This page is out of date.

To get the real scoop, go to:
ifwiki.org's list of interactive fiction interpreters

This unmaintained page is being kept online only as a historical curosity. Who knows, it may be of interest to somebody.

But don't read this page until you've already visited ifwiki.org.

To play most modern (post-1993ish) interactive fiction games (or text adventures), you need an interpreter, a program to run such games. Which interpreter depends on two things: the type of game you're playing and the type of computer system you're using. The following list is organized by game type.

This page derived huge amounts of help from Fredrik Ramsberg's Beginner's Guide to Playing Interactive Fiction, as well as from SteveG's FAQ on playing interactive fiction games. Thank you!

Inform/Z-Code (.z5, .z8, .z3, .z6, .dat) Download a free interpreter for your system:
Windows 95/98/Me/NT4/2000/XP (other options)
MacOS X
MacOS 7 to 9 (other options)
Linux or Unix (other options)
MS-DOS/Windows 3.x (other options)
BeOS
OS/2 (other options)
Amiga
Palm Pilot
Psion Revo, Series 5/mx or Series 7/Netbook
PocketPC
Windows CE
V-Tech Helio PDA
Acorn RISC OS

TADS (.gam, .t3) Download a free interpreter for your system:
Windows 95/98/Me/NT4/2000/XP (other options)
MacOS X
MacOS 7 to 9 (other options)
Linux or Unix (other options)
MS-DOS/Windows 3.x
Amiga
EPOC/Psion
Psion Revo, Series 5/mx or Series 7/Netbook
PocketPC
Acorn RISC OS

Glulx (.ulx, .blb) Download a free interpreter for your system:
Windows 95/98/Me/NT4/2000/XP (other options)
MacOS X
MacOS 7 to 9
Linux or Unix (other options)
MS-DOS/Windows 3.x (other options)
Amiga
PocketPC

Hugo (.hex) Download a free interpreter for your system:
Windows 95/98/Me/NT4/2000/XP (other options)
MacOS X
MacOS 7 to 9 (other options)
Linux or Unix (other options)
MS-DOS/Windows 3.x (other options)
OS/2
Amiga
Palm Pilot
EPOC/Psion
PocketPC
Windows CE
Acorn RISC OS

ADRIFT (.taf) Download a free interpreter for your system:
Windows 95/98/Me/NT4/2000/XP (for current games: Version 4.0)
Windows 95/98/Me/NT4/2000/XP (for older games: Version 3.90 and earlier)
MacOS X (another option)
MacOS 7 to 9
Linux
Amiga
Java

Alan (.acd, .dat) The following interpreters work for Alan games version 2.7 to 2.8. For 2.6 or earlier, go to the Alan home page, then click on "download", or consult the IF archive's set of Alan interpreters.
Windows 95/98/Me/NT4/2000/XP
MacOS: Try this or this; I honestly don't know which is better, or which is more appropriate to MacOS X vs. Mac OS 7 to 9.
Linux
MS-DOS/Windows 3.x
BeOS
Amiga
Sun OS4/Solaris 1
Solaris 2

AGT (.d$$, .da1, .da2, etc.) An MS-DOS program is usually included with an AGT game. Agility is an alternative program which can play most AGT games better than that original software and is available for many different types of computer:
Windows 95/98/Me/NT4/2000/XP
Mac OS
Linux
Unix
MS-DOS/Windows 3.x (for 386s or higher)
MS-DOS/Windows 3.x (for 286s or lower)
Amiga
Acorn RISC OS