I didn’t know about ZZT, but that makes a lot of sense now that I’ve looked into it. The format, simplicity, and screen-by-screen feel do seem closely related. Thanks for the reference. That museum is a great find!
I recall Anna Anthropy's book on ZZT doing a great job of capturing the feel of the early PC ZZT scene and some of its AOL/CompuServe/Prodigy communities in the early 90s. Might serve as other bits of inspiration, if you like short history books: https://www.amazon.com/Boss-Fight-Books-Anna-Anthropy/dp/194...