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Zork

Page history last edited by DustinWindsor 11 years, 3 months ago

Zork is a text adventure, which is a form of interactive fiction, like a cross between a novel and an RPG with some escape-the-room type puzzles thrown in.

For more information, see:

History

Users Guide

Playing the Game

Important Commands

Verbs to Use

Maps

Walkthroughs (Complete Solutions)

Want to make your own?

 

Done reading already?  Play Zork 1-3

 

History

The very first text adventure was simply called Adventure and it was fantasy based. Most of its influences came from J.R.R. Tolkien and Dungeons and Dragons. The heyday of the text adventure was before computers could handle graphics, as we are used to today. Instead, intricately detailed dungeons with twisty little passages were all described with text, thus leaving much to the imagination of the player. In the case of Zork, it was one of the first text adventures and even spawned several sequels. Originally conceived in the late 1970's by a research group of MIT, the game was written by Tim Anderson, Mark Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling. Read more about the history of this classic game series.

 

Users Guide:

Most of the information below came from the Zork Users Guide. There is a lot more great information for the interested player found there.

 

Playing the Game

  • When you see the prompt (>) on your screen, ZORK is waiting for your command. There are four kinds of sentences or commands that ZORK understands:
  1. Direction commands: To move from place to place, just type the direction you want to go: N (or NORTH), E, S, W, NE, SE, NW, SW, U (or UP), D (or DOWN), IN, OUT.
  2. Actions: Just type whatever you want to do. Some examples: GET THE LEAFLET or READ THE BOOK or OPEN THE DOOR or LOOK THROUGH THE WINDOW. Once you're familiar with simple commands, you'll want to use more complex ones as described in 'Communicating with ZORK' on page 14 of the Zork Users Guide.
  3. Commands given to people: To talk to characters in the story, type their name, then a comma, then what you want to say to them. For example: TROLL, GIVE ME THE AXE or OLD MAN, GO NORTH.
  4. Special one-word commands: some one-word commands, such as INVENTORY or DIAGNOSE, give you specific information or affect your output. A list of these appears in the 'Important Commands' appendix on page 18 of theZork Users Guide.
  • Important! After typing your sentence or command, you must press the RETURN (or ENTER) key before ZORK will respond. On most computers, your screen will have a special line called the status line. It tells you the name of your current location, your score, and the number of turns you have taken.
  • You can pick up and carry many of the items you'll find in the story. For example, if you type TAKE THE NECKLACE, you will be carrying it. Type INVENTORY to see a list of everything you are carrying.
  • When you want to stop, save your place for later, simply type SAVE. Later, when you want to start again, type RESTORE.

 

Important Commands

There are a number of one-word commands which you can type instead of a sentence. You can use them over and over as needed. Some count as a turn, others do not. Type the command after the prompt (>) and hit the RETURN (or ENTER) key.

  • AGAIN: ZORK will usually respond as if you had repeated your previous sentence. Among the cases where AGAIN will not work is if you were just talking to another character. You can abbreviate AGAIN to G.
  • BRIEF: This tells ZORK to give you the full description of a location only the first time you enter it. On subsequent visits, ZORK will tell you only the name of the location and the objects present. This is how ZORK will normally act, unless you tell it otherwise using the VERBOSE or SUPERBRIEF commands.
  • DIAGNOSE: ZORK will give you a medical report of your physical condition. This is particularly useful if you have just survived a dangerous battle or if you are under the effects of a magical spell.
  • INVENTORY: ZORK will list what you are carrying. You can abbreviate INVENTORY to I.
  • LOOK: This tells ZORK to describe your location in full detail. You can abbreviate LOOK to L.
  • RESTART: This stops the story and starts over from the beginning.
  • RESTORE: This restores a story position made using the SAVE command. See 'Starting and Stopping' in the Zork Users Guide for more details.
  • SAVE: This makes a snapshot of your current story position. You can return to a saved position in the future using the RESTORE command. See 'Starting and Stopping' in the Zork Users Guide for more details.
  • SCORE: ZORK will show your current score and the number of turns you have taken. It will also tell you your rank, which is based on your score.
  • SCRIPT: This command tells your printer to begin making a transcript of the story as you venture onwards. A transcript may aid your memory but is not necessary. It will work only on certain computers.
  • SUPERBRIEF: This commands ZORK to display only the name of a place you have entered, even if you have never been there before. In this mode, ZORK will not even mention which objects are present. Of course, you can always get a description of your location, and the items there, by typing LOOK. In SUPERBRIEF mode, the blank line between turns will be eliminated. This mode is meant for adventurers who are already very familiar with the geography. Also see VERBOSE and BRIEF.
  • UNSCRIPT: This commands your printer to stop making a transcript.
  • VERBOSE: This tells ZORK that you want a complete description of each location and the objects in it every time you enter a location, even if you've been there before. Also see BRIEF and SUPERBRIEF.
  • WAIT: This will cause time in the story to pass. Normally, between turns, nothing happens in the story. You could leave your computer, take a nap and return to the story to find that nothing has changed. You can use WAIT to make time pass in the story without doing anything. For example, if you encounter an alien being, you could WAIT to see what it will do. Or, if you are in a moving vehicle, you could WAIT to see where it will go.


There are many other commands as well, such as open, close, read, lift, pull, etc. Just type, in easy-to-understand language, what you think you should be doing, and you'll get the hang of it. See below for a more complete list. Other than that, good luck.

 

Verbs to Use

This is only a partial list of the verbs that all three ZORK adventures understand. There are many more. Remember that you can use a variety of prepositions with them. For example, LOOK can become LOOK INSIDE, LOOK BEHIND, LOOK UNDER, LOOK THROUGH, LOOK AT and so on.
ANSWER, FOLLOW, SAY, ATTACK, GIVE, SEARCH, BLOW, INFLATE, SHAKE, BREAK, JUMP, SLIDE, BURN, KICK, SMELL, CLIMB, KNOCK, STAY, CLOSE, LIGHT, STRIKE, COUNT, LISTEN, SWIM, CROSS, LOCK, TAKE, CUT, LOOK, TELL, DEFLATE, LOWER, THROW, DIG, MOVE, TIE, DRINK, OPEN, TOUCH, DROP, POUR, TURN, EAT, PRAY, UNLOCK, ENTER, PULL, WAKE, EXAMINE, PUSH, WALK, EXIT, PUT, WAVE, EXTINGUISH, RAISE, WEAR, FILL, READ, WIND.

 

Maps

Zork 1: Above GroundUndergroundThe Maze or Zork 1 Complete

Zork 2 Complete

Zork 3 Complete

 

Hints

Using these pages, you can just get hints to a particular problem rather than the complete solution. Try this first.

Zork 1 , Zork 2 , Zork 3

 

Walkthroughs (Complete Solutions)

Don't give up that easy. Try the hints pages above first.   

Zork 1 Walkthrough , Zork 2 Walkthrough , Zork 3 Walkthrough

 

Want to make your own?

There is an unbelievable easy-to-learn text adventure creation program called Quest, which was developed by a British programmer named Ray Pang. Yes, it does require a download, but it's worth it. You can even make online multiplayer games and submit your own creations to the site. There are quite a few good ones already there.

Play Zork 1-3


 

 

 

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