I would like to announce my current project, the unofficial port of Frotz to the PicoCalc!
Frotz is an interpreter for all Infocom and other Z-machine games. It complies with the Z-Machine Standard version 1.1. It supports story versions 1 through 8.
Frotz has been actively developed since 1995 and is a popular interpreter for Z-Machine games, including those from Infocom.
I used my PicoCalc Text Starter (on GitHub) project and a little interface code to enable Frotz to run unmodified on the PicoCalc, which is more of a testament to Frotz.
If you are MMBasic user, I do not believe this would be any advantage over Play Zork on PicoCalc/PicoMite project. It is definitely more convenient to remain in MMBasic than switching flash. The only reason I can see is if you want to play a story other than V3.
Also, you will probably need a Pico 2 or other RP2350 board. Some stories are large and need the extra RAM of the RP2350 board. Smaller stories will work on the Pico (W).
I have tried various stories from Infocom and the community and I could play the ones I tried.
This is the first release, so if you give a spin and encounter any problems, please let me know!
No, I do not believe you are doing anything wrong!
It may be the SD card, these are fiddly things! Would you be able to try a different card? If that works I would like to know the make of the one that failed. Hopefully I can get one to test.
I am happy to announce the first “production” quality release of Frotz for the PicoCalc. Thank you everyone for their feedback so far!
This release includes:
Added history navigation (using up/down arrow keys), full line editing (using left/right arrow keys, Esc, Del, Back, Home, End) and vocabulary completion (using tab)
Introduced a phosphor display effect with adjustable color modes (white, green, amber) that can be toggled using the F10 key
Supports bold and underlined text
Fixed Pico 1 SD card initialisation
General bug fixes and stabilisation improvements
As always, please let me know if you encounter any problems!
Works great! And it feels so authentic! I was wondering what would happen if I attempted to load a story that was too large for RAM on the pico 1 and it just takes me back to the story selection screen. I find this to be a very elegant solution!
I did pay some attention to the detail of authenticity. The font is based on the font stored in the venerable Digital VT100 terminal’s ROM from the late 1970’s, which I then modified and adjusted for the resolution of the PicoCalc display. I also had to take into account the VT100’s hardware that dot-stretched the pixels in the font and differences in aspect ratio.
I researched the phosphor used in monochrome CRT tubes of the period and wavelength of light they produced. I then attempted to match that with the selection of display’s 65K colours in the display mode I am using.
I knew I was going to be looking at the display for long periods interacting with the stories, so I had to get it right.
Wow! I knew that color was somehow special! It does actually remind me of using a CRT. And while I couldn’t place the font I thought it looked familiar. Thanks again for your work and contribution!
Just in time for the end of the weekend, I have published the v0.3 release.
The big ticket item in the release is the ability to switch to a 64 column display.
I really wanted this so I could eventually play Infocom’s Trinity, their highest-rated story. It requires at least 64 columns to start.
I am personally surprised that I was able to pull this off, with a font that is as readable as the 40-column display. I was able to capture the style of the original font in this more narrow rendition.
Now I am on the fence to whether I prefer 64 columns or the original 40!
Please let me know which you prefer. As always, let me know if you encounter any problems.
