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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Question about Z-MIM and Zork
| Author | Message | ||||
| William Leue Guru  Joined: 03/07/2020 Location: United StatesPosts: 405 |
Tom's Z-MIM allows us to play classic Infocom text adventures on the CMM2, including Zork and many others. I have the CD-ROM disc "The Lost Treasures of Infocom" that originally allowed play on Windows. Since switching over to 64-bit Windows some years ago, I find that the games on this CD will no longer play, and in fact there is an error message saying they won't run on 64-bit Windows. So if I install Z-MIM on my CMM2 and transfer some of the files from the CD over to the CMM2 on an SD card, can I expect, say, Zork to run? THanks! -Bill |
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thwill Guru Joined: 16/09/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4311 |
Hi Bill, In theory "yes", in practice I don't have that CD so I don't know for sure. Modern versions of the data files (aka story files) for Infocom text adventures generally have the extension .z3, .z4 or .z5. Z-MIM is currently only capable of handling .z3 files. The early classics (including Zork I-III) should be available in .z3 format but it is possible they were remastered in .z5 format for that CD. It's also possible they are in .z3 format but have the file extension .dat or .zip (without being actual modern ZIP files.) If you have the .z3 files then you can just drop them into Z-MIM's "stories/" directory and they should show up in the list presented on startup. If you have .z5 files then let me know by private message and I'll point you at where you can find them in .z3 format on the internet - it's not difficult as a number of places have them posted relatively publicly (and even the source-code for them) and whilst Activision owns the copyright they don't seem to be throwing Cease & Desist letters around. Note that if what you really want to do is play your adventures on Windows 10 then I suggest Windows Frotz (other interpreters are available). I'm interested to hear how you get on, Tom MMBasic for Linux, Game*Mite, CMM2 Welcome Tape, Creaky old text adventures |
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Womble Senior Member  Joined: 09/07/2020 Location: United KingdomPosts: 267 |
Bill ... I have the slightly later "Masterpieces of Infocom", this can be played using DOSBox on Windows 10x64 (or indeed Linux) Mount the cdrom thusly (assuming your CDRom is D:) Start up DOSBox and enter the command and install the DOS version. Works perfectly.Z:\>MOUNT D D:\ -t cdrom This should work with your CD-ROM disc "The Lost Treasures of Infocom". If you no longer have a CD drive, you will need to make an .ISO or .BIN/.CUE file and mount that as a virtual CDRom. Instuction on how to do that can be found here. Hope that helps Womble |
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| William Leue Guru Joined: 03/07/2020 Location: United StatesPosts: 405 |
Thanks to Tom and Womble! I forgot about DOSBox; I will have to try it. I don't remember the filename extensions on the CD but I will check. -Bill |
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| William Leue Guru Joined: 03/07/2020 Location: United StatesPosts: 405 |
Yes, DOSBox does indeed work fine on my Windows 10 PC. I can start up Zork or any of the other InfoCom games on the CD-ROM. -Bill |
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| William Leue Guru Joined: 03/07/2020 Location: United StatesPosts: 405 |
But there are no .z3 or .z any number files on the CDR. For Zork, for instance, there are ZORK1.COM, ZORK2.COM, etc. batch files, and ZORK1.DAT, ZORK2.DAT, etc. files. But that's all on in the PC folder. There is also a MAC folder which has all the same games but with a different file organization. For Zork, there are just ZORK1, ZORKII, etc files with no filename extensions at all. -Bill |
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| Womble Senior Member Joined: 09/07/2020 Location: United KingdomPosts: 267 |
Bill ... When you install "Masterpieces of INFOCOM" under DOS the files are named *.DAT I assume the same applies to "The Lost Treasures of Infocom" Rename them to *.Z3 and they should work See below ...  I have not tried any others, but they should work. Firmware v5.05.06B15 Edited 2020-10-27 10:14 by Womble |
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| Krall Newbie  Joined: 22/10/2020 Location: United StatesPosts: 15 |
West of House. You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door. There is a small mailbox here. ---- If you just want to play it, you can do it online now. Did any of you guys ever finish it? Edited 2020-10-27 17:11 by Krall |
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| thwill Guru Joined: 16/09/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4311 |
