| Return to Zork | |
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| Developer(s) | Infocom |
| Publisher(s) | Activision |
| Engine | MADE |
| Platform(s) | Apple Macintosh, DOS, PC-FX |
| Release date | August 20, 1993 |
| Genre(s) | Adventure game |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Media | 12 3½" floppy disks or 1 CD |
| System requirements | 386 or above; MS-DOS 5. A video game developer is a software developer (a business or an individual that creates Video games A developer may specialize in a certain video Infocom was a Software company, based in Cambridge Massachusetts, that produced numerous works of Interactive fiction. Activision Inc is an American Video game developer and publisher. A game engine is a software system designed for the creation and development of computer and video games MADE is the Activision game engine used to create the following game titles The Manhole Return to Zork In Computing, a platform describes some sort of Hardware architecture or Software framework (including Application frameworks, that allows Macintosh, commonly nicknamed Mac is a Brand name which covers several lines of Personal computers designed developed and marketed by Apple Inc DOS, short for "Disk Operating System" is a shorthand term for several closely related Operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market The PC-FX is a Video game console released in Japan on December 23 1994 by NEC Corporation. Events 636 - Battle of Yarmouk: Arab forces led by Khalid ibn al-Walid take control of Syria and Palestine Year 1993 ( MCMXCIII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar) See also [[Game classification]] Video games are categorized into Genres based on their Gameplay interaction An adventure game is a type of Video game characterized by investigation exploration puzzle-solving, interaction with game characters and a focus on Narrative In video gaming, single-player refers to the variant of a particular game where input from only one player is expected throughout the course of the gaming session Digital media (as opposed to analog media) usually refers to Electronic media that work on digital Codes. A floppy disk is an increasingly Obsolete data storage medium that is composed of a disk of thin flexible ("floppy" Magnetic storage medium encased A Compact Disc (also known as a CD) is an Optical disc used to store digital data, originally developed for storing digital audio MS-DOS (short for M icro' s' oft D isk O perating S ystem is an Operating system commercialized by Microsoft. 0 or higher; Sound Blaster, Pro Audio Spectrum, Tandy DAC, Disney Sound Source, Roland MT-32, AdLib, or Adlib Gold compatible sound card; VGA video card; 580–600 KB RAM; 23 MB hard disk space. The Sound Blaster family of Sound cards was for many years the De facto standard for audio on the IBM PC compatible System platform, before PC The Media Vision Pro AudioSpectrum (commonly referred to as "PAS" family of personal computer sound cards included the original 8-bit Pro AudioSpectrum The Covox Speech Thing (also known as Covox plug) was an external audio device attached to the computer to output Digital sound. The Roland MT-32 Multi-Timbre Sound Module is a MIDI Synthesizer module first released in 1987 by Roland Corporation. This page is about the (now defunct sound card company named Ad Lib — not to be mistaken with the software company Adlib Software or Adlib Information systems. A sound card (also known as an audio card is a Computer Expansion card that facilitates the input and output of audio signals to/from a computer under The term Video Graphics Array ( VGA) refers specifically to the display hardware first introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of computers in 1987, but through its widespread A video card, also known as a graphics accelerator card, display adapter, or graphics card, is a hardware component whose function is to A kilobyte (derived from the SI prefix Kilo -, meaning 1000 is a unit of Information or Computer storage equal to either 1024 A megabyte is a unit of Information or Computer storage equal to either 106 (1000000 Bytes or 220 (1048576 bytes depending on A hard disk drive ( HDD) commonly referred to as a hard drive, hard disk, or fixed disk drive, is a Non-volatile storage device For CD-ROM version: 42 MB hard disk space; 2X CD-ROM drive. CD-ROM (an initialism of "Compact Disc Read-Only Memory " is a pre-pressed Compact Disc that contains data accessible to but not writable |
| Input methods | keyboard and mouse |
Return to Zork is a 1993 adventure game in the Zork series for the PC and Apple Macintosh. In Computing, a keyboard is an Input device partially modelled after the typewriter keyboard which uses an arrangement of buttons or keys In Computing, a mouse (plural mice, mouse devices, or mouses) Year 1993 ( MCMXCIII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar) An adventure game is a type of Video game characterized by investigation exploration puzzle-solving, interaction with game characters and a focus on Narrative Zork was one of the first Interactive fiction Computer games and an early descendant of Colossal Cave Adventure. IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. Macintosh, commonly nicknamed Mac is a Brand name which covers several lines of Personal computers designed developed and marketed by Apple Inc It was developed by Activision and was the final Zork game to be published under the Infocom label. Activision Inc is an American Video game developer and publisher. Zork was one of the first Interactive fiction Computer games and an early descendant of Colossal Cave Adventure. Infocom was a Software company, based in Cambridge Massachusetts, that produced numerous works of Interactive fiction.
