AmigaFrotz and images

Eleas · July 3, 2013, 2:07pm

I’ve installed AmigaFrotz in UAE. While I’m having a blast, the game doesn’t render images. Documentation for AmigaFrotz is sparse and about all I can tell is that it requires the Infocom image format, which doesn’t really help. So, does anyone know how to convert to said format and/or how to display the images properly?

rockersuke · July 3, 2013, 7:54pm

I’m playing “Arthur” with 16 colours grphics right now in WinUAE. Just follow the instructions in the section “Suppoprt for V6 games” in the “Frotz.guide” file… which I copypaste here just in case you don’t have a program to read .guide files properly:

The V6 “graphic” games released by Infocom are supported by Frotz. These
games came with several different picture files, depending on the computer.
Frotz currently supports both the CGA and the MCGA mode files distributed
with IBM PC versions of Infocom games, which end with “.cg1” and “.mg1”,
respectively. For Frotz to find the graphics file, make sure it has the same
name as the story file, except for the different file ending, e.g.
Zork0.z6 	Story file
Zork0.mg1	MCGA graphics file
The MCGA graphics are 16 colour and so are only displayed if Frotz is
running on a custom screen or (with Workbench 3.0 or higher) on a screen
with 16 free pens. The CGA graphics are black and white, allowing them to
appear if Frotz is running in a Workbench window, regardless of the screen
mode. The MCGA files can also be obtained from the IF Archive in the
directory
/if-archive/infocom/missing-files
The graphic files released with the Amiga versions of Infocom games are
only partially supported. Frotz can tell the game the dimensions of a
particular picture, but cannot display it. This is still useful as without
the picture dimensions both Shogun and Zork Zero do not display the screen
properly. These files must either be called “Pic.data”, or be renamed to
the same as the story file except for an extension “.gfx” on the end, i.e.
from the previous example
Zork0.gfx	Amiga graphics file

Hope it helps!

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Eleas · July 4, 2013, 7:38am

Thank you! I think I got it so far, but when it comes to developing games in I6 and publishing them in an Amiga - friendly format, I’m having a trickier time. Is there any I6 existing facility and/or functionality to manage such things? (I’m running WB 3.1 on a 1200 and will probably be switching to AmigaDOS 3.9 soon, if it matters.)