Interpreter

An interpreter (or terp, for short) is a program 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 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.

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 Spatterlight
• For Windows and Unix there is Gargoyle

You can find a popular interpreter for your platform and IF format in the following table:

	Zcode	TADS	Glulx	Hugo	ADRIFT	Alan2	Alan3
Story File Extension	.z5, .z8,.z3,.zblorb (other .z# or .dat, rarely)	.gam, .t3	.ulx, .blb, .gblorb	.hex	.taf	.acd/.dat	.a3c/.a3r
Windows	Windows Frotz	HTML TADS Playkit	Glulxe, Git, Zag	Hugo Multimedia Interpreter	ADRIFT Runner	Gargoyle, ARun, Glk Arun	Gargoyle, WinARun
Linux	Gargoyle, Frotz (redhat binary RPM)	Gargoyle, QTads	Gargoyle, Zag	Gargoyle, Hugo wxGTK	Gargoyle, SCARE	Gargoyle, Glk Arun	Gargoyle, ARun in Full Distr
Mac OS X	Spatterlight, Zoom	CocoaTADS, Spatterlight, QTads, HyperTADS1	Spatterlight, Zag	Spatterlight, Hugo Mac	Spatterlight, SCARE	(none)	Spatterlight, Arun in Full Distr
Mac System 9	Nitfol, MaxZip	HyperTADS	Glulxe for Mac	Hugo Mac	(none)	ARun, Glk ARun	(none)
RISC OS	Zip2000, Frotz	AcornTADS	(none)	AcornHugo	(none)	(none)	(none)
Palm	Frobnitz	(none)	CellarDoor	Hugo Palm	(none)	(none)	(none)
PocketPC	Pocket Frotz	Pocket TADS	Git PocketPC	Hugo WinCE	(none)	(none)	(none)
DOS	DOS Frotz	DOS TADS	Git for Dos	Hugo DOS (16 bit)	SCARE DOS	ARun, Glk ARun	(none)
Symbian	Frotz 1.08 uiq	?	?	?	?	?	(none)
Java	Zplet	?	Zag	?	Jasea	?	(none)

¹ 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:

• http://mirror.ifarchive.org/if-archive/interpreters-infocom-zcode/
• http://mirror.ifarchive.org/if-archive/interpreters-other/
• http://mirror.ifarchive.org/if-archive/interpreters-tads/

Also see Websites for downloading or playing IF.

Types of Interpreters

• Z-machine
  This is the one that Infocom invented in the late 1970s.
• Glulx
  This is something of a redesign of the Z-Machine with many new features.
• TADS
  This is a system designed by Mike Roberts in the late 1980s. TADS2 is well established and TADS3 is a redesign.
• Hugo
  This is a system designed by Kent Tessman, somewhat inspired by Inform and TADS but designed to be easier to work with.