Running Zork Games on XP/Vista/Linux/Mac OS X

[KM3K]

DAT has done an excellent job with the guides for installing a few Zork games under Windows XP and older. There's a lot of great help here on the message boad too. I think we can take things further though. With people moving from XP to Vista and some people trying out Mac OS X and Linux, the options for playing Zork games may seem limited on these new systems. I don't think that's true and I have begun a project to work on that problem. I propose we try to bring all these guides and tips together so we can get all the Zork games running on all the major operating systems.

Over the past week, I started working on that. I used DAT's guides and one I wrote years ago as a starting point and then expanded from there. DAT has graciously offered to host these new guides on The Zork Library and help in the development of this project. I will also be mirroring the guides on my website. Until he gets them posted, just view them at

http://www.thezorklibrary.com/installguides

Beyond what's there, all the other combinations of game and operating system shown in the table at that website should be possible. The Windows XP guides may work on Vista from what I've read about Vista. I just don't have Vista so I can't test it. Zork Nemesis and Zork Grand Inquisitor are possible on Linux through Wine, the only problem is that my graphics card is having problems with the 16-bit color depth that they require. There's workarounds for my graphics issue, but at the moment I don't have the time to fix it. They may even work on Mac OS X too, since there were Mac versions of those games released, and the Mac version of Wine may allow the Windows versions of the games to work on the Mac. The text adventures and Return to Zork should work fine on Mac OS X because there frotz and DOSBox support Mac OS X. I just don't have a Mac to test with.

Any suggestions, feedback or help with writing/testing the guides is greatly appreciated!

[Nowhere Gaming]

Hmmmm sounds like quite an endeavour.  I'm sure you will be very successful indeed  ;D

[KM3K]

I just want to let everyone know that I posted a pretty big revision to my Zork installation guides website.

The big changes in this update include:

• Added ScummVM guide for Return to Zork (on all operating systems).
• Added more info about playing on Macs.
• Added info for the Macintosh version of Zork Nemesis and Zork Grand Inquisitor, and the DOS version of Zork Nemesis.
• Added information about CD Audio and the v1.2 patch to all Return to Zork guides.
• Added more info on Windows Vista and Windows 7 to the Zork Grand Inquisitor and Zork Nemesis guides for Windows.
• Added info regarding DVD/MPEG2 video playback to the Zork Grand Inquisitor guide for Windows.

The change I think is most useful is the addition of the ScummVM guide to Return to Zork. ScummVM makes installing and playing Return to Zork even easier than it is with DOSBox!

Also, I have found a number of potential solutions for Mac and Linux that should give people a good start at figuring out the issues in getting the games to run under these situations. I plan to work on the Linux situation more, but unfortunately this is about as far as I can go with regard to playing on Mac OS X, and playing the Mac versions of the games on any operating system, because I don't have access to a Mac or these versions of the games.

[KM3K]

I moved my install guides from my personal domain to http://thezorklibrary.com/installguides . The old address will still work, but will link to the new address. I'll be making some updates to the guides in the coming weeks.

[KM3K]

Another update. Here's what changed:

• Clarified info on iPhone/iOS in table.
• Added reference to Good Old Games in "Other Ways to Play" section.
• Updated situation with installing ScummVM on Android in ScummVM Return to Zork guide.
• Added links to Frotz.NET, KIF and PortableQuest to interactive fiction section.
• Added reference to propaganda sound problem to Zork Grand Inquisitor guide.
• Added a link to Molokaicreeper's guide to running Zork Grand Inquisitor on Mac OS X.
• Added credit to Mordack that has been missing for a while.
• Adjusted mentions of emulating Mac OS with SheepShaver after learning Zork Grand Inquisitor requires Mac OS 8.6 or later.
• Minor formatting adjustments.