The following information was extracted from Andrew Plotkin's

The following information was extracted from Andrew Plotkin's
[personal web page for MaxZip][1]. Andrew writes as though he is
speaking directly to you, therefore don't confuse his voice with mine.
(I'm merely creating this MG page on his behalf, for the benefit of
the MG and greater classic-Mac community.) I made some minor (mostly
editorial) changes, but larger deletions "[...]" or comments "[blah
blah blah]" are enclosed in brackets.

> ## MaxZip 1.7.8
>
> ### A Macintosh interface for text adventures
>
> created by Andrew Plotkin
>
> MaxZip is a classic-Mac app that provides a clean Macintosh
> interface for games written in Infocom's Z-code game format. It
> handles Z-code versions 1 through 5 and version 8, and will run on
> any Mac with System 7 through 9 (and is therefore compatible with
> the early-OS-X Classic emulator).
>
> MaxZip is free. (yee-ha!)
>
> [Referring to the first screen shot of MaxZip in the image
> gallery...] it is running Graham Nelson's excellent text game
> Curses! (which is also freeware, but not distributed by me). Note
> the scroll bar, the fully-justified text, the boldface font types,
> and the full mouse and keyboard text editing. Color is also
> supported, although not visible in this screen shot.
>
> The interface is a Mac interface. No surprises. (Well, maybe a
> couple.) All of the documentation is available on-line [wholly
> within the app, not on the Internet], under the Help (Balloon) menu.
> The most-useful feature of MaxZip is that it can build a stand-alone
> Macintosh executable from a Z-code file. Once created, this stand-
> alone program can unbuild itself either into the original Z-code
> file or a new (unbound) copy of MaxZip, or both.
>
> Note that MaxZip is explicitly intended to be used by game authors
> to distribute Mac versions of their games. To this end, I declare
> that any stand-alone game that you make from your own Z-code file is
> entirely yours; you may give it away, sell it, or do anything else
> you like. The only restriction is that you may not interfere with
> the user's right or ability to build the original, freeware MaxZip
> (which will not contain your Z-code).
>
> The Z-code engine in MaxZip is taken from ZIP V2.0.7 by Mark Howell
> ([[email protected]][2]).
>
> [...] The source is available separately; if you feel like hacking around with it, you can [download the source code][3] (225K.) But if you only want to play games, you just want the executable [which is Download #1].
>
> If you like the MaxZip interface, you may also be interested in
> [XZip][4], a similar interpreter I wrote for X Windows on any Unix
> machine (including Linux). There's also [MaxTADS][5], an interpreter
> for playing TADS game files on the Macintosh.
>
> Here is [the directory of Z-code games][6] in the [IF Archive][7].
>
> I myself have written [several games in Z-code format][8]. People
> seem to think that some of them are pretty good.
>
> Last updated October 19, 2000.

* * *

Download #1 is the Mac executable from the aforementioned web page,
and the last (known) version of this app.

* * *

Compatibility
Architecture: 68k PPC

MaxZip creates FAT builds that are both 68K and PPC native. Therefore,
all MaxZip builds should work with any later classic-Mac OS, either on
physical hardware or in emulators.

However, unlike Infocom ZIPs, you can't directly convert a MaxZip
build back into a Z-code file simply by adding a .z# suffix. You have
to open the MaxZip build and export the Z-code file contained within
it.

Z-code files can be played in any ZIP (Z-code Interpreter Program),
which are available for nearly every personal computer ever made in
the past 4 decades (including classic and modern Macs). The following
is a list of 4 popular Z-code interpreters for the Mac:

[MaxZip][9] is compatible with all later classic-Mac OSs
[Zoom][10] is compatible with earlier OS Xs (homepage at:
<https://www.logicalshift.co.uk/unix/zoom/>)
[Yazmin][11] is compatible with newer Mac OSs
[ScummVM][12] version 2.2.0 or later also plays Z-code files

[1]: https://www.eblong.com/zarf/maxzip.html
[2]: mailto:[email protected]
[3]: https://www.eblong.com/zarf/ftp/MaxZip-src-178.hqx
[4]: https://www.eblong.com/zarf/xzip.html
[5]: https://www.eblong.com/zarf/maxtads.html
[6]: http://www.ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archiveXgamesXzcode.html
[7]: http://www.ifarchive.org/
[8]: https://www.eblong.com/zarf/if.html
[9]: https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/maxzip
[10]: https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/zoom
[11]: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/yazmin/id1549608914?mt=12
[12]: https://www.scummvm.org/news/20200927/