1SFROTZ(6) Games Manual SFROTZ(6)
2
6 sfrotz - interpreter for Infocom and other Z-Machine games (SDL inter‐
7 face)
8
11 sfrotz [options] file [blorb_file]
12 At least one file must be specified on the command line. This can be
14 either a plain Z-code file or a Blorb file. A Z-code file is a com‐
15 piled executable for the Z-Machine. A Blorb file contains audio,
16 graphics, and other things in addition to the game wrapped up into a
17 single file. It can also optionally contain the Z-Machine executable.
18 If a plain Z-code file is supplied, then Frotz will check for a Blorb
19 file with the same base name but an extension of .blb, .blorb, or
20 .zblorb and load it if found.
21 If the file supplied on the command line is a Blorb file, then Frotz
23 will check to see if a Z-code file is contained within. If not found,
24 then Frotz will complain and exit.
25 An alternatively-named Blorb file can be supplied as the optional sec‐
27 ond parameter to the command line invocatio
28
32 Frotz is a Z-Machine interpreter. The Z-machine is a virtual machine
33 designed by Infocom to run all of their text adventures. It went
34 through multiple revisions during the lifetime of the company, and two
35 further revisions (V7 and V8) were created by Graham Nelson after the
36 company's demise. The specification is now quite well documented; this
37 version of Frotz supports version 1.0.
38 This version of Frotz fully supports all these versions of the Z-Ma‐
40 chine including the graphical version 6. Graphics and sound are cre‐
41 ated through the use of the SDL libraries. AIFF sound effects and mu‐
42 sic in MOD and OGG formats are supported when packaged in Blorb con‐
43 tainer files or optionally from individual files.
44
48 -a Watch attribute setting. Setting and clearing of attributes on
49 objects will be noted in debugging messages.
50 -A Watch attribute testing. Every time the Z-machine tests an at‐
53 tribute value, the test and the result will be reported.
54 -b <colorname>
57 Sets the default background color. <colorname> corresponds to
58 one of the Z-machine colors, which are as follows:
59 black red green yellow blue magenta cyan white
60 If color support is disabled or not available on your terminal,
61 this option does nothing.
62 -c N Sets the number of context lines used. By default, after a
65 ``[MORE]'' prompt, and assuming there is enough output pending,
66 Frotz will allow all the currently visible lines to scroll off
67 the screen before prompting again. This switch specifies how
68 many lines of text Frotz will hold over and display at the top
69 of the next screen.
70 -C <filename>
73 Load this configuration file instead of $HOME/.sfrotzrc.
74 -d Disable color.
77 -f <colorname>
80 Sets the default foreground color. <colorname> corresponds to
81 one of the Z-machine colors, which are as follows
82 black red green yellow blue magenta cyan white
83 If color support is disabled or is not available on your termi‐
84 nal, this option does nothing.
85 -h N Manually sets the text height.
88 -i Ignore fatal errors. If a Z-Machine interpreter encounters a
91 zcode error such as division-by-zero or addressing an illegal
92 object, the proper response is to abort execution. This is done
93 because the zcode program doesn't have a clear idea of what is
94 going on. There are some games out there that cause fatal er‐
95 rors because the authors were careless and used an interpreter
96 that didn't properly check for errors. This option is intended
97 to get around such bugs, but be warned that Strange Things may
98 happen if fatal errors are not caught.
99 -I N Set the interpreter number. Infocom designed the Z-machine such
102 that a game could tell on what kind of machine the interpreter
103 was running. See INTERPRETER NUMBER below.
104 -l N Sets the left margin, for those who might have specific format‐
107 ting needs.
108 -L <filename>
111 When the game starts, load this saved game file.
112 -o Watch object movement. This option enables debugging messages
115 from the interpreter which describe the moving of objects in the
116 object tree.
117 -O Watch object location. These debugging messages detail the lo‐
120 cations of objects in the object tree.
121 -P Alter the piracy opcode. The piracy opcode was never used by
124 Infocom. This switch is really only useful for those who like
125 to toy around with Z-code.
126 -r N Sets the right margin.
129 -s N Set the random number seed value. The given seed value is used
133 as the initial seed value on every restart. This is helpful for
134 testing games like Curses which make random decisions before the
135 first input (such that the hot key Alt-S does not really help).
136 -S N Set the transcript width. By default your transcript files are
139 formatted to a width of 80 columns per line, regardless of the
140 current text width. This switch allows you to change this set‐
141 ting. In particular, use -S 0 to deactivate automatic line
142 splitting in transcript files.
143 -t Sets the Z-machine's Tandy bit, which may affect the behavior of
146 certain Infocom games. For example, Zork I pretends not to have
147 sequels, and Witness has its language toned down.
148 -u N Sets the number of slots available for Frotz's multiple undo
151 hotkey (see below). This defaults to twenty, which should be
152 sufficient for most purposes. Setting too high a number here
153 may be dangerous on machines with limited memory.
154 -w N Manually sets the text width.
157 -x Expand the abbreviations "g", "x", and "z" to "again", "exam‐
160 ine", and "wait". This switch is for use with old Infocom games
161 that lack these common abbreviations which were introduced in
162 later games. Use it with caution: A few games might use "g",
163 "x" or "z" for different purposes.
164 -Z N Error checking mode.
167 0 = don't report errors.
168 1 = report first instance of an error.
169 2 = report all errors.
170 3 = exit after any error.
171 Default is 1 (report first instance of an error).
172
175 -@ <listfile>
176 Use resource files listed in <listfile> (see NON BLORB RE‐
177 SOURCES).
178 -% Use local resource files.
181 -F Run in fullscreen mode (see NOTES).
184 -m <msecs>
187 Set the timer interrupt cycle to <msecs> milliseconds, instead
188 of the default 100 (1/10 sec).
189 -N <mode>
192 Set the mode (date or name) for creating default file names for
193 save/script etc. For date, a timestamp is prepended to the
194 filename extension. For name, a four-digit number beginning
195 with 0000 is prepended to the filename extension.
196 -T Use traditional in-game requests for file names, instead of on-
199 screen dialogs.
200 -v Show version information and exit. This will display the ver‐
203 sion of Frotz, some information about what's enabled and what's
204 not, the commit date of the source code, and a git(1) hash of
205 that commit.
206 -V Force the use of default monospaced VGA font.
209
213 Sfrotz supports the same hot keys as standard Frotz, plus the Ctl-Alt-X
214 combination for immediate exit, which may be used in case of emergency.
215 Note that these hot keys are enabled only when the Z-machine is waiting
216 for line input (for Z-machine experts: @read opcode), with the excep‐
217 tion of Ctl-Alt-X which also works in single character input mode
218 (@read_char opcode).
219 Alt-D Set debugging options.
222 Alt-H Help (print the list of hot keys).
225 Alt-N New game (restart).
228 Alt-P Playback on.
231 Alt-R Recording on/off.
234 Alt-S Set random number seed.
237 Alt-U Undo one turn.
240 Alt-X Exit game (after confirmation).
243 Ctl-Alt-X
246 Exit game immediately (no confirmation).
247
251 Sfrotz has a hardwired default screen size of 640x400. The screen size
252 can be changed by the values in this section, by the values found in
253 the Reso chunk of a Blorb file, and finally by the -w and -h command
254 line options (in that order). Note however that Sfrotz shall refuse to
255 set a screen width less than 640 and/or a height less than 400. NOTE:
256 for normal (windowed) usage, the screen size should obviously be less
257 than the PC screen resolution (taking into account also window decora‐
258 tions, taskbars etc.) For fullscreen usage, the size should preferably
259 be one of those supported by the PC video driver; otherwise, SDL shall
260 try to use the next higher available resolution, with black borders
261 around the Z-machine screen. In fullscreen mode, however, it may happen
262 that for some strange resolutions SDL accepts the request, but the
263 screen goes blank... In such a case, you may shut down the program by
264 pressing Ctrl-Alt-X.
265
269 The interpreter number is a setting in the Z-machine header which is
270 used to tell the game on what sort of machine the interpreter is run‐
271 ning. Sfrotz will automatically choose the most appropriate number for
272 a given Infocom-produced game. Should you want to override the number,
273 the -I option is available.
274 An interpreter should choose the interpreter number most suitable for
276 the machine it will run on. In Versions up to 5, the main considera‐
277 tion is that the behaviour of 'Beyond Zork' depends on the interpreter
278 number (in terms of its usage of the character graphics font). In Ver‐
279 sion 6, the decision is more serious, as existing Infocom story files
280 depend on interpreter number in many ways: moreover, some story files
281 expect to be run only on the interpreters for a particular machine.
