So far as I am aware Zork was developed as a dos text adventure game by Infocom from a text adventure game called Dungeon, which in turn was developed at the Programming Tehnology Division of the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science by Tim Anderson, Marc Blanc, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling. I would be most grateful for any
Feedback with more information about the source of the game.
Zork has at least three parts - this is part 1. The object of this part of the game is to get a series of treasures from the surface and a series of underground tunnels, and to return them to the
Trophy Case in the
White House.
The computer can understand and obey a limited range of commands. One can move by entering n,s,e,w,u, or d for north, south..up or down, and ne, se, nw, sw. But remember that going north into an area does not necessarily mean that going south will get one back to the first area. I'm not sure whether this is a bug or a feature, but it can be horribly confusing at times.
If in doubt save the game, and especially save the game before any fight. One can do this at any time by entering save. The program will ask for a name and path under which to save the game. So far as I know one can save any number of games. One resumes by entering restore, and is then prompted for the name and path of the game to be restored.
One can only carry a certain number of objects at a time, and fewer still if one has been injured in a fight with the
Cyclops, the
Thief, or the
Troll. This makes it necessary to take treasures back to the
Trophy Case from time to time or sometimes to drop them.
One can check one's score and inventory at any time by entering those words. Enter q or quit to leave the game. You will
not be asked whether you want to save.