An old, oddly youthful man turns toward you slowly. His long, silver hair dances about him as a fresh breeze blows. "You have reached the final test, my friend! You are proved clever and powerful, but this is not yet enough! Seek me when you feel yourself worthy!"

ZORK III: THE DUNGEON MASTER draws you into the deepest and most mysterious reaches of the Great Underground Empire. Nothing is as it seems. And the one responsible for the shadow and darkness - the Dungeon Master - embodies the greatest mystery of all.

In this test of wisdom and courage, you will face countless dangers. But what awaits you at the culmination of your odyssey is well worth risking all.

Source:

Unknown Source

ZORK III: The Dungeon Master is the test of your wisdom and courage. Your odyssey culminates in an encounter with the Dungeon Master himself. Your destiny hangs in the balance. ADVANCED LEVEL

Source:

"The Incomplete Works of Infocom, Inc." Catalog

A year in the making, Zork III: The Dungeon Master is the climax of the first Zork trilogy. If you enjoyed Zork I and Zork II, you'll love Zork III - it's the most mind-boggling of them all.

Visit the mystifying Land of Shadow. Try to obtain the crown jewels of the Great Underground Empire. Solve the royal puzzle. Delve into the secrets of the Technology Museum. Meet some very mysterious characters. The greatest challenge is figuring out what is going on and what you are there for. The conclusion of this game is quite satisfying.

Source:

From The New Zork Times, Vol.II no.1 Fall 1982

You

are about to see the fantastic worlds of Infocom unfold before your very eyes.

ZORK III The Dungeon Master draws you into the deepest and most mysterious reaches of the Great Underground Empire, testing your wisdom and courage as never before. Nothing is as it seems. And the one responsible for the shadow and darkness - The Dungeon Master - embodies the greatest mystery of all.

Source:

From the first Infocom fold-out catalog, 198?

The ZORK trilogy, Infocom's classic underground odyssey, takes you into the extraordinary environs of the Great Underground Empire. It's a world so vast and unique, it can offer new discoveries no matter how often you explore it, with challenges that change and revitalize the adventure each time you make your descent. The NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW sums up the ZORK trilogy as "remarkable adventure fantasies." And the public agrees, for the SOFTALK READERS' POLL named ZORK I its "Most Popular Adventure," and all three ZORK adventures are among the best-selling computer games in history.

Even the way Infocom puts the trilogy together is unique. ZORK I, II, and III all share a common thread, yet each is a complete and separate story unto itself - so you can play them in any sequence you choose.

ZORK III: The Dungeon Master is the test of your wisdom and courage. Your odyssey culminates in an encounter with the Dungeon Master himself, and your destiny hangs in the balance.

Source:

From the 1983 Infocom catalog "OUR CIRCUITS, OURSELVES!"

THE ZORK TRILOGY

Adventure seekers, welcome to the Great Underground Empire, a world fraught with danger and discovery, an underground domain so vast, with so many twists and turns, it can offer you new surprises no matter how many times you explore it. The ZORK TRILOGY has been a top 10 best seller for over 5 years, and it's still going strong.

ZORK III: THE DUNGEON MASTER

For the ultimate test of your wisdom and courage, the Dungeon Master draws you into the deepest and most mysterious reaches of the Great Underground Empire. ZORK III has a scoring system and goal that are quite different from those of other stories in the Trilogy. You can only finish the game once you discover why you are in the perilous ruins of the empire and what you are supposed to be doing there.

"With their brain-testing challenge and beautifully written descriptions... it's no wonder that ZORK's I, II and III have become classics in their time."

-Electronic Games magazine

"The program by which all other computerized adventures are judged."

-Playboy

"If it's 2 in the morning, this must be ZORK. Not even Ted Koppel can keep the nation up so late."

-The Washington Post

Source:

From PASSPORT To The United Products of Infocom 1986

(caption)
Preserved for posterity inside this and every ZORK III package are your ZORK Ill disk, FroborzCo Annual Report, an official stock certificate and a highly important-sounding letter from the Chairman of the Board.

An old, oddly youthful man turns toward you slowly. His long, silver hair dances about him as a fresh breeze blows. "You have reached the final test, my friend! You are proved clever and powerful, but this is not yet enough! Seek me when you feel yourself worthy!" ZORK III: THE DUNGEON MASTER draws you into the deepest and most mysterious reaches of the Great Underground Empire. Nothing is as it seems. And the one responsible for the shadow and darkness — the Dungeon Master — embodies the greatest mystery of all. In this test of wisdom and courage, you will face countless dangers. But what awaits you at the culmination of your odyssey is well worth risking all.

