Z-Machine Matter

I picked up a Kindle 3 (aka Kindle Keyboard) a while back and have been thoroughly impressed with it.  I love the fact that I can take half a dozen or more books with me when I travel without taking up a lot of weight or space in my luggage.  And although the keyboard is not great, it's good enough to play Jimmy Maher's Kindle version of "The King of Shreds and Patches".  

No doubt there was a lot of heavy duty hacking of the Glulx interpreter to get the game to run on Kindle. I don't know how much effort would be required to make this into a general-purpose interpreter capable of running any Glulx or Z-Machine game, but I sure hope that happens.  The game is well worth the $4 to support IF on a new platform.  Heck, if Maher puts this project on Kickstarter, I'd be happy to kick in more.

At any rate, I've created a ZIP file of IF-inspired screensaver wallpapers for Kindle users.  These are scaled down black & white images of various Infocom games.  If you have a Kindle and are tired of the standard images of authors, you can install a Kindle hack easily enough with a couple of downloads.  Just make sure you install the right version for your particular Kindle device.

I've also posted these on PicasaWeb along with some other covers from various novels, some Mad Magazine covers and some fake O'Reilly covers.  And there are plenty of other Kindle screensaver wallpapers out there to chose from. 

Happy thanksgiving!

(Update: Fixed a broken link)

• Kindle hacks: Installing a Kindle Screensaver, Kindle Screensaver Hack
• King of Shreds & Patches: Game, Kindle version 
• Kindle Screensavers: Infocom covers ZIP file, Tumblr
• PicasaWeb: Infocom Covers, Mad covers, Fake covers, Book covers