I want to port the Frotz z-machine interpreter to the Amazon Kindle. Is this even possible? [closed]

Question

I want to be able to play works of interactive fiction on an Amazon Kindle 2. In order to do this, I would need to port the Frotz interpreter to the Kindle. So far, I have not been able to find anywhere that Kindle application development is discussed. Does such a thing exist? Where can I find more information?

Answer 1

Looks like Jimmy Maher of Antiquarian Productions has completed a port of the Z-Machine to the Kindle and in fact has a book for sale: http://maher.filfre.net/King/

Unfortunately (well, partly unfortunately), it looks like his is a commercial venture and he won't be releasing source code for his port for others to play along even on a jailbroken Kindle.

Answer 2

There's already a web app. Does the kindle support javascript? If so this might be worth a try: http://parchment.toolness.com/

Answer 3

Yes the KDK allows for apps like this, you just have to write it in Java (1.4) but other than that you are free to do this (and it would be a cool use of the KDK, you should apply to the beta program)

Answer 4

This blog reversing everything is about kindle hacking. (it's a linux box after all)

Answer 5

Aswell as parchment, there is also http://www.web-adventures.org

This is a very minimal HTML only site that should render well on any device including the Kindle.

Answer 6

You could build it as a web app and use the Kindle browser to play.

http://johnaugust.com/archives/2009/kindle-formatting-for-web-geeks

Answer 7

Since the Kindle Development Kit (KDK) is Java-based, perhaps a good starting point is a Java-based Z-machine interpreter like http://zmpp.sourceforge.net/

Answer 8

There is an open source project going on here: http://adq.livejournal.com/109224.html But it is outside the KDK since the KDK is not widely available.