The Zork Library Forum

I doubt anyone knows me, so I'll give a little introduction.

When I was perhaps 7 or 8, I sat down in front of a computer and slipped a floppy into the drive. The next thing I knew, I was standing in front of a white house. The encounter was brief, but years later I was exposed to Beyond Zork, which led to a minor obsession.

In late 1996 Activision was gearing up for a new game, and I struck a deal with them to create a Revised Encyclopedia Frobozzica. The site was to be a text adventure in and of itself, and I was given pretty much free reign to add new depth to the world. As part of the deal (this was a private and non-profit venture, by the way, so no point looking on the payroll for me ^_-) I recieved the few titles I'd been missing from my collection (mainly the Enchanter series) and a copy of Giovanni Ruffini's "A History Of The Zork World". The project died a few months later due to a nasty computer crash (and Zork fell out of production a few months after that), but my obsession remained.

As the years went by, I began working on a way to turn Zork into a tabletop RPG. My "Sticks Edition" used the concept of throwing sticks instead of dice and remains one of my favourite RPG projects. Every few months for the past 12 years, Ruffini's "History" has ended up in my lap getting leafed through and reread.


So about a week ago, I'm fooling around online and come across an article complaining about a relatively new game called Legends Of Zork. I read a few debates on the game, checked Wikipedia, and finally gave in to my curiosity. My obsession revitalised (and trust me, I plan to shove my nose deep into the future of that game to put an end to the accusations that it's only "vaguely" Zork), I've been absorbing all things Zork ever since and will likely be pretty active in the Zorkan community for some time to come (now that I've found it again).


As something of an amateur historian, and a major fan of Ruffini's work, I have a lot to share about the world prior to the Age Of The Guilds (beginning in 883 GUE), prominant cults and religions such as Brogmoidism and Zorkastrianism, prominant figures including Entharion, Zylon The Aged, Zilbo I, etc. and so much more...

And a final note: If you don't know who Giovanni Ruffini is, he's also known as Nino Ruffini. If you own a hard copy of The Encyclopedia Frobozzica, then you own some of his work. ^_-

wow what an itroduction! Glad to have you back in the world of Zork! We need more worshippers, erm followers, erm zm donations, erm... grue feed. um yeah so umm...

Welcome to TZL and im lookin forward to input about LoZ and how your gameplay goes.

Well, so far, I've somewhat enjoyed the style of gameplay, although it definitely lacks the vitality of a more interactive genre. I made the first few suggestions earlier today on how to improve the feel of the game outside of mechanics (well, maybe just a few mechanics), so we'll see how the response to that goes.

Pesonally, I found it interesting that they included a lot of the more obscure details but botched things up mainly in the setting. This complaint not only appears to be one of the two main resons the game's controversial (the other being that it's not an adventure), but I've seen specific concerns over the dating ofthe game's events. So I gave them a perfectly believable date in which to not only set the game, but also one which heads off a large swathe of unexplored time. If they accept the proposal, it could mean a whole new chapter is about to unfold...

I'm curious about something, though. I need to get something better than DOSBOX running on my sad little system, since even ZGI won't run, but in the meantime, I know at least one new title has been "released" for Zork (announced not too many threads from here). Have there been many others since ZUU that I can sink my slathering teeth into? I'd love to see just how well they fit into Ruffini's canon and (if they do) work on incorperating them in future projects (which MAY include resurrecting the REF project).


Oh,and how did you know I like feedin... I mean fighting... grues?

Theres no way I can say that im in anyway as versed in Zork as you! Interesting stuff about LoZ, im looking forward to see what changes take place.

Dr Paul made TAP for Z:THE if you want to give that fan game a whirl!

As for dosbox... I run ZGI and Nemesis without problems on my XP rig, so if you want to be more specific about your problems running the games, ill be happy to help, just make a thread in the proper forum for Zork Help and ill be right on over!

What lvl are you in LoZ and what is your username? I am under DAT, so feel free to invite me as a friend.

I'm in LoZ as Ashki (always Ashki or Ashiki, if ever you look for me in a game), L10 until tomorrow morning or so.

My problems with running the games probably stem more from having a custom-built (from scrap parts) computer that has uncommon sound and video cards more than anything else. I've been fooling around with it since the last time I tried, so perhaps I'll give it another go. Now if only I could figure out what I did with Nemesis... >_<;;

I went into Dawn very skeptical, but in all honesty, it not only fits without a flaw in Ruffini's description of the Age Of The greater City-States around 1200 BE or so, but the Demon actually sounds very close to the Unseen Terror that was summoned near the end of Entharion's reign (and briefly spoken of in Enchanter). I'm curious to find out what the plot plan was for Z:THE and how it may further a connection between the two events. All-in-all, the game (while in need of a bit of polishing for perfection) may as well be canon. My only complaint is that I can't seem to figure out how to buy the bottled beer from the bartender (the shame! -_-;; ). I guess I've been out of the IF loop for too long...

And on the topic of me knowing more, it appears there's a reason. Ruffini never published History. The document (provided loose-leaf) to me by Activision doesn't exist outside of their walls and Ruffini's own collection! I wrote to Mr. Ruffini and have asked permission to make copies of the document (or at least parts of it) for the community and also invited him to join us here and/or the LoZ forums and bring his perspective. Having him with us would be almost as good as the original Implementors.

I have been playing the legends of zork for a bit - game name is Zorket (what else??), level 31.
I figure - if nothing else - it shows there is still interest in Zork!

Long Live the big Z !!

Welcome Ashki! (A little late... I have another board that's eating up a lot of my time lately.)

I have an enduring affection for the gloriously patchwork history of Quendor. I really wish that encyclopedia could have come to light. (And the rest of the Magic Wars series.)

The LoZ game looks interesting... I'm just not sure I want to take it as canon and I'm really not much of a rollplayer. I think I may try it out someday, because it is hard not to try out something with Zork in the title, but I really, really wish it was an adventure game. I am glad that Zork still lives in some form, though. Long after most of us gave up any hope of that happening.