Zork
A text adventure game exploring the abandoned Great Underground Empire.
Zork is a text-based adventure game that first appeared in 1977 on the PDP-10 mainframe computer, created by Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling. The game was inspired by *Colossal Cave Adventure* (1976), the first well-known interactive fiction and adventure game, and the developers aimed to understand more complex sentences than that game's two-word commands. The original version was developed between 1977 and 1979 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 1979, the developers and several other MIT colleagues founded Infocom. The game was later expanded and divided into three commercial titles—*Zork I: The Great Underground Empire*, *Zork II: The Wizard of Frobozz*, and *Zork III: The Dungeon Master*—released for various personal computers starting in 1980. The first episode was initially published by Personal Software in 1980, but Infocom bought back the rights and self-published all three episodes from late 1981 onward. In *Zork*, the player explores the abandoned Great Underground Empire in search of treasure, moving through hundreds of locations and interacting with objects by typing natural-language commands that the game interprets. The program acts as a narrator, describing the player's location and the results of commands, often in a sarcastic, conversational tone. *Zork* was a major success for Infocom, with sales growing as the personal computer market expanded: the first episode sold over 38,000 copies in 1982 and around 150,000 in 1984, and the three episodes together sold more than 680,000 copies through 1986, accounting for over a third of Infocom's sales in that period. Infocom was acquired by Activision in 1986, leading to new *Zork* games starting in 1987 and a series of books. Reviews were highly positive, with many calling it the best adventure game of its time, and critics regard it as one of the greatest video games. Historians note it as foundational to the adventure game genre and influential on MUDs and massively multiplayer online role-playing games. In 2007, the Library of Congress included *Zork* in its game canon as one of the ten most important video games in history.
Quick Facts
- Title
- Zork
- Developer
- Infocom
- Publisher
- Personal SoftwareInfocom
- Engine
- ZIL
- Platforms
- PDP-10 / PDP-11 / Personal computer (various)
- Released
- 1977 (Zork) / 1980 (Zork I) / 1981 (Zork II) / 1982 (Zork III)
- Genre
- Adventure, interactive fiction
- Modes
- Single-player
- Designer
- Tim Anderson / Marc Blank / Dave Lebling / Bruce Daniels
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
Zork was developed between 1977 and 1979 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) by Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling, members of the Dynamic Modelling Group. The game was inspired by Colossal Cave Adventure (1976), the first well-known interactive fiction and adventure game. The developers wanted to create a game that could understand more complicated sentences than Adventure's two-word commands. In 1979, they founded Infocom with several other colleagues at the MIT computer center. Blank and Joel Berez created a way to run a smaller portion of Zork on several brands of microcomputer, allowing them to commercialize the game as Infocom's first products. The first episode was published by Personal Software in 1980, after which Infocom purchased back the rights and self-published all three episodes beginning in late 1981.
Reader's Guide
Zork was a massive success for Infocom, with sales increasing for years as the personal computer market expanded. The first episode sold more than 38,000 copies in 1982 and around 150,000 copies in 1984. Collectively, the three episodes sold more than 680,000 copies through 1986, comprising more than one-third of Infocom's sales in that period. Reviews were very positive, with several reviewers calling Zork the best adventure game to date. Critics regard it as one of the greatest video games. Later historians have noted the game as foundational to the adventure game genre, as well as influencing the MUD and massively multiplayer online role-playing game genres. In 2007, Zork was included in the game canon by the Library of Congress as one of the ten most important video games in history. Infocom was purchased by Activision in 1986, leading to new Zork games beginning in 1987, as well as a series of books.
Did You Know?
- The original 1977 version of Zork was a single release; it was divided into three episodes for commercial release.
- In dark areas, the player must carry a lantern or other light source to avoid being eaten by a monster called a grue.
- The game's replies are typically in a sarcastic, conversational tone, much like a Game Master in a tabletop role-playing game.
- Zork III includes a timed component: an earthquake occurs after about 130 moves, opening one passageway and closing another.
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