Which z-machine 'terp?

Technical Development Interpreters
1

This is curiosity taking over judgement of whether this is a good topic, or whether it should be in Playing or not. The simple question is this:

Which z-machine interpreter do you players use?

EDIT: See Which z-machine 'terp? - #8 by SomeOne2 for updated poll.

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I use my updated version of jzip: https://github.com/borg323/jzip
I also use Frotz (and help with patches when I have time).

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3

Probably Parchment most often, given that that’s what one gets with the play buttons on IFDB or IFComp (thus the actual Z-machine component is ifvms). In a terminal, when trying and/or testing specific things, frotz or dfrotz or sometimes bocfel. Sometimes Lectrote (thus ifvms again). Rarely, Gargoyle (which would be bocfel again).

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4

Gargoyle if I can. My eyes aren’t amazing and having good, customizable typography helps a lot.

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5

Gargoyle when playing the first time, for the same reason as Draconis. Spatterlight for the second playthrough when compiling the progress chart and the walkthrough because it has better and smoother scrollback. The typographic features of Spatterlight are almost as good as Gargoyle, except the text is sharper in the Gargoyle, possibly due to the imperfect gamma-correction for a dark theme of the MacOS defaults and Spatterlight uses that, I think. The glyphs have a tiny glow effect on them in Spatterlight compared to Gargoyle. Pet peeve of mine really.

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6

Currently I use Gargoyle for everything, but admittedly it’s mainly due to a mix of nostalgia (it was my first interpreter as a teen discovering IF) and my love of gargoyles. I’d love to do more research about the pros and cons of different interpreters for various use cases!

7

:confused:
Can’t pick more than one…
Parchment if I’m playing through the IFDB or games on itch.io that were compiled with the interpreter.
Otherwise, either Frotz or Gargoyle.

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8

Sorry - closed. Here’s a new poll:

  • Frotz
  • Gargoyle
  • Fabularium
  • Parchment
  • Bocfel
  • Other (please state below)
0 voters

(To @borg323 @manonamora @Ally @nephar @Zed @Draconis . Sorry :pensive:)

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9

Gargoyle uses Bocfel, right?
My main one is SDL Frotz.

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10

Yes it does. Spatterlight uses Bocfel as well.

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11

Oh, right. Oops. I am not changing that now (requires a whole new poll and everything). I am not set out to be a poll person. :joy:

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I use Frotz on Linux. Occasionally I use IFDB’s “Play Online” button but only for getting a first impression of a game. I don’t know which interpreter that is. I guess it’s Parchment.

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13

If I want to make a transcript i use Text Fiction under Thunderword or ios Frotz, otherwise I often use Hunky Punk for z-games. I play under fabularium from time to time.
I use Gargoyle If I have to play in mupy pc (some strange day).

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14

IMO this poll still doesn’t seem structured right.

Starting here: https://www.ifwiki.org/Z-code_interpreters

We spent quite a bit of time thinking about how to structure this table. Note that Bocfel doesn’t appear on the list, even though IFWiki knows that Bocfel is an interpreter that exists. https://www.ifwiki.org/Bocfel

The reason Bocfel doesn’t show up there is due to the “Recommended interpreter” checkbox on the infobox editor. https://www.ifwiki.org/Special:FormEdit/Software/Bocfel

Recommended interpreter: Is this interpreter user-friendly enough to recommend to new players? If you answer “Yes,” then this interpreter (if stable) will be added to our recommendations, for example, Windows interpreters. If the user must compile the interpreter from source code, answer “No.” If the interpreter must be launched from the command prompt (other than on Linux), answer “No."

  • No answer/unknown
  • Yes
  • No

Bocfel is listed as “Recommended Interpreter: No,” because Bocfel users must download and compile the interpreter from source. If you want to use Bocfel, the best way to use it is to use an interpreter that uses it, including Gargoyle, Spatterlight, or Emglken, which is also not a Recommended Interpreter, but you can use it as part of Lectrote or Parchment, both of which are Recommended Interpreters.

We decided to sort the table by Updated date. We considered having polls for “best” interpreter, but how on earth could a voter practically compare between, say, Frotz for iOS and Fabularium for Android? What does it even mean to say that Frotz for iOS is “better” than Fabularium? Is that voter saying that iOS is a better platform for IF than Android?

What does make sense is a platform-specific format-specific poll. What’s the best Z-code interpreter for Windows? What’s the best TADS interpreter for macOS? What’s the best ADRIFT interpreter for iOS? etc.

But, to answer your question about Z-Code interpreters specifically, for all the platforms I ever use:

  • Web: Parchment (ElseIFPlayer in distant second place)
  • Windows: Gargoyle if you’re willing to futz with the settings file; Windows Frotz if you just want something that works
  • macOS: Spatterlight (Lectrote in second place)
  • Linux: Gargoyle (Lectrote in second place)
  • iOS: Frotz for iOS is basically your only option. Luckily, it’s pretty good
  • Android: Android interpreters are in a pretty sad state right now. The only plausible interpreter that you can get from the Google Play Store is Fabularium, but it hasn’t been updated since 2018. You can download a fork of Fabularium on F-Droid, but that hasn’t been updated since 2019. So, uh, maybe you can get by with one of those Fabulariums, but in some cases your best bet is to play in Parchment on the web.

So, given all that, what answer could I give to your poll? Is my favorite Parchment, Gargoyle, Spatterlight (not listed!!), “Frotz” (WinFrotz or iOS Frotz?), or Fabularium? Or should I just check all of the above? (Except Bocfel, of course, which probably shouldn’t even be on the list…?)

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15

I use:

  • Windows Frotz (for Windows)
  • Hunky Punk (for Android)

Neither are in the poll.

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16

I use Windows Frotz, but I classify it as Frotz. (I know, I know…)

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17

my “other” is fizmo, whose I use very rarely.

Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.

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18

Windows Frotz and Frotz have not diverged that far, and I have a long term plan to close the gap further:

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19

…But Son of Hunky Punk only works with zcode. Glux are not supported…

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20

That’s what was asked for. There are far fewer Glulx terps anyway.

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