Forums > Game Forums > The Dungeon > This is ZORK!
S Olafsson (59674) on 7/14/2017 9:46 AM · Permalink · Report
Now that mainframe is a platform, this entry has become somewhat idiosyncratic. Shouldn't it just be renamed Zork? This entry even has Zork as an alias "Original Title" and the description only refers to Zork. Plus according to the trivia an unauthorised FORTRAN fork was the only release to bear the name Dungeon.
Pseudo_Intellectual (66360) on 7/16/2017 4:20 AM · Permalink · Report
Is there a precedent where a game's original title is not the one given primacy here? All versions of the game documented here seem to use "Dungeon" as the game's name on the title screen, but of course given the walkthrough test (can the two games be completed by following the same walkthrough), they would be found to be the same game.
Of course, before we supported the Mainframe platform, using the main name Dungeon and Zork as an alt title was clearly the right way to go. The question is whether this new development Changes Everything, and all the ports now are assigned a primary name under which they were never distributed.
(Or: we wait for the New Mobygames System, and the unauthorized ports are given their own entry, related to but distinct from the main Mainframe Zork entry?)
I'm sure there's a case to be made either way; I'm not committed to the status quo, it just seems a low-priority hash to settle 8)
Patrick Bregger (301024) on 7/16/2017 1:52 PM · Permalink · Report
[Q --start Pseudo_Intellectual wrote--]Is there a precedent where a game's original title is not the one given primacy here?
[/Q --end Pseudo_Intellectual wrote--]
Every non-US game which was released there under a different name (e.g. Another World). Also when the original platform is not supported by MobyGames, it is ignored for main title purposes (common back when we did not have Arcade yet).
Pseudo_Intellectual (66360) on 7/16/2017 4:44 PM · Permalink · Report
OK -- while the first situation doesn't apply here, the second is definitely what has led us to this crisis. What happens to the entry when the unsupported original with its distinct name becomes supported?
The other concern is that the only version of Zork anyone has known for 30 years -- all home conversions -- is indeed derived from the unauthorized Fortran fork and a purist might well say that, as with any fan conversion, that warrants a separate entry.
So despite my lumping "THESE ARE THE SAME GAME" tendencies, I'd be wary of fixing the superficial problem (earliest name) first, only to have to go back later and fix the fundamental problem (Dungeon is an unauthorized fangame adaptation) down the line.
