Upgrade the legendary Infocom series, made using Zarf's MaxZip v1.7.8
(highest version) to modernize play in the OS9 environment. This
download has everything (!), all 31 of the original non-graphics
titles converted, plus updated releases of them (some recognized as
published, some unpublished), plus the 4 graphics titles not
converted, plus Zork-mainframe, plus Mini-Zork I, plus Zork The
Undiscovered Underground, plus two takes on comprehensive
Documentation for every game, plus The PRIZM Project. I spent many
hours cutting up the Masterpieces CDROM's 1000+ pages of Documentation
into smaller low-resolution files dedicated to each game, and I
assembled a similar document file for the Hitchhiker's Guide to the
Galaxy. Zork-mainframe comes with original year 1980 documentation,
ZTUU has an official map, and ZTUU has InvisiClues (hints) via PRIZM.
You couldn't ask for more Infocom in one big clean OS9-friendly
archive.
I also began a bucket Folder for collecting Hi-res scans of some of
the documents, this will give you a taste of what's possible.
Recommend you search the internet for better resolution scans if your
hardware can handle it. This Hi-res folder is just a sample to get you
started.
At issue with using unconverted original game apps is that they are
1980s technology with no window resizing, no scrollback history, they
don't multitask well because they are all 68K-code pre-PowerPC and
they seem to hog a ton of CPU horsepower just making the cursor blink,
etc etc ...
These replacement game apps consist of ripped out z-code files all fed
through a uniform interpreter version which fixes all the above
problems on PowerPC native coding. I can resize windows, smooth
multitask, and use pgUp/pgDn keys or even use the scrollwheel on my
alternative Mouse. No one should have to torture themselves trying to
play original Infocoms without these dire features. And the set of PDF
document files here are mucho desirable, even when not played on a
Mac.
Beyond Zork introduced an "enhanced" user interface which isn't
properly handled by MaxZip (nor any other z-machine emulator it
seems). If you find the badly drawn enhancements distracting, they can
be disabled by typing the "mode" command thus turning Beyond Zork into
a "normal Infocom game" (their words not mine). On typing the
"version" command it says "IBM/MS-DOS" but this is what's wrong with
MaxZip doing Beyond Zork.
Compatibility
Architecture: 68k PPC
Documentation files are PDF.
Game apps are pre-OSX (OS9) and perhaps older OS works too.
