<!--
	Title: (MARKETALK: Reviews) Zork
	Author: Margot Comstock Tommervik
	Source: Softalk, v1(10)
	Date: June 1981
	Transcription by Steve Derby
-->

**Zork**. By Marc S. Blank, Timothy Anderson, Bruce Daniels, P.
D. Leblins, Scott Cutler, and Joel Barez. Widely heralded as
the adventure to beat the original *Adventure*, first published by
Microsoft, *Zork* gives living up to its reputation a good stab.
Unfortunately, for most people, the Microsoft *Adventure* (or
the Apple *Adventure* — they're essentially the same thing) was
for thousands of people their introduction to the genre of computer
adventuring. It would take something far superior to the
original *Adventure* to overpower the delight of first-timing that
thoroughly enhances our memories of the two-pit room, fee fie
foe fee, and the gentle faithful bear.

Strictly as an adventure, *Zork* seems right on a par with the
original; in fact, it appears to be somewhat more complex, and
it adds some flavor with clues and possessions that your own
general knowledge can help to manipulate. For instance, when
you come to an altar lit with candles upon which lie a dinner
bell and an open Bible, what comes to mind? If it's Shakespeare's
*King John*, you're just that much farther ahead.

On the other hand, if some of the locations seem a bit contrived,
the great number of them makes up for that. The mere
fact that in *Zork* you have at last a second real, logical, epic adventure
to conquer makes pale any objection to the similarity
of tone and atmosphere to those of the original *Adventure*. Like
that program, *Zork* was originated on mainframe computers.

One clue: Don't always assume defeat just because you're
dead.

In its execution of the no-res computer logic game form,
*Zork* surpasses original *Adventure* with one giant leap. Until
*Zork*, all adventures — except the uncategorizable *Prisoner*,
which stands alone — limited the player to two-word input, occasionally
allowing a qualifying phrase in a second command;
for example, you say, "Kill fiend." Adventures respond
with, "With what?" You answer, "With Battleax." And
the computer, more often than not, says, "Battleax has no effect."
In contrast, in *Zork*, you can not only say, "Kill fiend
with battleax," whenever you like, you can actually tell it, "Attack
the lousy fiend with the battleax and kill the fiend with the
sword and take the treasure."

Of course, long sentences don't get you any favors. *Zork*
will probably answer, "Battleax won't work. You missed. The
fiend won't let you," in response to your three commands in order,
but it's much more satisfying to write them that way. One
situation in which this facility is bound to prevent lots of high
blood pressure occurs when you want to combine manipulations
of things. For example, you have an empty box and you
have a small treasure. Maybe you could carry more if you
could put the treasure in the box, you reason. No way, in previous
adventures. But, in *Zork*, just say, "Put the treasure in
the box." It *won't* make any difference to what you can carry,
but you'll feel a whole lot better.

Although, much of the time, you'll find yourself using the
familiar two-word commands anyway, the ability of *Zork* to
understand long, compound (not complex) sentences, and
even some questions, adds a new dimension of pleasure to the
genre.

<p class="smaller"><em>Zork</em> by Marc S. Blank et al. of Infocom, Personal Software, Sunnyvale,
CA. 48K, disk. $39.95.</p>