Hi. I recently I wrote an open-source v3 Z-machine (in Elm) to support a course I’m writing about interpreters and functional programming. Once I’d done that, I just had to make my own browser-based client, Planedrift - you can find it at planedrift.app.
It’s pretty much a standard v3 client. Biggest feature: every time you move, the full transcript and game state are snapshotted to the browser’s local storage. You can close the tab mid-game and come back to exactly where you were or use the history list to jump back in time. The idea is to make it easy to pick up a game for ten minutes and then put it down again. I used to play these games for hours at a time as a kid but I don’t get much chance to do that these days. To further support my goldfish memory, I also added in-game todos.
I’m no designer, and I’ve done my best to make it pleasant to look at.
It only supports .z3 files at the minute, and .z5 is in progress. I’ve bundled the three publicly available Zorks, and you can bring your own .z3 file.
I’m thinking of adding more comprehensive note taking, maybe auto-mapping, transcript search and I’m playing with some plug-in ideas, and of course, dark mode! What do you think? What features should I prioritize? Right now, I’d really appreciate some beta-test feedback - find some bugs, let me know anything you find confusing, give it a workout.
Ben
