Sophie: zoom-1.1.4-1mdv2010.0 x86

zoom-1.1.4-1mdv2010.0.x86_64.rpm

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Zoom Manual - About Zoom
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  <img src="zoom-icon.png" align=right>
  <h1>
    About Zoom
  </h1>

  <h2>
    Common elements
  </h2>

  <p class=figure><img src="ui.png" alt="Zoom screenshot"></p>

  <p>
    When Zoom has loaded a game, it displays a single window that
    contains the text of the game. This window is mostly under the
    control of the game rather than Zoom itself: Zoom is concerned
    with formatting the output and getting your input. For games using
    Z-Machine versions other than 6, the window will be resizable, and
    will reformat itself dynamically when you do this (unlike most
    other interpreters, Zoom can show many configuration changes
    instantly). For these games, there will usually also be a
    scrollbar along the right hand side of the window that can be used
    to see text that has scrolled off the top of the screen. Zoom will
    automatically display a '[MORE]' prompt when a game has filled a
    page with text: just hit a key to carry on.
  </p>

  <p>
    Zoom will present you with a flashing caret whenever it is
    possible to send input to the game, and provides some simple
    line-editing functions. The up and down arrow keys can be used to
    recall commands typed earlier, and the left and right keys can be
    used to edit the current command. Some games may request use of
    the arrow keys, disabling Zoom's support for line-editting. Games
    may also handle input one character at a time. Finally, some games
    may allow you to use the mouse to select elements on screen.
  </p>

  <p>
    Some games require extra resources. The easiest way for an author
    to provide these it to provide the whole game as an 'executable'
    Blorb file (.zlb). Failing that, you will need to let Zoom know
    how to find the resources for a game: the simplest way is to put
    the resources in the same directory as the game, with the same
    name except for the extension, which should be '.blb' (ie, if you
    have a game 'Zork0.z6', you would put its resources in
    'Zork0.blb'). Zoom can not read the old Infocom-style resources -
    however, Blorb versions of all the resources for the old Infocom
    games can be obtained from the IF-Archive, located at
    <a href="http://www.ifarchive.org">http://www.ifarchive.org</a>.
  </p>

  <h2>
    Mac OS X features
  </h2>

  <p>
    Under Mac OS X, games can be loaded in one of two ways: either by
    opening one from the Finder, or by loading Zoom and choosing one
    from the file open dialog that appears. If a game has resources,
    these can be located in one of three ways: by putting the
    resources in the same directory as the game, with the same name,
    except for a .blb extension, by dragging the resource file to Zoom or
    by opening the resource file while a game is loaded. Zoom will
    remember where the resources for a game were last found, and will
    look there again next time. You may need to restart a game after
    loading new resources.
  </p>

  <p>
    Function key handling in Zoom works the same way as it does in
    Infocom's own interpreters. That is, function key x is activated
    by Command-x (eg Command-1 for function key 1).
  </p>

  <p>
    Unlike the X Windows version of Zoom, the Mac OS X version allows
    for complete customisation using the user interface. This is
    achieved through the Preferences dialog: see the <a
    href="configmac.html">Mac OS X configuration</a> page for more details.
  </p>

  <h2>
    X-Windows features
  </h2>

  <p>
    Under X-Windows, Zoom is usually started from the command line
    with a single parameter - the name of the game to be run. If it
    has been configured, Zoom can also be started without a paramter -
    in this case, it will present a menu of games to choose from. The
    option '-w' can be used to ask Zoom to present warnings about the
    game (things the game does that may cause problems). For
    programmers, the '-D' option may be used to enable the symbolic
    debugger (a suitable gameinfo.dbg file must be present: compile
    with the -k option to Inform).
  </p>

  <hr>

  <p class=titchy>
    Zoom written by Andrew Hunter. Mail any suggestions, bug reports
    or abuse to <a
    href="mailto:andrew@logicalshift.demon.co.uk">andrew@logicalshift.demon.co.uk</a>
  </p>

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