Infocom:
The Master Storytellers

>LOOK
Programming Department
This is a branch office of the FrobozzCo Magic Computer Programming Department. Several computers have been left running, and you can see that each one is displaying a separate program, but in EBCDIC format.

>TRANSLATE EBCDIC:
Picking up the Handy-Dandy FrobozzCo Magic Translator™ that just happens to be lying nearby and waving it in front of each screen, the displays rearrange themselves into something a little more legible:

Looking for an interpreter program for Interactive Fiction games?

  • If you have a Psion or Palm hand-held computer, stop in at 3 For All for a good source of information and programs.
  • Zeal interprets for Unix and Linux systems
  • Frobnitz is a nice program for Palm systems.
  • FrotzCE is for Windows CE systems.
  • WinFrotz is for Windows 95/98/NT.
  • The Frotz home page is your source for see 10 other computer systems that Frotz runs on.
  • Stephen Grenade's page on Inform shows you where you can get I.F. interpreters for many computers.

    • Woud you like to try your hand at creating an adventure yourself?

  • Stephen Granade's Interactive Fiction Programming has details on the TADS and Inform systems.
  • There is a separate Inform home page run by Graham Nelson.
  • Inform for New Writers can help you get started.
  • Jay Goemmer runs the Downbelow Station, which has information on the Adventure Game Toolkit programming language, as well as his IF Competition entries.
  • There is a separate AGT home page run by Mark Welch.
  • ADRIFT is the Adventure Development & Runner - Interactive Fiction Toolkit.

    • Confused about which adventure programming language to use?

  • Read Roger Firth's "Cloak of Darkness" page for a discussion on this situation.

    • Disinformation, part of Uninform, decompiles Z-machine files to see what rooms, objects, etc., are in that game. Jeremy Smith's website seems to have disappeared, so the link takes you to the IF-Archive, where it can be downloaded.

    GUEmap helps with creating maps for IF games on Windows systems.
    IFmapper does the same thing for the Palm Pilot. Ingo Kessinger's website seems to have disappeared, so the link takes you to the IF-Archive.

    Many of the early graphic adventures (such as Circuit's Edge) do not work on new computers simply because the new computers are so much faster now that the action in the program zips by faster than you can react. (The programmers based events on how fast the computer ran rather than by the computer's real-time clock.)

  • The NEW PC Slow Down Page! is a guide to utilities that will eat up CPU time and bring the games back to a playable speed. (Updated location)
  • The Oldskool PC Guide to Getting Old Software Running on Newer PCs goes a bit further and also covers ways to adjust your computer hardware to slow it down.

    • >LOOK FOR EXITS
    A quick look around shows that you can go North to see life after Infocom, South to find Hints, or West to the Round Room.

    >Wish for Freedom (return to the Foyer)

    Last Update: December 1, 2001.

    Web page maintained by Roger J. Long. Copyright (©) 1997-2002 by Roger J. Long