History of Zork
I guess everyone else in the known universe has already posted this by now, but it is too cool to let it go without mentioning it:

The History of Zork

This article is by Matt Barton, the same guy who did the very-very cool History of Computer Role-Playing Games earlier this year. Matt also has the full text of the interviews he conducted with various notable persons in the article, including Marc Blank, Dave Lebling, and Steve Meretzky.

History of Zork: Full Interviews

Dang this is cool. Matt, I'm a fan. :)

Rubes (Mike Rubin) brought up the discussion in this forum post, turning the discussion of "Why RPGs Suck Now" into a little bit of a remembrance of great adventure games of the past... :) (And people who committed the text to memory...)

What is interesting to me is just how this "History of Zork" (much like the History of CRPGs articles) has caught the attention of various sites in the last 48 hours. Maybe this was simply an effect of making the coveted Slashdot list... or maybe the causaility is reversed. I just think it's interesting that a nearly 30-year-old game in a "dead" genre is getting such attention. Matt's excellent writing doesn't hurt, of course. Is it purely nostalgia? A sense of loss of a cool bygone era? A morbid fascination with the birth and death of one the game industry's first legendary companies?

(Tip o' the hat to GameSetWatch for the update...)


(Vaguely) related less-adventurous text:
* A Twisty Little Maze of Passages, All Different
* Indie Interview: Mike Rubin, Creator of Vespers 3D
* How Do I Get Past The Harpies?
.

Labels: Adventure Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 4:27 PM (Permalink)