# Install frotz with Homebrew

Infocom-style interactive fiction player. Version 2.55 via Homebrew; verified 2026-08-02.

## Install

```sh
sudo av install brew:frotz
```

Additional install commands:

### macOS

- Homebrew (100%):

```sh
brew install frotz
```

  Evidence: provider-native install command

## Package facts

- **Package key:** brew:frotz
- **Package manager:** Homebrew
- **Version:** 2.55
- **Source summary:** Infocom-style interactive fiction player
- **Homepage:** <https://661.org/proj/if/frotz/>
- **Last updated:** 2026-08-02T16:35:33+09:00
- **Generated:** 2026-08-03T00:40:33+00:00

## Executables

- dfrotz (alias)
- frotz (alias)
- sfrotz (alias)

## Install behavior

- Bottle: not available

## Freshness

- Page generated: 2026-08-03
- Package-manager version: 2.55
## Project history and usage

Frotz is an interpreter for Infocom and other Z-machine interactive fiction games. The current Unix Frotz README describes it as compliant with the Z-Machine Standard 1.1 and able to play Z-code games through curses, dumb-terminal, and SDL interfaces.

### Project history

Frotz was originally written by Stefan Jokisch in 1995-1997 and later ported to Unix by Galen Hazelwood. The reference code and Unix port are currently maintained by David Griffith in the GitLab repository.

The broader platform history comes from Infocom's Z-machine: Infocom built an imaginary machine for its interactive fiction games, the format was reverse-engineered in the early to mid-1990s, and Inform enabled new Z-code games after Infocom's commercial era.

### Adoption history

Frotz became a standard way to play Infocom-style interactive fiction on Unix-like systems and other platforms. The README lists support for common Unix flavors including macOS, DOS and FreeDOS, TOPS20 on PDP-10 systems, and portability to other operating systems and hardware.

The project points users to the Interactive Fiction Archive for releases and game material, tying Frotz to the long-running freeware and preservation infrastructure around Z-code games.

### How it is used

The main commands include `frotz`, `dfrotz`, and `sfrotz`. Users run Frotz with a Z-code or Blorb file, then interact with the story through natural-language commands such as movement, inventory, save, restore, transcript, and look commands.

The Unix line includes config files, user-configurable error checking, sound support through libao, SDL graphics, and multiple front ends for different terminal or graphical needs.

### Why package nerds care

Frotz is package-nerd significant because it is the canonical small interpreter package for a preserved game platform. It packages decades of interactive-fiction compatibility into a few command-line front ends, and it is useful on old, unusual, and modern systems alike.

It is also a neat packaging artifact because the program is not the game content: package managers ship the interpreter, while users bring Z-code or Blorb story files from archives, personal collections, or newly authored Inform games.

### Timeline

- Late 1970s-1980s: Infocom develops interactive fiction games for the Z-machine.
- Early to mid-1990s: The Z-machine is reverse-engineered and Inform enables new Z-code games.
- 1995-1997: Stefan Jokisch writes the original Frotz.
- 2019: Frotz 2.50 modernizes the Unix line with UTF-8 input/output, sound, Blorb handling, portability fixes, and safer code changes.
- 2025: Frotz 2.55 is released with bug fixes, manual updates, Z-machine save-restore prompt support, and related enhancements.

### Related projects

- Related projects and artifacts include Infocom, Zork, the Z-machine standards, Inform, Blorb, Quetzal save files, the Interactive Fiction Archive, and other Z-machine interpreters.
- Frotz's platform ports and interfaces relate it to curses, SDL, libao, DOS, TOPS20, and Unix terminal packaging.

### Sources

- <https://gitlab.com/DavidGriffith/frotz/-/raw/master/ChangeLog>
- <https://gitlab.com/DavidGriffith/frotz/-/raw/master/HOW_TO_PLAY>
- <https://gitlab.com/DavidGriffith/frotz/-/raw/master/README.md>
- <https://gitlab.com/DavidGriffith/frotz/-/raw/master/doc/frotz.6>
- <https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/DavidGriffith%2Ffrotz/releases>


## Security Notes

narrow executable package without higher-risk signals.

- **Geiger risk:** green / low
- narrow executable package without higher-risk signals


## Configuration and credential file locations

These source-backed paths show where this package keeps local settings or durable credentials. Automic Vault can use them as review targets for secret scanning, migration, and command approval.


## Configuration files

- Unix: ~/.frotzrc

## Combined YAML source

View the package source record on GitHub. [combined/frotz.yml](https://github.com/automic-vault/db/blob/main/combined/frotz.yml)


## Sources

- Nucleus package database
- Geiger risk classifier
- curated configuration and credential file locations
- curated package history
- pkgdb category and tag curation