Softalk, v1(10)

~2 minute read

Jun 1981

MARKETALK: Reviews

Zork

Margot Comstock Tommervik

Zork. By Marc S. Blank, Timothy Anderson, Bruce Daniels, P. D. Leblins, Scott Cutler, and Joel Barez. Widely heralded as the adventure to beat the original Adventure, first published by Microsoft, Zork gives living up to its reputation a good stab. Unfortunately, for most people, the Microsoft Adventure (or the Apple Adventure — they're essentially the same thing) was for thousands of people their introduction to the genre of computer adventuring. It would take something far superior to the original Adventure to overpower the delight of first-timing that thoroughly enhances our memories of the two-pit room, fee fie foe fee, and the gentle faithful bear.

Strictly as an adventure, Zork seems right on a par with the original; in fact, it appears to be somewhat more complex, and it adds some flavor with clues and possessions that your own general knowledge can help to manipulate. For instance, when you come to an altar lit with candles upon which lie a dinner bell and an open Bible, what comes to mind? If it's Shakespeare's King John, you're just that much farther ahead.

On the other hand, if some of the locations seem a bit contrived, the great number of them makes up for that. The mere fact that in Zork you have at last a second real, logical, epic adventure to conquer makes pale any objection to the similarity of tone and atmosphere to those of the original Adventure. Like that program, Zork was originated on mainframe computers.

One clue: Don't always assume defeat just because you're dead.

In its execution of the no-res computer logic game form, Zork surpasses original Adventure with one giant leap. Until Zork, all adventures — except the uncategorizable Prisoner, which stands alone — limited the player to two-word input, occasionally allowing a qualifying phrase in a second command; for example, you say, "Kill fiend." Adventures respond with, "With what?" You answer, "With Battleax." And the computer, more often than not, says, "Battleax has no effect." In contrast, in Zork, you can not only say, "Kill fiend with battleax," whenever you like, you can actually tell it, "Attack the lousy fiend with the battleax and kill the fiend with the sword and take the treasure."

Of course, long sentences don't get you any favors. Zork will probably answer, "Battleax won't work. You missed. The fiend won't let you," in response to your three commands in order, but it's much more satisfying to write them that way. One situation in which this facility is bound to prevent lots of high blood pressure occurs when you want to combine manipulations of things. For example, you have an empty box and you have a small treasure. Maybe you could carry more if you could put the treasure in the box, you reason. No way, in previous adventures. But, in Zork, just say, "Put the treasure in the box." It won't make any difference to what you can carry, but you'll feel a whole lot better.

Although, much of the time, you'll find yourself using the familiar two-word commands anyway, the ability of Zork to understand long, compound (not complex) sentences, and even some questions, adds a new dimension of pleasure to the genre.

Zork by Marc S. Blank et al. of Infocom, Personal Software, Sunnyvale, CA. 48K, disk. $39.95.

This article appeared in
Softalk
Jun 1981

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