Saving on a restored game makes Frotz lose its mind

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What steps will reproduce the problem?
1.Open new game
2.Save game
3.Restore save
4.Play a bit
5.Save on top of restore
6.Screen goes blank or previously opened game appears

What is the expected output or behavior?  What do you see instead?
The game should keep playing as expected. Instead, the screen goes blank or 
previously opened game appears. Soon after this, Frotz usually crashes.

What version of Frotz are you using?
1.4.1

What version of iPhone/iPod Touch OS? (2.2.1, 3.0, 3.1.2, etc.)
4.0.2 (8a400)

What device model are you using (iPod Touch 2nd gen, iPhone 3G, etc.)
iPhone 4

Please provide any additional information below.
Please let me know when this is fixed. I'd love to start playing Frotz on my 
phone again.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by trulyoff...@gmail.com on 20 Aug 2010 at 11:51

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> I'd love to start playing Frotz on my phone again.

When did it stop working, right after a Frotz upgrade or an iOS upgrade?  Did 
the problem just start happening in 4.0.2?  (I cannot reproduce it in 4.0.1.)

Original comment by spath...@gmail.com on 20 Aug 2010 at 11:03

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I can't get it to do this with any of the built in games now, but if I upload 
Zork II from my copy of Lost Treasures, it won't play it at all now... like it 
remembers the game and hates it. Even if I delete it and re-upload it, the 
problem persists.

If I delete Frotz, reinstall it, and upload Zork II, it works for a while (as 
explained above). Then it goes bad. Until I delete Frotz again, it won't play 
Zork II anymore.

Original comment by trulyoff...@gmail.com on 21 Aug 2010 at 1:13

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I can't reproduce the problem with the LtoI version of Zork 2, either.

I wonder if it's timing-related, like maybe the autosave timer is interfering 
with a manual save.
Can you tell me when it first started happening?  Did it coincide with 
upgrading to iOS 4.0.2 or not?

Original comment by spath...@gmail.com on 21 Aug 2010 at 4:23

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Hmmm... I just got back into Frotz after watching Get Lamp. As a result, I 
can't say this just started happening with 4.0.2 Maybe I should just rely on 
the autosave rather than saving myself. How often does the autosave kick in? 
I'll rely on that for a bit and see if that fixes the problem.

Original comment by trulyoff...@gmail.com on 21 Aug 2010 at 2:44

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So I just removed Frotz from my iPhone. Then I reinstalled it. Then I uploaded 
Zork II (the same version that works perfectly on my laptop in MacFrotz). After 
picking up a few items and walking around a little, I went back to the story 
list and closed Frotz. Then I opened it again and launched the File Transfer 
server to see if there was an autosave. There was, so I closed the server and 
Frotz went back to a blank screen with only buttons back to the Story List, 
info view and keyboard button which brings up the keyboard, but the rest of the 
game area remains blank.

Original comment by trulyoff...@gmail.com on 21 Aug 2010 at 2:54

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OK, to clarify on your latest narrative:
After going back to the story list and closed Frotz:
 In iOS 4, closing Frotz just by pressing Home doesn't really close it because of multi-tasking.  Did you actually double-press Home and kill Frotz, or just relaunch it (which should have put you immediately back where you were at the Story List but with Zork II still running under Now Playing).   After hitting Done from the (i)nfo screen/File Transfer server, it should've taken you back to the Story List, if that's where you were when you pressed (i).  

I'm going to upgrade my OS to 4.0.2 to see if I can reproduce the issue then, 
since I haven't been able to using 4.0.1.  (I was delaying upgrading since 
4.0.2 supposedly only has a single fix in it against the bug allowing 
Safari-based jailbreaking.)

Original comment by spath...@gmail.com on 21 Aug 2010 at 5:10

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Good point. I just hit the home button. I did not kill Frotz, but instead just 
went back to the home screen. For completeness' sake, I tried following the 
previous steps, but instead of just going back to the home screen, I killed 
Frotz using the process you detailed above. The exact same thing happens. When 
I relaunch Frotz, the playfield is blank and yellow. 

