Preview

A Whole Grue World

The Great Underground Empire Rises Again in a Brand New Trilogy

Jeff Green

On May 25, 1977 Star Wars was released to the world, and a universe was born. Eight days later, so the legend goes, a group of MIT programmers, including Dave Lebling, Marc Blank, and Tim Anderson, created a universe of their own. The result was Dungeon, a text-based fantasy adventure game that ran on mainframe computers. This game eventually evolved into one of the first text adventures -- and one of the best games, period -- ever to appear on a personal computer: Zork.

As with Star Wars, the first Zork game was only the beginning. For the next 20 years, over the course of ten games, the story expanded, encompassing roughly 750 years in the history of the Great Underground Empire, a land inhabited by evil sorcerers, dimwitted kings, man-eating grues, and you -- the quick-thinking adventurer. Along the way, the Zork series set a standard for humorous, yet brain-busting, gameplay that few other adventure games have even come close to matching.

THE NEW ZORK

Now, exactly 20 years after Dungeon was conceived, Activision is embarking on the most ambitious Zork project to date. Zork Grand Inquisitor, due this October, is the first in a trilogy of games that will fill in another huge chunk in the Zork timeline, and will take gamers back to visit some of the series' most legendary characters and locations.

Zork Grand Inquisitor begins in the year 1067. The Great Underground Empire has fallen on hard times ever since the end of the Age of Magic in 966 (as recounted in Beyond Zork and Spellbreaker). Since then, the evil Mir Yannick has seized control of the Empire through his mastery of technology and, to ensure his domination, has dubbed himself the "Grand Inquisitor" and forever banished the practice of magic.

As the game opens, you, the anonymous adventurer, have arrived in Port Foozle, where you discover a lantern containing the trapped disembodied spirit of the Dungeon Master, who, in the game's opening cut-scene, has been obliterated by Yannick. You grab the lantern, descend into the Great Underground Empire via a secret entrance, and embark on an epic adventure to save your friend, restore magic to the world, and defeat the Grand Inquisitor once and for all. To accomplish your tasks, you'll need to travel back in time to recover three legendary treasures: the Coconut of Quendor (from Beyond Zork), a Cube of Foundation (from Spellbreaker), and the skull of Yoruk (a character in Zork Nemesis). Along the way, you'll visit some of the most famous spots in the Zork universe, such as G.U.E. Tech and the legendary white house, and meet with some of its most famous characters, including everyone's favorite sorcerer, Belboz.

ZORKIER THAN THE REST

Since transforming from text into graphic adventures in 1993, the Zork series has been a mixed bag. The first effort, Return to Zork, was a bit cheesy, and suffered from an incomprehensible interface. The second, last year's Zork Nemesis, was a very popular game, but was a departure for the series in many ways. Activision Myst-ified the Zork universe with undeniably beautiful graphics and a dark, portentous storyline, but came up short on the humor that had always been a hallmark of the series. Of all the games in the series, Nemesis was the least Zorky Zork.

With Zork Grand Inquisitor, Activision is wholeheartedly embracing the Zork legacy while retaining the sophisticated look of Nemesis. ZGI employs the same "Z-Vision" engine created for Nemesis, which allows 360-degree panoramic scrolling within each scene, but the graphics themselves have taken on a lighter, less austere tone to match the game's more comic approach. Activision is also promising more interactivity with the environment (rather than just one or two hotspots per pretty picture), as well as a more populated world -- consisting of both live-action and computer-generated characters -- to help give the game the kind of vibrancy that made the old text adventures so great. Other refinements include a new inventory system, which will let you store, examine, and combine objects, as well as a dynamic map, which fills in as you explore the world and allows you to quickly move between places you've previously visited.

The biggest (and most welcome) change, however, is the incorporation of a spellbook, given to you at the beginning of the game by the enchantress Y'Gael (from Beyond Zork). As you progress through the game, you'll learn a total of 18 spells, which are divided into three classes: High Magic (the power to create or destroy), Middle Magic (knowledge-based; allowing you to see and comprehend concepts), and Deep Magic (the power to transform and use alchemy). Some of the spells, like rezrov, will be familiar to fans of the Enchanter trilogy, while others were newly created for this game. Many of the puzzles in ZGI directly involve the use of spellcasting, which ties in to the game's main storyline of restoring magic to the world of Zork.

THE REST OF THE STORY

Finally, you should know that Zork Grand Inquisitor is just the beginning of the story. Activision recently revealed to us that ZGI is the first act in a planned trilogy of games, which will tell the entire tale of the 11th-century struggle between the forces of magic and technology. The second game, scheduled for Christmas, 1998, will place you in the role of the Dungeon Master, who must protect the Great Underground Empire and stave off a rebellion led by the Grand Inquisitor's ghost. The third game, projected for Christmas 1999, will conclude the story with a battle between the forces of the Eastlands, including the Dungeon Master (you again) and the evil forces of the Westlands.

If Activision stays with this program, Zork fans have a lot to look forward to, which is good news indeed. Just remember to keep your elvish sword armed and that lantern burning bright -- it looks like we'll be on the lookout for grues for years to come.

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