Contents |
Gameplay
Unlike the previous games in the Zork franchise, which were text adventures, Return to Zork takes place from a first-person perspective and makes use of video-captured actors as well as detailed graphics; a point-and-click interface replaced the text parser for the first time in a Zork game. Zork was one of the first Interactive fiction Computer games and an early descendant of Colossal Cave Adventure. Point-and-click is the action of a Computer user moving a cursor to a certain location on a screen ( point) and In Computer science and Linguistics, parsing, or more formally syntactic analysis, is the process of analyzing a sequence of tokens to The overall gameplay style was somewhat similar to Myst, although Return to Zork predated Myst by a few months. Myst is a graphic adventure Video game designed and directed by the brothers Robyn and Rand Miller. Unlike Myst, which had no extraspatial dimensions of functionality, Return to Zork featured multiple ways of interacting with each object in the game world, as well as with several non-player characters also present in the world via a menu which appeared on the left side of the screen.
Among the actors who appeared in the game were a number of instantly recognizable (by face, if not necessarily by name) character actors as well as a number of well-known younger actors: Robyn Lively of Twin Peaks as "The Fairy", Jason Hervey of The Wonder Years as "The Troll King", and Sam J. Jones from the 1980 film Flash Gordon as "The Blind Bowman" and A.J. Langer of My So-Called Life as fellow Zork explorer Rebecca Snoot whom the player encounters on several occasions. A character actor is an Actor who predominantly plays a particular type of role rather than leading ones Robyn Elaine Lively (born February 7, 1972) is an American television and film actress Twin Peaks is a Television Serial drama that follows the investigation of the brutal murder of popular respected Teenager and homecoming queen Jason Robert Hervey (born April 6 1972 is an American actor television producer and former Public relations agent Sam J Jones (born Samuel Gerald Jones on August 12, 1954 in Chicago) is an American actor often credited as Sam Jones Flash Gordon is the hero of a Science fiction adventure Comic strip originally drawn by Alex Raymond, which was first published on January 7, Allison Joy Langer Courtenay Lady Courtenay (born May 22, 1974) credited as A My So-Called Life was an American Television Teen drama created by Winnie Holzman and produced by Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz
Feelies
As a tribute to the original Infocom, Return to Zork included feelies. Infocom used the term feelie to refer to the extra content included with the boxed versions of their Interactive fiction Computer games Feelies differed The feelies include:
- A sweepstakes letter; some packages also included a sweepstakes letter written in French and/or German
- The envelope for the sweepstakes letter
- The 966 GUE edition of the Encyclopedia Frobozzica, which was combined with the game manual
Plot
The player's character is a sweepstakes winner who wins an all expenses paid holiday to the Valley of the Sparrows, in Zork. In the United States consumer sales promotions known as sweepstakes or simply sweeps (both single and plural have become associated with Marketing promotions Upon arrival, however, the player quickly learns that the entire area has fallen under some dark and sinister influence, becoming decayed and dysfunctional. Whole buildings have mysteriously vanished, murderous vultures infest the land, people have frequent and disturbing nightmares featuring some dark being which refers to itself as Morphius, and many of those who have survived have become reclusive and paranoid. The player must survive countless perils whilst exploring the valley, investigating the causes of the powers that have gripped the land and ultimately putting a stop to them.
Notes
The game was packaged with an abridged version of the Encyclopedia Frobozzica (see above), which also served as the game manual and assisted in the game's copy protection scheme. Copy protection, also known as content protection, copy prevention, or copy restriction, is a technology for preventing the unauthorised reproduction (At various points during play, the player had to provide information from the Encyclopedia, although the information was widely-known trivia from the Zork canon. )
Throughout the game, the player could take photographs of the environment with a camera and record significant information with a tape recorder. The game also automatically generated a map as the player progressed, and took notes in a notebook as the plot unfolded through dialogue or events in the game.
