If I recall correctly, the Infocom company was originally started to be a database company (hence the name), and the virtual machine interpreter was meant to ru

If I recall correctly, the Infocom company was originally started to be a database company (hence the name), and the virtual machine interpreter was meant to run the LISP variant that they were going to use to write their database product. The database thing did not pan out, and they instead brushed off the old Zork program they got from the MIT systems, ported a piece of it (the whole original Zork for mainframes would not fit the micros they were targetting) to their virtual machine. Disclaimer: I have only ever read about this, and I’m probably misremembering many details.