The Z-Machine Standards Document

The Z-Machine Standard

    • Preface
    • Overview of Z-machine architecture
  • Fundamentals
    • 1. The memory map
    • 2. Numbers and arithmetic
    • 3. How text and characters are encoded
    • 4. How instructions are encoded
    • 5. How routines are encoded
    • 6. The game state: storage and routine calls
  • Input/Output
    • 7. Output streams and file handling
    • 8. The screen model
    • 9. Sound effects
    • 10. Input streams and devices
  • Tables
    • 11. The format of the header
    • 12. The object table
    • 13. The dictionary and lexical analysis
  • Instruction Set
    • 14. Complete table of opcodes
    • 15. Dictionary of opcodes
  • An Unusual Font
    • 16. Font 3 and character graphics
  • Appendices
    • Appendix A. Error messages and debugging
    • Appendix B. Conventional contents of the header
    • Appendix C. Resources available
    • Appendix D. A short history of the Z-machine
    • Appendix E. Statistics
    • Appendix F. Canonical Story Files
  • Meta information
    • Editor’s note
    • Conventions used in this document
    • Opcodes revisited
    • Colophon
The Z-Machine Standard 1.1
  • The Z-Machine Standard
    • 1.1
  • The Z-Machine Standard
  • The Z-Machine Standards Document

The Z-Machine Standards Document

Version 1.1 (annotated)

24 February 2014

(annotations updated as of 9 March 2022)


  • Preface

  • Overview of Z-machine architecture

Fundamentals
  • 1. The memory map

  • 2. Numbers and arithmetic

  • 3. How text and characters are encoded

  • 4. How instructions are encoded

  • 5. How routines are encoded

  • 6. The game state: storage and routine calls

Input/Output
  • 7. Output streams and file handling

  • 8. The screen model

  • 9. Sound effects

  • 10. Input streams and devices

Tables
  • 11. The format of the header

  • 12. The object table

  • 13. The dictionary and lexical analysis

Instruction Set
  • 14. Complete table of opcodes

  • 15. Dictionary of opcodes

An Unusual Font
  • 16. Font 3 and character graphics

Appendices
  • Appendix A. Error messages and debugging

  • Appendix B. Conventional contents of the header

  • Appendix C. Resources available

  • Appendix D. A short history of the Z-machine

  • Appendix E. Statistics

  • Appendix F. Canonical Story Files


Meta information
  • Editor’s note

  • Conventions used in this document

  • Opcodes revisited

  • Colophon

Preface

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