TypeScript-based Inform/Z-Machine interpreter

• Abstractable input/output permitting the engine to be used in a variety of environments (console, web, others)
• Support for the upcoming ZMCDN AI/LLM based enhancements for Interactive Fiction
• Compatibility with z1-z4 (except text-windowing, graphics, sound)

Prerequisites

• Node.js 22
• nvm

cd tszm
nvm use
npm i
npm run build.mjs

05-Oct-2025: "Naive" ZMCDN image generation works. We ship raw scene information off to gpt-image-1 and get an image to display in sixel format. For a demo, run this in iTerm2 or other sixel-compatible terminal: curl https://cshepherd.fr/sample2.txt

06-Oct-2025: The Great Refactor happened. Trace output is much nicer and more complete, and tracing itself can be toggled in-game with /trace on and /trace off. And yes, we now have unit test coverage. Compatibility: z3 should be completely playable, working on z4/z5 now, but most effort is focusing on ZMCDN where the Game Master and Illustrator LLMs play.

07-Oct-2025 - Online coverage report from CI

09-Oct-2025 - Improving Unit Test coverage, but meanwhile ZMCDN is more complete and caches almost everything. When we don't get everything quite right though, you can /redraw and force ZMCDN to invalidate its cache and try again.

15-Oct-2025 - Save and Restore, in Quetzal format, interchangeable with Frotz, working in CLI and React

16-Oct-2025 - VT100 cursor positioning for complete z3 compatibility, in both CLI and React. Still preparing for z4.

Public zmcdn server is at https://zmcdn.ballmerpeak.org:3003

There's still more to come! You need to be able to enjoy interactive fiction during long roadtrips.

• Speech Mode: Enter commands as speech and the narrator talks back to you, for interactive fiction during roadtrips. It's a long drive from Florida to Maine, why not play Hitchhiker's Guide to keep you mentally sharp while you drive? Will require cheap Text-to-Speech and Speec-to-Text models, but I'm up for it.
• Voice Changer: The Art Director can optionally change the text narrator's voice if we want, while remaining faithful to the story line. If you want Snoop or Walken to narrate the story, let's do it. Note that this opens the door for machine translation as well. Let's bring IF classics to non-English speakers.

• @cshepherd
• @chad3814 (readline sanity, code review, some tooling)
• @clambertus (CI action for coverage reporting)
• Design credit: Jay Craft once asked what it'd look like if we hooked an image generation AI up to a ZMachine, so I generally blame him for this

This was made possible in part by a generous community contribution from Table 2 Consulting LLC.