(This Readme file was adapted from the one released with the MS-DOS binary.)

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.

    Please report bugs to s.jokisch@avu.de
    Please report unix bugs to galenh@micron.net

    This is the unix port of Stefan Jokisch's nifty-neato-cool Z-machine
interpreter.  There are only two things you need to compile Frotz:

      * Some variant of Unix with an ANSI C compiler (gcc works fine)
      * A reasonably good SYSV derived curses library

    Note that the second requirement is _very_ important.  I had several people
send me complaints about Frotz not working, and found out they were unaware
that their curses library was obsolete.  If your system curses won't work,
pick up and compile the ncurses library from ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu
or any GNU mirror site.

Changes since Release 1:

      * Fixed problems with backspace
      * Now supports "delete" key for editing
      * Wired in tab completion support (which I stupidly missed)
      * Added emacs editing key support (-DEMACS_EDITING)

How to Compile:

    This source distribution comes with a unsophisticated but functional
Makefile.  Edit it to reflect your system; the comments are fairly self-
explanatory.  Once that's done, just type "make".

    Color support is available by putting -DCOLOR_SUPPORT in the designated
spot.  I've added code in ux_init.c for sound hooks, but as no sound code is
actually written, defining SOUND_SUPPORT will merely cause compilation to fail.

    Thanks for giving this a try.  Any bug reports, success stories, or
constructive criticism will be greatly appreciated.

    -- Galen Hazelwood <galenh@micron.net>

Syntax: frotz [options] story-file

    -d       disable color

    If frotz discovers that your terminal has color support, it will
    enable it by default.  This switch overrides that behavior.

    -f #     set the foreground colour
    -b #     set the background colour

    The color numbers are the Z-machine colors, which are as follows:
        2  =  black   3 = red       4 = green    5 = yellow
        6  =  blue    7 = magenta   8 = cyan     9 = white

    If color support is disabled in the binary, or not available on
    your terminal, these options do nothing.

    -i	     ignore runtime errors

    Set this switch and Frotz no longer worries about anything the
    game tries to do. This can help you to get around fatal errors.

    -w #     set the screen width
    -h #     set the screen height
    -l #     set the left margin
    -r #     set the right margin

    Setting the screen format can be useful if you are running Frotz
    under Microsoft Windows, or if you want to test a game on a more
    narrow screen. Setting the margins is a matter of taste; Infocom
    interpreters usually set a right margin of one character (-r1).

    -S #     set the width of the transscript file

    By default your transscript files are formatted to a width of 80
    columns per line -- regardless of the current screen width. This
    switch allows you to change this setting. In particular, use -S0
    to deactivate automatic line splitting in transscript files.

    -c #     set the number of context lines

    When the game prints several pages of text in a row, Frotz stops
    for a more prompt after each page. The first prompt appears when
    your input reaches the top of the window. Further prompts appear
    when the previous page has been scrolled off the window. You can
    use this switch to make the latter more prompts appear earlier.

    -u #     set the number of undo slots for multiple undo

    Frotz tries to allocate as much conventional memory as possible
    for multiple UNDO. If this strategy causes some kind of problem,
    use this switch to set a tighter limit. In particular, you might
    want to turn off the UNDO feature altogether by typing -u0.

    -s #     set the random number seed

    The given seed value is used as the initial seed value on every
    restart. This is helpful for testing games like 'Curses' which
    make random decisions before the first input (such that the hot
    key Alt-S does not really help). The meaning of seed values is
    explained in the next section.

    -x       expand abbreviations (g, x, z ==> again, examine, wait)

    This switch was made for old Infocom games that lack the common
    abbreviations introduced in later games. Use it with caution: A
    few games might use "g", "x" or "z" for different purposes.

    -o       watch object movement
    -O       watch object locating
    -a       watch attribute assignment
    -A       watch attribute testing

    Although these switches may be of assistance while debugging new
    games, they are are actually meant to be cheat functions. The -o
    switch, for example, helps to locate the thief in 'Zork 1' and
    the cat in 'Curses'. The other switches produce a lot of obscure
    messages during the game; but some of these messages might give
    you important clues if you watch carefully.

