Short: FrotzS5 V1.1 - an interpreter for all Infocom games Author: bouvry@usa.net (Frédéric Bouvry) URL: http://users.skynet.be/sky43948/ Uploader: psion-adm@nic.funet.fi Type: s5/game/role FrotzS5 V1.1 - an interpreter for all Infocom games. Complies with standard 1.0 of Graham Nelson's specification. Written by Stefan Jokisch in 1995-7 for Dos and ported to the Psion Series 5 by Frédéric Bouvry (C) Copyright 1997. This port of Frotz is freeware, that means: -You may not make money with this software by selling it or by any other means. -You may not modify the original files. -I'm not responsible for any damage this program could cause to your palmtop or yourself. -But you can play for free and copy it for friends as long as you copy all the files included in this distribution. If you still find bugs : please report them to me for the next version: Frédéric Bouvry, mailto: bouvry@usa.net Or if you just want to give me a suggestion for the next versions or for whatever, like telling me you enjoy this free software, mail me, I'm always glad to receive messages from happy users. The latest version will always be available on http://users.skynet.be/sky43948/ On the same site you will find links to learn more about Interactive Fiction and to get the Story Files needed by FrotzS5. Another way to get the stories is to buy compilation CD-Roms like 'The Masterpieces of Infocom': about 21$US for more than 30 stories + the original documentations and maps in Adobe Acrobat .pdf format (Activision who bought Infocom is still selling those compilations). Notes: -Official FrotzS5 App UID is 0x1000055B -Since v1.1 different font sizes can be selected and the toolbar can be turned on/off thus the screen width may be less than 80 columns. ! The majority of the stories asks to Frotz what's the current number of columns then handles this correctly (or just responds 'screen to narrow' but this happens rarely). A few stories (well, I know only one: A Mind Forever Voyaging) don't handle correctly a screen width under about 70 columns so you should switch to e.g. mode 70x18 (without toolbar) for AMFV. Dynamic font change during a game is not possible. A story may ask for the current number of columns at the start of the game and keep this value in it's internal allocated memory. Use 'Terminate Story' or type 'quit' to change the font size between stories. The internal random numbers generator has been improved in this release. ! Some games records the screen width in their private memory space and this memory space is saved since your first 'save' operation (e.g.: The HitchHiker's Guide To The Galaxy) so you better select you favourite screen size from the beginning. The games should now read the screen width after each 'restore' operation but we cannot blame such great stories as THHGTG that were written more than 10 years ago and were not supposed to be played on variable screen width palmtops. You will see this problem in the story's title after a screen width change and a 'restore' operation but not with all the games. Install procedure: ------------------ The distributed files are FROTZS5.APP, FROZS5.AIF, FROTZS5.RSC and FROTZS5.TXT 1) Make sure you can see the System folder on the Psion by using the check box in the system menu -> Tools -> Preferences -> Show 'System' folder. 2) Create a new folder called 'FrotzS5' under C:\System\Apps thus C:\System\Apps\FrotzS5 3) Copy all the files from the distribution to this folder with PsiWin. 4) Create the following folders: C:\Frotz, C:\Frotz\Story, C:\Frotz\Save 5) Put the story files you want to play in the directory C:\Frotz\Story 6) Now you should see the FrotzS5 Icon in the Extra Toolbar. That's all, you can put your stories and saved games anywhere but FrotzS5 will browse the described folders first. Thanks to Stefan Jokisch for giving his sources (Dos Frotz v2.32). Special Thanks to Ian Dean, the porter of Frotz to the WinCE palmtops (FrotzCE), for helping me to solve a difficult problem that you should better know when porting Frotz... Thanks to Steve Richardson from the UK for his support and bug reports Tested games: -Zork1 -Zork The Undiscovered Underground -A Mind Forever Voyaging -The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy -BorderZone (Timed input works) -Curses All games from V1 to V8 except V6 graphical games work. Limitations in current version: No graphics, no sound. Known bugs: None since v1.04 Troubles: -Some games need a lot of memory so if one doesn't start there are lots of chance that you don't have enough free memory. Documentation from Stefan Jokisch adapted to the Psion Series 5: ---------------------------------------------------------------- FROTZ V2.32 - an interpreter for all Infocom games. Complies with standard 1.0 of Graham Nelson's specification. Written by Stefan Jokisch in 1995-7 This program once started as a re-make of Mark Howell's Zip, but has grown into an utterly new interpreter. Frotz is freeware: It may be used and distributed freely provided no commercial profit is involved. (c) 1995-1997 Stefan Jokisch. Special keys: Ctrl-D - toggle debugging options Ctrl-S - help on hot keys Ctrl-N - new game (restart) Ctrl-P - turn on input line playback Ctrl-R - toggle input line recording on/off Ctrl-U - multiple undo, works even for old V1 to V4 games Ctrl-X - exit game Psion Shortcuts are displayed in the menu of FrotzS5 like e.g.: Ctrl-E - exit from FrotzS5 cursor left - move one character to the left cursor right - move one character to the right home - move to beginning of line end - move to end of line backspace - delete character to the left delete - delete character below cursor escape - delete whole input line cursor up - get previous command cursor down - get next command tab - word completion (like "tcsh" under Unix) e.g.: 'exa' then TAB displays 'examine' When you need to type an unpleasantly long word, try to type the first three or four letters then press the tabulator key. If you are lucky, Frotz fills in some or all of the missing letters. A high beep noise indicates that the word is ambiguous; a low beep indicates that it does not exist. Apart from that, you can also use the history feature to get to previous input lines. Type the beginning of the input line you are looking for, then use cursor up/down to scroll through all input lines matching that prefix. e.g: type 'lo' then arrow up/down to retrieve all the commands that you entered that begin with the letters 'lo'. Note: No beep in the Psion Series 5 version. Questions and answers: Q: What is Frotz? A: Frotz runs text adventures which come in so-called story files: ZORK1.DAT, TRINITY.DAT, CURSES.Z5, JIGSAW.Z8, ARTHUR.ZIP etc. Q: Where can I find story files to use with Frotz? A: First, you can use the files from your original Infocom games. It is possible to play Atari ST, Amiga or Macintosh games on your PC once you manage to transfer the story files. Some people even extracted story files from old Atari 800, Apple II and C-64 disks (ask your local 8bit guru). Second, there is an increasing number of new games available on the Internet. Check the if-archive at ftp.gmd.de. Q: Why does Frotz stop with an error message? A: It might have detected a bug in the story file other interpreters overlooked. It's also possible that the story file is corrupt; be sure to download story files in binary mode, especially when you use a WWW browser. List of fatal errors: - "Bad stack frame" - "Byte swapped story file" - "Call to illegal address" - "Call to non-routine" [1] - "Cannot open story file" - "Division by zero" - "Error reading save file" - "Illegal attribute" - "Illegal object" [2] - "Illegal window" - "Illegal window property" - "Jump to illegal address" - "Nesting stream #3 too deep" - "No such property" - "Out of memory" - "Print at illegal address" - "Stack overflow" [3] - "Stack underflow" [4] - "Store out of dynamic memory" - "Story file read error" - "Text buffer overflow" - "Unknown opcode" - "Unknown Z-code version" [1] The first byte of a routine must be less than 16. [2] In V4 and above, object numbers > 2000 are considered illegal. [3] Checked on every call instruction. [4] Checked on every return from a subroutine. [1] Underlined text is shown in emphasis colour (-e switch). [2] Boldface text is available using the -T switch. [3] ISO Latin 1 characters are replaced with suitable substitutes. Acknowledgements: Many thanks to Paul D. Doherty for his continuing support of this project. Thanks to everyone who sent bug reports, contributions or helpful hints (in alphabetical order): Thomas Biskup, Ian Carpenter, Graeme Cree, Jason Dyer, Carl Edman, Julian Eggebrecht, Bernhard Fuchs, Joe Hachem, John Kennedy, Kirk Klobe, Marnix Klooster, John Mackin, Paul O'Brian, Magnus Olsson, Barry Prescott, L. Ross Raszewski, Ambat Sasi Nair, Alan Sherrod, Linards Ticmanis and Paolo Vece. Last but not least, thanks to the porters: David Kinder (Amiga), Rich Lawrence (Windows 95/NT), Andrew Holdsworth (RiscOS), Christos Dimitrakakis (HP-UX), Christopher J. Madsen (OS/2), Galen Hazelwood (Unix curses library), Ian Dean (Windows CE)... Note: ( I should come here :-) Fred) Executables are available from ftp.gmd.de and from http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Heights/3222/frotz.html which is the Frotz home page maintained by Chris Madsen.