YAZI:  Yet Another Z-InterpreterWelcome to the exciting world of text adventures for the Apple Newton.Now you can use a cutting edge piece of technology to play games morethan a decade old!Please note that if you downloaded this from an FTP site or a BBS, itshould be in a non-registered form.  Please read the "How to Register"later in this document for details on how it is crippled.What is YAZI?YAZI is a "text adventure engine" which takes "datafiles" as input andallows you to play them on the Newton.  Strictly speaking, YAZI doesn'tdo anything on it's own; it requires a games datafile to run.  Thedatafile contains all of the information about specific games.[For technoweenies: datafiles were implemented as programs for a virtualmachine - the zmachine.  By creating the zmachine for the Newton, allthese games can be played.]Using YAZIYAZI is fairly straightforward to use.  After starting the applet, clickon the [i] button to get a list of installed games.  Once you select agame, YAZI will immediately begin running.  When the prompt appears onthe bottom of the screen (often ">" or "What do you want to do"), youcan write in your command on the input area at the bottom of the screen.Tap on the "Return" [<-] key to have the action run.If text scrolls off the top of the screen, use the silkscreen arrows toscroll back and forward.  The bellybutton moves you to the last page oftext.If you want to save the game, tap on the [i] and "Save Game".  A windowwill pop up where you can enter the name you want to save the gameunder.  You can also delete old games.  In addition, the YAZI attemptsto save the exact state of your game when you quit by saving each timeyou quit.  This game is automagically restored when you restart YAZI.To restore a saved game, tap on the [i] and "Restore Game".To start a different game, tap on the [i] and pick another game.  Notethat this will also end the game you were playing.If you wish to temporarily pause the game (for instance, to jot downnotes in the notepad), tap on the little lantern icon to minimize thegame.  You will see a wee little lantern in the top middle of yourscreen.  Tap on the lantern to restore your game.  It can also bedragged around the screen so it isn't in the way.Heap ConcernsThis game uses a LOT of heap when it is running.  This means that youmight want to consider putting it on it's own card, or Freezing, orarchiving other programs while it's running.  Running with more than 60kis advisable, which is tricky, but doable under 1.X Newton, fairly easyon a MP120 2.0 and trivial on a MP130, MP2000 or eMate.PreferencesCurrently the only preference for YAZI is what font to use.Changing the font of a game is straightforward - simply select the newfont from the prefs and the game will take several seconds to reflow thetext to this new screen size.  Note that you will lose much of yourscrollback - reflowing all of the text would be very time consuming.Text Entry Short CutsYAZI was started back on a set of MP100 running NOS 1.3.  This meantthat a lot of time was spent creating text entry shortcuts to minimizethe amount of writing the game requires.1.  Tapping on the compass rose will append of the directions to thetext in the input area.2.  Tapping on U N D X will append Up, Down, eNter, eXit.3.  Tapping on the little pictures will append Look, Get, Drop,Inventory, Open, Close and Examine.4.  Tapping on the diamond on the left of the text input area will popup a list of commonly used words.  Tapping on "Edit List" will allow youto edit and customize this list.5.  In the output window, hold down the stylus until it squeaks andhighlight the text you want.  Drag that text to the input area.  This isthe standard cut-and-paste routine on the newt.6.  If you tap on any word in the output window, that word will beappended to the text in the input area.  If you have a 2.0 unit, thetext will inserted at the caret.Finally, in most cases doubletapping instead of single tapping willinsert the word and automagically press the "enter" button.  In caseswhere that doesn't make sense (get, drop, open, close), it will append auseful default word, such as "all" or "door".  Also, try tapping anddoubletapping on the compass icon for more useful things.What Games Can I PlayIn particular, games based on the Z-Machine (originally created byInfocom - now specified in public domain documents) that are version 3(V3) or earlier can be played.  This turns out to be dozens of games:Ballyhoo, Cutthroat, Deadline, Enchanter, 4 in 1 sampler I & II,Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Solid Gold is V5), Hollywood Hijinx,Infidel, Leather Goddess of Phoebes (Solid Gold is V5), Lurking Horror,MiniZork I, Moonmist, Planetfall (Solid Gold is V5), Plundered Hearts,Seastalker, Sorcerer, Spellbreaker, Starcross, Stationfall, Suspect,Suspended, Wishbringer (Solid Gold is V5), Witness, Zork I (Solid Goldis V5, so is German version), Zork II, Zork III"Solid Gold is V5" refers to the later versions of these games whichwere repackaged and given fancy hints menus.  