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From: kennedy@kennedy.bridgewater.ne.hcc.com
Subject: Re: Seeking Z-code interpreter for old old DOS machine
Message-ID: <1995Apr10.204643.13070@hcc.com>
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References: <3m1joe$734@lowell.bellcore.com>
Date: Mon, 10 Apr 1995 20:46:43 GMT
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In <3m1joe$734@lowell.bellcore.com>, norman@flaubert.bellcore.com (Norman Ramsey) writes:
>
>Does anybody know where to find a Z-code (Infocom) interpreter that
>will work on an old PC-XT running DOS 3 with an IBM Monochrome
>adapter?  The ITF and ZIP interpreters both run but neither manages
>the screen properly.  I've compiled hack and omega for this machine in
>the past using the PCCURSES library, if that helps anyone.  
>
>I suspect this ought to be easy; maybe there's something that only
>uses <stdio.h> without fancy escape sequences?

ANSI.SYS has been around since DOS 2.0; have you tried using it?

But I remember that when I did the OS/2 ports of ITF and ZIP, using the
DOS versions as starting points, I was not at all satisfied with the
screen handling, and did considerable rewriting, specifically to cover
monochrome and monochrome-display/color-adaptor situations.  Perhaps
someone could use my OS/2 source as a basis for a rework of the DOS
version?  The OS/2 VIO and KBD API's were designed to be mostly
isomorphic with DOS and BIOS functions, so it shouldn't be too
difficult; the only part that would be likely to cause trouble is that I
look at the palette to determine whether all the colors are set for
R==G==B, but that is because OS/2 doesn't have any direct way to
distinguish between MODE BW80 and MODE CO80, which DOS does, so DOS can
skip that bit.  (My multithreaded keyboard logic to support Border Zone 
without spinning would have to be deleted of course.)

