1SFROTZ(6) Games Manual SFROTZ(6)
2
6 sfrotz - interpreter for Infocom and other Z-Machine games (SDL inter‐
7 face)
8
12 sfrotz [options] file [blorbfile]
13 At least one file must be specified on the command line. This can be
15 either a plain Z-code file or a Blorb file. A Z-code file is a com‐
16 piled executable for the Z-Machine. A Blorb file contains audio,
17 graphics, and other things in addition to the game wrapped up into a
18 single file. It can also optionally contain the Z-Machine executable.
19 If a plain Z-code file is supplied, then Frotz will check for a Blorb
20 file with the same base name but an extension of .blb, .blorb, or
21 .zblorb and load it if found.
22 If the file supplied on the command line is a Blorb file, then Frotz
24 will check to see if a Z-code file is contained within. If not found,
25 then Frotz will complain and exit.
26 An alternatively-named Blorb file can be supplied as the optional sec‐
28 ond parameter to the command line invocatio
29
33 Frotz is a Z-Machine interpreter. The Z-machine is a virtual machine
34 designed by Infocom to run all of their text adventures. It went
35 through multiple revisions during the lifetime of the company, and two
36 further revisions (V7 and V8) were created by Graham Nelson after the
37 company's demise. The specification is now quite well documented; this
38 version of Frotz supports version 1.0.
39 This version of Frotz fully supports all these versions of the Z-
41 Machine including the graphical version 6. Graphics and sound are cre‐
42 ated through the use of the SDL libraries. AIFF sound effects and
43 music in MOD and OGG formats are supported when packaged in Blorb con‐
44 tainer files or optionally from individual files.
45
49 -a Watch attribute setting. Setting and clearing of attributes on
50 objects will be noted in debugging messages.
51 -A Watch attribute testing. Every time the Z-machine tests an
54 attribute value, the test and the result will be reported.
55 -b <colorname>
58 Sets the default background color. <colorname> corresponds to
59 one of the Z-machine colors, which are as follows:
60 black red green yellow blue magenta cyan white
61 If color support is disabled or not available on your terminal,
62 this option does nothing.
63 -c N Sets the number of context lines used. By default, after a
66 ``[MORE]'' prompt, and assuming there is enough output pending,
67 Frotz will allow all the currently visible lines to scroll off
68 the screen before prompting again. This switch specifies how
69 many lines of text Frotz will hold over and display at the top
70 of the next screen.
71 -f <colorname>
74 Sets the default foreground color. <colorname> corresponds to
75 one of the Z-machine colors, which are as follows
76 black red green yellow blue magenta cyan white
77 If color support is disabled or is not available on your termi‐
78 nal, this option does nothing.
79 -h N Manually sets the text height.
82 -i Ignore fatal errors. If a Z-Machine interpreter encounters a
85 zcode error such as division-by-zero or addressing an illegal
86 object, the proper response is to abort execution. This is done
87 because the zcode program doesn't have a clear idea of what is
88 going on. There are some games out there that cause fatal
89 errors because the authors were careless and used an interpreter
90 that didn't properly check for errors. This option is intended
91 to get around such bugs, but be warned that Strange Things may
92 happen if fatal errors are not caught.
93 -I N Set the interpreter number. Infocom designed the Z-machine such
96 that a game could tell on what kind of machine the interpreter
97 was running. See INTERPRETER NUMBER below.
98 -l N Sets the left margin, for those who might have specific format‐
101 ting needs.
102 -L <filename>
105 When the game starts, load this saved game file.
106 -o Watch object movement. This option enables debugging messages
109 from the interpreter which describe the moving of objects in the
110 object tree.
111 -O Watch object location. These debugging messages detail the
114 locations of objects in the object tree.
115 -P Alter the piracy opcode. The piracy opcode was never used by
118 Infocom. This switch is really only useful for those who like
119 to toy around with Z-code.
120 -r N Sets the right margin.
123 -s N Set the random number seed value. The given seed value is used
127 as the initial seed value on every restart. This is helpful for
128 testing games like Curses which make random decisions before the
129 first input (such that the hot key Alt-S does not really help).
