rezrov - an Infocom game interpreter

DESCRIPTION

 Rezrov is an implementation of a z-machine written in pure perl.  In 
 other words, it's a program that can play Infocom games, such as Zork.
 Full documentation, in POD format, can be found embedded in the file
 "rezrov".

 See http://www.voicenet.com/~mikeedmo/rezrov/ for online documentation,
 screenshots, etc.

COPYRIGHT

 Copyright (c) 1998, 1999 Michael Edmonson <edmonson@poboxes.com>.  All
 rights reserved.  This program is free software; you can redistribute
 it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

REVISION HISTORY

 0.16  Sun Mar  7 20:50:43 EST 1999
        - more optimizations:
           - ZFrame.pm gone, call stack now in StoryFile.pm
           - a bit more "macro"-style inlining
           - StoryFile.pm is now completely static; oh well,
             it was never truly OO anyway.
           - overall about 20-25% faster.  Don't know if I can
             speed it up any more.  Suggestions very welcome!
        - perl 5.005 is now required.
        - tentative support for new v8 games; "anchorhead.z8" starts,
          but looks like you'll need a gHz to play it  :/
        - new cheat command: "spiel", decode *all* game text.
          Can reveal easter eggs, debug messages, and all-around
          interesting things you may have missed; see documentation
        - partial support for character graphics in Tk and Curses
          interfaces; Beyond Zork now works much much better.
          [see screenshots at WWW site above]
        - fix a few bugs with interactions between undo/restore and 
          some cheat commands
        - fix Quetzal compatibility bug

 0.15  Sun Jan 24 17:41:39 EST 1999
        - Optimizations:
           - some memory-access and variable casting functions
             inlined using regexp/eval hack (blech).
           - hand-inline opcode loading
           - cache object properties
           - overall seems to run between 15-25% faster.
        - packages renamed from Rezrov:: to Games::Rezrov (for CPAN)
        - new cheat commands:
            "travis": attempts to fool the game into thinking the item 
                      you specify is a weapon.  Zork I only for now;
                      slay the troll with your mighty leaflet.
              "tail": automatically follow a character in a game as they 
                      move from room to room

 0.14  Sun Jan 10 20:35:53 EST 1999
        - new cheat verb: "frotz" (only for some games).
          Frotz, from the spell in "Enchanter", turns any item
          into a light source, obviating the need for fuel/batteries.
          See the documentation for full details.
        - If you specify an item name for "teleport", it will take you
          to the room containing the item
        - now passes all "strictz.z5" object 0 torture tests
        - the usual little tweaks and fixes

 0.13  Sun Jan  3 22:15:46 EST 1999
        - fixed color support (Tk, Curses, Win32 console)
        - cheat commands:
             - new commands: "rooms" and "items"
             - "teleport" shows description of new room
             - "pilfer" attempts to move pilfered item into inventory
             - "omap" object dump more reliable
        - more etude.z5 z-machine torture tests passed
        - more code reorganization/thrashing

 0.12  Tue Dec  1 21:16:26 EST 1998
        - added Tk interface (works under both X and win32)
        - i/o layer reorganized
        - many little glitches fixed

 0.11  Sat Oct 24 20:27:08 EDT 1998
        - about 10-15% faster:
            - cache game objects
            - streamline handling of decoded text
            - convert to blessed arrays instead of hashes
            - A few more critical globals :(
        - slightly improved v5 compatibility
        - emulation of the "#reco", "#unre" and "#comm"
          command-transcript commands

 0.10  Sun Oct 18 20:07:19 EDT 1998
	- first public release

PREREQUISITES

 Rezrov is written in pure perl, no extension compilation is required.

 Perl version 5.005 or later is required.

 Optionally supported but not required:
    Tk (version 800.*)
    Curses
    Term::Cap
    Win32::Console
    Term::ReadLine

HOW TO BUILD AND INSTALL

 perl Makefile.PL
 make
 make test
 make install

 After installation, run rezrov on a z-code file, such as the
 provided minizork.z3: "rezrov minizork.z3".

MANUAL INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS

 If you are using a binary distribution of perl the "generic" instructions
 above will most likely fail.  The following are instructions on how
 to install rezrov by hand.

 Rezrov consists of two basic pieces: a set of packages (*.pm files),
 and a script called "rezrov".  The *.pm files need to be installed
 in a subdirectory called "Games/Rezrov" somewhere in Perl's module search
 path (@INC).  "rezrov" is the main wrapper program that requires these
 modules to run; it can go anywhere you like.

 For example, on a Windows 95/98/etc machine, using the ActiveState
 distribution of perl 5.005 installed in C:\PERL, you would need to:

 1. mkdir C:\perl\lib\site\Games
 2. mkdir C:\perl\lib\site\Games\Rezrov
 3. copy *.pm c:\perl\lib\site\Games\Rezrov
 4. perl rezrov minizork.z3