    -t       set the Tandy bit

    Some old Infocom games were sold by the Tandy Corporation. These
    games behave slightly different when you use this option. For
    example, 'The Witness' gets censored: bastards turn into idiots,
    private dicks into private eyes and so on.

    -p       plain ascii output only

    This inhibits the output of accented letters and other characters
    from the Latin-1 character set, replacing them with reasonable
    alternatives.  This may be necessary on devices lacking these
    characters.

    -P       alter behaviour of piracy opcode

    The piracy opcode was never used by Infocom, and this switch is
    only useful for those who like to toy around with Z-code.

Special keys:

    Alt-D - toggle debugging options (-a, -A, -o, -O)
    Alt-H - help on hot keys
    Alt-N - new game (restart)
    Alt-P - turn on input line playback
    Alt-R - toggle input line recording on/off
    Alt-S - set the random number seed
    Alt-U - multiple undo, works even for old V1 to V4 games
    Alt-X - exit game

    When testing a text adventure it can be difficult to reproduce a
    specific bug. To avoid this problem you should use the Alt-R key
    to record all your inputs in a command file. Later you can press
    Alt-P to feed the command file back into Frotz. In many cases,
    however, you will find that the result is different because most
    games contain random events. Luckily, Frotz provides a hot key
    to control these events. Type Alt-S and you are asked for a seed
    value, i.e. a value in the range from 1 to 32767. Normally, you
    would choose a number >= 1000. Smaller values generate a special
    sequence of random numbers as proposed by Nelson. (For instance,
    the seed value 4 generates 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1...). In any
    case, random events become predictable until the next restart.

    See also the command line option -s above.

    cursor left/Ctrl-B	- move one character to the left
    cursor right/Ctrl-F	- move one character to the right
    home/Ctrl-A		- move to beginning of line
    end/Ctrl-E		- move to end of line
    backspace		- delete character to the left
    delete/Ctrl-D       - delete character below cursor
    insert		- toggle overwrite mode on/off
    escape/Ctrl-U	- delete whole input line
    cursor up/Ctrl-P	- get previous command
    cursor down/Ctrl-N	- get next command
    page up		- scroll status window up ('Beyond Zork')
    page down		- scroll status window down ('Beyond Zork')
    tab			- word completion (like "tcsh" under Unix)

    Note that the various Control aliases only function if emacs editing
    support has been compiled into your binary.  See the Makefile for
    more information.

    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.

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. Use the -i switch to run your story file anyway. 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.

    Q: Is there a way to exit Frotz in emergency situations?
    A: Try Ctrl-break, Ctrl-C, or Ctrl-Z.  The last one suspends your process
       and returns you to the shell, allowing you to kill it.

    Q: What do I need to play graphic games?
    A: A different port of Frotz.  Try the MS-DOS version if you can use
       it, or wait for the X Windows port.  You can run some of the V6 games
       without graphics--Arthur and Journey seem to work, but not Shogun or
       Zork Zero.  (Shogun dies because I can't backscroll; Zork 0 just
       sputters and dies rather amusingly.)

    Q: What do I need for sound?
    A: A different port of Frotz, or a later version of this one.  Sound
       support will first be available on Linux, and any other system which
       can use the Open Sound System (or OSS/Lite).

    Q: How can I send transscription to the printer?
    A: Type PRN as file name.

    Q: Why do I get weird characters instead of accented letters?
    A: Because your display/terminal/window doesn't support the Latin-1
       character set properly.  Use the -p flag, which uses plain ASCII
       output and converts accented letters appropriately.

    Q: Why don't the number pad keys work in 'Beyond Zork'?
    A: Because curses dosen't seem to know how to handle them properly.
       I might add a hack to support them later.

    Q: How can I scroll the status window in 'Beyond Zork'?
    A: Use page up/down instead of cursor up/down.

    Q: Why are my default color selections so weird?
    A: You're used to using the standard PC color values.  The unix port
       wants color numbers in Z-machine form.  Quick reference:
          2  =  black   3 = red       4 = green    5 = yellow
          6  =  blue    7 = magenta   8 = cyan     9 = white


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"
    - "Can't Happen (os_scroll_area)" [5]

    [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.
    [5] Unix-specific.  Should only happen in Shogun.

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).

    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.