=========================================================================== --------------------------------------------------------------------------- | READ THIS FILE ALL THE WAY THROUGH BEFORE ATTEMPTING TO INSTALL FROTZ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- =========================================================================== Frotz was originally written specifically for MS/PC DOS. When it began to be ported to other machines and operating systems, the DOS port lagged behind. This has been fixed to the extent that DOS is capable of the new enhancements. For instance, DOS Frotz is now capable of using Blorb files to get audio and graphical data. The old Infocom-style mechanism of doing this has been removed. Sound is supported through Soundblaster compatible sound cards. Graphic levels from Hercules to MCGA are supported. To compile DOS Frotz, you need the following: * Borland Turbo C++ 3.00. This is the latest version I'm aware of capable of building 16-bit DOS applications. * PC-DOS, MS-DOS, or DR-DOS version 5.0 or higher. FreeDOS works well too. ============== Compilation || ============== Turbo C++ is typically installed to C:\tc. Make sure your path contains C:\tc\bin. When this is done, type "make". Did Borland's make program run? Now type "tcc". If those two commands work, then you should be ready to compile. Somehow get the source tree onto your DOS machine or into a DOS emulation environment. If you're using emulation, this should be as simple as copying the tree you're in now into the proper directory. For real hardware, a floppy disk will do. To compile, go into the Frotz directory and type "build". That will invoke "build.bat", a batch file that simply executes "make -f makefile.tc". The reason for this is a bit of syntactic sugar to deal with the fact that it is impractical to have one Makefile build both Unix and DOS versions. After about a minute, you should have FROTZ.EXE. This file is all you need to run Frotz. Put it somewhere in your path and go to wherever you keep your Infocom games. Type "frotz zork1.dat" or whatever and there you go. ======================== Hardware Requirements || ======================== The exact hardware requirements of DOS Frotz are yet to be determined. Please send me reports of what Zcode works and what doesn't.