Original comment by trulyoff...@gmail.com on 21 Aug 2010 at 5:45

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Also, I have played Frotz in the past on my iPhone, but go distracted when 
Apple made you stop allowing Web-based downloads. Get Lamp rekindled my 
interest, so here I am again.

Original comment by trulyoff...@gmail.com on 21 Aug 2010 at 5:47

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Are you using FTP or the web to transfer Zork 2?
Someone else reported problems with story files sometimes transferring 
incorrectly using FTP, so I wanna rule that out... (If you ARE using FTP, 
verify the file size in bytes is the same in Frotz as on your Mac!)

Original comment by spath...@gmail.com on 21 Aug 2010 at 5:51

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I'm doing a Web transfer using the latest version of Safari.

Original comment by trulyoff...@gmail.com on 21 Aug 2010 at 5:59

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Well, crap.  I'm running out of ideas.  I cannot reproduce the problem on my 
iPhone 4 using iOS 4.0.2 either.
I'm using Zork 2 (ZORK2.DAT) , Version 48 / Serial number 840904, from the Lost 
Treasures of Infocom, file size 92160.

If you cannot reproduce the problem with the built-in games, but reliably can 
with Zork 2, there must be something weird about the game file itself, or about 
the installation of non-built-in games.

If you are using a Zork 2 besides the one I just described, please attach the 
file to this bug report.
Also, try redownloading it from the Frotz web interface back to your Mac and 
verify the file is identical to what you originally uploaded.

Original comment by spath...@gmail.com on 21 Aug 2010 at 7:12

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Hey, I just randomly decided to check out your web site and noticed the nice 
picture of the Austin 360 bridge you have on the front page.

Do you, by chance, live in Austin?

Original comment by spath...@gmail.com on 21 Aug 2010 at 7:16

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I do live in Austin. If you do too, maybe we can troubleshoot this directly. 
BTW: the version of Zork 2 I have is listed as Release 7 / Serial number UG3AU5 
(attached). Thinking back, it very well might have been sourced somewhere other 
than the LToI disc I have.

Original comment by trulyoff...@gmail.com on 21 Aug 2010 at 7:36

Attachments:

• zork_2.z5

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That is actually a version 2 Z-machine file (even though its extension is .z5, 
it should be .z2).  It is really old and is not technically supported.
I'll still try to look into what's going on with it, but in the meantime, try 
the attached Zork2.z3 and see if it works better for you.  (Don't try to 
restore saved games from the other one into this one; that wouldn't work).

Original comment by spath...@gmail.com on 21 Aug 2010 at 7:47

Attachments:

• zork2.z3

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This one doesn't suffer from the same problem. Thanks. I guess I need to go 
back to my CDs (where did I put those?) to get my original files.

Thanks again,

Original comment by trulyoff...@gmail.com on 21 Aug 2010 at 7:56

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[deleted comment]

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I can't believe I found my archive from back when I purchased this collection. 
Interestingly enough, I don't have the Lost Treasures collections. Instead, I 
purchased The Masterpieces of Infocom. Now I just need to figure out how to 
take this mishmash of files, intended for use on old PCs and Macs, and turn 
them into useable games again.

UPDATE: Got it going! The .dat file from this archive works and it's the same 
version you mentioned above. Thanks so much.

Original comment by trulyoff...@gmail.com on 21 Aug 2010 at 8:51

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Cool, glad everything's working for you now.

Btw, I was able to reproduce the problem on my end using your V2 Zork 2 story 
file.
It looks like there is a difference in the way V2 stories use the stack that is 
causing the restores to not work correctly.  I will either figure out how to 
fix it, or put in an explicit warning that < V3 stories are not supported in 
the next Frotz release.

I'll leave this bug report open as a reminder until then.

Original comment by spath...@gmail.com on 22 Aug 2010 at 1:55

• Changed state: Accepted

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Issue 113 has been merged into this issue.

Original comment by spath...@gmail.com on 22 Aug 2010 at 1:58

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I found the problem that was making Frotz barf on Z2 games, so they should just 
work now as of Frotz 1.5.
(So I didn't bother to add a warning about them.)

Original comment by spath...@gmail.com on 5 Nov 2010 at 5:40

• Changed state: Fixed