Zork Zero
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''Zork Zero: The Revenge of Megaboz'' is an
interactive fiction 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 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, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
, written by Steve Meretzky over nearly 18 months and published 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 ...
in 1988. Although it is the ninth and last ''
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 ...
'' game released by Infocom before the company's closure, ''Zork Zero'' takes place before the previous eight games ('' Zork I'', '' Zork II'', '' Zork III'', '' Enchanter'', '' Sorcerer'', '' Wishbringer'', '' Spellbreaker'' and '' Beyond Zork''). Unlike its predecessors, ''Zork Zero'' is a vast game, featuring a graphical interface with scene-based colors and borders, an interactive map, menus, an in-game hints system, an interactive Encyclopedia Frobozzica, and playable graphical mini-games. The graphics were created by computer artist James Shook. It is Infocom's thirty-second game. Previous games by Infocom used a parser evolved from the one in ''Zork I'', but for ''Zork Zero'', they designed a new LALR parser from scratch. ''Zork Zeros parser has some innovative features. If it notices if a player is having trouble with it, it offers helpful suggestions, such as sample commands. Three of the four graphical mini-games are based on older logic puzzles. Peggleboz is a version of
peg solitaire Peg Solitaire, Solo Noble, Solo Goli, Marble Solitaire or simply Solitaire is a board game for one player involving movement of pegs on a board with holes. Some sets use marbles in a board with indentations. The game is known as solitaire in Bri ...
, Snarfem is Nim, and the Tower of Bozbar is Towers of Hanoi. Other puzzles based on established logic puzzle types include a river-crossing puzzle with a fox, a rooster, and a worm, and a Knights and Knaves puzzle in which violently xenophobic Veritassi and Prevaricons are truth-tellers and liars respectively, and peaceful Wishyfoo are alternators.


Plot

Lord Dimwit Flathead the Excessive certainly earned his nickname. Never one to do things on a small scale, when Dimwit decided in 789 GUE to have a statue erected in his honor, it ''had'' to be the largest statue ever. This angered a local resident of Fublio Valley (where the statue was built), Megaboz the Magnificent, who cast a deadly curse over Dimwit, the royal family, and the entire Empire before disappearing. The king's conjurers employed their most powerful magic in an effort to counteract the curse, but they were unable to save Dimwit and his eleven siblings; they only managed to delay the kingdom's destruction temporarily. The game begins with a brief prelude in which the player is a humble servant in Lord Dimwit's scullery. Present when Megaboz appears and casts his fateful curse, the player manages to grab a small piece of parchment left behind in the chaos. 94 years later, the strength of the counter-curse is rapidly fading. If the curse can't be lifted by Curse Day, the anniversary of Dimwit's death, the Empire will surely fall. The reigning monarch, Wurb Flathead, has sent out a call in desperation: anyone who can save the Empire will be given half its riches! Predictably, this results in an avalanche of crackpot treasure seekers, none of whom have any more luck than did the royal sorcerers. As the game begins in earnest, it is Mumberbur 14: Curse Day. The erstwhile curse-breakers have fled, along with everyone else in Flathead Castle. The player, a descendant of the servant from the prelude, awakes on the floor of the castle armed only with the scrap of parchment. The only other person around is the court's jester, who alternately helps and opposes the player in the quest to lift the curse. Two items belonging to each of the "accursed twelve" (that is, Dimwit Flathead and his eleven siblings) must be placed into the cauldron and the magic word must be spoken. The game revolves around gathering these twenty-four objects and discovering the magic word. To accomplish this, the player will play the legendary game of Double Fanucci, travel to every corner of the Empire, solve a collection of riddles and logic puzzles, and visit the enormous statue that started all this trouble. There are even visits to locations such as the top of the world, and under the world (from which the player can fall). Flamingos, magic, bottomless pits and a unique sense of humor all feature along the way. What happens when the curse is finally lifted is the game's final surprise. If you leave the castle and pass the perimeter wall, you arrive at the opening scene of Zork 1.


Feelies

Like most other Infocom games, ''Zork Zero'' comes with feelies: a printed calendar titled "The Flathead Calendar 883" with portraits and biographies of the Twelve Flatheads (also usable as a 1989 calendar, folded blueprints with a yellow
Post-it note A Post-it note (or sticky note) is a small piece of paper with a re-adherable strip of glue on its back, made for temporarily attaching notes to documents and other surfaces. A low-adhesion, tack pressure-sensitive adhesive allows the notes to ...
attached, and a scrap of parchment. Since completing the game requires information revealed only in these feelies, they serve to discourage unauthorized copying.