130 -S N Set the transcript width. By default your transcript files are
133 formatted to a width of 80 columns per line, regardless of the
134 current text width. This switch allows you to change this set‐
135 ting. In particular, use -S 0 to deactivate automatic line
136 splitting in transcript files.
137 -t Sets the Z-machine's Tandy bit, which may affect the behavior of
140 certain Infocom games. For example, Zork I pretends not to have
141 sequels, and Witness has its language toned down.
142 -u N Sets the number of slots available for Frotz's multiple undo
145 hotkey (see below). This defaults to twenty, which should be
146 sufficient for most purposes. Setting too high a number here
147 may be dangerous on machines with limited memory.
148 -w N Manually sets the text width.
151 -x Expand the abbreviations "g", "x", and "z" to "again", "exam‐
154 ine", and "wait". This switch is for use with old Infocom games
155 that lack these common abbreviations which were introduced in
156 later games. Use it with caution: A few games might use "g",
157 "x" or "z" for different purposes.
158 -Z N Error checking mode.
161 0 = don't report errors.
162 1 = report first instance of an error.
163 2 = report all errors.
164 3 = exit after any error.
165 Default is 1 (report first instance of an error).
166
169 -@ <listfile>
170 Use resource files listed in <listfile> (see NON BLORB
171 RESOURCES).
172 -% Use local resource files.
175 -F Run in fullscreen mode (see NOTES).
178 -m <msecs>
181 Set the timer interrupt cycle to <msecs> milliseconds, instead
182 of the default 100 (1/10 sec).
183 -N <mode>
186 Set the mode (date or name) for creating default file names for
187 save/script etc. For date, a timestamp is prepended to the
188 filename extension. For name, a four-digit number beginning
189 with 0000 is prepended to the filename extension.
190 -T Use traditional in-game requests for file names, intead of on-
193 screen dialogs.
194 -V Force the use of default monospaced VGA font.
197
201 Sfrotz supports the same hot keys as standard Frotz, plus the Ctl-Alt-X
202 combination for immediate exit, which may be used in case of emergency.
203 Note that these hot keys are enabled only when the Z-machine is waiting
204 for line input (for Z-machine experts: @read opcode), with the excep‐
205 tion of Ctl-Alt-X which also works in single character input mode
206 (@read_char opcode).
207 Alt-D Set debugging options.
210 Alt-H Help (print the list of hot keys).
213 Alt-N New game (restart).
216 Alt-P Playback on.
219 Alt-R Recording on/off.
222 Alt-S Set random number seed.
225 Alt-U Undo one turn.
228 Alt-X Exit game (after confirmation).
231 Ctl-Alt-X
234 Exit game immediately (no confirmation).
235
239 Sfrotz has a hardwired default screen size of 640x400. The screen size
240 can be changed by the values in this section, by the values found in
241 the Reso chunck of a Blorb file, and finally by the -w and -h command
242 line options (in that order). Note however that Sfrotz shall refuse to
243 set a screen width less than 640 and/or a height less than 400. NOTE:
244 for normal (windowed) usage, the screen size should obviously be less
245 than the PC screen resolution (taking into account also window decora‐
246 tions, taskbars etc.) For fullscreen usage, the size should preferably
247 be one of those supported by the PC video driver; otherwise, SDL shall
248 try to use the next higher available resolution, with black borders
249 around the Z-machine screen. In fullscreen mode, however, it may happen
250 that for some strange resolutions SDL accepts the request, but the
251 screen goes blank... In such a case, you may shut down the program by
252 pressing Ctrl-Alt-X.
253
257 The interpreter number is a setting in the Z-machine header which is
258 used to tell the game on what sort of machine the interpreter is run‐
259 ning. Sfrotz will automatically choose the most appropriate number for
260 a given Infocom-produced game. Should you want to override the number,
261 the -I option is available.
262 An interpreter should choose the interpreter number most suitable for
264 the machine it will run on. In Versions up to 5, the main considera‐
265 tion is that the behaviour of 'Beyond Zork' depends on the interpreter
266 number (in terms of its usage of the character graphics font). In Ver‐
267 sion 6, the decision is more serious, as existing Infocom story files
268 depend on interpreter number in many ways: moreover, some story files
269 expect to be run only on the interpreters for a particular machine.