You can usually find V3versions of these as well.How do I get these games onto my Newton?In order to load games onto the newton, you need to do a few things:0.  Get the game.1.  Find the correct datafile.2.  Convert the datafile into a Newton Package.3.  Load the Newton Package onto the Newton.0.  The easiest way to get the games is to contact Activision (who boughtout Infocom).  Their URL is http://www.activision.com.  They still selladventure sets suitable for munging onto the newton.  Please don'tpirate this stuff.  If you have a copy on your newton, you should havethe original disks at home.  George and I would rather not have phonecalls from Activision threatening to sue us because of rampant Newtonbased piracy.1.  Datafiles are usually located in a directory called "DATA" on PCversions of games.  On Macs, datafiles are intermingled with otherfiles.  The easiest way to determine which files are datafiles is tolook at the size - most datafiles are fairly big: 90+ K.  In general,it's easiest to get the files from the PC version.2a.  To convert the datafiles to Newton Packages, use a program in thisarchive called "ZStuff", which is designed to do exactly that.  UsingZStuff is straightforward, simply run the program and give it theinformation it needs, mostly a name and a game.  The name you selectwill appear on the popup window.2b.  If you use the Unix or DOS version of ZStuff, it looks mostly thesame, but is less GUI and more CLI.3.  You should now have a Newton Package file suitable for download.Fire up your favourite Newton connection utility and download it.Limitations of the Unregistered VersionYAZI is distributed in an unregistered [if you prefer, crippled] form.You will always be able to save games, but those that are saved afterplaying more than 50 moves will not be able to be restored.  This meansthat while you will be able to start most games, and play them for awhile, it will be very hard to finish them, or enjoy them.  Afterregistration, all of the saved games can be restored.If all that sounds a bit confusing, it is.  Do yourself a favour andregister YAZI.RegistrationTo register this game, send a check for $25 to the following address,along with your email address.  Also include the exact spelling of yourname on your newton.  If you don't have an email address, you can alsoregister by using Kagi (see the other help information in the registerapplet for information).Scrawl (c/o Sarah Buta)86 Norfolk St., Apt 4Cambridge, MA02139 - 2652As soon as the check arrives, we'll fire some email off to you detailingyour registration string.  If you don't (!!) have an email address, senda self-addressed stamped evelope and hope the mail system works (:Use the "Register" on the [i] button to enter your password.  In case ofproblems or bugs, send email to help@scawlsoft.com, and we'll do our best toanswer within the constraints of school, work, and minimal social lives.Why Should I Register [or: Where does my money go?]The obvious reason to register is so that you can play with a clearconscience and without any sort of save-related worries.  In addition,you'll be helping to support two fledglng Newtonphiles who have a wholeslew of additional applets they want to write!  This is really our firstbig project, and we think it turned out pretty well.  Future ones may beeven more exciting.In addition, newton programming requires a significant upfrontinvestment we'd like to pay off.  The Newton Toolkit was over $500,including upgrades.  Once that is paid off, we need to upgradecomputers.  Much of the work for this was done on an LC III, which is soslow, housework can be done during compiles!  It's time to move to thePowerPC, Messagepad 2000s and so on!Known Bugs:- after a screen rotation, changing the fonts can do weird things- changing font can screws things up on a 1.X unit.  open/close to fix- V3+ games will not work- heap and memory limitations.  Get a 130 or an MP2000 (:Other Bugs?In case of problems or bugs, send email to help@scrawlsoft.com, or visithttp://www.scrawlsoft.comCredits:This program was written by George Madrid and Sanjay Vakil betweenDecember 1994 and June 1996.  That's a long time.  Along the way, DavidFedor gave us much help, from with architectural issues with the Newton,to user interface tweaks and code pieces as well as for creating the mac/wincode.  We're indebted to him for offering us his time and expertise.Early beta testers, (who kept losing games as we updated the code)included Ert Dredge, Julie Newharth, Sally Buta, Craig Fields, AdamDershowitz, Craig Fields and Ben Gottlieb.This program made extensive use of the Specification of the ZMachinedetailed by Graham Nelson, as well as basing the program structure onMark Howell's ZIP.No animals were hurt during the coding, except for some pet rats whowere gently shooed away from Newtons.