News for Leadlight Gamma

The end of 2019 saw a new release of the Gargoyle IF interpreter after an approximately eight year gap. That was double good news for Leadlight Gamma: It finally brought text to speech support to Macs, at least those running MacOS 10.13 (High Sierra) or later, and it made sure the game would run on MacOS 10.15 (Catalina).

For awhile it couldn't be played on macOS Sierra (10.12) but that hurdle has been overcome too. So now you can play on Mac, Windows, Linux, and – via the iFrotz app – iPads and iPhones. All the game's downloads have been refreshed at itch.io

1. First, at the risk of stating the obvious, you have to have purchased the game on itch.io
2. If you don't have the free Frotz app on your device already, go to the iTunes store and download it
3. ON YOUR DEVICE, open Safari and go to the Leadlight Gamma page on itch.io (if you’re not already there). At the top of the page, click the DOWNLOAD link to reveal all downloadable files for the game
4. Tap the DOWNLOAD button next to the file LEADLIGHT-GAMMA-M.GBLORB on this page (The M stands for 'mobile')
5. After a short pause, Safari will show an icon for the file under a link saying Open in "Frotz". Tap on this link
6. Frotz will download the game and the game will start. In future, just open Frotz to play
...7. Want to get the hint sheet on your iDevice too? You can store a PDF of the hint sheet using the iBooks app. Tap the DOWNLOAD button next to the file LEADLIGHT-HINTS.PDF ​on the downloads page in Safari. When the sheet appears for the first time, tap near the top of the document in the browser window and choose Open in iBooks. The document will be saved there

+ Most of the above steps are also applicable to any Inform game you want to play on Frotz.

+ The 40 SECRET PAGES sale period is from May 9 to May 14, inclusive.
+ Get the full details on the sale page:
http://itch.io/s/3648/the-leadlight-gamma-40-secret-pages-sale

(This news item is retained for history purposes and is no longer relevant. Please see later news items for up-to-date info on playing Leadlight Gamma on iOS)

I've just discovered that Apple's iOS 8.1.3 breaks the upload path I'd devised (using the iFunbox app) to allow users to easily get Leadlight Gamma onto their iDevice. It's not that the game doesn't run on 8.1.3, but the program you'd use to install it to Frotz can no longer put it there.

I don't know when or if I'll have an easy workaround for end users (though I have fiddly ones) so my advice for the easiest action you could take in the meantime is this: If you're pre-iOS 8.1.3 on an iDevice and thinking of purchasing the game, do so now and install it before you upgrade your device.

For further information, please click this line to visit the topic at intfiction.org.