<!--
	Title: The Challenge of Zork
	Subtitle: The Inside Story of the World's Most Popular Adventure Game Trilogy
	Author: Tracie Forman
	Source: Electronic Games, v2(12)
	Date: March 1984
	Transcription by Steve Derby
-->

<img class="float-right-wide" src="/public/img/articles/eg-the-challenge-of-zork/adventurer-and-machine.jpg" alt="A cartoon image of an adventurer operating a machine in a dungeon">

Time is rarely kind to computer games. Advances in hardware,
software and programming science come so quickly that older games
often pale in comparison with titles boasting the latest in graphics and
sound. The current hit titles have a way of pushing last year's favorites
into the background.

One of the few exceptions to the rule is Infocom's super-selling trilogy
of text adventures, **Zork I**, **II**, and **III**. To date, *Zork I* alone has sold about a
quarter of a million copies, an incredible feat when one considers that sales
of 100,000 mark a superhit computer game. Part of the games' success is
due to their imagination-gripping prose style and it certainly doesn't hurt
that they can be played on the Apple II, IBM-PC, Atari computers, TI Professional
computers, the TI 99/4A, the Osborne, TRS-80 Model III, NEC computers,
and any systems operating on CP/M or MS DOS bases.

<figure class="float-left">
	<img src="/public/img/articles/eg-the-challenge-of-zork/mike-dornbrook.jpg" alt="Mike Dornbrook">
	<figcaption class="center" style="font-weight: bold;">MIKE DORNBROOK</figcaption>
</figure>

*Zork* is widely acknowledged as the definitive text adventure game. For
those who've experienced a program of this type, a text adventure is played
using only words: The computer prints a description of the location, and the
player responds by typing in a response. For example, in *Zork*, every
time the adventurer enters an unlit area, the computer warns, "You have
entered a dark place. It's likely that you will be eaten by a grue." If the
player doesn't find a light source fast, he or she soon learns that computers
don't lie!

*Zork I* is the introduction to the underground empire, challenging
gamers to find and explore the subterranean ruins of an ancient civilization.
The object is to plunder what treasures remain in the catacombs and
live to tell the tale. But the player isn't the only explorer. A hungry-looking
thief is after the same rich bounty, and he's a formidable enemy.

The second *Zork* takes players even further into the bowels of the
earth, there to discover the secrets of sorcery. Though the thief doesn't
appear in this game -- (can it be he knows his limits? -- an evil wizard
pops up randomly, casting spells to impede the player's progress. This is a
more complicated game than the first, requiring adventurers to slay a dragon,
placate a demon, and solve the mystery of the colored orbs, to name just a
few simple tasks needed to best the wizard in the end.

<img style="width: 100%" src="/public/img/articles/eg-the-challenge-of-zork/adventurer-and-treasure.jpg" alt="A large cartoon of an adventurer discovering a chest full of treasures">

*Zork III* is the final chapter in the saga, and it's by far the most difficult
to master. Experience points (the score) are few and far between, but
it's worth all the trouble in the end when the gamer comes face-to-face
with the ultimate foe -- the Dungeon Master himself.

Like all Infocom games, *Zork I*, *II*, and *III* are programmed with the Interlogic
system, making the machine capable of understanding complex
sentences and multiple commands ("Get the book, then walk north" instead
of "Get book", "N", for example). Each game is complete in and of
itself, and players don't have to master one adventurer in order to start the
next. All are fun to play individually. But taken as a trilogy, *Zork* is the most
complete, satisfying adventure on the market today.

<img class="float-left-narrow" src="/public/img/articles/eg-the-challenge-of-zork/challenge-of-zork.png" alt="The Challenge of Zork">

For those of you who've forgotten the Dark Ages of computer gaming
(the late 1970's), the original *Zork* was the brainchild of Joel Berez, Dave
Lebling and Marc Blank, who met while doing their undergraduate
work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Though Marc eventually
graduated and moved to New York (where he attended the Albert Einstein
College of Medicine), he devoted his weekends to commuting back to
M.I.T. where the three toiled till the wee hours on the school's mainframe
computer.

By mid-1978, the completed *Zork* adventure had become a legend
among computer lovers "in the know", and student Zorkies dialed the
M.I.T. mainframe from college terminals all over the country. Encouraged
by the adventure's unbelievable popularity, Marc abandoned his internship,
Joel became his own boss, and in 1979, Infocom was born.

The first order was to scale *Zork* down to fit the memory limitations of
a 48K home computer. While *Zork I* retains only about 60% of its original
bulk, most of the best-loved brainteasers remain intact -- as does the
original "Interlogic" programming.

To test the new, slimmed-down version, Marc, Dave, and Joel enlisted
the help of their former M.I.T. roomie, Mike Dornbrook. Despite the fact that
Mike worked at M.I.T.'s Lab for Computer Science, he had never played
any video or computer game. That made him a perfect guinea pig. (Mike
has yet to drop a quarter in an arcade machine.)

