Play Zork on This Hacked Typewriter

Beloved early interactive text adventure game Zork? Check. Clever hardware hack? Check. Jonathan Guberman‘s “Automatypewriter” consists of an Arduino-controlled mechanical typewriter, complete with moving keys, that can be used to run text-based interactive fiction games.

Introducing the Automatypewriter, a new way to experience interactive fiction! It’s still a little rough around the edges (in particular, you can see that the spacebar sticks a little, and the whole thing needs to be tidied up), but you get the idea: the Automatypewriter is a typewriter that can type on its own, as well as detect what you type on it. By reading what it types to you and responding, it can be used interactively to play a game or participate in a story (in this case, Zork).

(Up, Not North via Topless Robot)