Doesn't read Infocom Arthur and Zork0 (ZIP files but not ZIP archives)

[GoogleCodeExporter]

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. put Arthur ZIP or Zork Zero Zip on system
2. says doesn't have source file
3.

What is the expected output or behavior?  What do you see instead?
Game should play - WinFrotz figures this out

What version of Frotz are you using?
1.0.1

What version of iPhone/iPod Touch OS? (2.0, 2.0.1, 2.0.2)
2.1

Please provide any additional information below.

This is a minor issue for most people, but I'm trying to put my whole 
Infocom text adventure collection together.  Infocom started to get 
innovative in late years with Arthur, Journey and Zork Zero, so file 
format is different from standard .DAT z-machine interpreter file.  
Winfrotz figures this out somehow, though.  I consider this extra-credit 
for an already wonderful utility, btw!  Why does this matter to me? 
Because Bob Bates, who wrote Arthur, is an old friend of mine, and I want 
to be able to tell him I can play Arthur on my iPhone! <g>  I have all 
these games as part of my purchase of the Activision collections, no fear 
there.  I think it would be an Act of History if someone could somehow 
sell this whole package (ALL of the Infocom stuff) as one App for the 
iPhone -- might wipe out the current computer games industry. :)

Very Best,
Steve

Original issue reported on code.google.com by swartof...@gmail.com on 12 Oct 2008 at 3:46

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Wow, cool that you know Bob Bates.  I never got to play Arthur because I played 
all my Infocom games on the 
C64 and it was never published for that platform.  I did play Sherlock, though, 
and many of his games for 
Legend including Timequest and the Gateway series.  Fun.

You can tell him you can play Sherlock on your iPhone, that's something, right?

Arthur, Zork Zero, Journey, and Shogun are Version 6 games, and this is 
documented to be unsupported at 
the moment.  Version 6 games are harder to support; in addition to graphics, 
the windowing, cursor control, 
etc all work differently than other versions of the Z-Machine format.   
Supporting this is a bit of work, and 
since there are only 4 games in this format and no one's making new V6 games, 
worrying about this wasn't a 
high priority.   I'll probably try to make V6 games work when I'm finished with 
a few other items like 
improving save/load interface and building in a file transfer program.

Original comment by spath...@gmail.com on 13 Oct 2008 at 5:02

[GoogleCodeExporter]

True enough, re: Sherlock! :)

Yes, I've been studying up a little more on V6, totally understand.  Had to do 
a 
little downloading of Blorb file updates for the graphics and sound content for 
Winfrotz (I'd been playing those without! finally looked at, er, the Help info 
on 
this), which is apparently the workaround in Windows for the issue.

Definitely better to focus dev effort on higher priorities, though, thanks!

Original comment by swartof...@gmail.com on 13 Oct 2008 at 2:14

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Have you tried renaming your .zip file to .z6?  I haven't tried any of the V6 
games
on iPhone yet, but this resolved the problem for me on another interpreter I 
used
several years ago.

Original comment by dark.ry...@gmail.com on 15 Mar 2009 at 7:28

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Changing type of bug to enhancement request.

Original comment by spath...@gmail.com on 5 Apr 2009 at 1:29

• Added labels: Type-Enhancement
• Removed labels: Type-Defect

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Original comment by spath...@gmail.com on 16 Apr 2009 at 5:03

• Changed state: Accepted
• Added labels: Priority-Low
• Removed labels: Priority-Medium

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Would LOVE to play Zork Zero on my iPad.

Original comment by terenceb...@gmail.com on 24 May 2012 at 10:22

[GoogleCodeExporter]

"Supporting this is a bit of work, and 
since there are only 4 games in this format and no one's making new V6 games, 
worrying about this wasn't a 
high priority."

Perfectly understandable, would just like to point out that there are three 
more games in z6:  "Sunburst Contamination", "Moments Out of Time!" and 
"Sherlock Holmes Solo Adventures 2". 

I'll be getting an iPod Touch soon, am dying to find out if I can play Beyond 
Zork in it. ;) Also very pleased to hear that you are, indeed, considering z6 
support, even if it isn't for the near future!

Original comment by ilprimoc...@gmail.com on 24 Jan 2013 at 11:48

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I love Arthur and Zork 0ane it would be awesome if I could play these games on 
iOS.

Original comment by blindnc...@gmail.com on 3 May 2013 at 9:49

[natedugg]

I was able to import Arthur by renaming the ZIP file to have a z3 extension. The game is perfectly playable as a text adventure, but it is still missing the graphics. I guess it needs the BLB file? Any chance this will get fixed one of these days?

[Calorion]

What's the status on this issue? I tried to import Shōgun, but the .zip wouldn't import. Changing the extension to .z6 worked, but there's still the .blb file that didn't import, plus the game uses arrow keys and function keys that don't appear on my keyboard.