I read this sentence recently and it answered a question I had about Z-code. But now I have a new question: What/who can get the system time? Or the date? And how?
I can. By looking at the clock at the upper right of my screen, but that’s probably not what you meant, so I’ll ask for a clarification: Are you asking which IF systems can access the system clock, or asking for how to do it in your own program (if so, which OS?), or something else?
TADS can do it (certainly T3, and I vaguely remember it in T2 also, but treat that one with caution.)
Glulx also supports this (but zarf has said that he doesn’t know whether all interpreters support it yet), as does Vorple.
A quick google suggests that Hugo can also do this.
Not sure about ADRIFT; it looks as if it checks system time to tell how long the game has been played, but directly accessing system time may be trickier.
Undum is built in Javascript, so that should be straightforward.
Glulx does via an extension. It also has some code to test whether the interpreter supports the feature, so your game can take compensatory measures.
Nice! Thanks very much.