I recently spent some time looking at Infocom's original z-machine source code and bringing it back to life on modern systems. A month ago I released v3.0 of Status Line, my own bespoke z-machine for the Pico-8, and I was curious to understand more deeply the roots of the long-lived virtual machine. This blog post talks about the state of the original source, the porting process, and the invaluable role Justine Tunney's Cosmpolitan project played in bringing the Zork trilogy to a wide variety of modern computer systems.