<!--
	Title: (The Revenge of Megaboz) Zork Zero
	Author: Steven Payne
	Source: QuestBusters, v6(3)
	Date: March 1989
	Transcription by Steve Derby
-->

<div class="article-sidebar-box float-left">
<strong>Type:</strong> Illustrated Text Adventure<br>
<strong>Systems:</strong> Macintosh (512K required, color supported on Mac II),
	Apple (128K, two 5.25" drives or one 5.25" and one 3.5" drive,
	or a RAM card or hard disk), Amiga<br>
<strong>Planned Conversions:</strong> IBM (May)
</div>

*Zork Zero? Let me see...wasn't he the masked vandal who used to ride around
Old Mexico carving his initial everywhere and harassing Sergeant Garcia? Or
was it that recent novel/film of drugged-out yuppie angst, starring Joe McCarthy
and Morton Downey, Jr.?*

No, my foolish friend! *Zork Zero* is the latest creation of Steve Meretzsky's
fertile (and slightly fevered) brain, a "prequel" to Infocom's all-time classic
adventures, the *Zork Trilogy*. This entry seems bigger (and for my money better)
than all the other *Zork*s put together, though it's probably too daunting for
most novice players.

Picture this: Flatheadia, 789 G.U.E. You begin as a lowly servant in the court
of Lord Dimwit the Excessive, waiting tables at one of his regular budget-busting
369-course banquets. Suddenly the wizard Megaboz appears, angered
that his favorite grove of shade trees has been demolished to make way for a colossal
statue of His Lordship. Megaboz invokes a dreadful curse on Dimwit's
life, family and castle, then disappears.

The court magicians quickly gather around the churning cauldron left in
Megaboz's wake and announce they have managed to postpone the curse's effects
on Castle Flatheadia (though not on the Royal Person) for 94 years. As the smoke
clears and Dimwit expires before your eyes, you are able to retrieve a precious
scrap of parchment that falls from the wizard's cloak and proves crucial to lifting
the curse. All of this is merely prologue, in the first dozen moves!

## *94 Years Later...*

Then the game really begins. Ninety-four years later to the day, you awake as
a young descendent of the servant in the prologue and find yourself alone in the
thoroughly looted castle. Everyone in Flatheadia has fled in fear of the encroaching
doom. Well, not quite everyone! You soon encounter the current
royal jester, who reappears throughout the game and poses riddles, puzzles,
clues and a variety of tricks to alternately encourage and annoy you. As you begin
to explore the surroundings, you find a kingdom of gigantic proportions (Castle
Flatheadia at one time housed 90% of the local population—they didn't call its ruler
"The Excessive" for nothing!), a land literally littered with various objects.

The most important items are those that once belonged to Dimwit and his siblings,
the famous "Twelve Flatheads" no, not Dopey, Sneezy, Doc and the
others, but Lucrezia Flathead, Babe Flathead, Johann Sebastian Flathead,
Leonardo Flathead, and so on-all outstanding figures in culture, sports, science,
business, the military and the arts. (Guided by clues from a parchment scrap (inherited
from your ancestor and included in your game package), you must collect
these items and perform the secret rites necessary to lift the curse. Doing so will
kick you into an endgame that brings you to...well, I shouldn't reveal any secrets,
but if you know *Zork I* you can probably guess where you end up!

<img class="float-right" src="/public/img/articles/questbusters-zork-zero-review/zork-zero-screen-shot.jpg" alt="Zork Zero screen shot">

In fact, there is much here that will remind *Zork* fans of the earlier (or
should I say later?) installments in the series. Like the other *Zork*s, not
much changes, and there is little plot or character development. Basically,
you have to explore, discover and collect a lot of objects, then place them in
the right container, as in *Zork I*.

The only reason the game takes so long to complete is that the terrain is vast,
and some of the two dozen items you're after are often hard to find! My one bit of
advice here is to master the use of the homing pigeon early on to save yourself a
lot of wasted travel time. The jester fills much the same function the Thief from
*Zork I* and the Wizard of the "f-words" in *Zork II*. Along the way you'll encounter
several semi-mazes, visit the famous Granola Mines of Antharia and play a mean
hand of Double Fanucci.

## *Graphics in a Zork?*

What's different about this *Zork* is its use of graphics. The full-screen illustrations
are few and far between, consisting mainly of pictures in the *Encyclopedia
Frobozzica* that look disappointing on the Mac (though probably better on machines
with color). The text screen, though, is no longer an endless sea of words, for it includes
a graphic border on the top and sides that changes as you move to different
regions of the game. You can travel about by clicking on the compass rose at
the top of the screen.

## *Auto-mapping and On-line Hints*

Room descriptions are often preceded by an appropriate icon representing
that location on the automatic map, which you can toggle on and off.
And from time to time you come across self-contained strategy games embedded
in the adventure, which are handled by using the familiar "point and click" method
with your mouse. Finally, in keeping with Infocom's new policy, extensive online
hints are available—though many are deliberately misleading, to keep you from
relying on them too heavily.

The game package includes the usual documentation, the aforementioned scrap
of parchment (fortunately not crumbling with age!), and an 883 G.U.E. Calendar
of the Twelve Flatheads. The calendar is really crucial to the game: its pictures
show the items you'll need to collect, and the text contains essential clues. This is
the only copy protection scheme, since you would have a hard time finishing
without knowing the right Double Fanucci strategy, for instance, or how to enter
the secret hall.

My one complaint about the game is that some aspects of the plot and puzzles
don't seem too well thought-out. Without help, I doubt I would ever have figured
out the "chess piece" puzzle, or unlocked the safe, for example. And what are those
flattened animals doing on the rebus? And if the jester knows so much, why
doesn't he save the kingdom from Megaboz's curse? (Well, this question is answered,
but only at the game's end.) The on-line hints make up for such problems,
however, since they allow you to move quickly through puzzles that seem unfair.<br>
**Conclusions:** This is a historic game. *Zork I*, commercially released in 1980,
was among the earliest all-text computer adventures and remains one of the most
popular. *Zork*s II and III continued the saga with further refinements of style and
plot. More recently, *Beyond Zork* added some limited role-playing elements. Now
Infocom brings the series full circle—back to the original "explore and collect"
scenario, while at the same time stepping out in a new direction with graphic features
they once ridiculed in their ads.

The mix is not altogether successful. Text screen borders are nice but purely
decorative. The automatic mapping, while elegantly done, is rarely needed.
All the clues in the *Encyclopedia Frobozzica* are textual rather than visual. The
three or four graphic puzzles seem like intrusions, old standards from the local
novelty shop inserted randomly into the game; the "Towers of Bozbar," for example,
is just a souped-up version of the public domain program "Towers of Hanoi,"
available on nearly any BBS. The only onscreen picture truly integral to
*Zork Zero* is the rebus. Evidently, Infocom still needs practice perfecting the
marriage of text and graphics. Still, the game stands on its own, with or without
pictures, as an excellent addition to the series, and I really enjoyed it. And it is
their largest one yet—over 200 locations and more puzzles than in all three *Zork*s
combined. So, *Zork* lovers, get set for a treat! The only question is, where does
the series go from here? *Zork Minus One*? *Zork Square Root of Minus One*?
Maybe an *imaginary* number is the only appropriate sequel...

<hr style="border-top: 6px double;">

**Skill Level:** Advanced<br>
**Protection:** In Packaging<br>
**Price:** Apple, $49.59; others, $59.95<br>
**Company:** Infocom/Activision