Return to Zork is set in the year 1647 GUE, later than any other game in the fictitious history of Zork, including those made after it.
The video introduction features a 3D animation, and the very first lines of text, of the once-famous opening scene of Zork 1, featuring the once-familiar White House and Mailbox.
Unlike earlier text-adventure games by Infocom, violence against innocent bystanders is possible. It is possible to kill several of the game's civilian non-player characters, whereas in every other Infocom or Zork game, such actions are either impossible to accomplish or immediately punished by death. Killing causes a masked vigilante to steal all the player's items, with the intention of rendering the game unwinnable. A vigilante is a person who ignores Due process of law and enacts their own form of Justice in response to a perception of insufficient response by the Unwinnable is a state in many Text adventures graphical Adventure games and Computer role-playing games where it is impossible for the player to win the It is worth noting, however, that dropping all of one's items prior to killing circumvents this effect; the items will still be there after the vigilante comes and goes.
Zork games
Enchanter trilogy
Other games
Wishbringer • Return to Zork
Zork: Nemesis • Zork Grand Inquisitor
Zork: The Undiscovered Underground
Companies
Miscellaneous
As in the Zork text-adventure games, there are several ways to make the game "unwinnable" by using or altering an object or item in an unintended manner. Zork was one of the first Interactive fiction Computer games and an early descendant of Colossal Cave Adventure. Zork I The Great Underground Empire is an Interactive fiction Computer game written by Marc Blank, Dave Lebling, Bruce Daniels Zork II The Wizard of Frobozz is an Interactive fiction Computer game published by Infocom in 1981. Zork III The Dungeon Master is an Interactive fiction Computer game written by Marc Blank, Dave Lebling, Bruce Daniels Beyond Zork (full title Beyond Zork The Coconut of Quendor) was an Interactive fiction Computer game written by Brian Moriarty and Zork Zero The Revenge of Megaboz is an Interactive fiction Computer game, written by Steve Meretzky and published by Infocom in Spellbreaker is an Interactive fiction Computer game written by Dave Lebling and released by Infocom in 1985, the third Wishbringer The Magick Stone of Dreams is an Interactive fiction Computer game written by Brian Moriarty and published by Infocom Zork The Undiscovered Underground (or ZUU for short is an Interactive fiction Computer game written by former Infocom Implementors Infocom was a Software company, based in Cambridge Massachusetts, that produced numerous works of Interactive fiction. Activision Inc is an American Video game developer and publisher. FrobozzCo International is a fictional monopolous conglomerate from the Infocom text adventure Zork universe The Z-machine is a Virtual machine that was developed by Joel Berez and Marc Blank in 1979 and used by Infocom for its text adventure games AFGNCAAP (pronounced Afghan-cap or Afghan-cop is a satirically politically correct Initialism for " Ageless Faceless Gender-Neutral Culturally-Ambiguous The Zork books were a series of four books written by S Eric Meretzky, which took place in the Fictional universe of Zork. For instance, burning many items with the matches will usually result in an unsolvable game. The most commonly cited example of this occurs with the bonding plant by the side of the road near the beginning of the game. Although the plant is essential later on, it is very easy to unintentionally kill it, and the game gives little indication that the plant is important. (It is in fact possible to obtain a new one, although the secret is well-hidden and arguably makes little sense even after it is accomplished, a criticism that is often levelled at many of the game's puzzles. )
Game bugs made some of the puzzles harder - or more specifically, it stopped the game from providing the hints that would make the puzzles easier. A patch was released that fixed these bugs. However the patch also introduced a new bug that made an inventory item disappear, rendering an endgame challenge unsolvable by its intended solution, though alternate solutions exist.
Soundtrack
The game disc is also a 25-track audio disc. The songs on the disc play in certain areas (for example, track 3 plays during the intro movie).
External links
- The Zork Library (All things Zork since 1998. )
- [1] How to setup RTZ for XP.
- Return to Zork at the Internet Movie Database
- The JAVE Entry for Return to Zork
- Home of the Underdogs' entry for Return to Zork
- Return to Zork at MobyGames
- GameFAQs entry for Return to Zork
- Disaster Labs' satirical review of Return to Zork
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