Zork I: The Great Underground Empire

About this game

Zork I: The Great Underground Empire

Welcome to Zork I: The Great Underground Empire.

It beckons you into a world fraught with danger and discovery. Using all the cunning you can muster, you'll plunge far below the surface of the earth in search of the incomparable Treasures of Zork. But this is no mere treasure hunt. During your amazing journey you'll come face to face with creatures so outlandish they defy description. And you'll wander through an underground domain so vast, with so many twists and turns, it can offer you new surprises no matter how many times you explore it.

Zork: The Great Underground Empire is a classic text adventure game. The player begins as an "adventurer" standing near a white house in a nice forest, but soon descends into the Great Underground Empire, where most of the game takes place. The player's quest is to collect the Nineteen Treasures of Zork.

As was typical for adventure games of its era, Zork does not use graphics. Instead, it communicates with the player via text, and the player interacts with the game by typing commands, such as "examine mailbox" or "take torch". For movement, the player types in geographical directions (such as "north" or "east" - or just "n" and "e"), and can check what items are being carried with the "inventory" command (or just "i").

The game was adapted from a larger mainframe version from the late 1970s, and is one of the first examples of its genre.