GET INSIDE A STORY. GET ONE FROM INFOCOM!
It's like waking up inside a story! Load Infocom's interactive fiction into your computer and discover yourself at the center of a world jam-packed with surprising twists, unique characters and original, logical, often hilarious puzzles.
For the first time, you're more than a passive reader. You can talk to the story, typing in full English sentences. And the story talks right back, communicating entirely in vividly descriptive prose. What's more, you can actually shape the story's course of events through your choice of actions. And you have hundreds of alternatives at every step. In fact, there's so much you can see and do, your adventure can last for weeks and even months.
To find the Infocom interactive story that's right for you, just choose any one marked with the level of difficulty listed below that best matches your current level of interactive skill.

Junior: Best introduction to interactive fiction. Written for everyone from age 9 up.

Standard: Good introductory level for adults. This is Infocom's most popular level of interactive fiction.

Advanced: A greater level of challenge. Recommended for those who've already experienced Infocom's interactive fiction.

Expert: For real diehards seeking the ultimate challenge in interactive fiction.

Then find out what it's like to get inside a story. Get one from Infocom. Because with Infocom's interactive fiction, there's room for you on every disk.

Source:

Back of Box - Apple II/DOS/TRS-80/CoCo (US)

ZORK

You're on the threshold of a whole new experience. For ahead of you is the extraordinary trilogy of the Great Underground Empire. And once you step through the door to ZORK you leave the world of arcade games and trite fantasies behind, and enter the dimension of your imagination.
You don't just play the ZORK trilogy—you become part of it. Every plot, every puzzle, every personality has been honed and perfected to make your experience uniquely realistic and involving. Perhaps that's why all three ZORK adventures are among the most popular computer games in history.
Even the way we put the trilogy together is unique. ZORK I, II and III share a common thread yet each is a complete and separate story unto itself — so you can play them in any sequence you choose.

ZORK I: The Great Underground Empire confronts you with perils and predicaments ranging from the mystical to the macabre, as you strive to discover the Twenty Treasures of ZORK and escape with them and your life.

ZORK II: The Wizard of Frobozz takes you to new depths of the subterranean realm. There you'll meet the Wizard, who will attempt to confound your quest with his capricious powers.

ZORK III: The Dungeon Master is the test of your wisdom and courage. Your odyssey culminates in an encounter with the Dungeon Master himself, and your destiny hangs in the balance.

What's so different about Infocom games?
To start with, they're 100% prose—all words, no pictures. But it's the way the prose is written that really gives our games a whole new dimension.
An Infocom game involves you in the story more than other computer games do, because our program doesn't come between you and the story. The secret is our special "command parser" which in non-computerese means that interacting with an Infocom game is just about as easy as talking.
Thanks to our parser, you don't have to play guessing games to find the command the program will accept. The game recognizes over 600 words, including adjectives—and should you hit upon a command that it doesn't understand, it'll even tell you which word in your sentence is causing the confusion. The parser even lets you use more than one object in a command. The fact is a command like FLOYD, PUT THE MONSTER AND THE GREEN MONKEY INTO THE IRON CAGE THEN LOCK THE DOOR AND THROW AWAY THE KEY, which would stump any other computer game, is a piece of cake for our games.
All of which boils down to this: When you play an lnfocom game, you're interacting with stories written by master storytellers, instead of fighting with programs written by programmers.

Come up for air and discover these Infocom bestsellers!
DEADLINE™, the first great mystery of the computer age.
The WITNESS™, a hard-boiled whodunit thriller of the Thirties.
STARCROSS™, our astounding science fiction mind bender.
SUSPENDED™, the cryogenic nightmare on the edge of the far future.
PLANETFALL™, the spectacular comedy of the last frontier.
ENCHANTER™, the inception of a spellbinding series in the Zorkian tradition.
INFIDEL™, the original action classic from Infocom Tales of Adventure.

Step up to Infocom. All words. No pictures. The secret reaches of your mind are beckoning. A whole new dimension is in there waiting for you.

Source:

Back of Box - DOS/PC Booter (US)