[ZTOOLS-TXD] How can I convert original Infocom stories to .Z* files?
Trefpunt
About a year ago I bought my copy of 'Masterpieces'. Now I want to convert
the original story files on that CD (for example, AMFV.DAT) to Z5 files so I
can use WinFrotz to play these games. I want to use TXD.EXE to do this.
I have copied the Infocom story file and TXD.EXE to the root of my D:\
drive, so at the DOS prompt I type:
D:\TXD.EXE D:\AMFV.DAT
After that, a lot of ASCII characters scroll over the screen but no Z5 files
or whatever seems to be created. What am I doing wrong here?
How can I write the ASCII which is generated by TXD to a file in stead of to
the screen (I cannot read THAT quick!).
Thanks,
Hans Vollebregt
Trefpunt
Ross Presser
>Hi,
>
>About a year ago I bought my copy of 'Masterpieces'. Now I want to convert
>the original story files on that CD (for example, AMFV.DAT) to Z5 files so
I
>can use WinFrotz to play these games. I want to use TXD.EXE to do this.
STOP. This is totally unnecessary. Simply rename the .DAT file to .Z5.
Winfrotz will happily play the game for you.
In fact, you don't *have* to rename the file for Winfrotz to be happy about
it, but renaming it will let Windows automatically launch Winfrotz when you
double-click it.
Trefpunt
Thanks.
Hans
Ross Presser <ross_p...@NOSPAMimtek.com> wrote in message
news:8DEC9FF20rossp...@news.bellatlantic.net...
Ross Presser
>I feel stupid now. Did not know. Too simple to think of, I guess (I hope).
>Thanks.
>
>Hans
No big deal. Glad to be helpful.
Lucian Paul Smith
: Hi,
: About a year ago I bought my copy of 'Masterpieces'. Now I want to convert
: the original story files on that CD (for example, AMFV.DAT) to Z5 files so I
: can use WinFrotz to play these games.
AMFV.DAT *is* a z5 file. You can convert it by renaming it to AMFV.Z5 ;-)
(but you don't have to. 'frotz amfv.dat' will work just fine.)
: I want to use TXD.EXE to do this.
'TXD' stands for 'text dump' (AFAIK). It does what you describe.
-Lucian
Stacy the Befuddled
<snip>
> I have copied the Infocom story file and TXD.EXE to the root of my D:\
> drive, so at the DOS prompt I type:
> D:\TXD.EXE D:\AMFV.DAT
>
> After that, a lot of ASCII characters scroll over the screen but no Z5 files
> or whatever seems to be created. What am I doing wrong here?
> How can I write the ASCII which is generated by TXD to a file in stead of to
> the screen (I cannot read THAT quick!).
OK, I know the answer on this one is 'just WinFrotz the DAT file,' but
this also asks a question I've wondered about for a while--how do you
capture TXD output to a file? (ok, this is really more of a
Mac-user-vs-DOS question than a raif question, but hey, y'all are all I
have ;) )
-stacy
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
stacy cowley mailto:sc...@columbia.edu
http://www.columbia.edu/~sc467 http://bookweb.simplenet.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dylan O'Donnell
> Trefpunt (hvollebr@@epex.com) wrote:
> : About a year ago I bought my copy of 'Masterpieces'. Now I want to convert
> : the original story files on that CD (for example, AMFV.DAT) to Z5 files
> : so I can use WinFrotz to play these games.
>
> AMFV.DAT *is* a z5 file. You can convert it by renaming it to AMFV.Z5 ;-)
z4, surely?
(Yes, that wasn't the point you were making. Worth a quibble, anyway.)
--
: Dylan O'Donnell : "Any sufficiently arcane magic is :
: Demon Internet Ltd : indistinguishable from technology." :
: Resident, Forgotten Office : -- Lebling's Inversion of :
: http://www.fysh.org/~psmith/ : Clarke's Third Law :
Dylan O'Donnell
> > drive, so at the DOS prompt I type:
> > D:\TXD.EXE D:\AMFV.DAT
> >
> > After that, a lot of ASCII characters scroll over the screen but no Z5
> > files or whatever seems to be created. What am I doing wrong here?
> > How can I write the ASCII which is generated by TXD to a file in stead
> > of to the screen (I cannot read THAT quick!).
>
> OK, I know the answer on this one is 'just WinFrotz the DAT file,' but
> this also asks a question I've wondered about for a while--how do you
> capture TXD output to a file? (ok, this is really more of a
> Mac-user-vs-DOS question than a raif question, but hey, y'all are all I
> have ;) )
Use the DOS redirect character, > as so:
D:\TXD.EXE D:\AMFV.DAT > AMFVTXD.TXT
which redirects the output into a text file, AMFVTXD.TXT (or whatever
name you like), which you can read however you usually read text
files. (It'll overwrite whatever might already be there; if you want
to add it on to the end of the file instead, use the
concatenation-redirect, >> )