Zblorb 101

[B]

Guys,

I've googled Zblorb and looked through the RAIF, but I'm just missing
what to do with a Zblorb. I downloaded the Zblorb for Bronze, but I
can't figure out what to do with it...I can't open it with the Inform 7
IDE, and I can't pick an app to do something with it. Sorry if I'm
just being a moron, but could someone point me to a resource or explain
how to use the zblorb?

Thanks so much!
B

[Wei-ju Wu]

Hi B,

a zblorb is the release file for IF written using Inform. Depending on
the type game, you can play it using either one of the more modern
Z-machine interpreters (which would work in your case "Bronze") or a
Glulx interpreter.

If you want to look for the source, I guess you'd have to download the
game's source code (it is available from Inform's website).

Wei-ju

Post by B
Guys,
I've googled Zblorb and looked through the RAIF, but I'm just missing
what to do with a Zblorb. I downloaded the Zblorb for Bronze, but I
can't figure out what to do with it...I can't open it with the Inform 7
IDE, and I can't pick an app to do something with it. Sorry if I'm
just being a moron, but could someone point me to a resource or explain
how to use the zblorb?
Thanks so much!
B

[Wei-ju Wu]

oops, a *Z*blorb is always for the Z-machine, of course :-) (containing
both the program code and resource data)

[Gemma Bristow]

Post by B
I've googled Zblorb and looked through the RAIF, but I'm just missing
what to do with a Zblorb. I downloaded the Zblorb for Bronze, but I
can't figure out what to do with it...I can't open it with the Inform
7 IDE, and I can't pick an app to do something with it. Sorry if I'm
just being a moron, but could someone point me to a resource or
explain how to use the zblorb?
Thanks so much!
B

You should be able to open a .zblorb file with Frotz, although if your
experience is anything like mine you'll have to explicitly associate the
format with Frotz before it'll recognise it. After that, it just plays
like a regular Z-code file.

Gemma

[Gemma Bristow]

Post by Gemma Bristow
You should be able to open a .zblorb file with Frotz, although if your
experience is anything like mine you'll have to explicitly associate the
format with Frotz before it'll recognise it. After that, it just plays
like a regular Z-code file.

Sorry (*slaps forehead*) - that of course isn't so good if you need
multimedia support (which I forget, because I never have).

[John W. Kennedy]

Post by Gemma Bristow

Post by B
I've googled Zblorb and looked through the RAIF, but I'm just missing
what to do with a Zblorb. I downloaded the Zblorb for Bronze, but I
can't figure out what to do with it...I can't open it with the Inform
7 IDE, and I can't pick an app to do something with it. Sorry if I'm
just being a moron, but could someone point me to a resource or
explain how to use the zblorb?
Thanks so much!
B

You should be able to open a .zblorb file with Frotz, although if your
experience is anything like mine you'll have to explicitly associate the
format with Frotz before it'll recognise it. After that, it just plays
like a regular Z-code file.

If you mean Windows Frotz (WinFrotz is an older program, and Frotz is a
DOS program), the first time you run it it will automatically create the
associations.

[David Kinder]

Post by B
I've googled Zblorb and looked through the RAIF, but I'm just missing
what to do with a Zblorb. I downloaded the Zblorb for Bronze, but I
can't figure out what to do with it...I can't open it with the Inform 7
IDE, and I can't pick an app to do something with it. Sorry if I'm
just being a moron, but could someone point me to a resource or explain
how to use the zblorb?

You need to download and install an interpreter that can cope with the
zblorb file.

Windows Frotz (of which I'm one of the authors) will handle this:
http://mirror.ifarchive.org/if-archive/infocom/interpreters/frotz/WindowsFrotzInstaller.exe

Some other interpreters can also cope with Blorb files (possibly
Gargoyle?), hopefully someone who has used them will post instructions
here.

David

[Brian Campbell]

You'll need to get a relatively modern Z-machine interpreter. On
Windows, there is Windows Frotz, while on the Mac, there are Zoom and
Spatterlight. I'm pretty sure ZMPP, written in Java so it should run
everywhere, supports Zblorb. There may be other interpreters that
support Blorb-wrapped z-code games, so search around, or you can get a
tool to unwrap the bare z-code from the blorb.

Post by B
Guys,
I've googled Zblorb and looked through the RAIF, but I'm just missing
what to do with a Zblorb. I downloaded the Zblorb for Bronze, but I
can't figure out what to do with it...I can't open it with the Inform 7
IDE, and I can't pick an app to do something with it. Sorry if I'm
just being a moron, but could someone point me to a resource or explain
how to use the zblorb?
Thanks so much!
B

[s***@gmail.com]

Andrew Plotkin sent me a tool to unwrap the .zblorb though I'm not sure where I put it. The zblorb wrapper is annoying, as any older systems or emulated systems from Kindle to Wii would have problems with the overlong file extension.

[David Griffith]

Post by s***@gmail.com
Andrew Plotkin sent me a tool to unwrap the .zblorb though I'm not
sure where I put it. The zblorb wrapper is annoying, as any older
systems or emulated systems from Kindle to Wii would have problems
with the overlong file extension.

What are you replying to? Quoting would help.

I have some tools for manipulating Blorb files at
https://github.com/DavidGriffith/blorbtools.

Andrew's Blorb tools are at http://www.eblong.com/zarf/blorb/