282 There are, for instance, specifically Amiga versions. The DECSystem-20
283 was Infocom's own in-house mainframe.
284 For Infocom's four V6 games, the interpreter number will be automati‐
286 cally chosen based on the title and release number. Of course, this
287 can be overridden at the command line.
288 Infocom used the following interpreter numbers:
290 1 DECSystem 20
293 2 Apple IIe
296 3 Macintosh
299 4 Amiga
302 5 Atari ST
305 6 IBM PC
308 7 Commodore128
311 8 Commodore64
314 9 Apple IIc
317 10 Apple IIgs
320 11 Tandy Color
323
327 Besides Blorb-packaged resources, Sfrotz can also render graphics and
328 sound from individual files, provided the latter are either suitably
329 named (e.g a common root with a numeric field specifying the resource
330 number), or listed in a suitably formatted text file.
331 Note that this feature is not automatic, but must be enabled by the -%
333 or -@ command line options. When the feature is enabled, resources
334 found this way override those in the Blorb file, if present.
335 This feature can be useful to game designers, as it eases changing and
337 adding resources without having to re-compile the Blorb file each time.
338 The format of the list file used with the -@ option (see EXAMPLE BLC
339 FILE) is identical to that of the BLC control file used by L. Ross
340 Raszewski's iblorb package, so one can use the same list for compiling
341 the final Blorb file for distribution.
342
346 Sfrotz can display text with Truetype or Type1 fonts, using the
347 FreeType2 rendering library. The location of the necessary font files
348 must be specified in the setup file. Also, antialiased rendering of
349 Truetype fonts can be specified. Please note that this feature in
350 sfrotz is still experimental, so don't expect too much (e.g., kerning
351 is not supported).
352
356 Sfrotz does not need Truetype fonts to work; in fact it has a default
357 monospaced font, based on an 8x16 VGA font, which can be used for both
358 the TEXT_FONT and the FIXED_FONT of the z-machine, with suitable
359 (though not very nice) modifications for the various styles. Even if
360 Truetype fonts are specified in the setup file, Sfrotz can be forced to
361 use the VGA font by the -V command line switch.
362
366 Sfrotz supports Unicode glyphs by way of UTF-8 as long as the fonts
367 loaded contain the glyphs you need. The default font provided by SDL
368 does not contain much beyond the Latin alphabet and some diacritical
369 marks. Inverted punctuation marks as used in Spanish are missing. Two
370 monospaced fonts known to work well with most commonly-encountered al‐
371 phabetic languages are Leggie and FreeMono. They can be found at
372 https://memleek.org/leggie/ (X11 BDF fonts) and
373 https://www.gnu.org/software/freefont/ (Truetype fonts). Logographic
374 glyphs (Kanji and Chinese are not currently supported.
375
379 If the ZCODE_PATH environmental variable is defined, Sfrotz will search
380 that path for game files. If that doesn't exist, INFOCOM_PATH will be
381 searched.
382
386 On startup, sfrotz will check $HOME/.sfrotzrc for setup information.
387 The setup file has four sections: Interpreter, Display, Fonts, and Re‐
388 sources.
389 The Interpreter section deals with options having to do with how the
391 Frotz core works.
392 The Window section deals with screen display. Sfrotz has a hardwired
394 default screen size of 640x400. The screen size can be changed by the
395 values in this section, by the values found in the Reso chunk of a
396 Blorb file, and finally by the -w and -h command line options (in that
397 order). Note however that sfrotz shall refuse to set a screen width
398 less than 640 and/or a height less than 400.
399 NOTE: for normal (windowed) usage, the screen size should obviously be
401 less than the PC screen resolution (taking into account also window
402 decorations, taskbars etc.) For fullscreen usage, the size should
403 preferably be one of those supported by the PC video driver; otherwise,
404 SDL shall try to use the next higher available resolution, with black
405 borders around the z-machine screen. In fullscreen mode, however, it
406 may happen that for some strange resolutions SDL accepts the request,
407 but the screen goes blank... In such a case, you may shut down the pro‐
408 gram by pressing Ctrl-Alt-X.
