Resident Evil, Call of Duty, Pokémon and Legend of Zelda are some of our generation’s favourite graphic, fantasy-based and realistic video games that stimulate our visual perceptions of our imagination. But what was there before graphic designers, before these visual manifestations of our imagination? Books? Well, sure your imagination certainly creates images, but you don’t necessarily choose if Harry Potter dies or not (if I were cynical, maybe). However, for once I think I would like to be in control of my own adventure, where I’M the HERO, and I’ll be the chosen one. First introduced in the thrilling, spy-based television show series, CHUCK (this television show series definitely appeals to the romantic, thrill and espionage seekers in all of us), and later delved into in my computer science class, is the wonderful world of ZORK! With so many versions of Zork, I’m going to focus on the third edition: Zork III: The Underground Empire.
Zork is an interactive, fantasy-based computer game, set in an expansive and mysterious underground labyrinth, leading into the “Great Underground Empire.” You, the nameless hero, adventure into the depths of this menacing and threatening labyrinth, to finish and return with treasure and glory, defeating this perilous journey’s many challenges and monsters.
A basic and familiar plot for most gamers, what distinguishes Zork in terms of the fantasy genre is the fantastic and pragmatic storytelling, appealing to a player’s five senses and humour, the humorous, and unexpectedly sophisticated, text parser, which surprisingly recognizes complicated commands that involve prepositions and conjunctions.
So how exactly does this interactive computer programming work? A small descriptive paragraph or sentences will appear onto your computer screen, the starting paragraph to always begin:
“West of House You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door.
There is a small mailbox here.”
The amazing interactive ability you have with Zork is that you can ACTUALLY TYPE IN A COMMAND, and Zork WILL RESPOND BASED ON YOUR ANSWER. Pretty cool, huh?
So basically, you could type in “Open mailbox”, which will give you following response:
>open mailbox “Opening the small mailbox reveals a leaflet.”
and further interaction would be like this:
>take leaflet “Taken.”
> read leaflet “ZORK is a game of adventure, danger, and low cunning. In it you will explore some of themos amazing territory ever seen by mortals. No computer should ever be without one!”
Okay, simple commands and simple descriptions. However, if you continue the fascinating gameplay, and manage to enter the house, an extremely descriptive and option-leaded paragraph appears on the screen.
> enter house “Kitchen You are in the kitchen of a white house. A table seems to have been used recently for the preparation of food…A dark chimney leads down and to the east is a small window which is open. On the table is a elongated brown sack, smelling of hot peppers. The glass bottle contains:
a quantity of water.”
So many options, leading to so many senarios, equals awesome gameplay.
If you wanna try this game, play here
Wanna try your hand at creating a similar interactive program?
Welcome to the world of C++.
Image Credits:
Resident Evil: http://www.twistysdownload.com/forums/games/76993-resident-evil-5-hotfile.html
Modern Warfare: http://news.softpedia.com/newsImage/Call-of-Duty-Modern-Warfare-Mobilized-Reaches-the-DS-This-Fall-2.png/
Legend of Zelda: http://wallpapers.pixxp.com/18__The_Legend_of_Zelda_Twilight_Princess.htm
Pokemon: http://www.bitmob.com/mobfeed?tag=pokemon-heart-goldsoul-silver
Zork II: http://struckus.tripod.com/Legacy_of_zork.htm
West of House display: http://www.myabandonware.com/game/zork-the-great-underground-empire-1j
Grue display: http://www.redbubble.com/search/infocom
Zork Nemesis: http://www.vaxdungeon.com/zork.asp