You are likely to be eaten by a grue.

[Guest ScreamingFalcon]

On-screen keyboards curl my nosehairs. Give me a little tiny qwerty button keyboard any day.

Amusingly enough, there are ports of frotz for just about every modern (and quite a few antiques, too) platform available. There's even a GBA port.

There are also some ports for other Windows Mobile based portable devices, but none of them work on keyboarded smartphones.

Frostz can be made to run on a WM smartphone if you get the cab (which failed to install, stating that it was not intended for my device), extract and rename all the files, and copy them to the device manually. However, it is not functional at all. The main screen shows up on the left side of my display, and the program repeatedly displays an error stating that a Menu bar could not be created, until the process is ended via the task manager. I'm not an experienced programmer, but this suggests to me that the majority of the codebase is functional (the .exe ran, displayed a graphic, and then displayed errors apparently related to the user interface code), and might only requires slight modifications.

This experiment was performed on a Samsung i607 (Blackjack).

The reason FrostZ didn't work is because it is meant for a touchscreen system, not a Smartphone setup. Trust me, I tried this too on both the Moto Q and the Moto Q9c.

[Guest AdamDawes]

The reason FrostZ didn't work is because it is meant for a touchscreen system, not a Smartphone setup. Trust me, I tried this too on both the Moto Q and the Moto Q9c.

Hello followers of this thread,

I've just released my freeware Z-Machine interpreter, PocketZax. This should work well on all Windows Mobile devices running Windows Mobile 2003SE or later.

I've not actually tested it on any Smartphone devices, but I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work on them. Please give it a go and see how you get on. If you encounter any problems then let me know and I'll see what I can do to resolve them.

You can download PocketZax from my web site:

http://www.adamdawes.com

It's based upon Matt Kimmel's "Zax" interpreter, which was written in Java. For PocketZax, I've ported this into C# and written a new front-end. If there are any UI problems I should therefore be able to clear them up pretty easily.

Have fun and let me know what you think!

Adam.

http://www.adamdawes.com

http://www.icangames.com

[Guest ScreamingFalcon]

I just remembered there was a pair of Zork references in Episode 4 "Abe Lincoln Must Die!" of Sam & Max Season One and they're right at the beginning! See if you can hear them coming from Sam if you play! Its out on XBox Live, Wii and PC!

[Guest 88Saleen351]

Interesting games. I remember reading about Zork years ago in VG&CE. Reminds me of those text based adventures with no graphics. One cool text adventure I recall playing was "HitchHikers Guide to the Galaxy". The one where you played the character Ford Perfect. Who makes those Hitchhiker guide games? Did Z machine have this title? I'd love to play it again....I never finished the game.

[Guest 88Saleen351]

Never mind. I found that Infocom wrote this title as well. Going to try it and see if it will work.

[Guest 88Saleen351]

Nice job AD. HitchHikers Guide TTG works flawlessly. Just like I remember it 18 years ago. So cool to play that again. I forgot how to get past the dumb bulldozer for awhile there. hehe. And no, you don't play Ford Perfect, he is a friend of the character you play.

On a note relating to compatibility. Zork Zero doesn't work. I get a message saying "incompatible game - Infocom version 6" or something very similar. My guess is graphics aren't supported yet. No complaints tho, nice work AD :)

[Guest ScreamingFalcon]

Nice job AD. HitchHikers Guide TTG works flawlessly. Just like I remember it 18 years ago. So cool to play that again. I forgot how to get past the dumb bulldozer for awhile there. hehe. And no, you don't play Ford Perfect, he is a friend of the character you play.

On a note relating to compatibility. Zork Zero doesn't work. I get a message saying "incompatible game - Infocom version 6" or something very similar. My guess is graphics aren't supported yet. No complaints tho, nice work AD :)

In HitchHiker's, you do eventually, although briefly, play as all the main characters. Primarily Arthur Dent though.

As for Zork Zero, that was the first Z6 game and the Z6 standard is very hard to work with and was abandonded after about 4 programs. However, PocketZax does (limitedly, depending on screen size) work with the Z5 standard's InvisiHints built-in hints system that was introduced, oddly enough, in HitchHiker's! Enjoy, and thanks for all the fish! ;)

Edited July 29, 2009 by ScreamingFalcon

[Guest andham]

Hi all,

I also use Pocket Zax - See above link for location ;)

and for content....

http://www.ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archiveXgamesXzcode.html

It works great, the only problem i have found so far is that you cannot save your progress - so you need to keep the app running in the background. Otherwise it works a treat ;)

Edited December 16, 2009 by andham

[Guest ScreamingFalcon]

Hi all,

I also use Pocket Zax - See above link for location :)

and for content....

http://www.ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archiveXgamesXzcode.html

It works great, the only problem i have found so far is that you cannot save your progress - so you need to keep the app running in the background. Otherwise it works a treat ;)

Actually, you can, you just have to use the old "save" command. To load a save game, use "restore" to go back to where you saved. There's no save option on the menu.