making these classic text-based adventure games available for free. I mean, who doesn't love playing Zork all night long? 
. i mean, can you imagine playing Zork I, II, and III in all their original glory again? 
. And hey, who knows, maybe one day we'll see some fresh new Zork games pop up 
microsoft is being pretty cool by making this happen, especially after that whole activision acquisition thingy 
and let's be real, preserving gaming history is a big deal! we should all be giving props to jason scott for his role in getting these games out into the wild 
. Think about it, Microsoft acquires Activision and suddenly they're all up in arms to share their classic games with the world? 
Maybe they're trying to "open up" the gaming industry, but really it's just a Trojan horse for more Microsoft influence. 
Don't get me wrong, I'm glad we'll have access to these classic games, but let's not be fooled – there's always more to this story than meets the eye 
. Making these classic games available to the public domain will definitely inspire new mods and development from the community 
. I'm curious to see how this will impact the gaming scene, especially with the rise of retro gaming 
. Whatever the case, it's great to see companies like Microsoft contributing to the preservation of our gaming heritage 
. The fact that Jason Scott was involved in this whole process is totally awesome - he's like a hero for preserving gaming history 
now anyone can use and modify them, it's a whole new level of gaming community involvement 
and i'm hyped that jason scott was involved in the process too, he's literally a gaming legend 
microsoft might have bought activision but by giving these games away for free they're actually doing the gaming world a solid 
. The fact that they worked with Jason Scott, a total legend when it comes to gaming history, makes me trust that this decision is the real deal.
. It's not just about preserving the legacy of these games, but also about making sure they stay free for everyone to enjoy in the future.
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glad Microsoft stepped in tho