I’m looking to run some z-code files on my Linux Mint 21. I think Linux has always been the least supported of the normal computer operating systems for playing IF games locally, although of course it was generally supported some mainstream solution. And of course there have always been resources for Linux users to hack their own solution together, as whomever made ggzc did so elegantly in 2010.
But hacking leads to over-thinking, and over-thinking leads to running out of time and doing nothing. Right now I want to open zome z-code files, but I’m also curious about the current options for TADS support on currently maintained Ubuntu derivatives.
(Has there every been enough community support for local interpreters outside of the main Ubuntu family? I’m certain some simple version of interpreters must exist in, say, the AUR but I don’t want to take the time to look.)
In the Software Center I have by default in Linux Mint 21, there are only
glulxe (command line)
Gargoyle (including a graphical version from Flatpak)
The aforementioned ggzc, from the IF Archive, is really cool and implements things in a fun way from the perspective of a command line user… navigating your directory tree to find a game file still works! But it crashed when I tried to open a z5 and I’m not going to bother to troubleshoot.
I guess I want to know if there is any choice outside of Gargoyle for trad parser IF running off of a trad (up to date) Linux computer. Is Hugor still a thing for Hugo? I assume nothing for TADS. Never has been anything for ADRIFT or Quest outside of Gargoyle, afaik.
Running a free Unix-like OS means it’s very easy to build terps from source. I’ve been using Gargoyle, QTads, Hugor, and SDL Frotz for years, both before and after switching from Linux to FreeBSD.
INSTEAD – INterpreter of Simple TExt ADventure. Using INSTEAD you can create and play games that could be classified as a mix of visual novel and text quest.
As others have already mentioned, there are a gazillion interpreters that run on Linux which may or may not be packaged by your distribution. But the path of least resistance, regardless of your OS, is to just run Parchment in your browser. You can run an offline copy if you prefer.
I use Linux frotz under console, getting the “classical” IF environment (80x25), and for the same reasons I use frobTads and he (Hugo Engine), albeit for the latter two I prefer QTads and Hugor in fullscreen, with large, nifty yellow-on-blue 110+ chars/line; but I strive, in my work, that are enjoyable (weak/bad english aside) in the confines of an 80x25.
Of course, I use also Gargoyle, albeit less often; the configuration file is, to put it mildly, underdocumented and not exactly brilliant in its font handling, albeit I appreciate its flexibility in handling peculiar cases, by engines and even single story file.
