How do you start playing Zork or load your own game on Planedrift?

Open planedrift.app and pick one of the three Zork titles on the main page to start playing immediately in your browser. To play something else, use the bring-your-own option to open a .z3 story file, or resume a previous game from the same load screen. No installation is involved for any of these paths.

Starting one of the built-in Zork games

The main page lists the three titles directly:

• Zork I: The Great Underground Empire
• Zork II: The Wizard of Frobozz
• Zork III: The Dungeon Master

Selecting a title loads it into the browser player. From there you type commands as in the original games, and Planedrift handles presentation and saving around the session.

Loading your own story file

The bring-your-own option accepts a story file ending in .z3. Two ways to use it:

1. Open a file you already have — choose the bring-your-own entry and point it at your .z3 file.
2. Resume a previous game — the same load screen offers resuming a game you started earlier, so you don't need to keep the original file path in mind.

Planedrift states it is tested against the Masterpieces of Infocom releases. If a file you try doesn't behave as expected, that compatibility note is the first thing to check.

Finding more Infocom games

Infocom released many more text adventures through the 1980s, and Planedrift points to the Obsessively Complete Infocom Catalog as the archive for them. Look for the Masterpieces of Infocom releases there, since those are the versions Planedrift is tested against. Download a .z3 file from that catalog, then load it through the bring-your-own option.

What to expect once you're in

The player is built for short, unhurried sessions: light and dark themes, readable fonts and colours, auto-saves with rewinds, a searchable transcript, and the ability to capture to-dos while you play. That means you can stop mid-game and pick it up later without losing your place, and you can scroll back through what happened if you lose track of the story.

Quick reference

If a game won't load, confirm the file ends in .z3 and comes from a Masterpieces of Infocom release before trying anything else.