Update!: userfriendly ran an infocom-based strip on my 22nd birthday. (And on several more days in November)!

In the spirit of Infocom (and lynx) this page is text-only.

The Interactive Fiction craze of the last few years has spawned a much-needed revival of Infocom-related interest among gamers of all sorts, something that even Activision couldn't do in the 12 years since it bought Infocom. Rather than spewing my own personal anecdotal Infocom stories or attempting to encompass other material which is really beyond the scope of this webpage, I'll get right to the point. This page's purpose is to get linux users playing Infocom games. Even the lowliest 386/16sx running Linux can join the fun. Here's how to go about it:

First you need an interpreter, which is a piece of software that allows you to play the games themselves, which come in the form of data files (more on that later).

Please note that all executables are pre-compiled libc5 binaries, unless otherwise noted.
You may have to shift-click on the executables in order to download them properly.

X-Based: These interpreters utilize the X-window system.
  • The ITF (InfoTaskForce) interpreter (a.k.a. xinfocom): source code - executable
  • XZip: source code - executable

    Text-Based: these are non-graphical interpreters, but they also run well in an xterm.
  • Zip: source code and a patch to make it work with linux - executable
  • Jzip: source code - executable
    There is a new beta of Jzip that is nearly complete. Check it out.
  • Frotz: source code - executable
    Courtesy of Thilo Mezger, who patched and compiled Frotz for Redhat Linux 5.0 (libc6/glibc2), we are pleased to offer you source and binary RPM's.
    Next thing you'll probably want to get is a game (or several of them). This can be tricky. Legally, only Zork 1-3 and Zork The Undiscovered Underground are available for free. However, there is another way to get more Infocom games, one that I do not condone of course. ftp.apple.asimov.net has a directory filled with Apple II Infocom .dsk files. You can download these and use a tool called ap2inf to convert them from Apple's format to one that is readable by the interpreters. (Here's an ap2inf executable). This is a rather ass-backwards method of getting games but it does work in the end. A few of the games you'll find in that directory won't work, so don't be surprised.

    Of course if you're a fine upstanding citizen, you can buy CD-ROM collections of these games...
    Links other than the ones already covered above:

  • Pete's outstanding Infocom page, the best on the net.
  • The Interactive Fiction Archive
  • the Archive's American mirror
  • A web-based guide to the Archive.
    http://www.cfug.org/lou || lou@cfug.org
    $Louis J. Rinaldi: index.html, 1999/11/28$