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Zork Revived as Casual MMO
by Chris Faylor, Jan 14, 2009 9:39am PST
Sad that you haven't been eaten by a grue lately? Then I've got some (maybe) good news for you.
Zork, the classic PC adventure series, will return as a casual web-based MMO dubbed Legends of Zork. Jolt Online Gaming will be publishing, with the developer not yet specified.
Playable through any internet browser, including the iPhone, the game will put players in the role of a "recently laid-off salesman and part-time loot-gatherer" that is exploring the fallen Great Underground Empire after its economy and stock market collapsed.
Zork officially debuted in 1980, when Infocom published the humorous text-adventure game designed by MIT students Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling, some of which helped form the now-defunct publisher.
Numerous sequels and books followed, with the last major release hitting in 1997: Activision's full-fledged point-and-click graphical adventure Zork: Grand Inquisitor.
Made in agreement with license holder Activision, Legends of Zork will eventually be playable at LegendsofZork.com. A description of the setting follows:
The Great Underground Empire has recently fallen and the land is in disarray. The Royal Treasury has been sacked. The stock market has collapsed, leading even mighty FrobozzCo International to fire employees from throughout its subsidiaries. A craze of treasure-hunting has swept through the remnants of the Great Underground Empire. The New Zork Times reports that trolls, kobolds and other dangerous creatures are venturing far from their lairs. Adventurers and monsters are increasingly coming into conflict over areas rich with loot. It's a dangerous time to be a newly-unemployed traveling salesman, but it's also a great time to try a bit of adventuring.
Comments
Best MUD I've ever played is still going strong: http://t2tmud.org ... People should really check it out if they want to do some quality text-based adventuring! MUD is called The Two Towers (based on LotR obviously : )
Saddly I remember good times playing MUDD's as well.
My personal hope:
This remains text based and become the new "Choose your own adventure Novel" which is what Zork was really the evolution of. If you add pictures it better be equal to Micheal Whalen's "Dark Tower" paintings and illustrations.
Your sword is glowing with a faint blue glow.
>turn lamp on
The brass lantern is now on.
Cellar
You are in a dark and damp cellar with a narrow passageway leading north, and
a crawlway to the south. On the west is the bottom of a steep metal ramp which
is unclimbable.
>n
The Troll Room
This is a small room with passages to the east and south and a forbidding hole
leading west. Bloodstains and deep scratches (perhaps made by an axe) mar the
walls.
A nasty-looking troll, brandishing a bloody axe, blocks all passages out of
the room.
Your sword has begun to glow very brightly.
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Are the virtues of classic text adventures lost on this generation of gamers?
Some of my most vivid gaming memories come from my own imagination playing "Cutthroats" and "Wishbringer" and "Planetfall" and, yes, "Zork", and obviously high res graphics had nothing on my own imagination and real interactive storytelling.
I wonder how many people younger than 25 would enjoy them? Is there a generation gap with the classic text adventures? Anyone younger than 25 love to play them? Just curious.
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luv2zork: lol look out for the grues
HousesClosed: AIDS IN THE DARK
>exit
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Awesome!