The JMagnetic logo showing the classical Magnetic Scrolls logo with a rolled disc in a rounded windows. In the back
			 	there is a waving Java Duke. The text says: JMagnetic 2 - An interpreter for Magnetic Scrolls games

based on Magnetic 2.3 by Niclas Karlsson, David Kinder, Stefan Meier and Paul David Doherty.
JMagnetic is written by Stefan Meier.

Magnetic is an interpreter written in Java for the games published between 1985 and 1991 by Magnetic Scrolls, a text adventure producer based in London, England. Although they only produced seven games they have acquired legendary status for text adventures of as good a quality as Infocom accompanied by exceptional graphics.

More about the original Magnetic interpreter is here.


Quickstart

JMagnetic hasn't seen updates since a long time and you might experience problems when running it with newer Java versions. Windows and OS X users have excellent, up-to-date Magnetic ports at their hands and I highly recommend using the native versions over the Java version. Perhaps JMagnetic will get an update at some time, but at the moment my focus is set on the site and the Javascript port Magnetic Scripts.

Before starting the installation, please verify that you have a Java Runtime installed that is fully compatible with SUN JRE 1.4.2 or newer. A Java 5 or 6 runtime is highly recommended. On Linux the gcj runtime is not sufficient!.

Install JMagnetic by double clicking the installer or execute the command 'java -jar JMagnetic2.3.2inst.jar' in a shell (or use "Open with SUN Java..." on some Linux installations with Gnome or KDE).

Put the game files (Story files, graphic files,...) into the jm2data/gamefiles subdirectory of the JMagnetic installation folder. What you need for playing:

(1) the story files
(2) the graphics files (optional)
(3) the title pictures and music (optional)
(4) the hint files (optional)
Please make sure that all files for a game share the same filename except for the extension, e.g. pawn.mag, pawn.gfx, pawn.mp3,...

Use the icons or links that are created by the installer to launch JMagnetic. Alternatively you can change to the installation folder and run JMagnetic2.jar. Depending on your operating system you can double click the jar, use the context menu "Open with SUN JRE" or open a terminal and issue the command 'java -jar JMagnetic2.jar'

Select the game you want to play. Use the commands 'save' and 'restore' to keep your game progress.

Special thanks

Jan Schliemann
magnetiX development, for the highly inspiring design of his Magnetic port for Mac OS X and allowing me to use the graphics from his port and for beta testing JMagnetic

David Kinder
Magnetic 2.x development, Windows, MS-DOS (32-bit) and Amiga ports, for the extensive documentation of the Magnetic ports for DOS and Windows, which provided the base for the JMagnetic 2 help file and for maintaining the IF Archive, the central site on the Internet for text adventures and related interpreters, compilers and other tools.

Hayden Legendre
author of Glassworks and Helpmaster, for his great help with building and testing the JMagnetic installer.

Downloads

Latest version:
2.3.2 (rel. 10-04-2009)

Installer (all platforms):
jmagnetic2.3.2inst.jar (3,1 MB)

Source code:
jmagnetic2.3.2src.zip (5,5 MB)

System Requirements

Java Virtual machine, compatible to SUN's Java Runtime 1.4.2 or higher and capable of running Java Swing applications.
A Java 5 or 6 runtime is highly recommended.

License

Magnetic is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2.

JMagnetic uses...

Screenshots

JMagnetic 2 on Mac OS X - Tiger
JMagnetic 2 on Ubuntu 7.04
JMagnetic on Solaris 10
JMagnetic on Windows XP
JMagnetic on Mac OS X - Leopard