270 There are, for instance, specifically Amiga versions. The DECSystem-20
271 was Infocom's own in-house mainframe.
272 Infocom used the following interpreter numbers:
274 1 DECSystem 20
277 2 Apple IIe
280 3 Macintosh
283 4 Amiga
286 5 Atari ST
289 6 IBM PC
292 7 Commodore128
295 8 Commodore64
298 9 Apple IIc
301 10 Apple IIgs
304 11 Tandy Color
307
311 Besides Blorb-packaged resources, Sfrotz can also render graphics and
312 sound from individual files, provided the latter are either suitably
313 named (e.g a common root with a numeric field specifying the resource
314 number), or listed in a suitably formatted text file.
315 Note that this feature is not automatic, but must be enabled by the -%
317 or -@ command line options. When the feature is enabled, resources
318 found this way override those in the Blorb file, if present.
319 This feature can be useful to game designers, as it eases changing and
321 adding resources without having to re-compile the Blorb file each time.
322 The format of the list file used with the -@ option (see EXAMPLE BLC
323 FILE) is identical to that of the BLC control file used by L. Ross
324 Raszewski's iblorb package, so one can use the same list for compiling
325 the final Blorb file for distribution.
326
330 Sfrotz can display text with Truetype or Type1 fonts, using the
331 FreeType2 rendering library. The location of the necessary font files
332 must be specified in the setup file. Also, antialiased rendering of
333 Truetype fonts can be specified. Please note that this feature in
334 sfrotz is still experimental, so don't expect too much (e.g., kerning
335 is not supported).
336
340 Sfrotz does not need Truetype fonts to work; in fact it has a default
341 monospaced font, based on an 8x16 VGA font, which can be used for both
342 the TEXT_FONT and the FIXED_FONT of the z-machine, with suitable
343 (though not very nice) modifications for the various styles. Even if
344 Truetype fonts are specified in the setup file, Sfrotz can be forced to
345 use the VGA font by the -V command line switch.
346
350 Sfrotz supports Unicode glyphs by way of UTF-8 as long as the fonts
351 loaded contain the glyphs you need. The default font provided by SDL
352 does not contain much beyond the Latin alphabet and some diacritical
353 marks. Inverted punctuation marks as used in Spanish are missing. Two
354 monospaced fonts known to work well with most commonly-encountered
355 alphabetic languages are Leggie and FreeMono. They can be found at
356 https://memleek.org/leggie/ (X11 BDF fonts) and
357 https://www.gnu.org/software/freefont/ (Truetype fonts). Logographic
358 glyphs (Kanji and Chinese are not currently supported.
359
363 If the ZCODE_PATH environmental variable is defined, Sfrotz will search
364 that path for game files. If that doesn't exist, INFOCOM_PATH will be
365 searched.
366
370 On startup, sfrotz will check $HOME/.sfrotzrc for setup information.
371 The setup file has four sections: Interpreter, Display, Fonts, and
372 Resources.
373 The Interpreter section deals with options having to do with how the
375 Frotz core works.
376 The Window section deals with screen display. Sfrotz has a hardwired
378 default screen size of 640x400. The screen size can be changed by the
379 values in this section, by the values found in the Reso chunck of a
380 Blorb file, and finally by the -w and -h command line options (in that
381 order). Note however that sfrotz shall refuse to set a screen width
382 less than 640 and/or a height less than 400.
383 NOTE: for normal (windowed) usage, the screen size should obviously be
385 less than the PC screen resolution (taking into account also window
386 decorations, taskbars etc.) For fullscreen usage, the size should
387 preferably be one of those supported by the PC video driver; otherwise,
388 SDL shall try to use the next higher available resolution, with black
389 borders around the z-machine screen. In fullscreen mode, however, it
390 may happen that for some strange resolutions SDL accepts the request,
391 but the screen goes blank... In such a case, you may shut down the pro‐
392 gram by pressing Ctrl-Alt-X.
