Decompiling into Inform source code

Authoring Inform 6
1

I know I’m posting far too much, but I don’t know where else to turn with these questions. (The news groups provided me with a long hassle – I’ve never used a newsreader, etc., and have basically decided to eschew appealing to those who can’t bite the bullet and use real websites. Is that arrogant? I don’t mean for it to be. :slight_smile: )

Is there any kind of decompiler online that can (at least roughly) turn, say, Zork II (the game I’m most familiar with, and would therefore learn the most from) into Inform code? I can’t find zork2.z5 anywhere on the entire Internet (although I found a .DAT file…surely that isn’t the same thing as a .z5?), nor a decompiler that actually works. (DisInformation, for instance, didn’t even work with ZDungeon.z5 – it seems vastly outdated.)

Thanks for any info, and for tolerating the many questions!

2

I bet there is probably a decompiler, but if it works like most any other decompilers, the resulting source code won’t be all that neat or pretty. It might not even use recognizable variable names.

Somebody should know for sure, though. Did you already try searching on the IFWiki, or in the IF Archive? If it’s anywhere, it’d probably be in the archive somewhere.

3

That will be my next attempt, then. Thanks again for all the assistance. I do appreciate it.

4

You may find what you need at http://www.inform-fiction.org/zmachine/ztools.html. At least there’s a Z-code disassembler and a utility for extracting story files in it.

5

.DAT and .Z3 / .Z5 / .Z8 are the same kinds of files.

Also, try the “reform” disassembler.

6

Thanks very much. I’ll try both of those and see what happens on my XP box. (It’s good to know .DAT files are the same!) I’m the sort who learns things backwards, from examples, which is why this stuff is vastly helpful.