DOKK / manpages / debian 11 / fizmo-sdl2 / fizmo-sdl2.6.en
FIZMO-SDL2(6) Games Manual FIZMO-SDL2(6)

fizmo-sdl2 - SDL2-based implementation of the fizmo Z-Machine Interpreter.

fizmo-sdl2 [ options ] [ storyfile [ blorbfile ] ]

fizmo-sdl2 is a frontend for the fizmo Z-Machine interpreter—“Fimzo interprets Z-machine opcodes”—based on the SDL2 multimedia library. It runs most of the interactive fiction games aka text adventures written by Infocom or other games which are based on the Z-Machine. Currently all versions except version 6 are supported. It also provides sound support—see subsection “Sound Support”—and implements basic Blorb support.

Just give the filename of the story file at the end of the command line.

fizmo-sdl2 supports sound playback. Sound files are either read from a blorb file, or, old-infocom-style-wise, from separate *.snd files which have to be stored in the same directory as the game file. At the moment, only AIFF sounds can be read from a blorb file. When the game requests a sound, fizmo uses the sound from the current blorb file. If no blorb file is given or the sound cannot be found in it, fizmo tries to locate a file with the format “GAMFIL00.SND” where GAMEFIL symbolizes the game filename shortened to a maximum of six characters, the sound number—eventually padded by a leading zero so it has always a length of two characters—and a “.SND” suffix. Both upper- and lowercase filenames are attempted. That means you can directly use the sounds from the IF-archive at “/if-archive/infocom/media/sound”.

Show help message and exit.
Set background color. Valid color names are black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan and white.
Set the cursor . Valid color names are black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan and white.
Disable word hyphenation. Useful for languages other than the supported ones.
Disable sound altogether. May be useful when playing on remote machines.
Set foreground color. Valid color names are black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan and white.
Set text font size.
Start game with input from file.
Filename to read commands from.
Set locale name for interpreter messages. Currently valid locale codes are en_GB, de_DE and fr_FR.
Set left margin width, requires a numeric argument.
Set number of maximum undo steps.
Disable X11 graphics.
Start with random generator in predictable mode.
Setting this option to “queue” defines that sdl2 resize-related events should be processed directly from the event queue, setting it to “filter” uses SDL's event filter for these kind of events. Changing this setting might help in case resizing the interpreter window on your system does not work.
Start with random generator in standard random mode.
Activate recording of commands as soon as the game starts.
Filename to record input to.
Set right margin width, requires a numeric argument.
Never use 16-bit resolution, always convert to 8bit (some systems may not be capable of 16-bit sound output).
Start game with scripting already enabled.
When a transcript is active, write data directly into the file as soon as possible.
Sets the tandy flag, which emulates a game sold by the Tandy Corporation and slightly alters the game behaviour. See http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/infocom/info/tandy_bits.html for detailed information on what the tandy flag does.
Set transcript filename for the current session.
Use UMem instead of CMem for saving.
Define window height.
Set window width.

/help
Displays the list of available in-game commands.
/info
Displays general version about the interpreter and its status, such as the version number, story release and serial number, stack, memory and random generator status.
/config
Displays current configuration values.
/predictable
Switches the random generator from “random” in “predictable” state and vice-versa.
/recstart
Records all user input in a command-file.
/recstop
Stop recording user input.
/fileinput
Start reading commands from a file.

ZCODE_PATH
Default list of path names—separated by colons—to search for Z-Machine games.
INFOCOM_PATH
Alternate list of pathnames which is used when ZCODE_PATH is not set.
ZCODE_ROOT_PATH
List of colon-separated path names which are recursively searched for Z-Machine games.

$HOME/.config/fizmo/config
May contain user configuration parameters. In case $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is defined and contains an absolute path, $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/fizmo/config is used, in case of a relative path $HOME/$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/fizmo/confg is read.
($XDG_CONFIG_DIRS)/fizmo/config
$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS may contain a colon separated list of config directories to search. In case $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS is not set or empty /etc/xdg is used instead. Every directory is searched for a subdirectory named fizmo containing a file config, which will be searched for configuration parameters.
/etc/fizmo.conf
Global configuration parameters.

The following section lists the config-file's equivalents for the command lines options. For a detailed description of these options, see the “Options” section. Options have to start at the beginning of the line without any leading whitespace. Comments start with a '#' at the beginning of the line.

background-color = <color-name>
foreground-color = <color-name>
transcript-filename = <filename>
command-filename = <filename>
cursor-color = <color-name>
font-search-path = <colon-separated-directory-names>
font-size = <font-size-value>
i18n-search-path = <colon-separated-directory-names>
locale = <language-code>
savegame-path = <directory-name>
random-mode = <random or predictable>
save-text-history-paragraphs = <number of paragraphs to store in savegames>
z-code-path = <colon-separated-directory-names>
z-code-root-path = <colon-separated-directory-names>
disable-sound = <no value or “true” means yes, otherwise no>
quetzal-umem = <no value or “true” means yes, otherwise no>
set-tandy-flag = <no value or “true” means yes, otherwise no>
start-command-recording-when-story-starts = <no value or “true” means yes, otherwise no>
start-file-input-when-story-starts = <no value or “true” means yes, otherwise no>
start-script-when-story-starts = <no value or “true” means yes, otherwise no>
disable-stream-2-hyphenation = <no value or “true” means yes, otherwise no>
disable-stream-2-wrap = <no value or “true” means yes, otherwise no>
stream-2-line-width = <line-width>
stream-2-left-margin = <margin-size>
sync-transcript = <no value or “true” means yes, otherwise no>
left-margin = <number-of-columns>
right-margin = <number-of-columns>
disable-hyphenation = <no value or “true” means yes, otherwise no>
force-8bit-sound = <any value means yes, empty no>
enable-xterm-title = <no value or “true” means yes, otherwise no>
max-undo-steps = <maximum number of stored undo steps as numerical value>
history-reformatting-during-refresh = <any value means yes, empty no>

