Javascript and the Z-machine
Thomas Thurman
I've been working on a JavaScript-based interpreter for z-machine
games. It's very much under development, but I've put a snapshot up at
<ftp://ftp.thurman.org.uk/pub/thurman/if/blorple-0.0.2.tar.gz>.
At present, one game is hard-coded; it's only designed to run this one
game at present, and it doesn't even achieve this goal yet. It does get
about a thousand cycles in before it crashes, though.
I'm posting about it now for two reasons:
One: in case anyone's interested and would like to offer advice
(or, indeed, share the workload)
Two: in case anyone can think of a better name than blorple.
blorple is, as you may remember, "explore an object's mystic
connections", which isn't terribly appropriate for JavaScript. I'm not
sure what's better, though. If I can't find a better name I could just
make up a spell, especially for use in Mozilla:
parzel spell: speak even to lizards in their own tongue
but that seems a bit of a cop-out.
The program works, inasmuchas it works anywhere, on Mozilla's
Spidermonkey JS interpeter. I haven't seriously tried it on any other
interpreters; brief tests have indicated failure. That's OK though; I
want to make sure it works on SM, and then check for compliance
elsewhere.
There are two uses I can think of for a working JS z-machine. One is as a
Mozilla extension: you could run z-machine games from inside Mozilla, and
perhaps have a front end to the IF archive like Baf's Guide. You'd have a
big table in the "new game" dialogue box where you could sort by name,
year, author, rating, or genre, and it would download the one you wanted
and run it for you.
The other possibility is a translator that took any z-code and produced
a web page that allowed you to play the game using only a JS-enabled
web browser.
Both these projects are things I'd like to work on. If anyone would like
to co-operate, let me know.
T
Neil Cerutti
Thurman wrote:
> Whew, it's been a while since I posted to rgif.
>
> I've been working on a JavaScript-based interpreter for
> z-machine games. It's very much under development, but I've put
> a snapshot up at
><ftp://ftp.thurman.org.uk/pub/thurman/if/blorple-0.0.2.tar.gz>.
>At present, one game is hard-coded; it's only designed to run
>this one game at present, and it doesn't even achieve this goal
>yet. It does get about a thousand cycles in before it crashes,
>though.
>
> I'm posting about it now for two reasons:
>
> One: in case anyone's interested and would like to offer advice
> (or, indeed, share the workload)
>
> Two: in case anyone can think of a better name than blorple.
>
> blorple is, as you may remember, "explore an object's mystic
> connections", which isn't terribly appropriate for JavaScript.
> I'm not sure what's better, though. If I can't find a better
> name I could just make up a spell, especially for use in
> Mozilla:
How about FrotzScript?
--
Neil Cerutti <cer...@trans-video.net>
Quintin Stone
> Whew, it's been a while since I posted to rgif.
>
> I've been working on a JavaScript-based interpreter for z-machine
> games....
Wow, you are one serious masochist. :)
/====================================================================\
|| Quintin Stone O- > "You speak of necessary evil? One ||
|| Weapons Master & Coder < of those necessities is that if ||
|| Rebel Programmers Society > innocents must suffer, the guilty must ||
|| st...@rps.net < suffer more." -- Mackenzie Calhoun ||
|| http://www.rps.net/ > "Once Burned" by Peter David ||
\====================================================================/
Dave
> How about FrotzScript?
That would imply commonality with the Frotz codebase, which it probably
doesn't have. I recently came across a list (I forget where) of all spell
names referred to in Infocom's games and documentation. A bit of googling
should turn it up.
Personally I'd use "blorple" to name some sort of IF networking protocol
that could be bolted onto Glulx, but that's just me.
--
David Griffith
Alex Watson
> Neil Cerutti <cer...@trans-video.net> wrote:
>> In article <3e0724ca$0$17803$afc3...@news.easynet.co.uk>, Thomas
>> Thurman wrote:
>
>>> blorple is, as you may remember, "explore an object's mystic
>>> connections", which isn't terribly appropriate for JavaScript.
>>> I'm not sure what's better, though. If I can't find a better
>>> name I could just make up a spell, especially for use in
>>> Mozilla:
>
>> How about FrotzScript?
>
> That would imply commonality with the Frotz codebase, which it
> probably
> doesn't have. I recently came across a list (I forget where) of all
> spell
> names referred to in Infocom's games and documentation. A bit of
> googling should turn it up.
Should be in Encyclopedia Frobozzica or whatever they call it nowadays.
Thomas Thurman
> That would imply commonality with the Frotz codebase, which it probably
> doesn't have.
Indeed.
> I recently came across a list (I forget where) of all spell
> names referred to in Infocom's games and documentation. A bit of googling
> should turn it up.
<http://quendor.robinlionheart.com/spells.xhtml>? I'd looked through
them, but none of them seem particularly appropriate.
T
David Thornley
>
>That would imply commonality with the Frotz codebase, which it probably
>doesn't have. I recently came across a list (I forget where) of all spell
Heck, it's not as if Javascript has anything to do with Java.
--
David H. Thornley | If you want my opinion, ask.
da...@thornley.net | If you don't, flee.
http://www.thornley.net/~thornley/david/ | O-
Boluc Papuccuoglu
wrote:
Well, a Burin is used in Spellbreaker to SCRIBE spells on a scroll, so
it could be used (SCRIBE<->SCRIPT) or Gnusto since it scribes spells
into your spell book.
Quintin Stone
> >That would imply commonality with the Frotz codebase, which it probably
> >doesn't have. I recently came across a list (I forget where) of all spell
>
> Heck, it's not as if Javascript has anything to do with Java.
Very true, and that's always bothered me.
Thomas Thurman
> On 23 Dec 2002, Thomas Thurman wrote:
>> I've been working on a JavaScript-based interpreter for z-machine
>> games....
> Wow, you are one serious masochist. :)
*happy* :)
T
Thomas Thurman
> Well, a Burin is used in Spellbreaker to SCRIBE spells on a scroll, so
> it could be used (SCRIBE<->SCRIPT) or Gnusto since it scribes spells
> into your spell book.
Gnusto. I _like_ that: I think I'll use it. Can I credit you in the
docs?
(v0.0.3 out, btw; it now runs up to the first "aread".)
T
Boluc Papuccuoglu
wrote:
>Boluc Papuccuoglu <boluc.pa...@aknet.com.tr> wrote:
Sure