Double Fanucci

''Zork Zero'' includes a mini-game to play Double Fanucci against the jester. Double Fanucci is a fictional card game mentioned throughout the Zork series. As the in-game Encyclopedia Frobozzica describes it, It is immensely complicated, parodying card games with complex rules in a manner similar to Fizzbin or
Mornington Crescent Mornington Crescent is a terraced street in Camden Town, London Borough of Camden, Camden, London, England. It was built in the 1820s, on a greenfield site just to the north of central London. Many of the houses were subdivided into flats dur ...
. As played in ''Zork Zero'', cards appear in 15 numbered suits (Books, Bugs, Ears, Faces, Fromps, Hives, Inkblots, Lamps, Mazes, Plungers, Rain, Scythes, Time, Tops and Zurfs) with ranks from 0 (called "Naught"), 1 ("Singled"), 2 ("Doubled"), 3 ("Trebled"), up to 9, and infinity ("Infinite"). There are nine additional cards, like Major Arcana or "Trumps" in
Tarot Tarot (, first known as ''trionfi (cards), trionfi'' and later as ''tarocchi'' or ''tarocks'') is a set of playing cards used in tarot games and in fortune-telling or divination. From at least the mid-15th century, the tarot was used to play t ...
, which are unranked: Granola, the Lobster, the Snail, the Jester, Time, Light, Beauty, Death, and the Grue. It is possible to get four copies of the same card in a four-card hand. To win the Double Fanucci mini-game, the player must use an unbeatable strategy mentioned only in the calendar feelie's biography of Babe Flathead. Otherwise, the mini-game will continue until when the score of the player or the jester exceeds 1241 points, but "by Rules Committee Amendment #493, the game is suspended and must be replayed in its entirety, except during a Frotz Moon or in a six-player game where at least three of the players are of Mithican ancestry." Double Fanucci cards were featured prominently in the browser-based game '' Legends of Zork'', drawn by artist Greg Brown and colored by Jim "Zubby" Zubkavich. Dave Howell has created
physical deck
of "Deluxe" Fanucci cards along with some other (playable) games to go with them.


Reception

Dave Arneson David Lance Arneson (; October 1, 1947 – April 7, 2009) was an American game designer best known for co-developing the first published role-playing game (RPG), ''Dungeons & Dragons'', with Gary Gygax, in the early 1970s. Arneson's fundamental ...
gave ''Zork Zero'' a favorable review in ''
Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American Video game journalism, computer game magazine that was published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 199 ...
'', calling it the best of the series to date. He praised the in-game map and help system, and later described the game as superior to Infocom's ''
James Clavell's Shōgun ''James Clavell's Shōgun'' is a graphic and Adventure game, text adventure game written by Dave Lebling game and published by Infocom in 1989. It was released for the Amiga, Apple II, MS-DOS, and Mac (computer), Mac. The game is based on the 19 ...
''. James V. Trunzo reviewed ''Zork Zero'' in '' White Wolf'' #17 (1989) and stated that "''Zork Zero'', even though graphically quite pleasing, remains at heart an interactive story in which you make the choices and determine the course of action."


Reviews

*''
Games A game is a Structure, structured type of play (activity), play usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an Educational game, educational tool. Many games are also considered to be Work (human activity), work (such as p ...
'' #97


Notes

''Zork Zero'' was also included in the 1991 collection '' The Lost Treasures of Infocom'', and in the 1996 collection '' Classic Text Adventure Masterpieces of Infocom'', released 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 ...
under the Infocom brand. The jester in Zork Zero will sometimes say ''So long, and thanks for all the fish'', a reference to ''
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' is a Science fiction comedy, comedy science fiction franchise created by Douglas Adams. Originally a The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (radio series), radio sitcom broadcast over two series on BBC ...
'', which was also adapted as an eponymous Infocom video game.


References


External links

*
''Zork Zero'' information and overview (archived)

Infocom Cabinet: Zork Zero
* {{Infocom games 1980s interactive fiction 1988 video games Adventure games Amiga games Apple II games Classic Mac OS games DOS games Fantasy video games Games commercially released with DOSBox Infocom games Single-player video games Steve Meretzky games Video game prequels Video games developed in the United States Zork