393 The Display section is reserved for future developments.
395 The Fonts section is for defining the font directory, font files, and
397 if antialiasing is enabled (which is currently not supported).
398 The following eight statements: textroman, textbold, textitalic,
400 textbolditalic, fixedroman, fixedbold, fixeditalic, and fixed‐
401 bolditalic; specify the eight font faces used by the z-machine (not
402 counting the so-called graphics font used in Beyond Zork, which is
403 hardwired in the program), that is the normal TEXT_FONT and the
404 monospaced FIXED_FONT, each in four styles (roman, bold, italic and
405 bold+italic). A single face is specified by the file name (with its
406 suffix!), optionally followed by an @ sign and a number, indicating the
407 font size in pixels (default is 14). Multiple face files can be speci‐
408 fied, separated by pipe (|) characters; Sfrotz shall use the first one
409 it finds (see the example in EXAMPLE SETUP FILE). This feature allows
410 e.g. to use the same setup file on different systems.
411 The Resources section is for configuring graphics and sound resources.
413 Each template must contain exactly one C-style decimal format specifier
414 (e.g. Pict%d) to be substituted by the resource number.
415
419 [Interpreter]
420 Number = number
422 Set the interpreter number (default is 4, i.e. Amiga Interpreter)
423 Error Reporting = level
426 Set the error reporting level (same as the -Z option)
427 Ignore Errors = 0/1
430 Ignore (1) or not (0) non-fatal runtime errors.
431 Expand Abbreviations = 0/1
434 Set/reset expansion of g/x/z abbreviations. Expansion is useful for
435 old v1 games which do not understand such abbreviations. Default: 0
436 (the -xoption can set this switch.)
437 Tandy Bit = 0/1
440 Set/reset the Tandy bit. Default: 0 (the -t option can set this
441 switch.)
442 Wrap Script Lines = nc
445 Set the width (number of columns) of the transcript to nc. Same as -S
446 option.
447 SaveNames = date/name
450 Set the mode (date or name) for creating default file names for
451 save/script etc. For date, a timestamp is prepended to the filename
452 extension. For name, a four-digit number beginning with 0000 is
453 prepended to the filename extension.
454 [Window]
457 AcWidth = width
459 Set the screen width in pixels (default: 640)
460 AcHeight = height
463 Set the screen height in pixels (default: 400)
464 [Display]
467 (This section reserved for future developments)
469 [Fonts]
472 antialias = 0/1
474 Set antialiased rendering of Truetype fonts off (0) or on (nonzero).
475 Note that this option cannot be overridden by a command line switch.
476 fontdir = folder
479 Specify the directory containing the Truetype fonts. If this does
480 not begin with a slash, then the directory is assumed to be relative
481 to the user's home directory.
482 textroman = fontspec
485 Set the font file for TEXT_FONT, roman style.
486 textbold = fontspec
489 Set the font file for TEXT_FONT, bold style.
490 textitalic = fontspec
493 Set the font file for TEXT_FONT, italic style.
494 textbolditalic = fontspec
497 fixedroman = fontspec
500 Set the font file for FIXED_FONT, roman style.
501 fixedbold = fontspec
504 Set the font file for FIXED_FONT, bold style.
505 fixeditalic = fontspec
508 Set the font file for FIXED_FONT, italic style.
509 fixedbolditalic = fontspec
512 Set the font file for FIXED_FONT, bold and italic style
513 [Resources]
