Zork I
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| Zork I | |
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| Developer(s) | Infocom |
| Publisher(s) | Personal Software / Infocom |
| Designer(s) | Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Dave Lebling and Bruce Daniels |
| Engine | ZIL |
| Release date(s) | Release 2: December, 1980
Release 5: December 1980 |
| Genre(s) | Text adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Platform(s) | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Apple Macintosh, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Commodore 128, Commodore Plus/4, CP/M, DOS, TRS-80 |
| Media | 3½" or 5¼" disk |
| System requirements | No special requirements |
| Input | Keyboard |
Zork I: The Great Underground Empire is an interactive fiction computer game written by Marc Blank, Dave Lebling, Bruce Daniels and Tim Anderson and published by Infocom in 1980. It was the first game in the immensely popular Zork trilogy and was released for a wide range of computer systems, followed by Zork II and Zork III.
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[edit] Plot
The game takes place in the Zork calendar year 948 GUE (although the passage of time is not notable in gameplay). The player steps into the deliberately vague role of an "adventurer". The game begins near a White House in a small, self-contained area. Although the player is given little instruction, the house provides an obvious point of interest.
When the player enters the house, it yields a number of intriguing objects: an ancient brass lantern, an empty trophy case, an intricately engraved sword, etc. Beneath the rug a trap door leads down into a dark dungeon. But what initially appears to be a dungeon is actually one of several entrances to a vast subterranean land--the Great Underground Empire. The player soon encounters dangerous creatures, including deadly grues, an axe-wielding troll, a giant cyclops and a nimble-fingered thief.
The ultimate goal of Zork I is to collect the Nineteen Treasures of Zork and install them in the trophy case. When this has been accomplished, you will score 350 points and be elevated to the rank of Master Adventurer--and an Ancient Map with further instructions will magically appear in the trophy case! The Nineteen Treasures are:
- 1. Jewel-encrusted egg,
- 2. Clockwork canary,
- 3. Beautiful painting,
- 4. Brass bauble,
- 5. Pot of gold,
- 6. Platinum bar,
- 7. Ivory torch,
- 8. Gold coffin,
- 9. Egyptian sceptre,
- 10. Trunk of jewels,
- 11. Crystal trident,
- 12. Jade figurine,
- 13. Sapphire bracelet,
- 14. Huge diamond,
- 15. Bag of coins,
- 16. Crystal skull,
- 17. Jeweled scarab,
- 18. Large emerald,
- 19. Silver chalice
Finding the treasures requires solving a variety of puzzles such as the navigation of two brutal mazes and some successful manipulations at Flood Control Dam #3. But once the Nineteen Treasures have been encased, the Ancient Map will appear to give the now Master Adventurer instructions for finding the Stone Barrow and the path to Zork II.
[edit] Feelies
Zork games
Enchanter trilogy
Other games
Wishbringer Return to Zork
Zork: Nemesis Zork Grand Inquisitor
Zork: The Undiscovered Underground
Topics in Zork
Companies
Miscellaneous
Infocom did not begin their tradition of including feelies, or extra items related to a game, until the 1982 release Deadline. Later re-releases of the game, however, were packaged with:
- The booklet The Great Underground Empire: A History, by "Froboz Mumbar"
- A map roughly corresponding to a portion of the game's area
[edit] Notes
The opening text of Zork I is among the most famous descriptions in computer games:
- West of House
- You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door.
- There is a small mailbox here.
This is quite simplistic when compared to Infocom's later games, many of which started with screenfuls of introductory text.
Several of the game's situations and descriptions have become iconic within the field of interactive fiction, such as the brass lantern and the "Elvish sword of great antiquity".
Zork I also introduced the famous grue, a "sinister, lurking presence" who kills adventurers who go exploring in the dark. Grues appeared (or, at least, were mentioned) in many subsequent Infocom adventures, right up to the 1997 graphic adventure Zork Grand Inquisitor, published by Activision.
The original version of Zork I was published by Personal Software and simply called Zork. It was distributed in clear plastic bags containing only the game disk and a 36-page booklet. Infocom's first "self-published" version of Zork I was in the so-called "Folio" format which included a single piece of paper describing how to run the game. The feelies noted above were only introduced when Zork I was re-released in the "Grey box" format.
Although the back of the Zork I "Grey box" depicted a zorkmid coin included with the other feelies, production difficulties led to the coins' omission from the packages. Zorkmid coins were not included as feelies until the release of the Zork Trilogy boxed set.
The name of Aragain Falls was created by spelling the word Niagara backwards.
Zork I was one of five Infocom games that was released in Solid Gold format with in-game hints.
A German version was released on January 13, 1988.
An abridged version, called Mini-Zork I, was released on November 24, 1987.
[edit] Quotes
[upon entering a dark place, initially the attic or basement] "It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue."
[edit] External links
- Zork emulator on THCnet
- Zork: The Great Underground Empire at MobyGames
- Zork I Technical Info and Screenshot
- Zork I information and overview
- Scans of the Zork I package, documentation and feelies
- Infocom-if.org's entry for Zork I
- All three Zork games downloadable for PC and Mac
- The Infocom Bugs List entry for Zork I
- The Dot Eaters page featuring a history of the Zork games and Infocom
- Zork 1 Walkthroughs
- Zork 1 download
