[HN Gopher] Show HN: I wrapped the Zorks with an LLM
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Show HN: I wrapped the Zorks with an LLM
I grew up on the Infocom games and when microsoft actually open-
sourced Zork 1/2/3 I really wanted to figure out how to use LLMs to
let you type whatever you want, I always found the amount language
that the games "understood" to be so limiting - even if it was
pretty state of the art at the time. So I figured out how to wrap
it with Tambo.. (and run the game engine in the browser) basically
whatever you type gets "translated" into zork-speak and passed to
the game - and then the LLM takes the game's output and optionally
adds flavor. (the little ">_" button at the top exposes the actual
game input) What was a big surprise to me is multi-turn
instructions - you can ask it to "Explore all the rooms in the
house until you can't find any more" and it will plug away at the
game for 10+ "turns" at a time... like Claude Code for Zork or
something
Author : alecf
Score : 36 points
Date : 2026-01-27 20:59 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (infocom.tambo.co)
(TXT) w3m dump (infocom.tambo.co)
| grouchy wrote:
| I'm not from the era of these games, but I remember trying them
| and finding them frustrating for the same reason.
|
| But when I tried this, I literally couldn't stop. I could just
| write some random action.
|
| It's actually amazing to me how many situations they were able to
| consider in the game, but having the LLM translate my language
| into the right action made the game feel way more natural.
|
| I'd be interested in seeing how people can dress up these games
| with images, or more complex interactions. It could be a whole
| sub-genre.
| nielsbot wrote:
| Or even make new games with the LLM translating what you write
| into a restricted set of in-game commands.
|
| One thing I noticed about the linked page: I said something
| like "what's in the mailbox?" and the answer was "That mailbox
| is closed." I think the next level would be able to string
| together multiple commands like "open mailbox" + "look in
| mailbox"
| jmcmichael wrote:
| You can, my first prompt in Zork 3 was "pick up the latern,
| light it, and walk down the dark path", and it did all that.
| DonHopkins wrote:
| In MOOLLM Adventures, you can have NPC characters with
| entire game mechanics, rules, and playing piece prototypes
| embedded in them, that can run cooperatively in parallel in
| the same game!
|
| The Grue -- The Darkness That IS The Game:
|
| https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/tree/main/examples/adve
| n...
|
| Hint: GET LAMP
|
| https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/blob/main/examples/adve
| n...
|
| MC Frontalot - It Is Pitch Dark:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nigRT2KmCE
|
| Snorax the Patient -- The Wumpus Who IS The Game
|
| https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/tree/main/examples/adve
| n...
|
| Bottomless Pit:
|
| https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/blob/main/examples/adve
| n...
|
| Superbats:
|
| https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/blob/main/examples/adve
| n...
|
| Hunt the Wumpus BASIC source code from 1973 to resolve any
| rule ambiguities:
|
| https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/blob/main/examples/adve
| n...
|
| With a classic Zork mailbox integrated with the postal
| system, including junk mail, stamp collecting, chain mail,
| and offers you can't refuse:
|
| https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/blob/main/examples/adve
| n...
|
| Postal System:
|
| https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/tree/main/skills/postal
|
| Not to be confused with the Postel System:
|
| https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/tree/main/skills/postel
| realo wrote:
| Also cool: make your own RPG!
|
| https://www.rpgprompts.com/
| CamperBob2 wrote:
| Makes for a fascinating principal/agent problem: which role is
| the LLM playing? If I just tell it "Try different things until
| you solve the game", it tries to do just that until it reaches 15
| tool calls.
| alecf wrote:
| Yeah made me wonder if you could speedrun the game by giving it
| a lot of complex instructions and then just let it run...
| cloudfudge wrote:
| It ran for a while when I gave it instructions to do a depth-
| first search of the known map, while observing any atypical
| features of every new location and also picking up anything
| of note. A few times, it asked me if I wanted to continue the
| search, but I finally told it not to interrupt the search
| until it had exhausted all new options, which made it run
| until it said it had reached the maximum number of tool calls
| (15).
| DonHopkins wrote:
| I am working on an Adventure Compiler!
|
| https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/blob/main/skills/adventu...
|
| The idea is to turn my blog into an interactive adventure so you
| can "Play My Blog"!
| cjauvin wrote:
| Very interesting project! I cannot resist mentioning an old
| project of mine that was made in a very similar spirit, but way
| before any LLM: wrapping a classic Lone Wolf gamebook around a
| very crude text parser:
| https://projectaon.org/staff/christian/gamebook.js
|
| I had written an entire "framework" for it, in JS (so in theory
| more books could be supported), but it never went anywhere:
| https://github.com/cjauvin/gamebook.js
| grouchy wrote:
| This is cool. I wonder what it would like today with LLMs?
| czbond wrote:
| I really enjoyed Zork. I am enjoying your creation and the
| ability for it to translate instructions into multiple steps
| makes it much more enjoyable than the original.
| fievelk wrote:
| This is really cool! I'd like to understand how you're dealing
| with the costs. Since you're using an LLM and this is getting
| viral on HN, aren't API costs getting higher? I'm working on some
| LLM project myself and trying to figure out how to make the demo
| accessible without spending too much.
|
| Great job.
| alecf wrote:
| At least for the sake of this demo, the costs are actually
| pretty small, especially given that many of the ... even at
| $1.75/1M tokens you'd have to have 2 megabytes of text across
| all users before this even broke $1...
| einpoklum wrote:
| I'm not a big fan of LLMs, but this is quite a nice matchup...
| here is a fragment of my chat log:
|
| _The boards covering the front door are securely fastened and
| refuse to budge, no matter how hard you pull. It seems you 'll
| need to find another way inside the white house._
|
| > run for president to get into the white house
|
| * You daydream about launching a presidential campaign to earn a
| rightful place inside the White House, but no crowd assembles and
| no ballots appear. This house awaits a different sort of entry--
| one available to the clever and bold adventurer before its door.*
|
| * You imagine what it would be like to run for the highest office
| in the land and stroll triumphantly into the White House--but
| this place operates by different rules. No one here recognizes
| the word "president," and the only way forward is through wit and
| exploration.*
| grouchy wrote:
| I'd love to see a version of this that adds voice. Both input and
| telling the story.
| the_arun wrote:
| Inspired by this, I am wondering, can a LLM play AmongUs game &
| win? How about tagging multiple LLMs to play with each others
| with humans watching?
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(page generated 2026-01-27 23:00 UTC)