To put it simply, Kevin Bracey's Zip 2000 is by far and away the most wonderful front-end you could ever hope for with which to play text adventures. It lets you play Infocom interactive fiction, or games written with the Inform compiler (which includes several very good free ones), in the comfort of your desktop, and takes advantage of screen modes with more than 256 colours if available. It makes wonderful use of outline fonts, and offers full 'point and click' mouse support where games allow it.
Features include:
To date I haven't found any bugs, either. It is so flexible that you can even use it to play the game of Life, should you so wish!
Kevin Bracey generously allows Zip 2000 to be distributed
absolutely free of charge. Until recently you could pay a modest fee for an even better version, but even this is free now.
Download the latest version (1.31 at the time of writing) from:
ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/infocom/interpreters/zip/Acorn_Zip2000_Std1.0.spk
Also, go and look at the Inform home page, Graham Nelson's superb
adventure game compiler, which also includes details of how to get free
Inform games:
http://www.gnelson.demon.co.uk/inform.htm
Please note that the screenshots on this page have been reduced in size and detail to reduce download times.
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