''The Zork Anthology'' is a

text adventure Interactive fiction (IF) is software simulating environments in which players use text Command (computing), commands to control Player character, characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narrati ...

video game compilation developed by

Infocom Infocom, Inc., was an American software company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that produced numerous works of interactive fiction. They also produced a business application, a relational database called ''Cornerstone (software), Cornerston ...

and published in 1994 by

Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...

for the PC. A version compatible with modern computers was published by digital distribution platforms GOG.com and

Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

in 2011 and 2017 respectively.

Contents and release

Developed by

and published by

for

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few op ...

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

, and

Mac OS Mac operating systems were developed by Apple Inc. in a succession of two major series. In 1984, Apple debuted the operating system that is now known as the classic Mac OS with its release of the original Macintosh System Software. The system ...

, ''The Zork Anthology'' is a six-game compilation containing the original ''

Zork ''Zork'' is a text adventure game first released in 1977 by developers Tim Anderson (programmer), Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling for the PDP-10 mainframe computer. The original developers and others, as the company ...

'' trilogy (''Zork I'', ''II'', and ''III''), '' Beyond Zork'', ''

Zork Zero ''Zork Zero: The Revenge of Megaboz'' is an interactive fiction video game, written by Steve Meretzky over nearly 18 months and published by Infocom in 1988. Although it is the ninth and last ''Zork'' game released by Infocom before the company's ...

'', and ''

Planetfall ''Planetfall'' is a science fiction themed interactive fiction video game written by Steve Meretzky, and published in 1983 as the eighth game from Infocom. The original release was for Apple II, Atari 8-bit computers, TRS-80, and IBM PC compatib ...

''. The collection was originally a free bonus disc with ''

Return to Zork ''Return to Zork'' is a 1993 adventure game, developed by Activision. The game was the last to be published by Infocom for the ''Zork'' series, and was the first to use a point-and-click interface, rather than text-based interaction as in previou ...

'' at the end of 1994. It was then sold as its own retail release at the start of 1995. The package included printed maps and InvisiClues that were originally offered separately by Infocom. ''The Zork Anthology'' was re-released digitally for more modern operating systems via GOG.com on January 18, 2011 and

on April 18, 2017.

Reception

Next Generation Next Generation or Next-Generation may refer to: Publications and literature * ''Next Generation'' (magazine), video game magazine that was made by the now defunct Imagine Media publishing company * Next Generation poets (2004), list of young ...

'' reviewed the compilation, rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "''Zork Anthology'' is an enchantingly nostalgic as well as a welcome return to the past".

References

External links

''The Zork Anthology''
at

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controlle ...

{{Activision compilations 1994 video games Activision video game compilations Classic Mac OS games DOS games Infocom games Single-player video games Video games developed in the United States Windows games Zork