This page contains frequently asked questions and miscellaneous help about using Frotz for the iPhone/iPod Touch.

Frotz Version 1.3 for iPhone / iPod Touch is finally available (!) on the App Store as of 2009-09-19, three months and 1 day after being originally submitted for approval.

New features in Frotz 1.3:

• Story Font Size preference: allows you to vary the main story font size from 8 to 16 point.
• Status Line magnification: tap anywhere on the status line to magnify it for readability. (This is in lieu of allowing larger status line fonts, because many games require a minimum number of screen columns, which would force you to scroll left and right to see the entire line.)
• Command Helper Menu: tap on the command prompt to bring up a helper menu of common words.
• Command Line History: double-tap on the command line to bring up a menu of recently entered commands.
• Accessibility Improvements: improved accessibility hints for VoiceOver users. Selecting the story window will recite only the story output since the most recent command.
• Bug fixes (OS 3.0): restored the ability to tap on the story output to scroll one page, or show the keyboard if at the end.
• Bundled stories: includes a large subset of well-rated stories from the IFDB bundled with Frotz; the IFDB story browser uses these bundled files instead of downloading them from the Internet.

To obtain compliance with App Store policy, the newly submitted version no longer has Internet download capability. Instead, it now has all Z-code games rated 3 stars or more from the Interactive Fiction Database pre-bundled with Frotz; the user experience of browsing IFDB to select and add games is still the same unless you try to pick an unbundled game. Not included with Frotz are games which are low-rated, in a language other than English, newer than the IFDB snapshot taken on 2009-09-01, or games not in IFDB at all.

Note that the Frotz FTP server is still available; only the ability to download from the Internet directly from within Frotz has been disabled. Local LAN transfer is still okay, and any previously installed games will still be there after you upgrade.

If you have general comments or feedback about Frotz, you can post it on the Frotz Discussion group, or feel free to send email to ifrotz at gmail dot com. To report a bug or usability issue with Frotz, please click here, or go to the Issues tab, click "New Issue", and describe your problem. (Note that the bug report system requires you to sign in to GMail. If you do not have a GMail account, you can report a bug using the above e-mail address.)

• Free, $0.99, Free... make up your mind!
• Update 9/19/09 - As promised, since 1.3 has finally been approved, I've just updated Frotz's price to be FREE again. My goal in making Frotz for iPhone is to promote IF to as wide an audience as possible, not to make a profit. (I have a day job that does me just fine for that.) The temporary $0.99 price for the past few weeks was to make back the annual iTunes Dev Program fees and provide an incentive for me to persevere through Apple's painful and arbitrary review process. Working on Frotz is actually fun for me, but not when there's a cloud of uncertainty over it that it might be a complete waste of time due to volatile and uncertain App Store approval policies.

• How can I transfer my own story files (e.g. Infocom files) so Frotz can find them?

If you have the Lost Treasures of Infocom, other Infocom game files from antiquity, or your own personal Z-Machine game files, you can use them with Frotz.

• Frotz includes a built-in FTP (file transfer protocol) server, so you can easily transfer your own story files, as well as saved games, from pretty much any computer. To enable the FTP server, press the (i)nfo button in Frotz, select the "File Transfer" button, and follow the instructions. Note that you must be connected to a wireless network to use file transfer; it will not work over Edge or 3G.
• Note that Frotz will not look for stories in ZIP files if you transfer them with FTP; you should transfer the files individually and make sure they end in a standard suffix such as .z5 or .zblorb.

• What device/OS versions is Frotz compatible with?

Frotz 1.3 works on iPhone or iPod Touch with OS versions 2.2.1 and later.

• How do I save my game?

If you press the Home button or answer a call, Frotz will automatically save your game state, but if you want to play through more than one story at once, you can manually save your game in progress and start a new one. You actually do this the old-fashioned way, at the command prompt.

Just type "save" at the game's prompt to save your game, and "restore" to load a previously saved game. These commands are available in the shortcut menu that appears when you double tap the command prompt as well.

• How do I delete games?

When you're not playing a story, the standard Edit button in the top right can be used to go into 'delete' mode. When a story is active, this is replaced by "Now Playing", but you can still use the swipe gesture to delete a story.

• Performance

The performance problems in Frotz 1.0 were fixed in 1.0.1, and further improved in 1.2. If you notice very poor performance, please file a new bug report. Please do not just file a negative review on iTunes without also filing a bug report so I can have an opportunity to reproduce and fix it.