frotz
Z-machine interactive fiction interpreter
TLDR
SYNOPSIS
frotz [options] story-file
DESCRIPTION
frotz is an interpreter for Infocom-style interactive fiction (Z-machine games). It runs text adventure games in formats from Z3 through Z8, including classic titles and modern IF works.
The tool provides terminal and graphical interfaces for playing these games, with support for save/restore, transcripts, and input recording.
PARAMETERS
-w columns
Screen width.-h rows
Screen height.-d
Disable color output.-e
Enable sound effects.-i
Ignore fatal Z-machine errors.-l n
Left margin in characters.-r n
Right margin in characters.-p
Plain ASCII output only (no accented characters).-x
Expand abbreviations "g", "x", "z" to "again", "examine", "wait".-L file
Load a saved game file on startup.-R directory
Restrict file read/write to specified directory.-S n
Set transcript width (0 to disable line splitting).-Z n
Error checking mode (0=none, 1=first, 2=all, 3=exit on error; default 1).
CAVEATS
Some games require specific Z-machine versions. Color support depends on terminal capabilities. Save format may not be portable between different interpreters. Three variants exist: frotz (curses), dfrotz (dumb terminal), and sfrotz (SDL graphical).
HISTORY
Frotz was written by Stefan Jokisch in the mid-1990s as a portable Z-machine interpreter. It became one of the most popular interpreters for Infocom games and modern interactive fiction. The name references the spell from Zork.
SEE ALSO
nethack(6)
