ZORKAHOLICS GALORE... Continued By Tim Lee
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By golly, let's get back to ZORK - - what an adventure! So many ex-ZORK folks replied
to Tuesday's story I decided to search Google for ZORK+DOS just for the fun of it.
Incredibly, ZORK is apparently alive and well as I soon discovered at this site:
http://www.csd.uwo.ca/~pete/Infocom/zork1.html
. . .where you can DOWNLOAD (look for the EXE or ZIP version at the bottom left
side of the page) the original ZORK 1 free of charge. The extremely small <!> downloadable
".exe" file walks you through a very quick installation, during which process I
recommend creating a new "ZORK" folder for installation rather than the default
"desktop" setting.
After installation, the game is started by going to that new folder
and clicking on the "ZORK1.BAT" file. ZORK will then open in a typical old-fashioned
DOS window (at least in Win 98 or below), although I'm not sure about Windows XP.
When I playfully called ZORK up and caught sight of the opening prompt after so
many years, the hairs on the back of my neck bristled with anticipation.
Very cool.
If you are interested in downloading and playing the game, or just looking at a
bit of computer history check out Zork Undiscovered. . .because there are no instructions in the downloadable version. Pay particular
attention to "Appendix B: IMPORTANT COMMANDS", for instance "SAVE" and "RESTORE".
I am not going to tell you anything further about ZORK. Uh, ah, er - - ARGHhh! Okay,
I lied. I will tell you ONE thing more about ZORK: from time to time you will have
the occasion to pick up a great deal of curious "items" along the way. But you cannot
possibly carry ALL of them without putting them INSIDE something else. Got that?
Okay, I'm going to lie again: use the SAVE command often, so you can return to your
last point of demise.
Go ahead - - download and PRINT the skimpy instruction manual, put on a pot of coffee,
unplug the phone (after calling in sick!), crank up ZORK and slip into the bygone
world of text-driven fantasy.
