Overview
Fizmo is a
Z-Machine
interpreter. That means it allows you to play
interactive ficiton, also known as
textadventures, which were implemented either by
Infocom or created
using the
Inform compiler.
It is a console-based interpreter, meaning that there is no graphical
user interface, and works with all Z-machine versions except version 6.
It should work on any
POSIX compliant system
with a ncursesw – note the trailing “w” – library. It has been
successfully compiled on GNU/Linux, Mac OS X and Windows (on the latter
using the Cygwin environment).
If you've never played a textadventure before, you might want to try
“Mini-Zork” to get an idea what interactive
fiction is about.
Screenshots
To get a first impression, take a look at the
screenshots.
Features
Fizmo supports all Z-Machine versions except version 6. It supports
blorb files, manages
a menu containing all known story files using
babel
files for metadata, provides sound
output for
AIFF and
Infocom sound-files
via the
SDL libraries,
supports unicode and localized interpreter messages, provides a
scrollback buffer and a translation of the character graphics set (font #3)
to unicode, handles resizing of the terminal window, supports the
quetzal save file format standard – additionally provides the
capability to invoke savegames directly and finds the matching story
file by itself – and has experimental support
for displaying a story file's frontispiece image into a X-Terminal.
Furthermore, it provides all other capabilities of an interpreter
trying to conform to the Z-machine 1.0 standard – color, styles,
timed and preloaded input and even the ability to save – and
replay – the timing of the input to or from a command file.
Status
The interpreter is currently in beta status. I have removed all the known
bugs but I'm sure there still remain some more lurking inside. If you
have found one, please send an e-mail to
fizmo
(at)spellbreaker
(dot)org (sorry for the spam obfuscation). You can find detailed
status information in the
Change-Log.
Download
All files are provided “as is”, without any kind of warranty
and are distributed under the
BSD license.
Source
Compiling from source requires development libraries for
ncurses complied
with
--enable-widec. If
you want to use babel metadata,
libxml2 is required.
To enable sound output, development libraries for
libsdl-sound version 1.2 are
needed. If you want AIFF sound from blorb files, you'll also need
libsndfile.
Compilation was tested using
gcc and works
with GNU/Linux, Mac OS X and
Cygwin.
GNU/Linux
For some linux flavors, pre-packaged versions are available.
→
GenToo, thanks to David Leverton.
→ Mandriva: For users of 2008.1, 2009.0 and 2009.1: Activate the
backports repositories and then install fizmo using the package manager.
In the latest release there is no need to activate the backports media.
Thanks to Samuel Verschelde.
→ Debian: Recent packages can be found in the
unstable
and / or
testing
branches.
Mac OS X
Since version 0.6.3, fizmo is easiest to install using
MacPorts: This will compile all
the required libraries including fizmo by itself. Simply
install MacPorts
and then execute the following commands in a
Terminal:
|
sudo /opt/local/bin/port selfupdate ;
sudo /opt/local/bin/port install fizmo
|
Windows/Cygwin
Running fizmo with
Cygwin is not
supported at the moment, simply because there are many other excellent
interpreters which make life much easier by supplying a GUI and a very
simple installation procedure. For adventurous souls however, there's a
set of
installation instructions available
to make fizmo run on Windows. This port will support sound, but no
unicode output.
Feedback
Any kind of feedback is welcome. Send your comments to
fizmo(at)spellbreaker(dot)org.