The Nothings Suite
pippinbarr.github.io
pippinbarr.github.io
Inform7 generates a Glulx file, with Blorb wrapping. A minimal Glulx file (without Blorb) is much shorter (and probably Inform7 cannot generate it (even if you remove the Blorb), although I don't use Inform7); it would consist of the Glulx header, and then a function header which specifies no local variables, and then a "quit" instruction. The header is 36 bytes, the function header is 3 bytes, and a "quit" instruction is 2 bytes, for a total of 41 bytes, although it must be a multiple of 256, so the minimum size is 256 bytes. Of course, this program won't do anything useful (unlike many of the engines listed there). Of course, they used Inform7, so you get all of the default stuff. One which is purely in Glulx is this shorter one like I mentioned.
There are other possible game engines/systems/VMs to consider: MegaZeux (the simple default just has the player can move in the room and does nothing, similar to ZZT, although it is scrolling), SuperZZT (also scrolling), ZILF, Inform6, NES/Famicom (which has to consist of at least the iNES header and a 16K bank, which must contain some code if it is to not crash), Free Hero Mesh (it defines default attributes for classes and other stuff, although it won't add them automatically; you must first add a picture (which will be a blank 24x24 picture by default, but can be as small as 1x1 or as big as 255x255), and a class, and a level), OHRRPGCE, etc.
They mention print-and-play. I was able to produce a much shorter PDF (2105 bytes) with the same content (a single blank page) by typing the following command:
echo showpage quit | gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -o nothing.pdf -dBATCH
Also, the source code repository linked does not include source code; only the compiled files are included. (This should be corrected, I hope.)