Zork browser game has been announced

Couscous · January 2009

I am not making this up.
http://www.edge-online.com/news/zork-mmo-announced

Dublin, Ireland's Jolt Online Gaming announced Wednesday the return of the classic game series Zork, with the "casual" browser-based game, Legends of Zork.

Dylan Collins, CEO of Jolt Online gaming and a self-professed "complete Zork geek" said in a statement on Wednesday, â€œAnyone who plays MMOs will definitely like to spend some time with Legends of Zork while theyâ€™re taking a break or browsing around the web. Itâ€™s very addictive."

Described as a "persistent online adventure," gamers can now register for the Legends of Zork beta at www.legendsofzork.com. The game is published by Activision.

The first game in the series, Zork I: The Great Underground Empire, arrived in 1979 for computers. Most of the games in the series were text-based adventure games with vividly detailed scenarios. The original Zork trilogy was followed by numerous other Zork titles.

A press release described the premise of Legends of Zork:

I can't find anything on how it will actually play.

METAzraeL · January 2009

They made a game called Trukz? I'm gonna stay skeptical on this one.

Malechai · January 2009

There will be a mass grue feading frenzy I predict.

PolloDiablo · January 2009

Like, a MMUD? Text-based? I would be all over that.

Fantasy MMORPG with references to Zork? I'll pass.

Khavall · January 2009

It is dark

you are likely to be eaten by a grue

use [spacebar] to take cover, and [left-mouse] to fire

PolloDiablo · January 2009

Did anyone play Privateer, I think it was called? Sci-Fi text based mmo. It was pretty good, way back when.

rocky62 · January 2009

Malechai wrote: »

There will be a mass grue feading frenzy I predict.

heh, yeah, pretty much. :P

lazegamer · January 2009

Remind me again what the difference between a MUD and a MMUD would be? Don't let the NEWSPEAK pull you in, we don't all need to follow lockstep in Sony's marketing blarg.

Massively ... Get off my lawn!

PolloDiablo · January 2009

lazegamer wrote: »

Remind me again what the difference between a MUD and a MMUD would be? Don't let the NEWSPEAK pull you in, we don't all need to follow lockstep in Sony's marketing blarg.

Massively ... Get off my lawn!

Uh, not massively... moth!

Moth Multi-User Dungeon. With advanced cloth-eating gameplay.

Viscountalpha · January 2009

I hope this doesn't suck. I dunno. It might, it might not.

Dalboz · January 2009

I have really mixed feelings on this. I'm a huge fan of the Zork franchise, and I've still got my Masterpieces of Infocom disc that I break out from time to time. I thought Activision owned the Zork license, though, since they took over Infocom. I remember that Grand Inquisitor was supposed to be the first part of a trilogy, but it didn't sell well enough so they canned the other games and the franchise as a whole. It's now been almost 12 years since the last Zork game was released. I've been hankering for a new Zork adventure, but I'm not sure that this is really going to cut it. Especially if it's a massively multiplayer game, plus they seem to be giving your character a background, which the other Zork games were the Ageless Faceless Gender-Neutral Culturally-Ambiguous Adventure Person, or AFGNCAAP. Plus, it's where I get my namesake.

METAzraeL · January 2009

Dalboz wrote: »

I thought Activision owned the Zork license, though, since they took over Infocom.

The Activision logo is at the bottom of that placeholder website, so they're probably just publishing it (in whatever way one "publishes" browser games?).

Zombiemambo · January 2009

Fuck getting eaten by a Grue, I want to be a Grue

Viscountalpha · April 2009

I'm bumping this because it looks like its finally online.

http://legendsofzork.com/

After playing the first round. It does an auto combat thing and I dunno, it doesn't feel right. I would rather actually select actions to make smart decisions instead of an automatic thing. it just feels "meh"

Thats my only complaint so far, it feels like an old school BBS game which is actually kind of awesome. I'll give it a few more days and then make a final decision or just keep playing for free until I really feel like I should be paying.

psycojester · April 2009

The big question is can you grief people by running around and dousing or destroying all the light sources so everybody gets eaten by grues?

Dalboz · April 2009

So far, not so good. I've tried it out. It's an overly simplistic RPG, which isn't Zork. Zork is about exploration and puzzle solving. So far, it's just encountering one monster after another and doing auto-combat, so there's really almost no gameplay and very little thought in it. I'll play it a few more time (you only get to play so much per day based on action points unless you buy "perks" for real money, which give you more action points to play per day) to see if the gameplay expands at all or if this is just the training portion of the game.

