Editing Infocom (section)

==Legacy==
With the exception of ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' and ''Shogun'', the copyrights to the Infocom games are believed to be still held by Activision. ''[[Zork#Creation|Dungeon]]'', the mainframe precursor to the commercial Zork trilogy, is believed to be free for non-commercial use.<ref>After a systems engineer at DEC obtained the source code for the MDL version by working out how to work around the implementors' directory protection and then brute-forcing their encryption, the implementors conceded that he deserved it if he was willing to go to that much effort.{{cite web |url=http://www.vaxdungeon.com/Infocom/Articles/NZT/zorkhist.asp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160202214348/http://www.vaxdungeon.com/Infocom/Articles/NZT/zorkhist.asp |archive-date=February 2, 2016 |url-status=dead |title=Infocom Interactive Fiction (Peter Scheyen Archive) }}</ref> but prohibited for commercial use.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://github.com/inge91/Zork-For-Android/blob/master/DMAIN.C |title=Zork for Android |website=[[GitHub]] |date=January 23, 2015 }}</ref> It was this copy that the popular Fortran mainframe version was based on.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.vaxdungeon.com/Infocom/Articles/NZT/zorkhist.asp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160202214348/http://www.vaxdungeon.com/Infocom/Articles/NZT/zorkhist.asp |archive-date=February 2, 2016 |url-status=dead |title=Infocom Interactive Fiction (Peter Scheyen Archive)
 }}</ref> The C version was based on the Fortran version.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://github.com/inge91/Zork-For-Android/blob/master/HISTORY |title=Zork for Android – History |website=[[GitHub]] |date=January 23, 2015 }}</ref> and is available from The Interactive Fiction Archive as original [[FORTRAN]] [[source code]], a [[Z-machine]] story file and as various native [[source port]]s. Many Infocom titles can be downloaded via the [[Internet]], but only in violation of the copyright. Activision did at one point release the original trilogy for free-of-charge download as a promotion<ref>{{cite web |url=http://vaxdungeon.com/Infocom/download.asp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111101112625/http://www.vaxdungeon.com/Infocom/download.asp |archive-date=November 1, 2011 |url-status=dead |title=Infocom Interactive Fiction (Peter Scheyen Archive) }}</ref> but prohibited redistribution<ref>{{cite web|url=http://people.oregonstate.edu/~petersp/ORST/WR121_files/README.TXT|title=Readme from the release|website=oregonstate.edu}}</ref> and have since discontinued this.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://liberatedgames.com/forums/index.php?t=msg&th=7&start=0&rid=0&S= |title=Liberated Games Forums: FAQs => General Liberated Games FAQ |date=October 12, 2007 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012152419/http://liberatedgames.com/forums/index.php?t=msg&th=7&start=0&rid=0&S= |archive-date=October 12, 2007  }}</ref> There are currently at least four Infocom sampler and demos available from the IF Archive as Z-machine story files which require a Z-machine [[Interpreter (computing)|interpreter]] to play. Interpreters are available for most computer platforms, the most widely used being the [[Frotz]], [[Z-machine#Zip|Zip]], and [[Z-machine#Nitfol|Nitfol]] interpreters.

Five games (''Zork I'', ''Planetfall'', ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'', ''Wishbringer'' and ''Leather Goddesses of Phobos'') were re-released in Solid Gold format. The Solid Gold versions of those games include a built-in InvisiClues hint system.

In 2012, Activision released ''Lost Treasures of Infocom'' for iOS devices. In-app purchases provide access for 27 of the titles. It also lacks ''Shogun'' and ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' as well as ''Beyond Zork'', ''Zork Zero'' and ''Nord and Bert''.

Efforts have been made to make the Infocom games source code available for preservation. In 2008, [[Jason Scott]], a video game preservationist contributing towards the [[Internet Archive]], received the so-called "Infocom Drive", a large archive of the entire contents of Infocom's main server made during the last few days before the company was relocated to California; besides [[source code]] for all of Infocom's games (including unreleased ones), it also contained the software manuals, design documents and other essential content alongside Infocom's business documentation.<ref>[http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/3778 GET LAMP Raw Interviews Pretty Much Up] on ascii.[[textfiles.com]] by [[Jason Scott]] (December 3, 2012)</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.wired.com/2008/04/infocom-drive-t/| title='Infocom Drive' Turns Up Long-Lost Hitchhiker Sequel |date=April 18, 2008 |quote=''Remnants of the unreleased sequel to Infocom's text adventure version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy have been made available to the public by Waxy.org. Playable prototypes, design docs, source code and a string of e-mails between Infocom designers and management provide a fascinating look at the game's turbulent, if aborted, development process. Among the assets included: design documents, e-mail archives, employee phone numbers, sales figures, internal meeting notes, corporate newsletters, and the source code and game files for every released and unreleased game Infocom made."'' |magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] |first=Chris |last=Kohler |access-date=January 26, 2016}}</ref> Scott later published all of the source files in their original Z-engine format to [[GitHub]] in 2019.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/the-source-code-for-infocom-s-classic-text-adventures-is-now-on-github | title=  The source code for Infocom's classic text adventures is now on Github  | first = Chris | last= Kerr | date = April 16, 2019  |access-date = April 16, 2019  | work = [[Gamasutra]] }}</ref>

''Zork'' made a cameo appearance as an [[Easter egg (media)|easter egg]] in Activision and [[Treyarch]]'s ''[[Call of Duty: Black Ops]]''. It can be accessed from the main menu.