Note that when the Z-Machine was designed, computers usually had fixed displays, so little thought was put into allowing the game and interpreter to cope with changes to the screen size, font or colour settings during a game. Windows Frotz does its best to cope with display option changes, but occasionally it may prove necessary to restart or restore a saved position to get the game to run correctly with changed display options.
Font
The proportional font used for text in the game.
Fixed width font
The fixed-width font used for text in the game that needs a particular layout, such as the status bar, or any
maps or symbols the game might display.
Font size
The size, in points, of the fonts used for text in the game. This applies to both the proportional and fixed
width fonts.
Text colour
The default colour for text. Unless the game explicitly chooses a colour, this colour will be used for all text
in the game.
Background colour
The default colour for the background. Unless the game explicitly chooses a colour, this colour will be used for
the background.
Left margin
The width, in pixels, of the left display margin.
Right margin
The width, in pixels, of the right display margin.
Fast scrolling
If this option is selected, text is scrolled as fast as possible.
Show [More] prompts
If this option is selected, the interpreter pauses with a [More] prompt after displaying a screen of text.
Interpreter number
The code passed to the game to identify the machine the game is running on. This is used by a few of the later
Infocom games to change the appearance of the game. For example, by default Zork Zero has a black
background, but if the interpreter number is Amiga the background is grey (from version 366), and if
the interpreter number is MSDOS the background is white (from version 387). Also, Journey adds
an extra menu to the interpreter window only when the interpreter number is Macintosh.
Report errors
The rule the interpreter follows on encountering an error in the game that is not serious enough for it to
have to stop.
The choices are:
| Never | Never show any messages. All errors are silently ignored. |
| First time | Show a message the first time the error occurs, and silently ignore it after that. |
| Always | Always show a message when an error occurs. |
| Fatal error | Treat all errors as fatal errors. When an error occurs the interpreter will stop. |
Ignore runtime errors
If this option is selected, the interpreter will attempt to continue, even if it encounters a serious error in
the game. It is recommended that this option not be selected unless you are trying to run a game for which source
is not available and the author cannot be contacted.
Username
This option sets the eight character user name that is copied into the game's header when the game is
started. This is only used by a few test versions of Infocom's games.
Expand abbreviations
With their later games, Infocom introduced the shortcut commands g, x and z as synonyms
for the commands again, examine and wait, respectively. If this option is selected, the
interpreter will expand these shortcuts into the full command, even if the game does not support it. This is
useful for playing the older Infocom adventures.
Set the Tandy header flag
This option sets or clears a flag in the game's header that was used by Infocom to indicate a game being
sold through the Tandy Corporation. This causes some of the older Infocom games to behave slightly differently.
For further information, see
http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/infocom/info/tandy_bits.html
Wrap script lines
If selected, all output sent to the transcript file is wrapped so that no line is longer than 80 characters.
Otherwise, a new line is only started in the transcript file when the game generates a carriage return, such
as at the end of a paragraph.
If the game has an iFiction record ...
When Frotz loads a game that contains an iFiction record, it may show the About This Game dialog.
This option determines whether the dialog is never shown, only shown the first time, or shown every time.
Set Frotz as the default ...
If selected, then when Frotz is started it registers itself with Windows Explorer, so that double clicking
on a Z-code file (i.e. a file ending with .z1, .z2, .z3, .z4, .z5, .z6, .z7 or .z8) runs Frotz and opens
that file.
Note that this option is only available under versions of Windows prior to Vista, as Windows' User Account
Control feature prevents such registration.
Note that this option page is only shown if the computer has Microsoft's Speech API version 5 installed on it.
Speak text as it is printed
When this option is selected, the interpreter will speak all text as it is printed by the game.
Voice
The voice to speak text with.
Speed
This slider controls how quickly the chosen voice speaks the game's text.