UnQuill

UnQuill disassembles games written with The Quill. It can also act as an interpreter to run the games on DOS or UNIX systems, or convert to a .Z5 file that can be run by Infocom-compatible interpreters.

UnQuill supports the Spectrum, Commodore 64 and CPC variants of the Quill.

unquill-0.12.0.zip

UNIX source, DOS and Win32 executables and documentation.

Related utilities

Various other families of adventure games used Quill-like engines. Here are some utilities to list their contents. Unlike UnQuill, they don't allow the games to be played or converted to Z-code.

unplad.zip

Produces listings of games using Artic's engine (as first seen in "Planet of Death").

unphipps.zip

Produces listings of games using Phipps Associates' engine (such as "Greedy Gulch").

unqbbc.zip

Produces listings of games written using the BBC Micro version of the Quill — the data format on the BBC is sufficiently different from other Quill versions that it wasn't possible to add support for it to UnQuill proper.

ungac.zip

UnGAC extracts data from games created with Incentive's Graphic Adventure Creator. This is very much not a Quill-type game engine, so the listings will be quite different in format.

Screenshots

UnQuill running Bugsy in an xterm.

The Very Big Cave Adventure, converted to Z-code by UnQuill and running in the Frotz interpreter.

UnQuill running Hampstead in text mode on a CGA display.

UnQuill running Subsunk in graphics mode on a CGA display.

UnQuill running The Very Big Cave Adventure in text mode on a VGA display.

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John Elliott 2020-05-20