Gargoyle

Gargoyle
Interpreter
Links	Home page Download
Developers	Tor Andersson, Ben Cressey, Chris Spiegel
Formats	ADRIFT 4, AdvSys, AGT, Alan 2, Alan 3, Glulx, Hugo, Level 9, Magnetic Scrolls, ScottFree, TADS 2, TADS 3, Z-code
Interaction style
Systems	Windows, macOS, Linux
System details
Latest version	2026.1.1 / 8 February 2026
Status	Stable
Implements
Uses	Alan, Bocfel, Git, Glulxe, Magnetic, AdvSys, Level9, Scare, ScottFree, AGiliTy, Mjr-T3, Taylormade, Plus, Hugo interpreter, JACL
Multimedia support	Different for each game format
License	GPL-2.0
Notes	Licence: GPL (front-end code), others (interpreters). Original Gargoyle homepage.
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NOTE: This article is about the interpreter. For the ChoiceScript game by Simon, see Gargoyle (game).

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Gargoyle is a Glk API library for both the UNIX and MS-Windows operating systems. It was specially designed to optimize the typography of the I/O system. Gargoyle was originally developed by Tor Andersson. It is currently maintained by Chris Spiegel.

The name Gargoyle is also used to refer to the set of interpreters (with a common front-end) which Andersson ported to use his Gargoyle library. The interpreters currently included in this set (as of 2026.1.1 - source) are:

• for ADRIFT games:
  • Glk SCARE 1.3.10
  • Experimental source-only support for FrankenDrift

• for AdvSys games:
  • AdvSys 1.2

• for AGT games:
  • Glk AGiliTy 1.1.2

• for Alan games (v2 and v3):
  • ARUN 2.8(6)
  • ARUN 3.0 beta8

• for Hugo games:
  • Hugo 3.1.06 (+ later fixes)

• for Inform & Infocom games:
  • Z-code (Z-machine VM):
    • Glk Bocfel 2.5
  • Glulx VM:
    • Git 1.3.8
    • Glulxe 0.6.1

• for Level 9 games:
  • Glk Level9 5.2

• for Magnetic Scrolls games:
  • Glk Magnetic 2.3.1

• for TADS 2 and TADS 3 games:
  • TADS 2.5.17/3.1.3
  • Neither HTML TADS nor TADS Web UI are supported

• for JACL games:
  • JACL circa 4.6.1
  • not necessarily compatible with old story files

• for Scott Adams games:
  • Glk ScottFree 1.14
  • Plus
  • Taylormade

Specifics

Gargoyle is intended to care about typography, that is, to render the IF in a way most comfortable for reading. Features include specially chosen fonts, kerning, ligatures, text justification and many others. The options can be fine tuned in the simple text file 'garglk.ini'; for example, using Notepad on MS Windows, the text justification can be turned on by changing the line containing:

justify		0	# 0=ragged-right 1=justified

to

justify		1	# 0=ragged-right 1=justified

See also: Spatterlight, a similar program for MacOS X.

Links

• Gargoyle - Gargoyle's homepage.
• Unofficial builds for Mac OS 10.12. Released 2016-2018.
• Updated version on GitHub - Supports Unicode. Updated by new developers. Note the Issues for bug reporting has relative high levels of activity.
  • New features in the 25 August 2009 release include color support for Frotz/Z-Machine, copy/paste support to and from the text buffer, and Glk hyperlinks support.
  • Mac binary (1 Jan 2012) with increased undo buffer (needed for "undo" in Counterfeit Monkey)
• Modified Gargoyle (archive) (description is in Italian though).
• Gargoyle for Amazon Kindle for the e-ink low-power devices, which uses GTK 2.0 in the Kindles.