Zork I
From Conservapedia
Zork I: The Great Underground Empire is the first game in the Zork series. It was written by David Lebling and Marc Blank, programmers at Infocom.
Contents |
Plot
The player begins in "an open field to the west of a white house." The house contains such interesting items as an "elvish sword of great antiquity," a brass lantern, and a mysterious trapdoor into the cellar. Going into the cellar brings you into the ruins of the Great Underground Empire.
The purpose of the game is to collect treasures ranging in size from a gold coffin to a brass bauble and put them in the trophy case in the living room of the white house. During the exploration of the underground area, the player meets such enemies as light-fearing grues, a nasty troll with an axe, evil spirits, and a nimble, sarcastic thief.
Placing the nineteen treasures in the trophy case gives the player the title of "Master Adventurer" and causes an ancient map to appear among the treasures in the case. Using the directions on the map, the player can return to where the game started--west of the house. The placement of the treasures in the case, however, has caused a secret path to appear. Going along that path will take the player to a mysterious barrow which leads him to Zork II.
Notes
Zork I was the first text adventure to introduce the grue, a menacing monster which apparently only feared light.
The first place when the player discovers grues is walking into a dark area without a light source activated:
You have moved into a dark place. It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
Typing 'what is a grue?' will reveal more about them.
The grue is a sinister, lurking presence in the dark places of the earth. Its favorite diet is adventurers, but its insatiable appetite is tempered by its fear of light. No grue has ever been seen by the light of day, and few have survived its fearsome jaws to tell the tale.
If the player does not activate a light source or return to a lit area, he will be eaten. (In Adventure, the previous game, players who went into dark areas fell down bottomless pits to their death.) Originally, Zork was planned to be the same way, but the presence of above-ground areas such as the attic complicated it. To compensate for no bottomless holes, Dave Lebling invented the grue.
Taglines
1. The first lines from the game are perhaps the most familiar lines in computer games:
You are standing in an open field to the west of a white house with a boarded front door. There is a small mailbox here.
2. [after entering a dark place without a light source]
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
3. [after entering one of the two nasty mazes]
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
External links
1. Play Zork I online: http://www.xs4all.nl/~pot/infocom/zork1.html
