Frotz vs A Dark Room
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Frotz
Experience classic text-based adventure games on your mobile device. Relive the golden age of interactive fiction with hundreds of free titles, supporting various game formats. Perfect for those who enjoy reading, thinking, and typing their way through immersive stories.
- Play hundreds of free interactive fiction games
- Supports Z-Machine, glulx, and TADS formats
- Relive classic text adventures
- Modern interface with high-resolution fonts
- Play on iPhone and iPad
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[*Warning* Playing Frotz involves reading, thinking, and typing. If you just want to blow stuff up, this is not the app for you!] Burned out on all the new-fangled graphics and dazzling eye candy on your shiny new iPhone or iPad? Nostalgic for a simpler time? Then take advantage of those crisp high-resolution fonts to relive the glory days of the Great Underground Empire, or play any of hundreds of great works from the Interactive Fiction archive. Frotz lets you play hundreds of free works of Interactive Fiction (a.k.a. text adventure games) on your iPhone or iPad. Frotz plays titles written in the Z-Machine format (which was invented by Infocom and was used to produce classic text adventures from the 80s such as the Zork Trilogy, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and Trinity), as well as glulx and TADS formats. In the past couple of decades, text adventures have experienced a renaissance of sorts due to the efforts of a diverse Internet community of talented interactive fiction writers and fans. Many of these games are written using the same engine that powered Infocom's titles, thanks to the Inform compiler and authoring system created by Graham Nelson. NOTE! If you have suggestions for improving Frotz or encounter bugs, please go to the support link and report them. Frotz for iOS - Interactive Fiction at Your Fingertips
A Dark Room
Awaken in a mysterious world with a throbbing head and blurry vision. Follow the voices' instructions to survive and explore this text-based adventure. Experience a game free from ads, loot boxes, in-app purchases, and tracking, fully playable with VoiceOver.
- Text-based adventure
- Survival mechanics
- Exploration
- Resource management
- VoiceOver compatible
- No ads or IAP
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awake. head throbbing. vision blurry. the voices say to survive. - One of Apple's most downloaded apps of 2014. - Ranked in the top 10 games in 70 countries, #1 app overall in 7 countries. - No ads, no loot boxes, no IAP, no tracking. - 100% playable via VoiceOver. - Relive the glory days of gaming from the era of Zork.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Frotz at Free against A Dark Room's $1.99. A Dark Room's advantage is ratings volume (2.7K vs 251) and chart position (#21 vs unranked). On rating, review sentiment, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Frotz is free to download; A Dark Room costs $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Frotz against 4.8 for A Dark Room. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: A Dark Room has 2.7K ratings behind it against 251, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 91% of Frotz's written reviews are positive against 93% of A Dark Room's.
Frotz ships an update every 5 months, A Dark Room every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 30, 2026 and October 2, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Frotz | A Dark Room |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $1.99 |
| Rating | 4.8 (251 ratings) | 4.8 (2.7K ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 90.8% of reviews | 92.7% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 251 | 2.7K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 5 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Paid |
| Best chart rank | — | #21 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 | 11.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 45 MB | 100 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Craig Smith | Amirali Rajan |
Customer experience
Frotz
A Dark Room
Bugs and requests
Frotz
Reported bugs
2 issues- Crashes when trying to resume certain saved games
- Inconsistent behavior when deleting or importing games
Requested features
4 requests- Add support for more modern interactive fiction formats
- Implement cloud sync and cross-device save support
- Improve game library management and discovery
- Add more customization options for text display
A Dark Room
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Frotz
No in-app purchases
A Dark Room
No in-app purchases
