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**woodsmoke** · May 17, 2011, 04:44 PM

Re: Zork (info, not problem)

Hi
thanks for the info.

However I could not get it to run, it says "Fatal error: cannot open story file".

also clicking the file in games does nothing.

However, when we might get a group running it..

maybe you could figure out a way, with the help of others, for us to do some kind of "group" play....maybe, setting some goal and the "first person there" or something like that then posts, "I saw this" or something...

just a thought to get the group involved as a group.

woodsmoke

**Telengard** · May 17, 2011, 08:49 PM

Re: Zork (info, not problem)

Originally posted by woodsmoke

However I could not get it to run, it says "Fatal error: cannot open story file".

also clicking the file in games does nothing.

Woodsmoke, this is an old school 1980s text adventure game. It has no GUI at all. You have to run it inside Konsole for best results.

STEP 0: Install the frotz package in your package manager. You already did this, right?

STEP 1: Download zork1.zip, and save it to /home/woodsmoke/frotz/zork1.zip. (If you used a different path, then you'll have to adjust the following instructions.)

STEP 2: Alt+F2 -> konsole to open a Konsole window.

STEP 3:

Code:

cd /home/woodsmoke/frotz
unzip zork1.zip -d zork1
cd zork1/DATA
frotz ZORK1.DAT

There might be a way to setup a launcher for it in the K menu, but I'm not going there :P

**bdhamp** · May 17, 2011, 11:04 PM

Re: Zork (info, not problem)

Thanks for this, Telengard. I did not know this DAT files were available. Your instructions work perfectly.

I need to get Trinity. I was never able to finish that one.

**Telengard** · May 17, 2011, 11:27 PM

Re: Zork (info, not problem)

Originally posted by bdhamp

Thanks for this, Telengard. I did not know this DAT files were available. Your instructions work perfectly.

I need to get Trinity. I was never able to finish that one.

NP. I think the rest of the files in the archive are only needed for setting up the game in a DOS environment. Apparently frotz only needs the .DAT file, which contains Z-machine program and all the game data.

I can't recall ever completing an Infocom game, although I seem to recall Leather Goddesses of Phobos being pretty fun. I did used to play a lot of Scott Adams adventure games, though.

**bdhamp** · May 18, 2011, 12:11 AM

Re: Zork (info, not problem)

Originally posted by Telengard

I can't recall ever completing an Infocom game, although I seem to recall Leather Goddesses of Phobos being pretty fun. I did used to play a lot of Scott Adams adventure games, though.

Several of them are downright hard. Bureaucracy requires you to rewire your brain for it to make any sense at all.

I finished all the ones I played except Trinity. I got stuck on it relatively early in it, and it frustrated me so much I moved on to something else.

I still have my old floppies, but I no longer have the hardware needed to get the files off them. Wonder if there's a 5 1/4" floppy with a USB port somewhere in the world.

**Telengard** · May 18, 2011, 12:32 AM

Re: Zork (info, not problem)

Originally posted by bdhamp

I still have my old floppies, but I no longer have the hardware needed to get the files off them. Wonder if there's a 5 1/4" floppy with a USB port somewhere in the world.

Old hardware is pretty easy to get. People and organizations throw computers away all the time. You can also resort to eBay for specific items.

**woodsmoke** · May 18, 2011, 03:46 AM

Re: Zork (info, not problem)

Hi Telengard
Thanks for the instructions, I didn't know about the zip file.

For folks going to the site, you right click the "name" Zork1 and you will see that it is a .zip file.

I'm standing by the mailbox now!

woodsmoke

**Telengard** · May 18, 2011, 08:52 AM

Re: Zork (info, not problem)

Originally posted by woodsmoke

I'm standing by the mailbox now!

8)

This game is kinda fun. Just don't get lost. You will definitely want to make map as you go

**pwabrahams** · May 18, 2011, 10:29 AM

Story file problem

Originally posted by woodsmoke

However I could not get it to run, it says "Fatal error: cannot open story file".

Two possible explanations occur to me immediately:
1. The STORY1.DAT file does not exist.
2. It exists but is not on the search path.

Assuming it exists, I'd try referencing it with an absolute path.

Since it works for me and the software involved is old and not subject to version problems, the difference between what you did and what I did can't be all that great.

Addendum: Sorry, I didn't see you've already solved the problem.

**arist** · May 18, 2011, 01:56 PM

Re: Zork (info, not problem)

Are you able to save and restart a game? When I try to start a saved game

Code:

frotz ZORK1.SAV

I get the error "Fatal error: Unknown Z-code version".

Edit: Never mind. I found the RESTORE command.

