Changes
/* Technical information */
The Z-Machine is a text based interpreter which runs text adventures made by Infocom and Z-code files.
* A version for CPM
* A version for AMSDOS
* A version for SymbOS
CPCZVM is a Z-Machine interpreter for the CPC. It is a modification of ZXZVM, an interpreter made by [[John Elliott]] for the PCW. The Amstrad version was converted by [[Kevin Thacker]]. There are two versions, for CPM and AMSDOS.
Zym is a Z-Machine interpreter for SymbOS, made by [[prevtenet]].
=CPM version=
CPCZVM for CPM features a virtual memory system supporting both the Z-machines RAM and ROM. It runs under CPM2.2 and CPM+. CPCZVM has been written to be as compatible with CPM as possible and should run on other CPMs for the Amstrad.
CPCZVM will not run under Amstrad's CPM2.2 distribution because it doesn't have enough TPA. However you can use [[DkTronics_CPM]] which has a larger TPA.
==Running an adventure==
* Copy CPCZVM.COM, ZXZVM.BIN and the game file (e.g. ADVENT.Z3) to media which has at least 64KB free. All of these should be in the same location.
* Boot into CP/M.
* Select the disc (e.g. |B:)
* Type: CPCZVM ADVENT.Z3 to start.
* CP/M is used because it has a random access filesystem compared to AMSDOS which doesn't. The random access is required to read blocks from the swap and game file when needed.
* Disc accesses use normal CP/M functions so it should work with other devices such as RAM discs, Harddisks etc.
=AMSDOS version=
CPCZVM for AMSDOS requires additional Dk'tronics compatible memory (e.g. [[X-MEM]] ). The entire game file is loaded into available RAM so it is recommended to use a 512KB RAM expansion. Loading uses CAS IN CHAR so is very slow.
NOTES:
* This version supports the v1.0 specification
* It has been tested against oztest, czech, etude and strict tests.
==What is supported==
* Transcript (goes to printer)
* Timed input
* Font styles (bold, italics etc)
* Z-Machine window opcodes
==What isn't supported==
* UNDO
* V6 or V7 games
* Colours (this requires that all the colours can be displayed at once)
==Running an adventure==
* Make a simple BASIC loader with this form:
5 BORDER 0:INK 0,0:INK 1,13
10 a$="advent.z3"
20 chain"cpczvm"
* The program detects the amount of additional RAM and will warn if there is not enough when loading the game file.
* The program only supports Dk'Tronics compatible RAM.
* The entire game file is loaded into extra ram using "CAS IN CHAR" functions. This is used because the extra memory is paged in 16KB at a time and [[BIOS_Function_Summary#Cassette_.28or_Diskette.29_Functions|CAS IN DIRECT ]] reads in an entire block and the game files exceed the size of 16KB and do not require an AMSDOS header to be added.
* The BASIC boot program allows a game filename to be passed to CPCZVM.BAS without requiring it to be modified. The use of CHAIN keeps the defined variables and HIMEM.
* This version should run from [[X-MASS]] or other hardware.
=SymbOS Version=Downloads Zym is a Z-Machine interpreter for SymbOS written in C. It supports Z-machine versions 3, 4, 5, and 8, so it can run most of the games published by Infocom, as well as thousands of other Z-code games created by the interactive fiction community. Zym supports different terminal window sizes and also runs on ALL SymbOS platforms, not only CPC. Zym requires SymbOS 3.1 or higher and at least 256 KB of RAM to load most games. https://i.imgur.com/W8AmmFE.png =Downloads=
* [https://www.seasip.info/ZX/zxzvm.html ZXZVM homepage]
* [https://www.seasip.info/index.html John Elliott's website]
* [[File:Zvm.zip]] Source code (CPM+AMSDOS+Disks)* [[Filehttp:Cpczvm//www.dsksymbos.de/appinfo.htm?00054 SymbOS homepage]] Disk (CPM)
