6502 Lane

My memories of the first title in the Zork series are largely centered around wandering about in the forest for a few minutes before being overcome by boredom and wondering what all the hype was about.  It’s now more than 30 years after the initial release of Zork I: The Great Underground Empire, Infocom’s first game for microcomputers, and as I play through again, a few things become perfectly clear to me.  The first is that the layout of the forest area doesn’t make a lot of sense other than to give you the feeling that you’re wandering around in a forest where you can easily get lost if you’re not paying attention.  And that’s really the point.  I was twelve when I first loaded Zork up on the Apple II Plus my father had set up on the desk in my bedroom and didn’t really understand that what the game’s writers were going for here was ambience and that they were trying to set up a mood that went beyond just what the words on the screen were directly conveying to me.  At 12, I was looking for a fun puzzle or three to solve and didn’t have the patience to explore and realize that those would come later.

The second thing that hit me was that, while the forest can be a bit confusing, it’s not really necessary to map out every corner of the lush environment at this point.  Many places exist simply to give the writer an opportunity tell the player a well-written story, another thing I had little patience for at 12.  The puzzles would come and when they did, they were fun and challenging.  ”Boring” is simply wrong.  As I continued to explore and took the time to really enjoy it, I allowed my expectations to adjust to the experience and my initial frustration faded away.  There are a couple of important places in the forest that I would need to come back to later on, but finding them again was simple enough.  The real meat of the game came for me once I entered the boarded up old house.

Everything about Zork I kept me wanting to keep playing, even when other minor annoyances such as real life encroached on my play time.  I allowed my curiosity to draw me in and was richly rewarded for the experience.  Mapping out Zork I can be a tricky thing if you’re not prepared for the fact that following a path from point A to point B doesn’t guarantee a return trip by following the same steps.  Many paths are one way and while I’m trying to keep this project as authentic as possible (playing on a real IIe, for example), I’m happy I decided to rely on Trizbort to handle my mapping needs.  I’d have gone through several tablets of graph paper by now, otherwise.

Once I got into the house, the game really began, quickly providing me with some basic tools I’d need to get killing trolls, collecting treasure and avoid being eaten by a grue along the way.  Armed with my trusty glowing sword and brass lantern, I sallied forth into the Great Underground Empire.

(Part II tonight)…