This is a hands-on guide to running the 1982 text adventure Zork I under CP/M on a Linux computer, using the z80pack Z80 emulator. Its purpose is less to offer a convenient way to play Zork than to introduce CP/M and provide a starting point for experimenting with Z80-based retrocomputing. The walkthrough assumes familiarity with Linux command-line tools and some knowledge of CP/M. It explains how to build z80pack and the cpmtools utilities, which are used to manage CP/M disk images.
The setup uses z80pack’s virtual drives: the guide copies CP/M system disks into the emulator’s disk directory, creates a 4 MB hard-disk image, and transfers the Zork executable and its separate game-data file onto it. At the CP/M prompt, the user switches to that drive and launches the game. One notable snag is keyboard handling: Zork expects backspace to send Ctrl-H, whereas Linux terminals commonly send DEL, so the terminal mapping and erase setting may need adjustment. The guide also explains that CP/M disks use numbered user areas rather than subdirectories. It closes by pointing toward other CP/M software, including WordStar and Turbo Pascal, and notes that screen-based programs require suitable terminal settings because CP/M applications handled terminal output in different ways.
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