Zblorb 101

[B]

Guys,

I've googled Zblorb and looked through the RAIF, but I'm just missing
what to do with a Zblorb. I downloaded the Zblorb for Bronze, but I
can't figure out what to do with it...I can't open it with the Inform 7
IDE, and I can't pick an app to do something with it. Sorry if I'm
just being a moron, but could someone point me to a resource or explain
how to use the zblorb?

Thanks so much!
B

[Wei-ju Wu]

Hi B,

a zblorb is the release file for IF written using Inform. Depending on
the type game, you can play it using either one of the more modern
Z-machine interpreters (which would work in your case "Bronze") or a
Glulx interpreter.

If you want to look for the source, I guess you'd have to download the
game's source code (it is available from Inform's website).

Wei-ju

[Wei-ju Wu]

oops, a *Z*blorb is always for the Z-machine, of course :-) (containing
both the program code and resource data)

[Gemma Bristow]

"B" <biag...@gmail.com> wrote in
news:1149551046.5...@i40g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:

You should be able to open a .zblorb file with Frotz, although if your
experience is anything like mine you'll have to explicitly associate the
format with Frotz before it'll recognise it. After that, it just plays
like a regular Z-code file.

Gemma

--
"Given that God is infinite, and the universe is also infinite, would
you like a toasted tea-cake?"

[Gemma Bristow]

Gemma Bristow <ge...@helical-library.net> wrote in

> You should be able to open a .zblorb file with Frotz, although if your
> experience is anything like mine you'll have to explicitly associate the
> format with Frotz before it'll recognise it. After that, it just plays
> like a regular Z-code file.

Sorry (*slaps forehead*) - that of course isn't so good if you need
multimedia support (which I forget, because I never have).

[John W. Kennedy]

Gemma Bristow wrote:
> "B" <biag...@gmail.com> wrote in
> news:1149551046.5...@i40g2000cwc.googlegroups.com:
>
>> I've googled Zblorb and looked through the RAIF, but I'm just missing
>> what to do with a Zblorb. I downloaded the Zblorb for Bronze, but I
>> can't figure out what to do with it...I can't open it with the Inform
>> 7 IDE, and I can't pick an app to do something with it. Sorry if I'm
>> just being a moron, but could someone point me to a resource or
>> explain how to use the zblorb?
>>
>> Thanks so much!
>> B
>>
>
> You should be able to open a .zblorb file with Frotz, although if your
> experience is anything like mine you'll have to explicitly associate the
> format with Frotz before it'll recognise it. After that, it just plays
> like a regular Z-code file.

If you mean Windows Frotz (WinFrotz is an older program, and Frotz is a
DOS program), the first time you run it it will automatically create the
associations.

--
John W. Kennedy
"The blind rulers of Logres
Nourished the land on a fallacy of rational virtue."
-- Charles Williams. "Taliessin through Logres: Prelude"

[David Kinder]

You need to download and install an interpreter that can cope with the
zblorb file.

Windows Frotz (of which I'm one of the authors) will handle this:
http://mirror.ifarchive.org/if-archive/infocom/interpreters/frotz/WindowsFrotzInstaller.exe

Some other interpreters can also cope with Blorb files (possibly
Gargoyle?), hopefully someone who has used them will post instructions
here.

David

[Brian Campbell]

You'll need to get a relatively modern Z-machine interpreter. On
Windows, there is Windows Frotz, while on the Mac, there are Zoom and
Spatterlight. I'm pretty sure ZMPP, written in Java so it should run
everywhere, supports Zblorb. There may be other interpreters that
support Blorb-wrapped z-code games, so search around, or you can get a
tool to unwrap the bare z-code from the blorb.

[smart...@gmail.com]

Andrew Plotkin sent me a tool to unwrap the .zblorb though I'm not sure where I put it. The zblorb wrapper is annoying, as any older systems or emulated systems from Kindle to Wii would have problems with the overlong file extension.

[David Griffith]

What are you replying to? Quoting would help.

I have some tools for manipulating Blorb files at
https://github.com/DavidGriffith/blorbtools.

Andrew's Blorb tools are at http://www.eblong.com/zarf/blorb/


--
David Griffith
davidmy...@acm.org <--- Put my last name where it belongs