Zzrk
This is a web-based installation of Zzrk, a text adventure game written entirely in Zz (a meta-language normally used for defining programming languages.)
It is running on OpenZz under FreeDOS running
on a web page via the HTML5-based IBM PC compatible
emulator, v86.
NOTE: this installation is presently INOPERABLE as v86 does not correctly
emulate some of the instructions in the compiled OpenZz executable.
However, Zzrk can still be experienced online, in the
Zzrk entry on the Internet Archive.
Instructions:
The system that v86 runs is delivered on a 720K floppy image,
which contains a minimal bootable FreeDOS install, the OpenZz
interpreter (compiled for MS-DOS using djgpp), and the
zzrk.zz file that implements the game Zzrk.
You can play the game as you would a typical text adventure game.
If you use a word that is not understood, however, it will become
clear that OpenZz is treating your input as something to be compiled,
and will produce for you a syntax error message. After 10 such
errors, the "compilation" of your game will abort and you will be
returned to the MS-DOS Command Prompt.
If v86 doesn't work in your browser, you can
download the disk image
and use it in an emulator such as QEMU or DOSBox
or, wonder of wonders, a real IBM PC compatible — if you can write it onto
a floppy disk somehow...