Frotz

Submitted by Unregistered User (not verified) on Monday, December 27, 2010.

Last modified

Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Description of App

[*Warning* Playing Frotz involves reading, thinking, and typing. If you just want to blow stuff up, this is not the app for you!] Burned out on all the new-fangled graphics and dazzling eye candy on your shiny new iPhone or iPad? Nostalgic for a simpler time? Then take advantage of those crisp high-resolution fonts to relive the glory days of the Great Underground Empire, or play any of hundreds of great works from the Interactive Fiction archive. Frotz lets you play free works of Interactive Fiction (a.k.a. text adventure games) on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad. Frotz plays titles written in the Z-Machine format. This format was invented by Infocom and was used to produce classic text adventures from the 80s such as the Zork Trilogy, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and Trinity. In the past decade, text adventures have experienced a renaissance due to the efforts of a diverse Internet community of talented interactive fiction writers and fans. Many of these games are written using the same engine that powered Infocom's titles, thanks to the Inform compiler and authoring system created by Graham Nelson. NOTE! If you have suggestions for improving Frotz or encounter bugs, please go to the support link and report them. I have no way to respond if you only report bugs in reviews! Frotz for iOS - Interactive Fiction at Your Fingertips

Version

1.7

Free or Paid

Free

Apple Watch Support

Not Known

Device(s) App Was Tested On

iPhone

Accessibility Comments

Appears to be very accessible!

VoiceOver Performance

VoiceOver reads all page elements.

Button Labeling

All buttons are clearly labeled.

Usability

The app is fully accessible with VoiceOver and is easy to navigate and use.

App Store Link

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/frotz/id287653015?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

Developer's Website

http://code.google.com/p/iphonefrotz/wiki/FrotzSupport

Recommendations

0 people have recommended this app

Options

Comments

Version 1.5.3

This was once a FREE app but now is selling for $0.99 in the App Store. It appeared they started to charge for this during the summer.

What's New in Version 1.5.3What's New in Version 1.5.3

- Readability: Wider margins and spacing for better readability on iPad.
- Unicode: Improved Unicode text support for games with non-Latin characters.
- Updated glulx support: Now conforms to standard spec 3.1.2.
- Graphics improvements: Performance and stability of games using glk graphics improved; Frotz now supports inline images in text.
- VoiceOver support: Fixed bug preventing automatic announcement of new output in glulx games.
- Keyboard: Improved support for playing with a Bluetooth keyboard (you can now scroll via keyboard and no longer have to tap the screen).
- Other bug fixes: New FTP server compatible with more clients; restored 'Open in' functionality for launching Frotz from other apps.

App now free as on this date

The app appears to be free for now at least again, I look forward to trying it out.

Update

Thanks for that update! Indeed it does appear to be FREE. I couldn't find any activities when this was done. As of October 26, 2012 it was at $0.99 but since then it became FREE.

Version 1.7

Just love playing these old games. Reminds of the good days of the 80's. Now with a new update. Now supports iOS 7 and 8! Some VoiceOver improvements. Nicely done and so glad to see that this is still alive and kicking.

What's New in Version 1.7

- UI makeover with support for iOS 7/8.
- Search Bar in Story List.
- Word auto-completion now uses the current game's vocabulary/dictionary.
- Fixed issues with accented characters/Unicode support.
- Improved support for graphics windows, inline images, and hyperlinks in glulx games.
- Fixed problem where VoiceOver wouldn't read new text right after the game clears the screen.
- Ability to long-press keyboard toggle button to hide and lock keyboard (for menu-only command input).
- Update to glk spec 0.7.4, git library 1.3.3.
- Now works again on 1st gen devices with iOS 3.
- Other minor bug fixes.

Does it support glulxe (*blb)

Does it support glulxe (*blb)?

Glulx

Yes, Glulx files are supported. Most of them nowadays use gblorb rather than .blb, just FYI. But yes, some of my favorite games are Glulx-only.

Now if only it supported Tads.

basic question

Bear with my being a bit slow here, but where are you guys getting these games, and how do you get them onto your iPhone? can you download them directly to the device? Sorry, just an embarrassing gap in my knowledge here.

and another thing

And, wouldn't it be marvellous if there were still a way to write these games? Back in the day I used to use the Adventure Games Toolkit. That was years ago, but wouldn't mind turning my hand and my imagination to one of these again. i also agree about TADS; it would be great to play some of those games again.

When the main menu, the

When the main menu, the browse IFDB button takes u to where u can find and download titles dirrectly to your device. Only wish u could sort them by genre there r soooo many. Agreed about tads too. Haven't found an interpreter that works well with nvda so have not played a tads game in 10 years. Would be nice to finally get to finish what i started back then.

Putting games into frotz

Hi. I have hundreds of games in dropbox that I want to get into frotz. I can open them from dropbox into frotz and import them 1 at a time, but if you can imagine that gets old fast when there are so meny. Is there any way I can get them all into frotz at once? Thank you.

Upload

Hi. you could use itunes or if frotz can start a wifi server that'd be the best way to get them in there. Do you source your games from ifarchive.org?

Thanks

Yes. I use ifarchive.org as well as some other sites I have forgotten. Yes. Frotz does have a wifi file server. I will try that, but I think even with that I can only do one at a time. I also can't zip the games up then put the .zip file in frotz because frotz does not support unziping zip files.