Rhesus Positive · April 2009

The artwork's nice, but that's about all I can see that puts the experience above something like Kingdom of Loathing, which also has the benefit of not taking two or three seconds to load everything.

Viscountalpha · April 2009

Dalboz wrote: »

So far, not so good. I've tried it out. It's an overly simplistic RPG, which isn't Zork. Zork is about exploration and puzzle solving. So far, it's just encountering one monster after another and doing auto-combat, so there's really almost no gameplay and very little thought in it. I'll play it a few more time (you only get to play so much per day based on action points unless you buy "perks" for real money, which give you more action points to play per day) to see if the gameplay expands at all or if this is just the training portion of the game.

Honestly, I don't see how it could. And yes, thats a huge letdown.

Sheep · April 2009

Menu based, browser based, RPG. Click on an area to go to it, click on "explore", which basically just causes you to encounter a bad guy.

Dalboz · May 2009

I've stuck with the game for the last month. I mean, it is free so why not. I have to admit that despite my initially poor take on the game, it isn't without it's charm. It's basically a simplified autocombat browser-based RPG with a Zork coat of paint, but it is free, and there is some minor strategy involved with setting up your character and managing your DF cards to maximize combat. It's still the Zork I want, but then again I think I've been so Zork starved for the last twelve years that I'm willing to accept a few shortcomings, at least for a free game. Plus, I think the free part of only being able to play 30 AP per day is actually good, because it's allows me to just play the game a few minutes each day, then be able to go on and do something else.

Frem · May 2009

Dalboz wrote: »

I've stuck with the game for the last month. I mean, it is free so why not. I have to admit that despite my initially poor take on the game, it isn't without it's charm. It's basically a simplified autocombat browser-based RPG with a Zork coat of paint, but it is free, and there is some minor strategy involved with setting up your character and managing your DF cards to maximize combat. It's still the Zork I want, but then again I think I've been so Zork starved for the last twelve years that I'm willing to accept a few shortcomings, at least for a free game. Plus, I think the free part of only being able to play 30 AP per day is actually good, because it's allows me to just play the game a few minutes each day, then be able to go on and do something else.

What you just said describes pretty much all browser-based turn-based RPGs. There are a lot of them, and very few of them are any good. Legends if Zork distinguishes itself by having nice graphics, but then does itself a severe disservice by having extremely boring and generic gameplay.

Additionally, I'm almost positive that I've played Legends of Zork before in another form; I've seen that exact combat screen before, complete with the fade and automatic scrolling.

Viscountalpha · May 2009

I really tried to like this game. I mean REALLY tried. Its just not zork.

Dalboz · May 2009

I do agree. I recognize that I'm probably giving it a lot of slack just because I've been Zork-starved for the last twelve years, and it's probably one of my favorite game series of all time. But over time, the game has grown on me. I'm still disappointed, but I think it's far being what I would call horrible. Plus, they've taken a survey recently and have said that they have several updates and expansions planned which should make it a little more interactive. I don't know how interactive, but I'll wait and see.

Evander · May 2009

Is anyone still playing?

I think they are implimenting clan support.

ben_bot · May 2009

I play a couple times a week on my lunch break. My characters name is Elijah. Only level 20 because I suck at making money and have bad luck with Fanucci Cards.

Evander · May 2009

I managed to find a legitimately free thing on offerpal, so I got 20 coconuts, and turned them in to various charms, zorkmids, and AP.

I'm still only level 11, or so

Aoi · May 2009

So is there anything specifically that really ties it into Zork? I mean other than them using item names? Is there anything that even remotely feels like Zork even humorwise? Did they do anything with the areas to link it in any way back to the old stuff? Or is it just a brand slapped on a browser game?

Viscountalpha · May 2009

Aoi wrote: »

So is there anything specifically that really ties it into Zork? I mean other than them using item names? Is there anything that even remotely feels like Zork even humorwise? Did they do anything with the areas to link it in any way back to the old stuff? Or is it just a brand slapped on a browser game?

Not really. They really did try but Its nothing like the text/graphical based adventure system of back in the day. Supposedly they are trying to move in that direction but I'm not sure its worth the hassle to wait around for something to "possibly" happen.

Penny Arcade

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