516 Dir = folder
519 Specify the folder for individual graphics/sound resource files.
520 Pict = template
523 Template for picture resource files.
524 Snd = template
527 Template for sound resource files.
528
532 # The # denotes the start of a comment
533 # Everything after the # is ignored, up to the end of the line
534 [Interpreter]
536 SaveNames=date
537 [Window]
539 # The following entries are commented out
540 # but they are the same as the hardwired defaults, anyway
541 #AcWidth = 640
542 #AcHeight = 400
543 [Display]
545 [Fonts]
547 antialias=1
548 fontdir=/usr/share/fonts/truetype/freefont
549 textroman=arial.ttf@16|FreeSans.ttf@16
550 textbold=arialbd.ttf@16|FreeSansBold.ttf@16
551 textitalic=ariali.ttf@16|FreeSansOblique.ttf@16
552 textbolditalic=arialbi.ttf@16|FreeSansBoldOblique.ttf@16
553 fixedroman=cour.ttf@16|FreeMono.ttf@16
554 fixedbold=courbd.ttf@16|FreeMonoBold.ttf@16
555 fixeditalic=couri.ttf@16|FreeMonoOblique.ttf@16
556 fixedbolditalic=courbi.ttf@16|FreeMonoBoldOblique.ttf@16
557 [Resources]
559 Dir=./ # the current dir
560 Pict=PIC%d # i.e. PIC1, PIC2, ...
561 Snd=SND%d # i.e. SND3, SND4, ...
562
566 Exec 0 ZCOD ani.z6
567 Snd 13 FORM busyalone.au.aiff
569 Snd 12 FORM s0020.au.aiff
570 Snd 11 FORM s0154.au.aiff
571 Snd 10 FORM s1484.au.aiff
572 Pict 10 PNG edleft.png0.png
574 Pict 11 PNG edleft.png1.png
575 Pict 12 PNG edleft.png2.png
576 Pict 13 PNG edleft.png3.png
577 Pict 14 PNG edleft.png4.png
578 Pict 15 PNG edleft.png5.png
579 Pict 16 PNG lauhoh.png0.png
581 Pict 17 PNG lauhoh.png1.png
582 Pict 18 PNG lauhoh.png2.png
583 Pict 19 PNG edfront.png0.png
585 Pict 20 PNG edfront.png1.png
586 Pict 21 PNG edfront.png2.png
587 Pict 22 PNG edfront.png3.png
588 Pict 23 PNG edfront.png4.png
589 Pict 24 PNG edfront.png5.png
590 Pict 25 PNG hoagie.png0.png
592 Pict 26 PNG hoagie.png1.png
593 Pict 30 PNG dott0.png
595
599 The Frotz homepage is at https://661.org/proj/if/frotz/.
600 A git(1) repository of all versions of Unix Frotz back to 2.32 is
602 available for public perusal here:
603 https://gitlab.com/DavidGriffith/frotz/.
604 The bleeding edge of Frotz development may be followed there.
606 The Interactive Fiction Archive is a good place to find games to play
608 with Frotz. Various ports and builds for Frotz may also be found here.
609 Here is its URL:
610 http://www.ifarchive.org/
611 Most distributions of Linux and BSD include Frotz in their package
613 repositories.
614
618 The Z Machine itself has trouble with the concept of resizing a termi‐
619 nal. It assumes that once the screen height and width are set, they
620 will never change; even across saves. This made sense when 24x80 ter‐
621 minals were the norm and graphical user interfaces were mostly unknown.
622 I'm fairly sure there's a way around this problem, but for now, don't
623 resize an xterm in which frotz is running. Also, you should try to
624 make sure the terminal on which you restore a saved game has the same
625 dimensions as the one on which you saved the game.
626 Audio latency might be unreasonably long depending on the settings of
629 your operating system. Linux generally has things right. The BSDs may
630 need some sysctl(8) settings adjusted. See the sound(4) or audio(4)
631 manpages for more information.
632 This manpage is not intended to tell users HOW to play interactive fic‐
635 tion. Refer to the file HOW_TO_PLAY included in the Unix Frotz docu‐
636 mentation or visit one of the following sites:
637 http://www.microheaven.com/ifguide/
638 http://www.brasslantern.org/beginners/
639 http://www.musicwords.net/if/how_to_play.htm
640 http://ifarchive.org/
641
645 This program has no bugs. no bugs. no bugs. no *WHAP* thank you. If
646 you find one, please report it to the Gitlab site referenced above in
647 FURTHER INFORMATION.
648
652 frotz was written by Stefan Jokisch for MSDOS in 1995-7.
653 The SDL port was done in 2009 by Aldo Cumani and is currently main‐
654 tained by David Griffith <dave@661.org>.
655
659 frotz(6) dfrotz(6) nitfol(6) rezrov(6) jzip(6) xzip(6) inform(1)
660 2.51 SFROTZ(6)