**Telengard** · May 18, 2011, 03:52 PM

HOWTO configure frotz and make it easier to start

I'll explain how to set up the game files in user's home directory and configure frotz to automatically find the game files. Once setup is complete you can start the game with a simple command like frotz zork1.

NOTE: It is also possible to save the game file to a path accessible by all users on the computer, and configure frotz to find those game files automatically no matter which user is logged in. If you want to do this on Kubuntu systems you administer, then you probably don't need me to tell you how. man frotz.

NOTE: These instructions assume that you download the GAME.zip files to /home/YOU/Downloads/GAME.zip. If you download them to a different path then you'll have to adjust the commands as necessary. For example, on my system I have downloaded these files: /home/ME/Downloads/zork1.zip, /home/ME/Downloads/zork2.zip, and /home/ME/Downloads/zork3.zip.

NOTE: All games were downloaded from Infocom - Zork Downloads

Step 0: Install the frotz package

Use KPackageKit, Adept, Synaptic, Muon, Aptitude, or whatever package manager you like. You should only have to do this once, no matter how you configure frotz.

Code:

sudo apt-get install frotz

Way 1: ~/.frotzrc

Originally posted by man frotz

...
CONFIGURATION FILES
On startup, frotz will first check the system’s frotz.conf then
$HOME/.frotzrc for configuration information. The configuration file
uses a simple
<variable> <whitespace> <value> syntax.
...
zcode_path /path/to/zcode/files:/another/path
Set path to search for zcode game files. This is just like the $PATH
environmental variable except that you can’t put environmental vari‐
ables in the path or use other shortcuts. For example,
"$HOME/games/zcode" is illegal because the shell can’t interpret that
$HOME variable.

Perform these commands inside a Konsole window (Alt+F2 -> konsole).

Code:

~$ mkdir -p $HOME/frotz/dats
~$ unzip -oq $HOME/Downloads/zork1.zip -d $HOME/frotz/zork1
~$ cp -f $HOME/frotz/zork1/DATA/ZORK1.DAT $HOME/frotz/dats/zork1
~$ grep zcode_path $HOME/.frotzrc > /dev/null 2>&1 || echo zcode_path $HOME/frotz/dats >> $HOME/.frotzrc

Now I will explain exactly what each command above does in great detail. Feel free to skip the following bullet list if you don't care (shame on you!), but I have taken great pains to make it as foolproof as possible.

mkdir -p $HOME/frotz/dats: Create the directory /home/YOU/frotz/dats, first creating /home/YOU/frotz if it doesn't already exist, and don't complain if /home/YOU/frotz/dats already exists.
unzip -oq $HOME/Downloads/zork1.zip -d $HOME/frotz/zork1: Unpack the archive /home/YOU/Downloads/zork1.zip to the path /home/YOU/frotz/zork1/, first creating the directory /home/YOU/frotz/zork1 if it doesn't already exist. Silently overwrite any files which already exist, and don't bother listing each file name while extracting it from the archive. NOTE: If you didn't save the archive to /home/YOU/Downloads/zork1.zip when downloading it then you must change this to whatever path you saved the archive to.
cp -f $HOME/frotz/zork1/DATA/ZORK1.DAT $HOME/frotz/dats/zork1: Copy the file /home/YOU/frotz/zork1/DATA/ZORK1.DAT (which was unpacked from zork1.zip in the previous step) into a new file named /home/YOU/frotz/dats/zork1, silently overwriting the target file if it already exists.
grep zcode_path $HOME/.frotzrc > /dev/null 2>&1: Silently search the file /home/YOU/.frotzrc for the string zcode_path, and don't complain if .frotzrc doesn't exist. Produce a status code only to indicate whether or not the string was found, which will be used in the next step.
|| echo zcode_path $HOME/frotz/dats >> $HOME/.frotzrc: Only if the string zcode_path was not found in previous step, then append the line zcode_path /home/YOU/frotz/dats to the file /home/YOU/.frotzrc, first creating .frotzrc if necessary.

NOTE: None of the above steps ever need to be performed again. frotz is now permanently configured on your account.

To test the game just enter the command below in a Konsole window.

Code:

frotz zork1

You should see the game as shown in the snapshot below.

[img width=400 height=246]http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/4986/ksnapshot43.png[/img]

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Now that the structure is in place, installing additional games is a simple as unpacking the GAMENAME.zip archive and copying its GAMENAME.DAT file.

