zlacker

>>brayth+(OP)
Is it possible to play Zork for the first time without a guide or manual of some kind? Could I fire up a copy today and dive straight in or do I need some external information?

Edit: and a follow-up question, is there a good Z-Machine interpreter for the macOS terminal?

>>neotek+zC
You can definitely dive into Zork fresh and have fun, and probably make it a fair ways into the game. But you will almost certainly hit a wall somewhere in the middle, as some of the puzzles (and also one important game mechanic) are pretty non-obvious, and the game doesn't signpost how to proceed.

Real releases of the game worked around this with "Invisiclues", which were sets of questions ("How do I get past the troll?") with increasingly specific hints that one is meant to uncover one by one. If you get the game files from a usual sort of place, the invisiclues will probably be included (possibly in the form of a z-machine game file).

Note that the preceding all applies to normal released versions of the game, the source in TFA could be older/different/etc.

For Z-machine on mac, I use one called "Zoom". But it's a windowed app, I don't know if it can run in the terminal or if there are alternatives.