409 The Display section is reserved for future developments.
411 The Fonts section is for defining the font directory, font files, and
413 if antialiasing is enabled (which is currently not supported).
414 The following eight statements: textroman, textbold, textitalic,
416 textbolditalic, fixedroman, fixedbold, fixeditalic, and fixed‐
417 bolditalic; specify the eight font faces used by the z-machine (not
418 counting the so-called graphics font used in Beyond Zork, which is
419 hardwired in the program), that is the normal TEXT_FONT and the mono‐
420 spaced FIXED_FONT, each in four styles (roman, bold, italic and
421 bold+italic). A single face is specified by the file name (with its
422 suffix!), optionally followed by an @ sign and a number, indicating the
423 font size in pixels (default is 14). Multiple face files can be speci‐
424 fied, separated by pipe (|) characters; Sfrotz shall use the first one
425 it finds (see the example in EXAMPLE SETUP FILE). This feature allows
426 e.g. to use the same setup file on different systems.
427 The Resources section is for configuring graphics and sound resources.
429 Each template must contain exactly one C-style decimal format specifier
430 (e.g. Pict%d) to be substituted by the resource number.
431
435 [Interpreter]
436 Number = number
438 Set the interpreter number (default is 4, i.e. Amiga Interpreter)
439 Error Reporting = level
442 Set the error reporting level (same as the -Z option)
443 Ignore Errors = 0/1
446 Ignore (1) or not (0) non-fatal runtime errors.
447 Expand Abbreviations = 0/1
450 Set/reset expansion of g/x/z abbreviations. Expansion is useful for
451 old v1 games which do not understand such abbreviations. Default: 0
452 (the -xoption can set this switch.)
453 Tandy Bit = 0/1
456 Set/reset the Tandy bit. Default: 0 (the -t option can set this
457 switch.)
458 Wrap Script Lines = nc
461 Set the width (number of columns) of the transcript to nc. Same as -S
462 option.
463 SaveNames = date/name
466 Set the mode (date or name) for creating default file names for
467 save/script etc. For date, a timestamp is prepended to the filename
468 extension. For name, a four-digit number beginning with 0000 is
469 prepended to the filename extension.
470 [Window]
473 AcWidth = width
475 Set the screen width in pixels (default: 640)
476 AcHeight = height
479 Set the screen height in pixels (default: 400)
480 [Display]
483 (This section reserved for future developments)
485 [Fonts]
488 antialias = 0/1
490 Set antialiased rendering of Truetype fonts off (0) or on (nonzero).
491 Note that this option cannot be overridden by a command line switch.
492 fontdir = folder
495 Specify the directory containing the Truetype fonts. If this does
496 not begin with a slash, then the directory is assumed to be relative
497 to the user's home directory.
498 textroman = fontspec
501 Set the font file for TEXT_FONT, roman style.
502 textbold = fontspec
505 Set the font file for TEXT_FONT, bold style.
506 textitalic = fontspec
509 Set the font file for TEXT_FONT, italic style.
510 textbolditalic = fontspec
513 fixedroman = fontspec
516 Set the font file for FIXED_FONT, roman style.
517 fixedbold = fontspec
520 Set the font file for FIXED_FONT, bold style.
521 fixeditalic = fontspec
524 Set the font file for FIXED_FONT, italic style.
525 fixedbolditalic = fontspec
528 Set the font file for FIXED_FONT, bold and italic style
529 [Resources]
532 Dir = folder
535 Specify the folder for individual graphics/sound resource files.
536 Pict = template
539 Template for picture resource files.
540 Snd = template
543 Template for sound resource files.
544
548 # The # denotes the start of a comment
549 # Everything after the # is ignored, up to the end of the line
550 [Interpreter]
552 SaveNames=date
553 [Window]
555 # The following entries are commented out
556 # but they are the same as the hardwired defaults, anyway
557 #AcWidth = 640
558 #AcHeight = 400
559 [Display]
561 [Fonts]
563 antialias=1
564 fontdir=/usr/share/fonts/truetype/freefont
565 textroman=arial.ttf@16|FreeSans.ttf@16
566 textbold=arialbd.ttf@16|FreeSansBold.ttf@16
567 textitalic=ariali.ttf@16|FreeSansOblique.ttf@16
568 textbolditalic=arialbi.ttf@16|FreeSansBoldOblique.ttf@16
569 fixedroman=cour.ttf@16|FreeMono.ttf@16
570 fixedbold=courbd.ttf@16|FreeMonoBold.ttf@16
571 fixeditalic=couri.ttf@16|FreeMonoOblique.ttf@16
572 fixedbolditalic=courbi.ttf@16|FreeMonoBoldOblique.ttf@16
573 [Resources]
