Hello, Sailors...

[Nino Ruffini]

I think it's too cute for words that because I'm new to this forum, my profile describes my position as "What's Zork?" Very nice...

Anyway, I was taking a trip down memory lane for whatever reason this evening, and found this site. (Oh, I remember. I was making another of my periodic attempts to decipher the runes on the Zork I map. Started banging my head against that when I was... what? twelve? Still no luck! Anyone?)

Having pretty much stopped paying attention to the Zork community years ago, you can imagine my surprise and confusion at finding this site and a few others like it. Fan fiction, fan-developed games... The Encyclopedia's even gone .pdf now.

It looks like a whole new Zork world to me!

I'm surprised, and curious. Is any of it any good? Can someone break it down for me? Gimme a timeline of how all of this has developed over the years? Almost makes me want to break out that old Zork novel I wrote back in the day, and slap it up here for you all to chuckle at.

Keep it up, it warms my heart. I miss the good old days,

Nino Ruffini

[DataAngel]

surprised? curios? uh oh beware of gures in the dark!


Is any of it good you ask, hmmm... I can't say for sure since it would only be my opinion, but I would say the majority of it is good and the stuff thats only ok or not so good. It doesnt matter, what matters is the people keeping ZORK ALIVE anyway they can.

As for a timeline, hmmm, I guess I can speak only for my site and the forum, so lets see here. I would say that my zork site has been around almost 6 years, that still amazes even myself still. When I had dialup I used to have it hosted by Xoom and back and forth a few times when I got broadband by hosting myself then moving it to a free hostee, which they all sucked. Eventually I just plain stopped... I just said forget it I will host it myself, speed/bandwidth concerns nil. The site went through, I would say two major revisions, the one you see now is the second one with little changes here and there throughout time. Its pretty different but still similar. This forum used to be hosted at ezboard I think it was, now I host it myself, mainly so I can keep a backup copy and not have to pay for it. The forum has now been up about 4 years I would say? This forum about 2 years.

All I can say is this place isn't always that happening, but feel free to light a lantern and explore the depths there is to be found here and feel free to carve your own words in the rock. Visitors are always welcome, just be sure to be wary of grues and to always carry your lantern and sword.

[DrPaul]

Hey Nino,
Nice to have a new face around here.  I don't know if I'm up to date on all of the fan-fiction, but everything I've read, I've enjoyed very much.  The authors do a pretty good job of keeping the style and spirit of the Zork games in their writing.  All of them are worth reading, however, some of them are incomplete.

As you probably know from exploring this site we are working on two fan-games - one graphic, one text.  Progress is slow-but-sure.  A beta version of the text game will probably be ready by summer's end.

A few years ago, a fellow named Stefano Canali wrote a really nice Zork text adventure called Return to Zork: Another Story.  It is pretty strongly based on the Return to Zork graphic game and is extremely well done, IMHO.  You can find it on the IF Archive under competition games in 2000, here:
http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/gam ... orm/rtzas/

It is well worth playing.  Download the RTZASsol folder too.  It has lots of nice extras.

[ezekiel]

Hey Nino
try www.gue-network.com (shameless self advertising) very new site

whats the text adventure you guys are working on?
i havent heard anything about that one
RTZ:AS is one of the best fan games around truly genious

[DataAngel]

Z:THE TAP

Text Adventure Prequel as its name... But I will let DrPaul explain that one.

[DrPaul]

Oh...that's my queue.   I missed it, somehow.

The Text Adventure Prequel or TAP, as we affectionatly call it, provides some back-story to the Z:THE graphic game.

The plot for TAP is actually the last paragraph of the plot described on the Z:THE page.  The Z:THE story actually begins where that plot description leaves off - King Bulbee finding the amulet that was cast in the river.

In TAP, you are the unknown adventurer that goes into the jungle in search of the Demon's treasure, and eventually vanquesh the Demon, and cast the amulet into the Borphee River.  During the course of this adventure, you also discover the origins of the Demon, and its connection to the amulet, which is sort of the backstory to the backstory.  

A few hundred years later, the enchanted amulet washes up, King Bulbee fnds it and that's where The Hidden Evil graphic game begins.

[ezekiel]

so will it be a longer prequel than the one for zgi?

how far along is it in development?

[Nomad]

And when do we finally get to see something?

[DrPaul]

TAP is pretty far along.   There are a few different worlds or dimensions which the player must visit..  I have been developing them seprately, and then joining them together.  I expect to have the last 'world' complete by the end of the month and a complete game for alpha-testing by the end of summer.

Some sections of the game were pretty complicated to code, so I have coded them primarily just so that they will work.  But there are a lot of locations which need to be polished, so to speak.  The alpha-version will not be polished.  Hopefully, the more-finished beta-game will be ready in the Fall.

[ezekiel]

sounds intresting

[Nomad]

Hope to see the alpha soon!

[ZorkFanDM]

I would definately help test if you would like.

I have a question as well; are these games more serious in tone like Nemesis, or are they slightly funny like ZGI?

[DrPaul]

The TAP game will most definitely need some testers.

I think the best way to describe the tone of the TAP game is that it is light-hearted.  Hopefully, some of it will be funny and some of it will be creepy.

[ezekiel]

i would offer to be a tester but i dont have enough time to devote to that sorta thing right now

[Nomad]

I could afford the time.