Play Zork I: The Great Underground Empire online ▶ Play now — runs right here in your browser
Guide updated November 2026 · Runs via WebAssembly (native port)
Zork I: The Great Underground Empire is Infocom's 1980 text adventure. You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door — and under that house lie the ruins of a vast underground empire, full of treasure and guarded by a thief, a troll and the dark. In November 2025 Microsoft released the Zork trilogy as open source, and the game runs right here: type a command and press Enter.
Controls — what does what
| Action | Keyboard |
|---|---|
| Give a command | Type it and press Enter |
| Move | n, s, e, w, u, d (north, south, east, west, up, down) |
| Check what you carry | i |
| Save / load | save / restore |
FREE This is the complete game, free. Open source: Microsoft released the game under the MIT licence in November 2025. The complete game.
Zork I is © Microsoft, released under the MIT licence (source). Interpreter: Parchment (MIT). Details in NOTICE.md.
How to play
There are no graphics. The game describes where you are, and you type what you want to do: open mailbox, go north (or just n), take lamp, inventory (or i), look. The parser understands full sentences such as put the sword in the case. Find a light source before you go underground: in the dark, you are likely to be eaten by a grue.
Draw a map as you go. That was the advice in 1980 and it has not changed.
Saving your game
Type save to store your position and restore to return to it. Saved games are kept in this browser, so they will be there on your next visit unless you clear the site's data. The interpreter also keeps an automatic save, so closing the tab does not lose your place.
Why it is free
On 20 November 2025 Microsoft, which owns Infocom's catalogue through Activision, published Zork I, II and III under the MIT licence. The story file here is the compiled game from that release, unmodified, and it runs in Parchment, an open-source interpreter (also MIT). “Zork” remains a trademark of its owner; this site is not affiliated with Microsoft or Activision.
Frequently asked questions
Is Zork I really free now?
Yes. Microsoft released Zork I, II and III under the MIT licence on 20 November 2025. This page runs the game file from that release.
Is this the original game or a remake?
The original. It is Infocom's own compiled story file, run by a modern Z-machine interpreter in your browser.
How do I save?
Type save. Your saved game is stored in this browser; type restore to load it.
Do I need to play the trilogy in order?
Zork I is the place to start. Each game stands alone, though the three tell one loose story.
More you can play in your browser
Related guides
- Zork IIInfocom's 1981 text adventure, open source since 2025.
- Zork IIIInfocom's 1982 text adventure, open source since 2025.
- NetHackThe classic roguelike, saved in your browser.
- Beneath a Steel Sky (free)Revolution's cyberpunk adventure, freeware.
- Games that need nothing installedThe full list of titles that run on a locked-down school or work network.
Want a game like this on your own site?
Zork I isn't ours to give away — we host it, we didn't write it. But eleven of the games here we did write from scratch, and those are free for anyone to put on their own page: one line of HTML, no account, no permission, no attribution beyond a credit line.