A couple months ago I did a half-hearted search for a Zork app on the Android store and came up empty. I’m a software engineer by trade, and I’ve been looking to build skills using AI and agents, so I started on an odd little endeavor to build one. That included writing a home-grown Z-machine VM in Go, with a lot of back-and-forth with Claude and Codex.
Over the last couple months it has grown into an Android app that handles both Z-machine and Glulx/Glk. The Glulx/Glk support is the part I’m most happy with, since it means it plays things like Counterfeit Monkey and Kerkerkruip, not just the original Infocom Zork games. These are all new to me.
Right now a few friends and family have been playing it and giving me feedback. I’m hoping to find around 5 more people who’d be interested in joining the closed testing track on Google Play, so I can get the app in front of folks outside my immediate circle. It’s Android only for now.
Is this a good place to ask? I’ve been learning a lot about modern IF in the process, having been pretty ignorant of it other than my time with Zork on an Apple II+ as a kid.
My goal was less to compete and more about seeing what I could create and learn about. That being said, my app has a few features that I think make playing these games a bit easier.
An automap for Z-machine games where I can reliably get the room ID/name and resolve collisions. E.g. the maze in Zork
Long press on a map node to “auto-move” to that node assuming you have already traveled the path and the direction. With games like Zork having non-inverse paths between rooms, the app can’t make assumptions about untraveled return routes.
A customizable “Nav” quick command menu with fixed direction buttons and user customizable inputs. E.g. Take… to add take to the player input.
Long press words in the game transcript to add them to the input bar. This works well with the “Nav” chips to reduce typing.
An IFDB browser.
Cloud save via drive to support continuing on another device using the Quetzal format.
Close to full Glulx/Glk support including sound and images.
The app tries to recognize “columns” of windows, E.g. Kerkerkruip panels mode, and organizes them into a tabbed view. This is best effort and may not work on games that I have not yet tested
Really, I just wanted to play Zork on my phone and things went a little crazy.
It’s a Google Play closed testing track, so I would need the email you use for Google Play IM’d to me so I can add you or anyone else to the allow list.
