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Frotz brings text adventuring to the iPhone

by Mike Schramm Aug 14th 2008 at 4:00PM

We've already seen text adventures on the jailbroken iPhone way back when, but now Craig Smith has brought the z-machine interpreter (the engine that runs classic text adventure games like Zork, Planetfall and all the Infocom titles) to the iPhone officially with Frotz, available right now in the App Store.

It comes with a few games to begin with, and there's also built in access to the Interactive Fiction Database, so you can grab as many text-based adventures as you'd like -- hours and hours of text-based good times. Whether you're an old hand at GET LAMP or new to the surprisingly vast world of IF, Frotz seems like a perfect portal to all the adventuring there is to find out there.

[via Joystiq]

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We've already seen text adventures on the jailbroken iPhone way back when, but now Craig Smith has brought the z-machine interpreter (the...
 

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Chris

any idea on how I can get my z-files with datacase on the ipod touch, so I can do planetfall all over?

August 27 2008 at 2:02 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Smork

Been playing this all week. Unfortunately, after a few minutes of playing, the game begins to slow down, and ultimately stalls. Only save/restore seems to help. Looking forward to a patch.

August 27 2008 at 1:31 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tuta

I also have the Lost Treasures... but does anyone still have a 3.5 floppy drive for a PC handy?

I also would give a thumbs up to the green text on black screen -- feature request to be sure.

August 15 2008 at 12:13 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
wharper

I'll hold off on these until they tweak the appearance options - something doesn't feel quite right playing Zork on anything other than green-text-on-black or orange-text-on-black.

August 14 2008 at 11:27 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Sal C

Stupid PlanetFall! I could never figure out how to get the ship to get to the planet!

August 14 2008 at 5:18 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
uhuznaa

The problem with this is the battery of the friggin' thing. Really.

August 14 2008 at 4:45 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
CCarlson

I spent $30 or so YEARS ago on a 'Lost Treasures of Infocom' package, which included all of the text-based ZORK games, the Enchanter series, Planetfall, Stationfall, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, AMFV, and more. The data files are all directly compatible with a Z-Machine interpreter such as Frotz.

The only down side to playing these games on the iPhone is that browsing the bundled material (which often served as tangible copy-protection, in that you had to refer to some sort of printed matter to solve puzzles or keep the story going) will be a pain in the butt. Still, a geek will do what a geek must do...

August 14 2008 at 4:44 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tim C.

The Hobbit, for instance, comes zipped from their site. Does the iPhone know how to handle 'em?

August 14 2008 at 4:38 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
totoro

I can't find the late, great Planetfall, sadly :(

August 14 2008 at 4:28 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
w00master

One of the greatest games ever is finally available for the Jesus Phone through this app! Zork: The Great Underground Empire. Simply spectacular.

August 14 2008 at 4:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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