@Womble, beyond the obvious red additions can you confirm that screenshot has been doctored it looks likes several lines of output are missing between "File number?" and "Joe's Bar". Tom MMBasic for Linux, Game*Mite, CMM2 Welcome Tape, Creaky old text adventures |
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| Womble Senior Member Joined: 09/07/2020 Location: United KingdomPosts: 267 |
Tom ... Two images cut together, and then the red comments added in paint. Also resized for upload to forum. I mashed the imaged together to make it easier to upload and view. Here are the original images zipped up z-MIM original images.zip I simly renamed LEATHER.DAT to LEATHER.Z3 and copied it across to the SD card and ran Z-Mim to see if the file would load. Didn't actually play the game or compare with DOSBox. edit: Fired up DOSBox this morning and screen grabbed (PrtSc) the first screen of Leather Godesses. Does not appear to be missing any text. Leather_Dosbox.zip More thorough testing is on my ToDo list but been distracted coding stuff on my CMM2. My setup uses a Win10x64 laptop with a VGA-USB capture device --> Windows Camera (used to take screen grabs),and TerraTerm rather than a keyboard. CMM2 firmware was v5.05.06B15 Hope this helps Womble Edited 2020-10-28 23:26 by Womble |
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| Womble Senior Member Joined: 09/07/2020 Location: United KingdomPosts: 267 |
Tom ... I tried a few more *.DAT files from my CD-Rom (actually from the DOSBox installed folder). Renamed them to *.Z3 and they loaded OK into Z-MIM release 3  Image cropped and commented. Firmware was the most recent EXP version for the CMM2. Womble |
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| thwill Guru Joined: 16/09/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4311 |
Thanks @Womble, that's what I thought. We also have different versions of the LGOP data file (I have Release 160 / Serial number 860521) which includes the following disclaimer: WARNING!, Score: 0, Moves: 0 Some material in this story may not be suitable for children, especially the parts involving sex, which no one should know anything about until reaching the age of eighteen (twenty-one in certain states). This story is also unsuitable for censors, members of the Moral Majority, and anyone else who thinks that sex is dirty rather than fun. The attitudes expressed and language used in this story are representative only of the views of the author, and in no way represent the views of Infocom, Inc. or its employees, many of whom are children, censors, and members of the Moral Majority. (But very few of whom, based on last year's Christmas Party, think that sex is dirty.) By now, everyone who might be offended by LEATHER GODDESSES OF PHOBOS have whipped their disk out of their drive and, evidence in hand, are indignantly huffing toward their dealer, their lawyer, or their favorite repression-oriented politico. So... Hit the RETURN/ENTER key to begin!> I'm pretty confident that Z-MIM is a solid piece of code ... or at least it was until the recent firmware optimisations ... however no doubt things will settle down again soon. Best wishes, Tom MMBasic for Linux, Game*Mite, CMM2 Welcome Tape, Creaky old text adventures |
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| Womble Senior Member Joined: 09/07/2020 Location: United KingdomPosts: 267 |
Tom ... Yes I get that "diclaimer" but it appears on a separate screen. One which I didnt Screen Grab. The extra screen is displayed before you actually get into the game on my version. Regards Womble |
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| thwill Guru Joined: 16/09/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4311 |
OK, same for me. I wonder if Bill got Zork running before we hijacked this thread to talk about LGOP ? Tom MMBasic for Linux, Game*Mite, CMM2 Welcome Tape, Creaky old text adventures |
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| Womble Senior Member Joined: 09/07/2020 Location: United KingdomPosts: 267 |
Hopefully he should have. To be honest I just randomly grabbed a .DAT file and tried it. Pure chance it was LGOP. At least I have now also tried the three Zork files  Great work on Z-Mim, it appears to be rock solid as far as I can determine. Womble |
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| thwill Guru Joined: 16/09/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4311 |
Thanks, maybe one day I'll feel inspired to extend it to support .z5 (and .z4) files which will open up the available catalogue of games from ~20 to > 100. Best wishes, Tom MMBasic for Linux, Game*Mite, CMM2 Welcome Tape, Creaky old text adventures |
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| William Leue Guru Joined: 03/07/2020 Location: United StatesPosts: 405 |
Tom, I have not yet had time to test Zork on CMM2 with Z-Mim. I had missed your note about renaming the .dat files to .z3. I will try it ASAP. Thanks! -Bill |
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