frotz & zork & other text adventures

[mlvj]

Hi,

I just had a stab at installing scratchbox and packaging frotz (http://www.cs.csubak.edu/~dgriffi/proj/frotz/) (which is the definitive unix interactive fiction interpreter).

I *cough* failed to produce a proper package, but just running make produced an executable, "frotz", that runs just fine, and I've used it to play zork I, zork II and I have downloaded but not played zork III.

The zorks are freely downloadable from the unofficial Infocom home page (http://www.csd.uwo.ca/Infocom/) - choose the dos zip version, and pull out the large .dat file from it.

I'll chase getting a proper package done, but if anybody desparately wants to play zork, or any of the other adventures, on the Nokia 770, then let me know.

I'm without PC for a week or so now, floors being sanded, but I have 770.

Actually very nice playing text adventures on 770, the on screen keyboard learns the things you want to type pretty quickly.

+ once I've got to grips with what is the real problem, my lack of experience in converting to debian, I can then probably do a load of builds of other stuff that will just recompile without modification.

Take care,

Martin J

[SteveSparks]

Doh! I just posted a question asking if anyone was working on this port. So what is the stutus? I was thinking once I get caught up on some work, I might try and make this happen.

[mlvj]

Hi,

The floor people still have not finished, so my pc is still in the cupboard. Therefore I have not done anything.

Wednesday night is when my wife goes out for the evening, leaving me on my own; so I'll pull out the pc and have another stab at creating the deb.

I had an email chat with Hans, the official maintaner of the debian build of frotz, and he told me what I needed to know I think.

If you know more than me about porting stuff, which is pretty easy as this is the first time I've (a) done any debian packaging (b) done any linux development and (c) done anything like this at all, then feel free.

All that needs to be done is packaging frotz for maemo. That's it.

In the meantime if you wanted the exe to just play the zorks etc. then I can email you that.

[mlvj]

I did the repackage. All I need is space to put it!

Happy to email to anyone who wants it.

mlvj

[mikelococo]

I did the repackage. All I need is space to put it!

Get in touch with Reggie if he doesn't find you. He runs the board and has been happy in the past to offer hosting for ports and projects that have no other home.

Mike

[ArnimS]

Well i checked gfrotz out and it's nice

*edit* some are complaining about hard-to-read text in gfrotz. Gfrotz doesn't currently allow changing font size, so it can be hard to read. If this is important to you, the maintainer can be contacted at cwarrensmith at the mailweb address of the go0gle. Homepage here:

http://www.users.on.net/~cwarrensmith/n770/#gfrotz

The frptz curses version can be easier to read since you can use +/- keys to change font size. I couldn't connect to mlvj's page so I put it up on my site.

http://pupnik.de/frotz.html

Anyway it works with it2006 and 2007. just use dpkg -i ... to install on bora/2007he.

[phigmov]

Anyone have the binaries for gfrotz handy ? The links on

http://www.users.on.net/~cwarrensmith/n770/#gfrotz

Point to 'tapwrite'

Cheers,
Raj.

[ArnimS]

[QUOTE=phigmov;69094]Anyone have the binaries for gfrotz handy ? The links on

http://www.users.on.net/~cwarrensmith/n770/#gfrotz

Incorrect, they download gfrotz.

[desiv]

Strange. When you click it, the page you get directed to says something like "Thank you for downloading TapWrite", so it looks confusing; but when I clicked save (Not on my 770, so I can't test it), it says the file is the gfrotz deb file.

I'll try it when I get some WiFi.

desiv

[mlvj]

hi due to a popular request, I've compiled and repackaged with very minor amendment frotz, not gfrotz.

https://garage.maemo.org/frs/download.php/1979/frotz_2.43-1_armel.deb

I did not create a shortcut or anything

run by starting xterm, /usr/games/frotz

please have a test and let me know.

I have NOT tested it properly due to a shortness of time - I've only done the package because I've been asked to :)

I have a few days working in London, making long train journeys, so I could find some time to fix things shortly.

hmmm maybe I'll find the zorks and load them up

anyway feedback always useful

[mlvj]

d'oh just read Arnim's post!! oh well, at least I've got myself a working linux system on my company thinkpad x40!

I'm sure I'll find some other things to do.

[phigmov]

Looks like the TapWrite link does indeed work - just a little disconcerting to be redirected to another product.

[iball]

hi due to a popular request, I've compiled and repackaged with very minor amendment frotz, not gfrotz.

https://garage.maemo.org/frs/download.php/1979/frotz_2.43-1_armel.deb

I did not create a shortcut or anything

run by starting xterm, /usr/games/frotz

please have a test and let me know.

I have NOT tested it properly due to a shortness of time - I've only done the package because I've been asked to :)

I have a few days working in London, making long train journeys, so I could find some time to fix things shortly.

hmmm maybe I'll find the zorks and load them up

anyway feedback always useful

Won't run on my N800...errors out with "Error opening terminal: xterm" when runnign as root.
When running as normal user it errors out with "Error opening terminal: xterm-color."

[mlvj]

how very odd... runs on my 800

007-03-12 19:00:25 EET) Built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

~ $ /usr/games/frotz
FROTZ V2.43 curses interface.
An interpreter for all Infocom and other Z-Machine games.
Complies with standard 1.0 of Graham Nelson's specification.

Syntax: frotz [options] story-file
-a watch attribute setting -O watch object locat ing
-A watch attribute testing -p plain ASCII output only
-b # background color -P alter piracy opcod e
-c # context lines -r # right margin
-d disable color -q quiet (disable sou nd effects)
-e enable sound -Q use old-style save format
-f # foreground color -s # random number seed value
-F Force color mode -S # transscript width
-h # screen height -t set Tandy bit
-i ignore fatal errors -u # slots for multiple undo
-l # left margin -w # screen width
-o watch object movement -x expand abbreviatio ns g/x/z
-Z # error checking mode (default = 1)
0 = don't report errors 1 = report first error
2 = report all errors 3 = exit after any error

~ $

[geneven]

It worked for me. It seems like a hassle to hunt down infocom games, though, but I have zork somewhere.

[iball]

That's just it, try to run a game with it. I can pull up that same default help info all day long.

[ArnimS]

That's just it, try to run a game with it. I can pull up that same default help info all day long.

it would be helpful if you mentioned which build of frotz you downloaded.

I just fixed up the control error in my build so it should now be installable with a click on the webpage.

http://pupnik.de/frotz.html

(edit) Ok i see the problem - appears to be related to libreadline / base-files -- will get back with a solution

(edit2)
apt-get install ncurses-base and this should fix the xterm error
Cheers

[Tuxedosteve]

Are there any plans to update GFrotz to run on OS2008? I should think the N810 is the perfect handheld for text adventures :)

[tobiasj]

Are there any plans to update GFrotz to run on OS2008? I should think the N810 is the perfect handheld for text adventures :)

I second this notion, I have just upgraded my N800 to 2008 and I miss this app already (BT Keyboard) I can get frotz to install but the gui was very nice...

-John

[DigiSage]

For those wanting more frotz games to try, please know that there are TONS of freely available games written by the interactive fiction community. Also, many of them are of a higher quality and more fun than the stuff infocom produced (the genre was in its infancy then).

See this site for more general info:
http://ifarchive.org/

And for finding actual games, this site is very good:
http://wurb.com/if/