Comments on Low Production Value Theater

Oh grandpa, won't you be so kind as to tell us all the rousing tale of the Zork? I'm ever so fond of stories about the ol' days!

Oh my God. You played that shit?

I don't believe you.

I keep trying to talk our designers into turning our MMORPG into a text adventure.

"You see a door..."

I'm 24 and have played most of the zork series. Of course I'm also a bit of a nerd. So yea..

There is a small mailbox here.

As a kid, I read Choose-Your-Own-Adventure ripoff books called ZORK. Is there a connection?

You see a door - and hit it.

"Ow!" says the door.

Do you want to:

A. Open the door
B. Apologize to the door
C. Attack the door with your Wet Noodle
D. Go in a different direction

I played ye olde text games. Sniff... so awesome. But I have a version of Zork on my iBook that I try every so often, and I simply can't figure the damn thing out. I need, like, Zork for dummies.

YOU WERE EATEN BY A GRUE.

"Hello sailor!"

You can also play new versions of Infocom's Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy game - now with pictures, courtesy of the BBC:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/game.shtml

XYZZY

Beware the Wumpus!

@Bub: Yes, there were four tie-in Choose Your Own Adventure-style books. Later on, George Alec Effinger wrote a Zork book that's actually really good.

I think I may have actually played Zork I too much, because I think I can do most of it from memory: North, North, Climb Tree, Get Egg, Down, South, East, Open Window...

I can't remember if I played Zork, but I did play Trinity and Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy.

Nerds.

Hunt the Wumpus and Parsec on the TI99 4/a FTW

I played Zyll, but same thing. It was the only use I got out of my IBM pc jr. I still crave some text-only role-playing every now and again: arcade games have always paled in comparison to the thrill of hitting ctrl-D over and over again.

Kings Quest is so much better.

Or Ultima VII. That shit owned.

You died of dysentery

@18 - Ohmygod I LOVED me some old school Sierra On-line games.

Just what I needed - Another nerdy way to waste some time. As soon as I get home Imma go Load "*",8,1 up some Zork

Thanks!

i'm 21 and i love zork! fantastic classics.
and return to zork is great if you're into pictures.

BEST. GAME. EVER.



I actually did a project in college that used Python to allow you to play any of the Zork games over the internet through an AIM bot.



Wow, that sounds nerdy even to me.

I second the Ultima 7 ownage; it took forever for RPGs to match it. (Oblivion does much of it right though.)

I thought I had no idea what you were talking about and then I read Will's post @7 and it all came whooshing back to me. Good times...good times.

9 posts before a Grue comment? I'm disappointed.

You know what was the shit? Planetfall.

Heh, my girlfriend works for the game studio that made Zork. They're based in Seattle, you know.

Paul Constant, giving me the news I want to read.

This is great. I sense wasted days and rusty lanterns ahead.

Now if someone could find me Leather Goddesses of Phobos...

See www.textfyre.com and note the blog at chicagodave.wordpress.com.

Text Rules.

Alas, the game studio that made Zork hasn't existed since 1989. But anyone who wants to play an Infocom game and can't be bothered to hit up Home of the Underdogs is welcome (for the next few weeks, anyway) to play them by connecting via telnet to 216.254.17.219 and logging in as the user "zork" with no password.

(The time limitation on that offer is because I don't want to step on David's toes. He's been trying to negotiate the rights to the Infocom games for his own company, and having them out there for free in their original version probably doesn't fit into the business plan.)