Steam Controller Plays Zork via Custom Firmware
Valve’s hardware experiments have drawn the curiosity of hobbyist makers, and the Steam Controller is a prime example. Owen Feldman managed to run the classic text adventure Zork on the controller’s own hardware, a feat he described as “1,514 lines of pain.”
Feldman documented the effort on his blog, noting that the controller was coaxed into running a custom Rust program that emulated an Intel 8080 CPU and the CP/M-80 operating system. Because the device lacks a keyboard or display, he used its built‑in USB connection to stream input and output.
After a risky firmware update that briefly bricked the controller, he recovered it and loaded a floppy‑disk copy of Zork from an external drive. The result was a functional game console built into a $99 controller kit, connected to several add‑on devices.
The project showcases how far DIY enthusiasts can push Valve’s hardware, turning a gaming peripheral into a standalone computer. While the hack is impressive, Feldman warns that attempting the update can permanently damage the device, so it should be tried only by bold hardware hackers.
