and graphics were supported to varying degrees. By 2002, development stalled and the program was picked up by David Griffith. The code base was split between virtual machine and user interface portions in such a way that the virtual machine became independent from any user interface. This allowed more variety in porting Frotz. One of the stranger ports is also one of the simplest: an instant messaging bot is wrapped around a version of Frotz with the minimum I/O functionality creating a bot with which one can play most Z-machine games using an instant messaging client. Another popular client for macOS and other Unix-like systems is Zoom. It supports the same Quetzal save-format, but the packaging of the file-structure is different. See also Glulx – Similar to the Z-machine, but relieves several legacy limitations Inform – A computer language that can produce Z-machine programs SCUMM – Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion by LucasArts, a graphical system similar to Z-machine TADS – Like Glulx, made to address some of its limitations Motorola 68000 series – The base architecture used for virtual machines in Magnetic Scrolls' adventure games References External links The Z-Machine standards document (PDF) is the Infocom ZIL manual from 1989 (PDF) the Z-Language Interpreter Program (Infocom Internal Document) from 1989 Interpreters How to Fit a Large Program Into a Small Machine describes the creation and design of the Z-machine Interactive fiction Virtual machines Text adventure game engines Infocom