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An interpreter (or terp, for short) is an application program ('app') which reads a story file and presents the game contained inside that file to the player. The interpreter itself is not part of the game, although it may provide shortcuts to make the playing more convenient. Many interpreters allow the player to enter commands (i.e., LOOK or GO NORTH) by pressing a single key combination (a 'hotkey'). In addition, some interpreters allow the player to tweak display options to his liking (i.e., fonts and colors).
The Kindle app gives users the ability to read eBooks on a beautiful, easy-to-use interface. You may also read your book on your phone, tablet and Kindle e-Reader, and Amazon Whispersync will automatically sync your most recent page read, bookmarks, notes, and highlights, so. CocoaTADS is a port of the HTML TADS interpreter to Mac OS X. HTML TADS is a multimedia interactive-fiction platform, allowing you to play text adventure games (many of which can be found here), sort of like the Infocom games from the 1980s, except that HTML TADS allows not only text but also graphics, sound, and even animation. The last version of Scrivener 2, capable of being run on Intel hardware from Mac OS X 10.9 to macOS 10.13 “High Sierra” (it has not been tested, nor is it supported to run this version of Scrivener, on any more recent version of macOS). If you purchased from Apple’s Mac App Store, you will need to use their App Store software to download. Mac OS X Frotz (Version 2.41 / Distribution 1.5 / 020218) Stefan Jokisch, ported by Mike Johnson: Download (1489KB) For Mac OS X 10.1.2 or later. Complies with Standard 1.0. Mac OS MultiAventures (Version 1.8.3 / 970922) Mark Howell and Pierre Tremblay: Download (489KB) Multiple-VM interpreter package, including a Zip port. V1-V5 and V8 support.
The interpreter's function in interactive fiction is akin to that of a movie projector in motion pictures. It translates the 'raw material' of the work into a more palatable format for humans.
Technically, interpreters are usually virtual machines. They don't care about the higher-level language used to create the compiled code that is run on them. The Z-machine, for example, is usually programmed with Inform, but Infocom, who created it, used a compiler and language called ZIL. Glulx is similar to the Z-Machine, but designed to remove some limitations of that design, and also is typically programmed with Inform.
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Interpreters by Platform
One of the advantages to the Virtual Machine concept is cross-platform compatibility. A story-file only needs to be written once and can be run on any computer on which an interpreter exists for similar story files. This makes the interpreter the only piece of software that needs to be written for a specific platform.
There are interpreters for nearly every modern (and many not so modern) computing platforms.
Some interpreters are usable for most formats of interactive fiction.
- For Mac OS X there is Lectrote and Spatterlight
- For Unix systems there is Gargoyle and Lectrote
- For Windows there is Lectrote
- For Android and iPhone/iPad there are many choices Mobile apps for downloading or playing IF
- For Ubuntu Touch there is Gelek Vanilla
You can find a popular interpreter for your platform and IF format in the following table:
| Zcode | TADS1 | Glulx | Hugo | ADRIFT | Alan2 | Alan3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Story File Extension | .z5, .z8,.z3,.zblorb .zlb (other .z# or .dat, rarely) | .gam, .t3 | .ulx, .blb, .gblorb .glb | .hex | .taf | .acd/.dat | .a3c/.a3r |
| Android | Fabularium, JFrotz, Incant, Son of Hunky Punk, Text Fiction, Thunderword, Twisty, ZMPP | Fabularium, Son of Hunky Punk, Thunderword | AndroidIF, Fabularium, Incant, Thunderword | Fabularium, Thunderword | Fabularium | Fabularium, Thunderword | Fabularium, Thunderword |
| DOS | DOS Frotz | DOS TADS | Git for Dos | Hugo | SCARE | ARun, Glk ARun | (none) |
| Linux | Gargoyle, Frotz (redhat binary RPM), Lectrote | Gargoyle, QTads | Gargoyle, Lectrote, Zag | Gargoyle, Hugo wxGTK, Hugor, Lectrote | Gargoyle, SCARE | Gargoyle, Glk Arun | ARun in Full Distr, Gargoyle |
| Mac OS 10.12 Sierra | Gargoyle (unofficial build for MacOS 10.12), Lectrote, Spatterlight | Gargoyle (unofficial build for MacOS 10.12), Spatterlight | Lectrote, Spatterlight | Lectrote, Spatterlight | Spatterlight (up to Adrift 4) | Spatterlight | Spatterlight |
| Mac OS X | Gargoyle, Lectrote, Spatterlight, Zoom | CocoaTADS, Gargoyle, HyperTADS2, Spatterlight, QTads | Lectrote, Spatterlight, Zag | Spatterlight, Hugo, Hugor, Lectrote | Spatterlight (up to Adrift 4), SCARE | Spatterlight | Arun in Full Distr, Spatterlight |
| Mac System 9 | MaxZip, Nitfol | HyperTADS | Glulxe for Mac | Hugo | (none) | ARun, Glk ARun | (none) |
| Palm | Frobnitz | (none) | CellarDoor | Hugo Palm | (none) | (none) | (none) |
| PocketPC | Pocket Frotz | Pocket TADS | Git PocketPC | Hugo WinCE | (none) | (none) | (none) |
| RISC OS | Frotz, Zip2000 | AcornTADS | (none) | AcornHugo | (none) | (none) | (none) |
| Symbian | Frotz 1.08 uiq | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | (none) |
| Java | ZPlet | ? | Zag | ? | JAsea | ? | (none) |
| Windows | Filfre, Windows Frotz, Lectrote | Gargoyle, HTML TADS Playkit, QTads, | Filfre, Git, Glulxe, Lectrote, Zag | Hugo Multimedia Interpreter, Hugor, Lectrote | ADRIFT Runner | ARun, Gargoyle, Glk Arun | Gargoyle, WinARun |
- 1 As of April 2012, only QTads is compatible with TADS 3.1 games. Other TADS interpreters are compatible with TADS 3.0 games, but may not support HTML TADS graphic and sound features.
- 2 HyperTADS isn't native to MacOS X yet, but runs in the Classic compatibility environment.
These are not all the interpreters available, just some of the most popular ones for the most popular platforms. The IF Archive has a fairly comprehensive, if not exactly friendly, list of interpreters that you can download:
Also see Websites for downloading or playing IF, and Mobile apps for downloading or playing IF.
Types of Interpreters
- Glulx
This is something of a redesign of the Z-Machine with many new features. - Hugo
This is a system designed by Kent Tessman, somewhat inspired by Inform and TADS but designed to be easier to work with. - TADS
This is a system designed by Mike Roberts in the late 1980s. TADS2 is well established and TADS3 is a redesign. - Z-machine
This is the one that Infocom invented in the late 1970s.
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