djo@sdchema.UUCP (Denise O'jibway) (12/03/85)
Can any one tell me what things from Zork on our vax are NOT in Zork I from Infocom. I know that round room isn't spinning in Zork I. What other things are missing? My roommate got Zork for his IBM PC but I have been playing at work so I know my game is slightly (?) different. Thanking you in advance... Denise O'Jibway djo@sdchema.arpa
ccs020@ucdavis.UUCP (Kevin Chu) (12/03/85)
> Can any one tell me what things from Zork on our vax are NOT > in Zork I from Infocom. I know that round room isn't spinning > in Zork I. What other things are missing? My roommate got > Zork for his IBM PC but I have been playing at work so I know > my game is slightly (?) different. Thanking you in advance... > > Denise O'Jibway djo@sdchema.arpa Zork on your vax IS Zork I and Zork II for the PC's. They had to break it up to fit on the floppy disk. -- -- Kevin Chu -- !{ucbvax,lll-crg,dual}!ucdavis!vega!ccs020 -- ucdavis!vega!ccs020@ucb-vax.arpa
andrew@orca.UUCP (Andrew Klossner) (12/04/85)
>> Can any one tell me what things from Zork on our vax are NOT >> in Zork I from Infocom. I know that round room isn't spinning >> in Zork I. What other things are missing? My roommate got >> Zork for his IBM PC but I have been playing at work so I know >> my game is slightly (?) different. Thanking you in advance... >> >> Denise O'Jibway djo@sdchema.arpa > > Zork on your vax IS Zork I and Zork II for the PC's. They had to > break it up to fit on the floppy disk. Not quite true. The Zork trilogy, Zork I, Zork II, and Zork III, comprise one large game which is about twice the size of Zork. For example, the dam is in Zork I, the volcano in Zork II, and the endgame in Zork III. With twice as many rooms, there is a lot of new territory to explore. I've played them all, and much prefer the trilogy. -=- Andrew Klossner (decvax!tektronix!tekecs!andrew) [UUCP] (tekecs!andrew.tektronix@csnet-relay) [ARPA]
johnf@apollo.uucp (John Francis) (12/07/85)
Zork on the VAX is an (almost) complete re-implementation of the original Zork
from the MDL version which ran on DECSystem-10/20s. The only things missing were
the latest additions to the MDL version, namely :
o The sooty room/dusty room, with the red and blue crystal spheres
o The brochure ("one lousy point ...").
Zork I is as much of Zork as would fit on a floppy disk. It has (as I remember)
o The house and all the other outdoors-linked stuff (tree, maze, rainbow).
o The Frigid River/Dam/Reservoir complex
o The art gallery, the torch and the coffin.
o The thief, the troll, and the cyclops.
o The bat and some of the coalmine (including the shaft).
It does NOT have
o The Bank, the Well, and the Volcano (in Zork II)
o The puzzle room and the end-game (in Zork III)
Apart from the Bank, Well, and Volcano Zork II has a few puzzles not found in the
VAX version of Zork, including all three of the crystal spheres. Other new puzzles
are a Dragon (fun), a new maze (poor - makes assumptions about the background of
the player that are not really justified - about as "fair" as the cyclops) and ...
The Wizard of Frobozz. I really loved the Wizard, both as a pest and as a puzzle.
My only criticism of Zork II would be that getting to the ending link to Zork III
is not really obvious unless you have seen the mainframe version of Zork - I never
saw the hint that you get in mainframe Zork to steer you towards the endgame.
Zork III is mostly new stuff (apart from the puzzle room and the end-game). I found
some of it very enjoyable, but in general the solutions to the problems were not as
intuitively obvious as in the other Zorks. This is not a complaint that the problems
are too hard - more that even when I had found the answers I did not say to myself
"of course - why didn't I try that earlier?". This is especially true of the hooded
figure, where Zork III is very picky about the exact wording of what you do. If you
use a verb which is apparently similar in effect to the correct thing to do there is
no indication that you are on the right track. The machine museum and the locked
chest were also difficult to start with, although once you do the right first thing
the rest of the solution follows logically.
If you are a mainframe Zork expert you will breeze through Zork I with no difficulty
and should not take too long to solve Zork II. Zork III you may find tougher, and
then again you may not. It very much depends on the individual player, I suspect.
A few of the problems in Zork I and II have slightly different solutions to the same
problem than in mainframe Zork, but this is mostly due to differences in equipment to
hand. If you haven't got what you thought you needed to solve a puzzle you can usually
find something new you HAVE got that is similar enough to act as a substitute.
Similarly in Zork III the three riddles posed by the dungeon master have also vanished,
and the qualifications to get through the dungeon door are a tricky problem. I do not
regard this as a deficiency of Zork III, however: - the answer to this IS obvious
(once you know what the answer is). It's a great deal fairer than the question I
got in mainframe Zork about the other way into the thief's treasure room! I still
don't know how you are supposed be able to answer this question unless you have
access to program sources.
The "links" from Zork I to Zork II and from Zork II to Zork III are nicely done.
There is a also a nice teaser in Zork III pointing to Enchanter (Zork IV? ...).
Another teaser pointing to Zork I exists in Wishbringer, so I suppose this could
be referred to as Zork 0. All in all I enjoyed them - I bought an Atari 800XL for
the sole purpose of playing Infocom games, and regard it as money well spent.farren@well.UUCP (Mike Farren) (12/08/85)
In article <1924@orca.UUCP>, andrew@orca.UUCP (Andrew Klossner) writes: >>> Can any one tell me what things from Zork on our vax are NOT >>> in Zork I from Infocom. ... >>> >>> Denise O'Jibway djo@sdchema.arpa >> >> Zork on your vax IS Zork I and Zork II for the PC's. They had to >> break it up to fit on the floppy disk. > > Not quite true. > > The Zork trilogy, Zork I, Zork II, and Zork III, comprise one large > game which is about twice the size of Zork. True, and the folk at Infocom explain it this way: Zork I is 25% new and 75% old, Zork II is about 50% each way, and Zork III is 75% new. -- Mike Farren uucp: {dual, hplabs}!well!farren Fido: Sci-Fido, Fidonode 125/84, (415)655-0667 USnail: 390 Alcatraz Ave., Oakland, CA 94618