NAME

plotz - Poly-Lingual Opcode Translator for the Z-machine

SYNOPSIS

plotz.pl storyfile[.z?|dat] [output_suffix]

If you don't give a suffix to the storyfile, plotz will look for a file with that root, and suffix .z? or .dat.

output_suffix can be pl, pir, or xml. It tells plotz which language to translate to. Perl is the default.

DESCRIPTION

plotz translates a Z-code story file into another language. That file can then be (compiled and) run to replicate the functionality of running a standard Z-code interpreter like Zip or Frotz on the story file.

Since the disassembling of the Z-file will be the same no matter what your output language is, in theory you can add a new output language with only half the work. (OK, 90% of the work.) The first attempts to make use of this will be a Perl and a PIR (Parrot Intermediate Language) translation.

aka Perpetrating Linguistics On The Z-machine.

AUTHOR

Amir Karger (akarger@cpan.org)

LICENSE

Copyright (c) 2003-4 Amir Karger. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

NOTES

Plotz is a Yiddish word describing what your mother does when she finds out you're wasting your life playing computer games instead of becoming a doctor. And you couldn't call once in a while?

Plotz is the name of a machine company in Cleveland.

Plotz was used on the rec.arts.int-fiction newsgroup in 1999 to describe that indescribable something that interactive fiction games have that draws you in and keeps you playing even if there isn't an actual plot.