The Z-Machine Standards Document

Version 1.0

22nd June 1997

two misprints corrected, 9th August

resources appendix updated and discovery added to header table, 4th September

resources appendix updated and annexe covering Quetzal added, 30th September

• Preface
• Overview of Z-machine architecture

• 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

• 7. Output streams and file handling
• 8. The screen model
• 9. Sound effects
• 10. Input streams and devices

• 11. The format of the header
• 12. The object table
• 13. The dictionary and lexical analysis

• 14. Complete table of opcodes (with Inform assembly syntax)
• 15. Dictionary of opcodes

• 16. Font 3 and character graphics

• A. Error messages and debugging
• B. Conventional contents of the header
• C. Resources available (with WWW links)
• D. A short history of the Z-machine
• E. Statistics
• F. Canonical story files

• Quetzal: a common format for saved-game files