<figure class="float-right-wide">
	<img src="/public/img/articles/eg-the-challenge-of-zork/zug-zork-i-map.jpg" alt="Zork User's Group Zork I Map">
	<figcaption style="font-weight: bold;">Mike Dornbrook devised, as part of Infocom's support services, complete maps for Zork. The maps are now being revised.</figcaption>
</figure>

As the original Infocom play-tester, Mike found himself fielding frantic letters
and phone calls from harried *Zork* players who had come across insurmountable
problems. Although he conscientiously answered each
and every inquiry, it got a little boring to answer the same 30 or so questions
again and again. Even establishing an Infocom hint service, which gave
sage advice for $2 a question, wasn't enough.

To compound Mike's dilemma, graduation time from M.I.T. rolled
around, and it was time for him to move off to the University of Chicago's
business administration program. Uneasy about abandoning *Zork* players
completely, Mike tried to convince the others to hire a replacement for
him. Impossible, he was told. After all, Infocom was a fledgling company,
and there was already too much to do in the areas of production, distribution,
and design for *Zork's* sequels. How could they hire a full-time staffer
just to answer the mail?

Dornbrook countered with a compromise: If Infocom would let him borrow
its trademark and establish the Zork User's Group, everyone would
benefit. His original intention was to operate the business out of his Chicago
dorm room, but it proved easier to wax his father out of retirement and
set up an office in nearby Milwaukee.

The Zork User's Group had a humble beginning. The junior and senior
Dornbrooks catered to a small but faithful following, providing almost
the only support available to any computer adventurers. The company devised
and sold complete maps for *Zork I* and its sequels, sent out new game
announcements and insider's information, and answered an increasing
volume of clue inquiries.

In 1982, after Infocom had begun enclosing information on the Zork Users'
Group in each game package, the player questions finally grew to be too
numerous to handle. Mike realized he needed a more efficient means of
helping Zorkies in need.

<figure class="float-left-half">
	<img src="/public/img/articles/eg-the-challenge-of-zork/marc-blank.jpg" alt="A photo of Marc Blank sitting at a computer">
	<figcaption style="font-weight: bold;">Zork co-author Marc Blank enlisted the help of former roomie Mike Dornbrook to act as game's guinea pig.</figcaption>
</figure>

After experimenting with sealed envelope kits, scrape-off clues made like
instant lottery tickets, and a number of other ideas, Mike was stumped.

At a party, a friend suggested using invisible ink, which could be made visible
by running a special developing pen over the hidden answers. Mike
loved the idea and immediately tried to get started on it -- only to find a
major obstacle in his path: Where to find a company to produce the books?
It turned out there are only two manufacturers in the U.S. capable of printing
up "latent image process" books, a fact Mike discovered after exercising
the same sort of perseverence that helps him solve adventure games.
Luckily, one of the printers was nearby.

The hint booklets, called "Invisiclues", are now available for all three
*Zork* adventures. Their appearance caused a minor sensation and have
contributed to the games' popularity. Gamers used to writing to companies,
or simply shelving their adventure games when stumped, no longer had
to tear their hair indefinitely. The answers were there for those who
wanted to find them, but hidden well enough from those who didn't. Each
book was packaged with a developing marker, which the gamer passes over a
particular section to answer specific questions printed in the booklet. To
make things a little less obvious, dummy questions were liberally sprinkled
in to keep players from learning about still-undiscovered areas just by reading
all the questions.

The Invisiclues concept took off like a shot, and late last year Mike Dornbrook
joined the full-time staff of Infocom. Although officially, the Zork
Users' Group has been dissolved, would-be Zorkies need not worry --
Mike is overseeing Infocom's takeover of all Users' Group functions, expanding
clue and map support to cover all of Infocom's releases.

<figure class="float-right-half">
	<img src="/public/img/articles/eg-the-challenge-of-zork/zork-series.jpg" alt="A picture of early Zork I, II, and III packaging">
	<figcaption class="center" style="font-weight: bold;">THE ZORK SERIES (INFOCOM)</figcaption>
</figure>

As it stands now, each time a gamer buys an Infocom game, he or she finds
a coupon inside. With the coupon, an Invisiclue booklet and complete map
can be bought for $4.95 (what it costs Infocom). Without the piece of paper,
though, the set goes for $8.95, a move Infocom hopes will discourage software
pirates.

With Infocom's money and resources behind the clue booklets, the
packages and maps are being redesigned (in looks only -- the content
remains the same) to be consistent with the company's other high-quality
accessories. A customer newsletter is also on the horizon, with its format
derived from Mike Dornbrook's "New Zork Times", Posters, T-shirts, and
other Zork-related souvenirs are also planned.

With their brain-testing challenge and beautifully-written descriptions,
pluse the availability of on-the-spot aid for frustrated adventurers, it's no
wonder that *Zorks I, II, and III* have become classics in their time.