regular-font = <ttf or otf file>
italic-font = <ttf or otf file>
bold-font = <ttf or otf file>
bold-italic-font = <ttf or otf file>
fixed-regular-font = <ttf or otf file>
fixed-regular-font = <ttf or otf file>
fixed-bold-font = <ttf or otf file>
fixed-bold-italic-font = <ttf or otf file>
regular-font = <ttf or otf file>
italic-font = <ttf or otf file>
bold-font = <ttf or otf file>
bold-italic-font = <ttf or otf file>

You can use the PageUp and PageDown keys (some terminals may require holding down shift) anytime to review text which was scrolled above the current window border.

CTRL-L will refresh the current display.

CTRL-R will redraw the current display. Contrary to CTRL-L, which refreshes the screen based on the current layout, CTRL-R will reconstruct the latest output based on the output history. This will help to display output which is hidden in case a game clears the screen, writes some text into the top line and then turns on the score line which then overlays the topmost line.

In general, resizing the screen works best for game versions 3 and before, which is unfortunate since this encompasses only a part of the old Infocom games and none of the modern ones. For all others—including Seastalker—the upper window (which means mostly the status bar) cannot be resized and will remain fixed.

Here is a list of commands that some of Infocom's games seem to support, although I never saw them menitioned in a manual or reference card.

$verify, $ve, $ver
Verifies if the game file is correct (essentially executes the “verify” opcode). “$ve” works in almost all original Infocom games, “$ver” works in AMFV, Beyond Zork, Bureaucracy, Nord and Bert, Sherlock, Trinity and Zork Zero.
$refre
Refreshes the screen. Works in AMFV, Arthur, Bureaucracy, Nord and Bert, Sherlock, Shogun, Trinity and Zork Zero.
$id
The “$id” command gives information about the interpreter. Works in Border Zone, Bureaucracy and Trinity.
$credi
Shows a credit screen in Trinity and Beyond Zork.
#comm, #command
This will read your input from a file. Works in AMFV, Ballyhoo, Bureaucracy, Enchanter, Hollywood Hjinx, Leather Goddesses, Lurking Horror, Plundered Hearts, Shogun, Sorcerer, Spellbreaker, Stationfall, Trinity and Zork Zero.
#rand <int>
Seeds the random generator with the given value. May be used in AMFV, Ballyhoo, Border Zone, Bureaucracy, Enchanter, Hollywood Hijinx, Leather Goddesses, Lurking Horror, Plundered Hearts, Shogun, Sorcerer, Spellbreaker, Stationfall and Zork Zero.
#reco, #record
This will record your commands into a file. Works in AMFV, Ballyhoo, Bureaucracy, Enchanter, Hollywood Hjinx, Leather Goddesses, Lurking Horror, Plundered Hearts, Shogun, Sorcerer, Spellbreaker, Stationfall and Zork Zero.
#unre, #unrecord
Stops recording commands into a file. Used in AMFV, Ballyhoo, Bureaucracy, Enchanter, Hollywood Hijinx, Leather Goddesses, Lurking Horror, Plundered Hearts, Shogun, Sorcerer, Spellbreaker, Stationfall and Zork Zero.

All the people who worked on the Z-Machine Specification, in alphabetical order: Chris Tham, David Beazley, David Fillmore, George Janczuk, Graham Nelson, Mark Howell, Matthias Pfaller, Mike Threepoint, Paul David Doherty, Peter Lisle, Russell Hoare and Stefan Jokisch. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/InfoTaskForce for more information.

When I got stuck I peeked into the frotz source. Thanks to Stefan Jokisch, Galen Hazelwood and David Griffith.

For the pix2gif code which is used in libdrilbo to parse the infocom .mg1 image files.

in alphabetical order: Andrew Plotkin, B. Watson, Michael Baltes, David Batchelder, David Leverton, Eric Forgeot, irb, Jared Reisinger, Lewis Gentry, Michael Dunlap, Mikko Torvinen, Nikos Chantziaras, Patrick Matthäi, Samuel Verschelde, Stephen Gutknecht, Zachary Kline and the people at MacPorts.

fizmo-ncursesw(6), fizmo-console(6), frotz(6), xzip(6), jzip(6), inform(1)

Fizmo was written in 2005–2017 by Christoph Ender.

Fizmo is in beta stage and will probably still have some bugs. If you stumble upon one, please send an e-mail to fizmo@spellbreaker.org.

August 15, 2017 0.8.5