''Zork: The Undiscovered Underground'' 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 former

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 ...

Implementors

Marc Blank Marc Blank is an American game developer and software engineer. He is best known as part of the team that created one of the first commercially successful text adventure computer games, ''Zork''. In 2009, he was chosen by IGN as one of the top ...

and

Michael Berlyn Michael Berlyn (1949 – March 2023) was an American video game designer and writer. He was best known as an implementer at Infocom, part of the text adventure game design team. He is also known as the designer behind '' Bubsy in Claws Encounter ...

and implemented by G. Kevin Wilson using the

Inform Inform is a programming language and design system for interactive fiction originally created in 1993 by Graham Nelson. Inform can generate programs designed for the Z-machine, Z-code or Glulx virtual machines. Versions 1 through 5 were released ...

language. The game was commissioned 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 ...

as a free promotional product to coincide with the release of '' Zork: Grand Inquisitor''. It was released on August 28, 1997.

Plot

''Zork: The Undiscovered Underground'', a prelude to ''Zork: Grand Inquisitor'', is set in the year 1066 GUE. The game is played from the viewpoint of a private in the Inquisition Guard, tasked with exploring a recently discovered area of the Great Underground Empire. The game merges classic "Zorkian" references such as grues and zorkmids with elements created for the newer games, such as ''Grand Inquisitor''.

Gameplay

The purpose of the game is to explore and emerge successfully from the Undiscovered Underground. The player begins only with a low-quality lantern and plastic imitation sword.

Development

Marc Blank said the intent of the game was to recreate the flavor of the old ''Zork'' games and include references that fans of the series would appreciate, while leaving the game accessible to those who had never played a ''Zork'' game before. He defended the decision for the game to have no actual plot, arguing, "None of the ''Zork''s had a plot. They had a goal. ... I think at some point, as Infocom went on and on, starting to talk about interactive fiction, I think some sight was lost of the fact that these things are just supposed to be fun. At the end of the day, there can be a story, but what you don't want to do is make the story so heavy-handed or so overwrought, or try so hard to emulate high-brow literature, that you lose track of the reality that people are doing this to have their minds engaged, to laugh now and then, and to think. But this is not somehow intended to replace fiction or to be a great art."

References

External links

Adventure Collective review

* ttp://ifdb.tads.org/viewgame?id=40hswtkhap88gzvn The Interactive Fiction DB record* {{Infocom games 1990s interactive fiction 1997 video games Adventure games Classic Mac OS games Commodore 64 games Fantasy video games Infocom games Single-player video games Video game prequels Video games developed in the United States Windows games Zork