Return To Zork Different Endings/Versions?

[Darkweaver]

So, I just purchased Return to Zork off of GOG and I have a question.

I was checking out some YouTube videos and noticed there are two different endings. One is very "static" while the other is more "animated". For example, there is the "static" version where most people are very still and another where people are more "animated" and waving to you where you also actually see the citadel caving in. I was posting the links to the YouTube videos but apparently due to my account being new, I'm not allowed to.

What I'm wondering is if these are different versions of the game that were released, like one being the PC version and maybe the other a console version? What version of RTZ is the one that is available through GOG? (I'm hoping the "animated" one). Any help would be appreciated.

Update: I discovered the different endings I saw were from the CD and the floppy versions. So my question now is it the CD or floppy version that's included for download on GOG?

Edit: For the RTZ endings I'm referring to, look up "Return to Zork ending" and then look for user "dcsyxx" for the static version and the user "Resulka" for the animated version on YouTube.

[abedwards1983]

Having purchased this from GOG a few months back (and playing solidly, finishing it in a day!!), the ending is the animated one. I saw no differences between this version and my 1993 CD version.

Sadly, Zork Nemesis is the DOS version, and not the Windows version, meaning no menu bar at the top of the screen. This one is taking me longer...

[Darkweaver]

Having purchased this from GOG a few months back (and playing solidly, finishing it in a day!!), the ending is the animated one. I saw no differences between this version and my 1993 CD version.

Sadly, Zork Nemesis is the DOS version, and not the Windows version, meaning no menu bar at the top of the screen. This one is taking me longer...

Thank you for your prompt reply.

I found out late last night that there was a floppy version and CD version that had Reelmagic/MPEG video. What I was talking about was the latter but then heard the GOG version was not the Reelmagic version and just the "standard" version. However, if you finished it and said it had that "animated" ending I was referring to, it probably is the Reelmagic release. I hope for the latter.

[lordskylark]

Hello.

There are many different versions of this game, but for PC there are three versions:

#1 - Floppy disc version -- no video and MIDI music
#2 - CD version -- has some live video footage (replacing several locations, several character dialogue scenes, the ending, and also adds a new intro) and has a mix because live instruments and MIDI for music
#3 - Reelmagic version -- this has much more live video footage, especially a LOT of character dialogue is now video footage, but in exchange, it does not seem to use live instruments any more, and reverts back to using MIDI in exchange for having more space for the video footage -- also many scenes have been re-rendered and updated with higher quality resolution. (Though, not every graphic is updated with higher quality. When I talked with one of the programmers, I found out why: all the high-quality renders were originally saved on DATA TAPES, so when they wanted to release the Reelmagic version with higher quality graphics, they went back to get the data from them, and found that in only a couple years the tapes had already deteriorated significantly, so not all of the information still existed, so not every individual graphic could be updated in quality, though a large majority of it was).

[KM3K]

Very interesting!

I've only seen the regular CD version. I didn't realize that the Reelmagic version didn't have the instrumental music and that more of the scenes had video. I assumed everything was the same but the videos were a little higher quality.

Do you own the Reelmagic version? Is it possible to play it these days? Or at least to play the videos separately on a modern computer?

[lordskylark]

I used to have the Reelmagic version (which one of the original designers sent to me) but I sold it to someone who had an infocom collection and had never heard of it.

I might have saved the data somewhere, but I'll have to check. Because you can play all the MPEG files separately and watch all of the live video. But still, even like that, there was not enough space for all the videos possible (as in, still not every line of dialogue has video replacement because of CD disc size limitations). But now with DVDs, it seems they could finally release a version that had every single video, since I imagine that every single line of dialogue was videotaped.

Andy

[KM3K]

I came across a post on the Vogons forum about someone who tracked down a ReelMagic board and the ReelMagic version of Return to Zork. You can find it at http://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=37363&p=328920 .

I also came across some YouTube clips that I think are from this version of the game. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 405FE0B1FF