github.com/garglk/garglk ↗
A cross-platform IO layer for an interactive fiction player
Open this visualization on its own page →
Contributors
24
Lines of Code
18,704
From
2008-10-23
To
2020-11-09
About garglk/garglk
Gargoyle is a cross-platform interactive fiction player that supports all major IF formats including Z-machine, Glulx, TADS, Hugo, and many others. Rather than requiring users to download separate interpreters for each format, Gargoyle bundles multiple Glk-enabled interpreters into a single application, providing a unified experience for playing portable IF game files from various sources.
The project places significant emphasis on typography and text rendering quality, implementing features like subpixel font rendering, anti-aliased fonts, kerning, ligatures, and smart punctuation formatting. Gargoyle uses its own text rendering rather than operating system functions, allowing it to work with TrueType, OpenType, and PostScript fonts. The package includes carefully selected default fonts (Charis SIL for serif and Go Mono for monospace) to ensure good presentation out of the box.
Configuration is handled through text files rather than graphical interfaces, with support for system-wide, user-level, and game-specific settings. Gargoyle provides multiple ways to access configuration, including keyboard shortcuts during gameplay and command-line tools to list applicable configuration paths. The application is free software distributed under the GNU General Public License and is available for multiple platforms with automated builds for Linux, macOS, and Windows.