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MobyRank
100 point score based on reviews from various critics.
2.8
MobyScore
5 point score based on user ratings.

Description

Zork: The Great Underground Empire is a classic text adventure game. You begin as an "adventurer" standing near a white house in a nice forest, but soon you set foot in the Great Underground Empire, where most of the game takes place. Your quest is to collect the Nineteen Treasures of Zork.

As in every text adventure, Zork does not use graphics. It communicates with the player via text, and the player interacts with the game by typing commands, such as "examine mailbox" or "take torch". For movement, the player types in geographical directions (such as "north" or "east" - or just "n" and "e"), and he can check what items he's carrying with the "inventory" command (or just "i").

Zork was ported over from mainframes in the late 1970s. It is one of the first "text adventures" (although the proper term for such by die-hard fans is Interactive Fiction) and is widely considered to be one of the great classics of the genre which reached the peak of its popularity in the 80's.

Alternate Titles

  • "Zork I: The Great Underground Empire" -- Re-release title
  • "Zork I" -- Renamed title (after second and third Zork games were released)
  • "Zork" -- Personal Software published name

Part of the Following Groups


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User Reviews

There are no reviews for the Apple II release of this game. You can use the links below to write your own review or read reviews for the other platforms of this game.


The Press Says

Retrogaming.it May, 2008 9 out of 10 90

Forums

Topic # Posts Last Post
Be honest about Zork 13 Indra Depari of 'da Clan Depari Bronze Star Contributing Member (13163)
Oct 23, 2007
You are likely to be eaten ... 5 Sam Jeffreys Bronze Star Contributing Member (3316)
Sep 16, 2007

Trivia

(From The New Zork Times Vol.3 No.2 Spring 1984)

Some statistics about Zork 1:

  • Number of rooms: 110
  • Number of different ways to die: 28
  • Number of words in vocabulary: 698
  • Number of takeable objects: 59 (The raft is actually three different takeable objects: inflated, uninflated, and punctured)



This entry was contributed by Brian Hirt (9991), Slik Bronze Star Contributing Member (432), Droog (468), Kabushi (48044), Pseudo_Intellectual (33533), Terok Nor (10544), LepricahnsGold Bronze Star Contributing Member (42431), koffiepad (10156) and Belboz Bronze Star Contributing Member (6609)
 

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