575 Dir=./ # the current dir
576 Pict=PIC%d # i.e. PIC1, PIC2, ...
577 Snd=SND%d # i.e. SND3, SND4, ...
578
582 Exec 0 ZCOD ani.z6
583 Snd 13 FORM busyalone.au.aiff
585 Snd 12 FORM s0020.au.aiff
586 Snd 11 FORM s0154.au.aiff
587 Snd 10 FORM s1484.au.aiff
588 Pict 10 PNG edleft.png0.png
590 Pict 11 PNG edleft.png1.png
591 Pict 12 PNG edleft.png2.png
592 Pict 13 PNG edleft.png3.png
593 Pict 14 PNG edleft.png4.png
594 Pict 15 PNG edleft.png5.png
595 Pict 16 PNG lauhoh.png0.png
597 Pict 17 PNG lauhoh.png1.png
598 Pict 18 PNG lauhoh.png2.png
599 Pict 19 PNG edfront.png0.png
601 Pict 20 PNG edfront.png1.png
602 Pict 21 PNG edfront.png2.png
603 Pict 22 PNG edfront.png3.png
604 Pict 23 PNG edfront.png4.png
605 Pict 24 PNG edfront.png5.png
606 Pict 25 PNG hoagie.png0.png
608 Pict 26 PNG hoagie.png1.png
609 Pict 30 PNG dott0.png
611
615 The Frotz homepage is at https://661.org/proj/if/frotz/.
616 A git(1) repository of all versions of Unix Frotz back to 2.32 is
618 available for public perusal here:
619 https://gitlab.com/DavidGriffith/frotz/.
620 The bleeding edge of Frotz development may be followed there.
622 The Interactive Fiction Archive is a good place to find games to play
624 with Frotz. Various ports and builds for Frotz may also be found here.
625 Here is its URL:
626 http://www.ifarchive.org/
627 Most distributions of Linux and BSD include Frotz in their package
629 repositories.
630 It is distributed under the GNU General Public License version 2 or (at
632 your option) any later version.
633 https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.en.html
634 This software is offered as-is with no warranty or liability. If you
636 find a bug or would like Frotz to do something it doesn't currently do,
637 please visit the above Gitlab website and report your concerns.
638
642 The Z Machine itself has trouble with the concept of resizing a termi‐
643 nal. It assumes that once the screen height and width are set, they
644 will never change; even across saves. This made sense when 24x80 ter‐
645 minals were the norm and graphical user interfaces were mostly unknown.
646 I'm fairly sure there's a way around this problem, but for now, don't
647 resize an xterm in which frotz is running. Also, you should try to
648 make sure the terminal on which you restore a saved game has the same
649 dimensions as the one on which you saved the game.
650 Audio latency might be unreasonably long depending on the settings of
653 your operating system. Linux generally has things right. The BSDs may
654 need some sysctl(8) settings adjusted. See the sound(4) or audio(4)
655 manpages for more information.
656 This manpage is not intended to tell users HOW to play interactive fic‐
659 tion. Refer to the file HOW_TO_PLAY included in the Unix Frotz docu‐
660 mentation or visit one of the following sites:
661 http://www.microheaven.com/ifguide/
662 http://www.brasslantern.org/beginners/
663 http://www.musicwords.net/if/how_to_play.htm
664 http://ifarchive.org/
665
669 This program has no bugs. no bugs. no bugs. no *WHAP* thank you. If
670 you find one, please report it to the Gitlab site referenced above in
671 FURTHER INFORMATION.
672
676 frotz was written by Stefan Jokisch for MSDOS in 1995-7.
677 The SDL port was done in 2009 by Aldo Cumani and is currently main‐
678 tained by David Griffith <dave@661.org>.
679
683 frotz(6) dfrotz(6) nitfol(6) rezrov(6) jzip(6) xzip(6) inform(1)
684SDL Frotz v2.54 2021-06-21 SFROTZ(6)