fizmo Z-Machine interpreter

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.

To get a first impression, take a look at the screenshots.

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.

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.

All files are provided “as is”, without any kind of warranty and are distributed under the BSD license.

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.

For some linux flavors, pre-packaged versions are available.

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:

More detailed information can be found on the MacPorts fizmo port page.

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.

Any kind of feedback is welcome. Send your comments to fizmo^(at)spellbreaker^(dot)org.