Code:

~$ unzip -oq $HOME/Downloads/zork2.zip -d $HOME/frotz/zork2
~$ cp -f $HOME/frotz/zork2/DATA/ZORK2.DAT $HOME/frotz/dats/zork2
~$ frotz zork2

[img width=400 height=246]http://img546.imageshack.us/img546/5929/ksnapshot44.png[/img]

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Code:

~$ unzip -oq $HOME/Downloads/zork3.zip -d $HOME/frotz/zork3
~$ cp -f $HOME/frotz/zork3/DATA/ZORK3.DAT $HOME/frotz/dats/zork3
~$ frotz zork3

[img width=400 height=246]http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/3878/ksnapshot45.png[/img]

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

You're done! Now have fun playing the game

Way 2: $ZCODE_PATH

NOTE: If you already did Way 1 above, then you don't need to do this. You're already done; go play the game! :P

Originally posted by man frotz

ENVIRONMENT
If the ZCODE_PATH environmental variable is defined, frotz will search
that path for game files. If that doesn’t exist, INFOCOM_PATH will be
searched.

The following commands are to be performed in a Konsole window (Alt+F2 -> konsole).

Code:

~$ mkdir -p $HOME/frotz/dats
~$ unzip -oq $HOME/Downloads/zork1.zip -d $HOME/frotz/zork1
~$ cp -f $HOME/frotz/zork1/DATA/ZORK1.DAT $HOME/frotz/dats/zork1
~$ export ZCODE_PATH=$HOME/frotz/dats
~$ frotz zork1

NOTE: If you want detailed explanations of exactly what these commands do, then refer to the bullet list in Way 1.

The command export ZCODE_PATH=$HOME/frotz/dats will only last as long as your current shell session. Any of the following actions will cause the effect to expire, after which frotz zork1 will fail with the scary message Fatal error: Cannot open story file:

Closing the current tab in Konsole
Exiting Konsole
Logging out from Kubuntu
Rebooting the computer

To make the effect permanent, so that frotz zork1 will always work for you, append export ZCODE_PATH=$HOME/frotz/dats to your shell's initialization file. If Bash is your shell insisde Konsole, then the command below should make the change permanent. (NOTE: If Bash is not your default shell on Kubuntu, then you don't likely need me to tell you how to confgiure your shell :P .)

Code:

grep ZCODE_PATH $HOME/.bashrc > /dev/null 2>&1 || echo export ZCODE_PATH=$HOME/frotz/dats >> $HOME/.bashrc

NOTE: None of the above steps ever need to be performed again. frotz is now permanently configured on your account.

Now that the infrastructure is in place, installing additional games is easy. Just unpack the GAME.zip archive and copy the game data file to /home/YOU/frotz/dats.

Code:

~$ unzip -oq $HOME/Downloads/zork2.zip -d $HOME/frotz/zork2
~$ cp -f $HOME/frotz/zork2/DATA/ZORK2.DAT $HOME/frotz/dats/zork2
~$ unzip -oq $HOME/Downloads/zork3.zip -d $HOME/frotz/zork3
~$ cp -f $HOME/frotz/zork3/DATA/ZORK3.DAT $HOME/frotz/dats/zork3

When you want to play Zork 1, open a Konsole window and enter this command:

Code:

frotz zork1

When you want to play Zork 2, open a Konsole window and enter this command:

Code:

frotz zork2

When you want to play Zork 3, open a Konsole window and enter this command:

Code:

frotz zork3

NOTE: Refer to the snapshots under Way 1 to see what the games should look like.

You're done! Now have fun playing the game

Step 999: Optional cleanup

After unpacking the GAMENAME.zip archives we're left with a bunch of files which were originally intended to run on MS-DOS machines. On our Kubuntu systems frotz has no need for any of these files. They are safe to delete. If you followed the steps in Way 1 or Way 2 exactly, then it should be perfectly safe to toss the following folders into the trash bin.

/home/YOU/frotz/zork1/
/home/YOU/frotz/zork2/
/home/YOU/frotz/zork3/
/home/YOU/frotz/GAMENAME/

WARNING: You must not delete /home/YOU/frotz/dats. This directory contains the game data files needed by frotz. The directory /home/YOU/.infocom is also used by frotz. This is the default location of your game saves in frotz.

Closing time

If you have any questions or feel something else needs added to this HOWTO, then please ask. If you ask a question already answered in this thread, then I'll be cross with you >

:P

Have fun

**pwabrahams** · May 18, 2011, 04:46 PM

Save and restore

You save the game with the save command, which writes to ~/.infocom/ZORK1.sav by default. To restore, start the game and type restore.

Information about commands in general is in the file www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/infocom/demos/ztuu.pdf.

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Zork (info, not problem)

Zork (info, not problem)

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