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katspaugh | 3 months ago

So Zork was written in Lisp? It had to be!

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<ROUTINE V-ADVENT ()

  <TELL "A hollow voice says \"Fool.\"" CR>>

discuss

agiacalone|3 months ago

MDL, actually, which was derived from LISP.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MDL_(programming_language)

drob518|3 months ago

I’m curious why they chose MDL rather than Lisp for it. Sure, it would have been ancient MACLISP or whatever, but why not leverage what was already in wide use at MIT at the time?

leoc|3 months ago

From one perspective ADVENT is just SHRDLU turned inside out, after all. (Though of course from another perspective it's a fancier WUMPUS.)

('ADVENT' is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossal_Cave_Adventure , for anyone who isn't familar.)

leoc|3 months ago

(This is not an original observation, to be clear: see eg. https://nickm.com/if/riddle_machines.html )

WillAdams|3 months ago

A nice overview of the source code for that is:

http://literateprogramming.com/adventure.pdf

m463|3 months ago

I remember playing it and finding a bunch of listings

  There is an enormous stack of line-printer paper here.  It is barely
  readable and totally unintelligible.

and:

  <DEFINE FEEL-FREE (LOSER)
    <TELL "FEEL FREE, CHOMPER!">
    <MEMQ ......
  The rest is, alas, unintelligible (as were the implementers).

arnonejoe|3 months ago

I read a while back it’s a language called zil based on MDL.

https://the-rosebush.com/2025/07/studies-of-zil-part-2-how-d...