Lampward
cd ..

Zork III: The Dungeon Master

Marc Blank and Dave Lebling · 1982

The treasure hunt is over. What is left underground is quieter, sadder, and interested in what kind of adventurer you have become.

Play

SAVE creates a named Lampward checkpoint on this device. Nothing is saved automatically.

  • Z-code
  • Fantasy
  • Parser
  • About 4 hours
  • 86 KB

About

Zork III abandons the score-by-plunder structure its predecessors ran on. There is little to collect and no obvious goal; the Dungeon Master appears and disappears, a lake and a lighthouse and an ancient museum sit waiting, and the game watches what you do when nobody is counting points.

It asks for patience — several of its puzzles turn on waiting, or on declining to fight — and it closes the trilogy by explaining, finally, whose empire you have been robbing.

Tags

  • Classic
  • Fantasy
  • Infocom
  • Puzzles

History

This chronology includes the world around Zork III: The Dungeon Master: background that may predate the game, its creation and publication, and later editions, research, and preservation. An early date is historical context, not necessarily a game release.

  1. Publication

    Zork III: The Dungeon Master published — by Marc Blank and Dave Lebling

    The publication year for the work itself. Earlier entries are historical background, not earlier releases of the game.

  2. Source & preservation

    Zork III source code, released under MIT — Infocom; released by Microsoft

    The ZIL source Lampward compiles to produce the file you play. Microsoft released it under the MIT License in November 2025, which is the permission Lampward's hosting rests on.

  3. Lampward

    Playable release — Lampward build of the release 25 source

    The exact release Lampward currently serves. It may be a later edition or port of an older work.

Documents & sources

  • source archive · External archive

    Zork III source code, released under MIT

    Infocom; released by Microsoft

    The ZIL source Lampward compiles to produce the file you play. Microsoft released it under the MIT License in November 2025, which is the permission Lampward's hosting rests on. The repository also preserves the original compilation records and the ZAP assembly the Infocom toolchain produced.

    GitHub · 3ec9ed412b5f3cafe65d83c727d07db1fe4a86a8 · MIT License

  • source record · External archive

    Original ZILCH compilation record (zork3.record)

    Infocom

    A log written by Infocom's own Combined ZIL Compiler as it built the game, listing every routine in the order it was compiled and naming the files on the development system down to their version numbers. It is the closest thing preserved to a photograph of the build machine the game came off.

    GitHub · MIT License

  • reference · Reference

    Zork III on IFDB

    The Interactive Fiction Database entry, covering the game's editions, releases and serial numbers.

    IFDB

  • reference · Reference

    Zork III on IFWiki

    Editions, revision history and background on how the game changed across its many releases.

    IFWiki

  • article · Reference

    Selling Zork

    Jimmy Maher · The Digital Antiquarian

    The Digital Antiquarian's account of how a mainframe game written at MIT became a product, and why it had to be split into three.

    filfre.net

  • reference · Reference

    Zork III in the Infocom Gallery

    Photographs of the packaging, feelies and print materials the game shipped with.

    The Infocom Gallery

Rights to these documents are separate from rights to the game. Lampward links to archives it may not mirror, and says so rather than implying it holds a copy.

Credits & License

Credits
Marc Blank and Dave Lebling, Infocom. Descended from the mainframe Zork by Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels and Dave Lebling. Source released under the MIT License by Microsoft in November 2025; this story file was compiled by Lampward from that source with ZILF and ZAPF 1.9.
Playing
Zork III: The Dungeon Master — Lampward build of the release 25 source, Z-code 3, serial 251121
Lampward build, compiled from licensed source
IFID ZCODE-25-251121-97C5
License
MIT License
Use
Open source: the MIT License permits redistribution, modification and commercial use, provided the copyright notice and licence text travel with it.
Source
Notices

Copyright (c) 2025 Microsoft

MIT License Copyright (c) 2025 Microsoft Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Artwork
No cover art is used; the title card is generated by Lampward.

Rights to the game binary, to cover art, and to any documentary material on this page are separate. A permission covering one does not cover the others.

More bibliographic detail: this title on IFDB