Editing Blorb

{{Short description|Package format for interactive fiction games}}
{{refimprove|date=May 2019}}
{{Infobox file format
| name = Blorb
| extension = .blorb, .blb, .gblorb, .glb, .zblorb, .zlb
| mime = application/x-blorb
| owner = [[Andrew Plotkin]]
| creatorcode = 
| genre = [[Package management system|Package format]]
| container for = [[Portable Network Graphics|PNG]], [[JPEG]], [[Audio Interchange File Format|AIFF]], [[MOD (file format)|MOD]]
| contained by = 
| extended from = [[Interchange File Format]]
| extended to = IFRS
}}
'''Blorb''' is a [[Package management system|package format]] for [[interactive fiction]] games. Many such games incorporate resources such as [[sound effect]]s, music, or pictures. Blorb's purpose is to bind these together into one file. The format was devised by [[Andrew Plotkin]] and is used in both the [[Z-machine]] and [[Glulx]] [[virtual machine]]s, as well as by the [[Glk (software)|Glk]] library.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Blorb Resources Format |url=http://www.inform-fiction.org/zmachine/standards/blorb/ |website=Inform Fiction |accessdate=11 February 2019}}</ref>

== Concept ==
In the days when games were distributed only on disk, there was no problem in associating a game with its resources: the resources were simply shipped on the same disk. Since all [[Z-machine]] games were produced by [[Infocom]], there was also no chance that resources would be shipped in a format which a user's interpreter program could not handle. Blorb is needed because neither of these assumptions hold true in modern times: games are typically downloaded as single files, and a user may be using any of a large number of interpreters.

A Blorb file may optionally include the [[executable]] code of the game itself. This allows authors of modern games to ship one file containing everything needed to play the game, while also allowing the creation of resource files for classic Infocom games without running the risk of [[copyright infringement of software|copyright infringement]] by distributing Infocom's [[Z-machine]] executable code.

[[Glulx]] games are almost always shipped in the Blorb format. A rather smaller proportion of [[Z-machine]] games make use of it, since Z-machine games often rely only on text, and so have no need for the extra resources. As of 2004 Blorb files are supported by all [[Glk (software)|Glk]] [[interactive fiction]] [[Interpreter (computing)|interpreters]], including [[Nitfol]] and [[Glulxe]].

The Blorb format continues the tradition of naming interactive fiction tools after spells in [[Infocom]]'s ''[[Enchanter (computer game)|Enchanter]]'' trilogy. ''Blorb'' was a spell to bind objects into boxes.

Blorb is an [[Interchange File Format|IFF]] format, with FORM '''IFRS'''. The [[MIME]] type commonly in use is "application/x-blorb", and the [[filename extension]] is ".blorb", or, for systems where filename extensions are limited to three characters, ".blb". Blorb files containing [[Z-machine|Z-code]] games may be named with the extension ".zblorb" or ".zlb"; or, for Glulx games, ".gblorb" or ".glb". These alternative extensions are intended to make it easier for interpreters to ascertain the type of game contained inside.

==Formats supported in Blorb files==
* Images: [[Portable Network Graphics|PNG]] and [[JPEG]]
* Sound: [[Audio Interchange File Format|AIFF]], [[Ogg Vorbis]]
* Music: [[MOD (file format)|MOD]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.eblong.com/zarf/blorb/ Blorb specification]
* [http://www.inform-fiction.org/zmachine/standards/blorb/ Graham Nelson's page of Blorb resources]. (Warning: the demo game ''The Spy Who Came In From The Garden'' on this page is actually an invalid Blorb file.)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050404002444/http://justice.loyola.edu/~lraszews/if/iblorb.html Some tools for working with Blorb files] 
* [http://mirror.ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archiveXinfocomXmediaXblorb.html Blorb files for Infocom games]

[[Category:Archive formats]]


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