Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Freeware, Retro Mac, iPhone, App Store
Frotz brings text adventuring to the iPhone
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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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Isaac said 4:12PM on 8-14-2008
Pick up ye flask.
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Phlake said 4:34PM on 8-14-2008
You can't get ye flask!
Now, sit there and imagine why on earth you can't get ye flask. I'm certainly not going to tell thou.
dastranger said 4:23PM on 8-14-2008
One of the greatest games ever is finally available for the Jesus Phone through this app! Zork: The Great Underground Empire. Simply spectacular.
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totoro said 4:28PM on 8-14-2008
I can't find the late, great Planetfall, sadly :(
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Tim said 4:43PM on 8-14-2008
The Hobbit, for instance, comes zipped from their site. Does the iPhone know how to handle 'em?
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ccarlson said 4:45PM on 8-14-2008
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...
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uhuznaa said 8:09PM on 8-14-2008
The problem with this is the battery of the friggin' thing. Really.
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supersalo said 5:19PM on 8-14-2008
Stupid PlanetFall! I could never figure out how to get the ship to get to the planet!
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wharper said 11:54PM on 8-14-2008
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.
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John said 12:14PM on 8-15-2008
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.
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Smork said 1:32PM on 8-27-2008
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.
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Chris said 2:02PM on 8-27-2008
any idea on how I can get my z-files with datacase on the ipod touch, so I can do planetfall all over?
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