I used a lot of sound last year, alas. The blorb was like 12 meg.
Thanks! I already played one of the games on the “has sound” list and I’m not sure the sounds even happened. Doesn’t look like those others have sounds so I guess I’m good. And the picture in Map is displaying in Zoom, so that’s working.
As Captain Bringdown and as a community service announcement, I should point out that Zoom is now sufficiently out of date with the Glk standard that you expose yourself to bugs that you can’t anticipate when you use it to play new Inform games. They may be really infrequent or never happen, but they can happen, including - spontaneous game crashes, subtle state bugs that will be invisible to you but might affect gameplay, and saves not being reloadable. I have experienced all these, but also plenty of games will manifest none. (But you can’t tell with the invisible ones because… they’re invisible.)
-Wade
Mmyeah. I hate Gargoyle’s scrollback so much that I may be willing to risk it.
Do you have any idea what the underlying issues are?
Overall, the issue is that of running a game designed for a newer OS (an Inform 7 game written today) on an older OS (an interpreter for Inform games that hasn’t been updated for 6 years?)
The Glulxe interpreter is up to version 0.5.2. Zoom is using 0.4.7.
The Glulx VM is up to version 3.1.2. I think Zoom is at 3.1.1?
Zoom is also built on CocoaGlk, which has turned out to be pretty buggy per se, and which hasn’t had any love since 2009, I think?
Obviously, lots of new games are still working, because the scale of changes isn’t macroscopically massive. But they can add up under the hood.
If I had to sum it up, the only thing I (personally) really wouldn’t do with Zoom if I really liked Zoom is enter into playing a game that is long or complex. Because you may be days or weeks into it, then encounter a bug or state problem that is down to these minor under the hood changes. Or find a saved game doesn’t work. If you can get through a short game (which is most IFComp games) and it’s working, and you wouldn’t mind restarting if necessary if something weird comes up, AND you like Zoom, go for it. Forewarned is forearmed.
[Edit - I should point out Gargoyle hasn’t been updated for 4 years, either! So the Mac doesn’t have a fully up-to-date interpreter at all at the moment, but Gargoyle is still significantly more compatible. I think its last updates got it over the hump of a glk spec change, which was a respectable change. Plus it wasn’t built on cocoaglk to begin with.]
-Wade
I know Spatterlight will do graphics and sound, I’ve tested games in it.
(though Spatterlight is even slightly more behind for Glulx than Zoom, so the same subtle caveats apply).
-Wade
There are two separate issues here actually. When an interpreter is out of date, it doesn’t become erratic; it’s just missing features. (Or, if the game is poorly coded, predictable crashes.)
Zoom’s rare-and-unpredictable crashes, freezes, and state hangups are the result of CocoaGlk bugs.
So, just like I’ve always said, viva Spatterlight!..
-Wade
Does Spatterlight miss out on the Cocoaglk bugs? I’ve got a copy of it lying around, so I might try it too.
Spatterlight isn’t more up to date. In beta testing it has its own special array of bugs.
What about online? I played a lot of parser games online. You can get a transcript out of Quixe from the save menu (SAVE then select edit).
My browser performance is sometimes dicey so I’m a little leery of starting a big parser game online… and several of the games tell me they have additional features when played offline. I did play a few parser games online though (Ether, Untold Riches, King and the Crown, Grandma Bethlinda’s Variety Box, maybe some others).