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Zork
Feb 21, 2010 20:02:26 GMT -5
Post by Discoalucard on Feb 21, 2010 20:02:26 GMT -5
www.hardcoregaming101.net/zork/zork.htmThis is a work in progress, but I figured I'd post it here for some feedback. Zork is the most well known text adventure ever made. Beyond the original trilogy and its spin-off trilogy, Enchanter, there were two other more advanced text adventure games - Zork Zero and Beyond Zero, the latter of which had some RPG elements, along with three graphical adventures - Return to Zork, Zork Nemesis, and Zork Grand Inquisitor. So far, this article only covers the first two trilogies of the text adventures. It's a fascinating read, though. I only ever played a bit of the first one (and Beyond Zork) as far as the text adventures went, but I had played Return to Zork, so it helped explain a lot of the stuff found in there. Also, since this is a text game, I wasn't quite sure what to do with formatting and screenshots. Since the screens are all text and wouldn't resize properly, I just stuck them fullsize beneath the article text. That way you can read them after perusing the article itself.
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Zork
Feb 21, 2010 20:21:03 GMT -5
Post by blackdrazon on Feb 21, 2010 20:21:03 GMT -5
Hm, I always considered doing some Infocom articles. We had a collection for the Mac when I was younger that tried to replicate the original feelies in a booklet with a few individual items, but it's long since lost, which is a definite shame. I've always loved Trinity, Planetfall and Suspended (as well as Plundered Hearts but mostly because that was actually beatable), but you can't go wrong with Zork. I've also played Return to Zork, which I think I appreciate far more today than I did at the time. Some good related links to this article once its complete could be original, pre-split mainframe version, available here. Make sure to check out that giant hand-drawn map. Another personal favourite is the Infocom Bugs List (the IFWiki has an Wayback link to it here (the second line, esp) since it went down a year or two ago). Bugs in text games, imho, take on whole new levels of surreality since your imagination fills in the gaps that, in a graphical game, would be far more mundane. Consider the early version of Zork bug where you can kill the thief by stabbing randomly where he had been standing before leaving the room or, my favourite, the bug in Plundered Hearts where you pluck off your own limbs or head and fling them wildly away from you only to have them sitting there... staring back at you. EDIT: This might just be me, but I think it might be worth pointing out exactly what's so aggravating about the Royal Puzzle in Zork 3: it's a box puzzle, in a text game. It is a Zelda-style box puzzle, in a text game, with three elements that make it even worse: the thing you have to find under a random box, the box with ladders on it, and the one-way door you can easily block off by accident. Vicious. Stupidly vicious. At least it's right next to the time travel puzzle, which is a bit of a riot, getting around a barrier not by the usual McGuiverism but rather going to when there was no barrier at all and feeling clever for doing so. I think it might also be worth mentioning Wishbringer, since some people think it's also a Zork game, but I think Wishbringer makes way more sense in the context of the short lived text game industry as a whole than as a piece of Zork history. Infocom was trying to attract new, non-game markets way before Nintendo (though the fact that they were making something as exclusivist as Text Games made this impossible on one hand, and the fact that they were Infocom, second only to Sierra in terms of unfair cruelty, made it impossible in the second).
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Zork
Feb 21, 2010 22:11:20 GMT -5
Post by MRSKELETON on Feb 21, 2010 22:11:20 GMT -5
For class this year my groups project is an 8bit final fantasy style Zork
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Zork
Feb 21, 2010 22:26:32 GMT -5
Post by blackdrazon on Feb 21, 2010 22:26:32 GMT -5
Really, mazinsaga? The closest thing I can think of to a FF-style 8-bit adventure game is Sweet Home (which is reaching). I can imagine how it would work but it's not something that you've got much to inspire you for. Still, good luck!
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Zork
Feb 22, 2010 0:51:04 GMT -5
Post by Weasel on Feb 22, 2010 0:51:04 GMT -5
I never had the chance to play the graphical Zork games (Return, Nemesis, Grand Inquisitor), but I heard Nemesis is "Zork in name only" and supposedly very dark. I'd be greatly interested in reading about that.
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Zork
Feb 22, 2010 18:30:25 GMT -5
Post by MRSKELETON on Feb 22, 2010 18:30:25 GMT -5
Well, Nobody can decide what we want the main character to look like, it's a small problem. You do start in front of a house though!
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Zork
Feb 22, 2010 19:14:57 GMT -5
Post by blackdrazon on Feb 22, 2010 19:14:57 GMT -5
The only possible accurate representation of the Zork protagonist is a gender/culture/species neutral bag filled that wanders around inflating with random crap. Joking aside, the sad fact is that there's really nothing between the text-only AFGNCAAP and the 20 minute character customization screen, especially in 2D. Nothing clogs the art pipeline like having to draw twice or more of the exact same sprites.
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Zork
Feb 22, 2010 19:32:54 GMT -5
Post by MRSKELETON on Feb 22, 2010 19:32:54 GMT -5
We were considering just representing the character with either M or F choices of a guy in a horned helmet with a sword.
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