Extract text from Z-machine games (Z2)
To convert Z2 games to another format, you need Frotz or other Game software.
To convert other file formats to the "Z-machine Game File" file type, you need software like Frotz or a similar tool.
A .z2 file is a compiled interactive fiction game file formatted for version 2 of the Z-machine architecture. Originally created by Infocom in the late 1970s for classic text adventures, these files contain compiled bytecode, heavily encoded text, and game logic.
To play or open a .z2 file, users must use a dedicated Z-machine emulator like Frotz or Gargoyle.
Because it is a compiled binary format, a .z2 file presents strict limitations. It requires specialized emulation software to run on modern operating systems. Standard text editors will only display unreadable gibberish because the internal text is tightly compressed using a proprietary encoding scheme designed to save floppy disk space. The format acts as a black box, making it difficult to read or modify the game's contents.
Users typically look to convert these files to extract the underlying story text. The best practical conversion target is raw TXT, which requires a specialized Z-code disassembler (like txd) to unpack the bytecode into readable assembly and text strings. It is impossible to directly convert an interactive game binary into a static document format like PDF or DOCX while retaining the playable logic.
Because this file format is a difficult, proprietary virtual machine executable, standard online converters fail to process it.
Convert.Guru analyzes your Z2 file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted ZOR, Z1, ZPG and Z3 files.
If you want to convert Z2 file to EXE, ISO, BIN, CUE, PAK, WAD, PK3, PK4, BSP, MAP, SAV or DAT, you can use Frotz or similar software from the "Interactive Fiction Game Binary" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert MOD, BIN, CFG, SCX, DAT, MPQ, LOG, CUE, INI, EXE, SCM or ISO files to Z2, try Frotz or another comparable tool in the "Interactive Fiction Game Binary" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our Z2 converter.