Microsoft makes Zork Open Source. Zork originally was developed on mainframe between 1977 and 1979 by Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Dave Lebling and Bruce Daniels (rather the enigmas), all students at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The first version was developed on a DEC PDP-10 mainframe. Because the program was too large for the microcomputers of the time, they were forced to split it into three parts and develop a virtual machine (Z-Machine) using the Zork Implementation Language (ZIL). They then went on to create the well-known video game company Infocom in 1979.