Kotaku: Zork

The Delightful Home-Made Maps of the Zork Series

Luke Plunkett — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 00:00:00 EDT

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Zork is one of the oldest adventure game franchises there is. The series is so old, in fact, that aside from a few rare instances you can only play the games using, and seeing, text. No graphics, no icons, no heads-up display, nothing. More »

When Activision Met The Wonder Years

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 00:00:00 EST

Normally, the sequel to a popular video game remains largely the same as the preceding title (or titles). If the first one was a shooter, the second one is a shooter. In 1993, however, one series did things a little differently. More »

This May Be The Coolest Way To Play Zork

Michael McWhertor — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 19:40:00 EDT

Or is it the dorkiest? However you want to label it, the ability to play Infocom text adventures like Zork and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy with a typewriter is without a doubt neat. More »

Taking Issue With The Ten Most Important Video Game List

Brian Ashcraft — Mon, 17 May 2010 02:00:00 EDT

In 1998, Stanford University's Henry Lowood began preserving video games and video game artifacts. Lowood, along with a four member committee, has announced a game canon, for the Library of Congress. Japan begs to differ. More »

Zork: The Rock Opera

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 05:30:00 EDT

Errol and Pifie have written a walkthrough to help you beat the grand-daddy of text adventure games, Zork. You won't find it on Gamefaqs, however, because it's written as a rockin' three-minute song. More »

You Are Standing In Front Of Guitar Hero West Of A White House...

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 03:30:00 EST

Guitar Hero's been played out. Colours pass in front of you, you mash a button, music plays, life goes on. If only there was a way to take the core mechanics and make them fresh. More »

Lifetime Sales Figures For...Infocom!

Luke Plunkett — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 07:30:00 EDT

Jason Scott, connoisseur of all things old-timey, knows (and loves) his gaming history. His Flickr gallery shows this. It also shows, remarkably, that he's got a copy of the lifetime sales figures of a bunch of Infocom games. Infocom being the developers of games like Zork and Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. It's fascinating stuff, especially when you consider that shifting 380,000 units of Zork between 1981 and 1986 is, relatively, shifting a lotta units. More »

The iPhone Just Became A Text Adventure Goldmine

Michael McWhertor — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 16:40:51 EDT

iPhone gaming just got a shot in the arm with the release of Frotz, an interactive fiction (aka text adventure) app that's free to download. With it, iPhone owners can while away the hours with dozens of text-only games, getting lamps, facing north, being frozen by wizards... all that fun stuff! That means you have another opportunity to play Zork, Trinity or The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy should the only high-def visuals you require be ultra smooth fonts. More »

A History of Interactive Fiction

Maggie Greene — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 15:30:00 EDT

This is an oldie (appearing in 2006) but goodie if you're interested in interactive fiction — Jimmy Maher wrote a lengthy, well-written and comprehensive history of interactive fiction, from Eliza to the era of Infocom to the state of IF today. It's a fascinating wrap up, even if you're not one of the handful of active IF players; but IF's fall from commercial grace hasn't stopped IF creators from trundling on to creating bigger and better things: More »

Pac-Txt: A Pac-Man Text Adventure

Michael McWhertor — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 19:20:51 EDT

I'm not sure what's more soul-crushing—that someone took the effort to write a web-based Pac-Man text adventure in the style of Zork or that I just spent fifteen minutes ensuring that it adhered to the maze layout perfectly. Regardless, your semi-daily reminder that someone has far too much time on their hands is at the official Pac-Txt site. More »

'The History of Zork'

Maggie Greene — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 16:30:31 EDT

Gamasutra has published the second installment of its series that "present[s] in-depth histories of the first ten games voted into the Digital Game Canon," and the subject this time is Zork. It's a fun look back, and perhaps forward - at least according to the author, who says flat out that "My goal is to persuade you that the text adventure is still a viable genre for modern gamers, even in an age when software and hardware developers are making breakthrough after breakthrough in graphics and animation." More »

The 10 Most Important Video Games

Mike Fahey — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 14:40:21 EDT

Henry Lowood, the curator of the Stanford University History of Science and Technology Collections, announced this past week a list of the 10 Most Important Video Games of All Time. This game canon has been created to preserve to cultural and historical significance of gaming. The list is a result of a collaboration between Lowood, Warren Spector, Steve Meretzky, academic researcher Matteo Bittani and gaming journalist Christopher Grant from Joystiq, and represents the games we must protect at all costs...our cultural artifacts. More »

Adventure Gamers Adventure To AdventureCon

Michael McWhertor — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 19:40:33 EST

Celebrating thirty (THIRTY!) years of Zork and twenty years of Leisure Suit Larry, the Las Vegas AdventureCon will act as the meeting ground for gamers who love the dying point-click-read genre. More »

Gen Con 2006: The Heart of Dorkness

Brian Crecente — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 14:00:45 EDT

Slashdot Games' Zonk has quite a lengthy and in-depth piece up looking at this year's Gen Con 2006, or the heart of dorkness, as he calls it. More »

ZAsterisk: Play Zork By Phone!

brownlee — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 13:40:04 EDT

Back when I was 4, I spent a great deal of time being gently irradiated by my mother's work unix terminal, playing the meager selection of remote text games installed on the New England Telephone mainframe. Go Fish was about the only one that I was good at; Rogue was my favorite. And I never had any idea what the hell to do in Zork. More »

Polygons Meet Pebbles

kotaku.com — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 18:40:00 EDT

We don't know where this came from, but it's pretty funny. A small group of stones as they might theoretically be rendered in videogames from Asteroids to Zelda. And there's space for you to provide your own! Seriously, if you have any idea where these came from, let us know. We like to give credit where it's due. More »