Glulx
Glulx is a virtual machine designed by Andrew Plotkin which by default uses the Glk Application Programming Interface (API). The Inform language can compile bytecode for Glulx. It imposes far fewer limitations on game size than the Z-machine and offers the I/O features of Glk, allowing Inform programmers to write larger games with more complicated user interfaces, without having to learn another programming language.
Version History
- 3.1.2: Added support for floating point arithmetic.
- 3.1.1: Added support for function acceleration.
- 3.1.0: Added support for block operations and heap memory allocation. Games using Inform 7's "indexed text" or "list" functionality require an interpreter that supports 3.1.0.
- 3.0.0: Added Unicode support.
- 2.0.0: Added modular I/O system system. The default I/O system is no longer Glk, which makes this an incompatible change.
- 1.0.0: Previous versions were all called "1.0.0"
How to play Glulx games
Glulx games can be played with a variety of interpreters. See the FAQ entry for links to the latest version of recommended interpreters for your platform.
Implementations
| Name | Author | Glulx version | Release version/date | Packaged in | Language | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glulxe | Andrew Plotkin | 3.1.2 | 0.5.4, 23 January 2017 | Gargoyle, Spatterlight, Zoom, Thunderword | C | The reference implementation |
| Filfre | Jimmy Maher | 3.1.1 | 0.988, 8 April 2010 | C++ | ||
| FyreVM | Jesse McGrew | ? | 25 September 2009 | C# (.NET/Mono) | Uses Channel IO rather than Glk | |
| Git | Iain Merrick | 3.1.2 | 1.3.5, 30 November 2016 | Gargoyle, Zoom, Thunderword | C | |
| Quixe | Andrew Plotkin | 3.1.2 | 1.0.2, 18 August 2010 | Javascript | ||
| Zag | Jon Zeppieri and David Turner | 3.1.2 | 1.07, 1 June 2012 | Java | ||
| ZMPP | Wei-ju Wu | ? | 1.5-preview, 3 August 2008 | Java | ||
| Unique | Own | ? | Incant, AndroidIF | Java |
Status of Interpreters
This table is up to date as of July 2009, at which time the most recent Glulxe was 0.4.4, the most recent Glulx VM was 3.1.1, and the most recent Glk was 0.7.0. It includes interpreters for major platforms only.
| Interpreter | Spatterlight | Zoom1 | Zag | Windows Glulxe | Git | Gargoyle2 | Filfre | FyreVM | Quixe | iphonefrotz | Thunderword |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Platforms | Mac OS X | Mac OS X, Unix | Java | Windows | Windows, Unix | Windows, Unix | Windows | .NET/Silverlight | Web | iOS | Android |
| Author | Tor Andersson | Andrew Hunter | Jon Zeppieri | David Kinder | Iain Merrick | Tor Andersson | Jimmy Maher | Textfyre | Andrew Plotkin | Craig Smith | Stephen Gutknecht |
| Version | 0.5.0 | 1.1.4.1 | 12.0.0 / 1.06 | 0.4.4.136 | 1.2.4 | 2008-12-25 | 0.981 | n/a | 1.0.1 | 1.7 | pre-release |
| Latest Release | 6/08 | 6/09 | 3/05 | 03/09 | 4/09 | 12/08 | 07/08 | 3/09 | 29/7/10 | 21/8/14 | 3/11/17 |
| Glulxe version | 0.4.3 | 0.4.2? | ?? | 0.4.3 | ?? | 0.4.3 | ?? | n/a | n/a | n/a | 0.5.3 |
| Glulx VM version | 3.1.0 | 3.1.0 | 2.0.0 | 3.1.0 | 3.1.1 | 3.1.0 | 3.1 | 3.1 | 3.1.2 | 3.1.2 | 3.1.2 |
| Glk | ?? | CocoaGlk 1.0.7 | Zing | Windows Glk 1.36 | Windows Glk 1.46 | GarGlk | ?? | none | GlkOte | ?? | RemGlk |
| Glk Standard | 0.7.0 | 0.7.0 | nonstandard | 0.7.0 | 0.7.0 ?? | 0.7.0 | ?? | n/a | 0.7.0 | 0.7.4 | 0.7.5 |
1 Zoom users can choose either standard Glulxe or the faster Git to interpret Glulx games.
2 Gargoyle can use either Git or Glulxe to play games..
3 Thunderword users can choose either standard Glulxe or the faster Git version 1.3.5 to interpret Glulx games.