Vintage game night- Zork: Where the hell am I

well tonight,I decided my free time would be filled with vintage gaming,and I took it back to the 1980’s with Zork,the original text based adventure.

The game takes place in the Zork calendar year 948 GUE . The player steps into the deliberately vague role of an “adventurer”. The game begins near a white house in a small, self-contained area. Although the player is given little instruction, the house provides an obvious point of interest.

When the player enters the house, it yields a number of intriguing objects. Beneath a rug you find a trap door which leads down into a dark cellar. But what initially appears to be a cellar is actually one of several entrances to a vast subterranean land—the Great Underground Empire. The player soon encounters dangerous creatures, including deadly grues, an axe-wielding troll, a giant cyclops and a nimble-fingered thief.

The ultimate goal of Zork I is to collect the Twenty Treasures of Zork and install them in the trophy case. Finding the treasures requires solving a variety of puzzles such as the navigation of two brutal mazes and some intricate manipulations at Flood Control Dam.

Placing all of the treasures into the trophy case scores the player points and grants the rank of “Master Adventurer.”

To play the game you type in commands on the screen

like in the picture above.The interface uses simple commands such as “Go west,pick up leaflet,attack troll etc to navigate the dungeon. Sounds simple right ??

Is it hell !! I spent two hours navigating tunnels,killing trolls and getting robbed.putting me in frustration mode as I started to take the game overly serious.About half an hour in I began to physically map out the world. like drawing it on a piece of paper like a flow chart so I didn’t get lost because if you’ve got lost in zork,you might as well just get eaten by a grue cos you ain’t getting found again.

Despite,its zero graphics,frustrating dungeons and zero violence,I love the game.Its so addictive,so simple and so fun. If your having a vintage game night or just want to fill a wasted day then play zork.Listen to Sheldon Cooper and pick me (Zork) 😀